Page 33 - pg_1955_08

:filming expeditions. Gradually, the B.I.F. organisation in-
creased, and besides nature :films like The Sparrowhawk (1 x
60 ft. notched, made in 1922) Cabbages and Things (1 x 60
ft. notched 1923) and The Gannet (2 x 60 ft. notched 1923)
the :firm went on to make such documentaries as The Battles
of the Coronels and the Falkland Islands (192~).
By now the documentary and the new r~el had been
:firmly established. Sound arrived, and better and greater
:films in this category were made. In 1933, Robert Alexandre,
the renowned Fr nch director who made The Alhambra of
Granada (30 ft. notched) became the :first man to :film a
monastery. His Un Monastere (1 x 300 ft. still available)
ranks as a classic in the documentary :field. Shadows Over-
Eur-ope, a :film he made in 1936, is also in the current
catalogue (1 x 300ft.).
At this time, unfortunately, few outstanding documentaries
were released on 9.5. Although the French record of the
Citroen expedition In the Footsteps of Marco Polo (5 x 300
ft. withdrawn), the Belgian Easter Island (2 x 60ft. still
available) and the 1936 mathematical :film by Brian Salt and
Robert Fairthorne X plus X = 0 are exceptions, little of
interest was released until 1938.
The lack of footage of the Great War on 9.5 is offset by
the great number of :films devoted to World War II. The
· popular Pathe Gazette had been instituted on 9.5 in England
a year too late to have recorded Hitler's rise to power in
1933, but aft r 1934 v ry major event affecting the imminent
war is included in the · r markably graphic newsreels.
What must rank a on of the most interesting :films
dealing with the pr -war ·ituation is 'l'he Conquest of War, a
well-edited film whi h ompetently clarifies the muddled events
in the "year of cri •i " , 193

"Un Monastere".

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