Helen picked up a book called The Story Of The World In Pictures
for £4.99 in a local charity shop. It doesn’t seem to have a publication date but there is a small copyright notice dating it to 1934.
worldstory/cinema
Queueing Up For The Cinema In Malaya
The caption reads:
The responsibility of those who control the cinema industry is clearly seen when films percolate to native races. What, for instance, will be the effect os sophisticated comedies of society on the minds of natives? There is so little in common between the two types of culture that much damage may be done unless theimportation of film is strictly regulated
2 Comments
I know the book you are I know the book you are talking about. My mother has a copy of it. Has had a copy of it since the 1940s. I have enjoyed browsing this book since i was just a boy.
Of course cinema has to be regulated to a certain degree. We do it ourselves today to a certain extent. We put certificates on movies to protect young minds from the horrors of the world. However, should a love story in which there is nudity be certified along with soft core pornography. The act of love is a natural thing where as pornography is just voyuristic sex.
You could say that natives of the eastern world are of a young mind compared to the civilised and more grown up western world.
However we cannot judge what is right or wrong for other cultures. You only have to look at the effect cinema has had on western civilisation. Just the other day a man was convicted for murder because he wanted to know what it would be like to be freddy kruger for the day, and wanted to be remembered in history as a serial killer.
Don’t think I’m with you on Don’t think I’m with you on the ‘natives of the eastern world’. Didn’t take me long to get accustomed to cinematic convention. Your take seems a bit Rousseau-esque; their minds are no younger or older than yours, I’d say.