The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 13

The Daily Tefeqraph Friday December SI IM5 1 I FILMS OF THE YEAR Ifcliind in winter Britain Make a a Minority building SIR On Dec 20 you repored on winter buldmg techniques now being tried out in this country Once again it would appear that we are sadly lagging behnd our Conttnenta neighbours I recollect a multi-storied chain stores building iimiiiiiiiiiiiHHHiiimtii LETTERS TO THE ITOR being built for the German firm of Kaufhof durng the winter of 1961-62 at Hamburg -Harburg where construction work never stopped despite even snowstorms In the same period Lxandon Airport was out of action owing to heavy falls of snow The protective system used was the comp ete of the site with heavy polythene sheeted panels attached to the tubular scaffolding extending to the full height of the building The "box" thus formed was then heated by means of infra-red heater units As the heavily-coated passers-by in some cases complete with ear muffs trudged through the snow the heated polythene box workmen carried out their tasks in shirt-sleeves Yours JEFFERYS Bromley Kent ABBEY SERVICE Sir Those of us who rk during the day have to rely on ed ted record ngs if we wish to see great occasions on television This was the case for the inaugural service of Westmnster Abbey nongentenary vear What dd the British Broadcasting Corporation give us in it edted tele-record ng? The greater pait of the 45-m nute programme was devoted to endless processions first going in then go ng out What dd we see of the great service of praise and thanksgiving? If 1 remember correctly we heard the biddng two prayers one anthem the sermon half a hymn and the blessing 1 do not believe that I am the only viewer who would have been interested in the form and content of this histone servee It was an act of worshp not a State ceremony Or does the BBC believe that the Abbey is an storic monument in which religion is irrrele-vant? Yours faithfully ALAN KIMBER Carshalton Surrey Hafts carried by British ships Lt-Cdr Damper in his admrable letter on the advantages of the in en- suring the safety of life at sea (Dec 22) asks: do merchant shps not carry them Let me reassure him: thev do carry them now The Interna: nal I960 Solas (Safety of Life at Sea) Regulations were ratified last year and came in-o force in May this vear The Merchant Shipping (Life-Saving Appliances) i Rules 1965 is the United Kingdom legislative measure which enables Br tish shipping to meet these regulation As for life-rafts being unsightly or causing deck congest on these criticisms no longer apply Already passenger vessels are carrying life-rafts some carry as many as 40 in glass fibre containers neatlv racked in banks Finally 1 hope you will forgive mv self-indulgence in stating that my company was the first British company and almost certainly rhe first in the world to have its rafts approved in accordance with the new regulations Yours fathfullv EDWARDS Director RFD Co Ltd Godalm ng Surrey Other letters PIO New Boots with added caffeine to give that extra lift for a quiet quick return to normal Only 36 for 30 110 for 12 Onlytrom Boots at all branches Manna IN 1965 the cinema continued the trend of recent years dividing itself more sharply than ever into mnority and majority interests On the one hand is the usually small scale film which depends as a rule on the creative and artistic contribution of the director It comes largely from the Continent but aUo increasingly from Scandi-nav a Inda Japan and Argentina indeed one may say almost from any country -ond the English-speaking frontiers On he other hand is the pro-due- on lne or factory-made film somewhat anonymous style By PATRICK (ABBS which owes as much to the producer as to the rector and whch tend to be large-scale if no: an ac ual block-buster Th article wh ch can often be juslv descr bed as mere mer- cru-dse the result to a large extent of Amercan finance it would seem these films tending to have a common style whether they a-e made in Hollywood B- -in or Timbuctu where the ra-e for extras no doubt is a little lower The cinema fac is follow ng Th' of -he theatre in ths -r wh ch has already divided i-'it with little inervemng id into commerce and art o-er usually State subs dsed in ne way or another can only hope that the pre ed ths year of setting fell to Natmal Im Theatres he p-ov nces takes root for wh 's mnor tv nema has never been more flourishing it stll does penetrate very far or de into he cunry and to many who do not live London my choice of ns 11 read lke a report from Mars SliakesKirc Leads Fortunately the fi-st ch ce has been shown farlv delv and will least have been jrd of It is the Russ an Ham-le: mjde to ce ebrjte the quater-cenvnarv of birth This was not especially remarkable for n'erp etat on the Hamlet (Innokenti Smoktunovsky) eeming to me to follow none of the accepted read ngs of the part nor to establ sh one of ow But hs actng tried in well wth the (Grgori vew of the character as a hopeless prsoner of and the producton as a whole with ts exc" ng use of a great Renaissance castle must rank among the best of Shakespeare on film Shakespeare also came op only incidenta lv in a film which rood out for the enjoyment it provided bv the happy ture and -ext Th was Wallah made in India bv an Amc can -ector James Ivory I gave a delightful view of the chanting cultural conditions in Inda since ndependence and of the situation of British expatriates there by following through their engigements a tou ng group of Shakespear an actors Sme performances especially frvm Felicity Kendal as the young actress who fa Is in love with a charming but in-re! able Indian She is actress of the year I tha Satvit Rai should have offered to wrte the music for this film for it is very much in hs own stile of -ich we had a fine example in wh en traces with much subtlety and great depth of feeling the havoc wrought in a marriage presence in the household of a young and handsome cousin as guest Two mem Tab' films then from India -w also from Czecho-s! vakia The -rued Peter and which centred on an adolescent (perfectly placed by Lad Jak mi amusingly at odds his pa-ents and the introduced a new director in '-man whose proTvse has al-eady been redeemed with )pcra 1 Vliuhls lliarles Self -conscious colours: Monica another comedv I saw at this ejrs Ven ce Festival One looks a so for a second film from an Kador and mar Klos whose The Shop on the High took up most eoquent the subject of the i ppresson of the Jews under the Nazis There was a performance of much pi wer from Josef Kroner my actor of the year From Sweden also two outstanding lims In Raven'' a young director Bo Widerberg drew a very persuasive picture of poverty in a Malmd slum in the as seen through the ees of a young author Couple directed by the actress Ma Zeiterlmg wrh its masterly handling of manv characters and a commendable attempt to grapp with a complicated text was an extraordinarily accomplished first feature film It used excitingly many of Ingmar usual actors and with its pessimistic view the lot of women it recalled that director ow stle pe'haps rather too closely Perversely B- own film -his year About These was a spectral attempt at a comedy of manners Of several French fi'ms that have pleased I ace first Jean Luc Goddard's Vne Femme which examined in charaeteristc style "he situation of a young wfe pooed between husband and iover Georges Franju and Luis Bunuel workng -France we-e as polished as usual but more subdued perhaps because they were ted to lterary sources the one working on Mauriac's the olher on 'beau's Dary of a Britain Had The Knack rhe most original and accomplished film f-m B-tsh stud os was which won first prze at the Cannes Festival The director cha Lester turned Ann Jellicoe plav about boys who could ge' rls and others who couldn't into a hgh sp rited comedv once avant-gard sh and traditional in its references to the silent nema A smal -scale fi'm rea be! 'ns-mg to minority cinema yet delv hich I find gn ticanr Mr Lester's Help! with the Beatles 1 I ked much less John Schlesinger's dealing wrh the character and environment of a pretty model who was without firm moral standa'ds or much intelligence was another acceptable B'ltish film on a la ger scale owing much to the performances of rk Bogarde and Julie Christ Many big fi'ms C3me from EE lv wood or American ources that were merely Two mus cals we exceptional Cukor's Far Ladv suffered in -s transference to the screen only from stagei -looking sets and perhaps from the non singing leading lady Perversely Julie Andrews the orgnal Eliza of the mus ca People who know say FLY Wl TH YOUR CAR sparkling recovery for speedy recovery from HEADACHES MUSCULAR ACHES AND PAINS TOO MUCH TO EAT AND DRINK LIVERISHNESS ST WELL Quite a few of our modern medical treat- merits are not as new as we think In ancient times it uas believed that the holy well at St Cleer in Cornwall I held curative powers for lunatics The system was to stand the patient with his hack to the cold spring and give him a sudden push into it This was repeated until he was either cured or died from the shock which is not far removed from the modern electric shock treat- I ment My photograph (above) shows the restored 15 th-cen- tury canopy over the well Yours truly Bristol IV KIEFFER DRUNK FOR A PENNY The phrase used by Dr BaMl Merriman as reported in your issue of Dec 17 about being drunk for a penny dead drunk for twopence in relation to Victorian England is an inaccuracy The phrase with the addition of straw to lie on for belongs to Tobias Smollett (1721-71) and was used by him in reference to the gin craze of the second quarter of the 18th century Yours faithfully ROSS ILSON London NW3 E'llfi in 7 he Red Desert" made her mark effectively in Sound of Music" That American studios can operate efficently on a small scale was demons rated by Norman Jew son's "The Cine nnati playing New O'leans wth Edward Robinson and Steve McQueen as rivals 1 enjoyed too a couple of burlesques of the Western Cat and of though we have certainly had enough of this burlesque business for the time beng Hollywood's chief contribution gaiety ths year has resulted from her dscovery of the black comedy Perhaps the most peas ng of several examples was The Americanisation of which owed much to Paddy script attacking through rhe de- velopment of a fantastic war-t me situaion received ideas on morals and heroism Italian i loom Not much joy from Italy this vear Antonioni's style seemed to be unhapply applied to a middle-class milieu rather than his usual upper classes in The Red Desert" and while his colours were striking they were self-consciouslv so Yet such is the spei ths director casts that the film came near to triumphing over its faults Visconti's Of a Thousand Del a modern variation of the ectra legend I though pfe- 1 tentious though it is onlv fair to add that others thought it 1 provided a movng comment on the legacy of war Finally a word for two minor Japanese films Harakiri and Woman of the for Berlanga's The Executioner from Spain and for The EEand the made long ago by the Argent nian director Tor-e sson reaching London on this year Made even longer ago 1V4X Lades of the Bois de Boulogne also arrived belatedly to display an exciting performance from Maria Clasarfcs Renoir's Boudu was another gem in the same category Not many documentaries come a critic's wav these dais and in this departmen- Ichikawa's I 1 kvo Olympiad stood alone To summarise my personal choice of ten films of the year in alphabetical order CiuartsTs (India Tiif Diary of a Chambermaid (France) I nf i wwf arife (France) Hash ft i Russ a The Knack (G B) Pftfr and Pavla (Czechoslovakia) Ravfn Fnd (Sweden) The Rid Dfsfrt (Italy) Smakf npi arf Wallah (India) Therfse (France) If mino-ity cinema gets the be of it it is merely because a critic cannot at once join a p'xress on and look out of the window" as the French proverb puts it science review was a little of a lot Dr IK MU XFI IS Daily 1 elegraph vcien-e orre-pondent BEWILDERING array of scientific experiments givng us a little of everything was the formula adopted in last night's BBC-1 p-ogramme Now its fifth year the programme aims at reviewing a scientific p'Ogress in the whole world P- 1 ced and written by Roy Ba te-sbv we were swept from space a and the world's argot bu Iding for the American moon sho nc dentally out-of-date pctures to operating and spare-part surgery Inte gent life on other planets ransplunting a liver lYom pig to m-i-a-u'er ne-contraceptive devces underwater living and the of the universe lowed each other in kaleidoscopic fashion As an expert I could follow and see the gnificaree of each item but I wondered if the average vewer would not have liked more of fewer items I crit cised las? year's pro-g-umme for neg'ecting the engm-ee- sconces and apart from a sec 'n on electronics ard their continuous quest for ever sma ie- mpenents there was nothing of Bnta atomic ach evements di the vear B'--i fuel cells for the American moon shot or the wo firs: automatic coaim ne the Midlands might we 1 have found a in this retrospec-tve potpourri NOW ONLY 59-FOR A MINI LYDD-LE TOUQUET And big reductions for ALL cars on many of the20 routestothe Continent Flying with your car is hours faster miles easier and now cheaper than ever Only 597-single for a Mini from Lydd to Le Touquet! Only 99- single from Southend to Calais or Ostend Save hours on cross-Channel journeys and avoid the crowds and queues Or gain days of extra holiday on long distance flights to Basle Geneva and Strasbourg Be carefree be cared for take the VIP way to the Continent People who know fly British United Air Ferries 20 ROUTES TO THE CONTINENT You can now fly with your car from 6 departure points in Coventry Lydd Southampton London (Gatwick) Manchester Southend to12 holiday gateways in Cherbourg Calais Rotterdam Dinard Le Touquet Basle Guernsey Ostend Geneva Jersey Deauville Strasbourg 'Kijiaro under Mackerras Hv I IN rMPF PERFORMANCE of last production of full of delightfully unexpected ornamentation a- excellently sung proved the happiest possible Mozartian farewell to 15 at Wells last night Charles Write for FREE COLOUR BROCHURE Or ask your travel agent A A or RAC for one It gives full details costs routes and flight frequencies Discover how fast easy an inexpensive flying with your car can be British United Air Ferries Portland House Stag Place London SW1 Tel VIC 4479 Please send me FREE COLOUR BROCHURE Abroad with a Flying Fairy roles quite suit dancers 'I'll enticingly even unwelcome themes for who in a post-Christmas period of cold weather could feel enthusiastic about reai snowflakes or sugar plums? Yet their baletic counterparts in the much improved product on of Nutcracker" given by London's Festival Ba'let at the Festival Hal' hare corvderab appeal Neither Carmen Mathe 'ast night's Snow Fairy nor Mu-got Miklosy as the Sugar Plum Fairy is however completely sa ted Mathe has a fine flowing style and a charming approach to the par? bat needs more ease and m-proved arm movements klos in appearance the glittering Chrismjs tree do I of a chi d's dream is ove'-darntv and fussily precise in her ma variation The excellences of ths revised production include a Arabian Dance and Va se des Fleurs whre the pa'ty prologue is probaoiv the best we have ever seen in England Mackerras ts largely responsible for the excellent musical quality and the originality of this conception It was only occasionally (once in Dch vicn: that 1 wondered whether I had strayed into performance of La Sonnambula" misled by an ornamental cadence ihat seemed to belong 40 years later The most distinguished performance cf the eiemrtg was mund Herincx's Count -d zmtied without pomposity and as nnoeentiy sef-seekirg as a ed chi 'd music lv accurate rhythm and tonally powe'fu heat eier sacr ficing quality As a very Spamsh-jc Countess brings an nus nd earthinew to a part often unduiy romantic sed by German sopranos Below s-a rs Dona vigorous Figaro stil! lacks the a t' subverve undertone bur zabeh Harwood excelkn sing Susanna easily made one -ge- the too blonde hair and the gariih-co'oured clothes Anne Pash ley' Cherubino after a moment of faulty intona-t was admirab'e both musical and d'amaMca John F'ia--'s Bas 'io carries Murray -k am isinf aalic one step farther stlL NAME (MrMrsMiss) ADDRESS BRITISH UNITED AMS i z)fc)nR i fW 1.