Theological Society

The first of the four main films was Kind Hearts and Coronets, a lightheartedly brutal drama which gave Alec Guiness eight diverting lives and deaths to play, as Dennis Price removed the obstacles between him and the dukedom—a necessary act of vengeance. The film positively gained by being technically dated, as this, accentuated its charm as a witty periodpiece. Eventually the awful truth emerged, by a freak.

The Third Man, far from the cosmopolitan and smooth heroics of the TV series of that name, was a morality about friendship and social responsibility, set in occupied and uncertain post-war Vienna. Harry Lime (Orson Welles) is charming but selfish and ruthless, and just what this means in its wider implications his clumsy American friend only finds out near the end, when he feels forced to betray him. The climax is the famous chase through the sewers.

Virtuosity in comedy was seen again in The Sheep Has Five Legs. The French gusto was rich and real, and Fernandel went much deeper than caricature in the quintuplet brothers he played—beautician, windowcleaner, lonely heart columnist, disreputable ship's captain, and parish priest (persecuted because of an apparent resemblance to some film star, who plays one Don Camillo !).

A second foreign film was shown, Black Orpheus, the world-famous modern version of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend, set in Rio de Janeiro, during the Carnival. An adult film such as this was chosen mainly with the senior boys in mind, but once more it was the younger members who showed the more intelligent reaction, by and large. This cannot surely be because it is a wholly serious film. But for a film which is so widely acclaimed for its power, imaginative and sensitive as well as more obviously aural and visual, it is a pity that there is not more evidence of a willingness to go half-way to meet something new—even folly.

By the energies of the House representatives a large membership was enrolled, which was to everyone's advantage. The choice of films is now carried out with the reps. as a committee, but suggestions are welcome at any •time. Next term we should have a new screen, which will help considerably. T.H.V.W.

At the first meeting of the term, Mr. Pace, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., one of the leading church architects of this country, gave a talk on "Ecclesiastical Architecture". He gave first an outline of its development through the ages, and related it to them, then demonstrated, with slides, the modem trends, principally those of the Liturgical movement. It was interesting to compare in the slides the •high degree of care taken over the continental churches' surrounds with that of many of our own.

The talk at the second meeting, on Charles de Foucauld, was given by the Rev. L. A. Poore. Foucauld emerged as a most extraordinary man, evidently he ended his full and varied life by being shot by the Turks; and is now being canonised by the Roman Catholics.

The Rev. M. D. Kiddie gave the final talk of the term on "The Meaning of Churchmanship". He explained something of what separated the groups, but gave evening communion services as an example of an issue over which sides had recently exchanged.