CAMBRIDGE KULTUR

Perceptible to the casual observer was the coldness, the claque-like, unenthusiastic applause which closed the initial performance of "Barberina", the first German film to be presented at Harvard. This was immediately due to technical defects in the sound reproduction, unnecessary flaws which marred a most charming cinema. Of course, the film was badly chosen; it should have had a simple plot about a man and a woman and love which came at last, after all gangsters had been removed by the heroic physical efforts of the man. When critics read a Freudian significance into the modern immediacy of "Maedchen in Uniform"--where such interpretation has about as much place as in Memorial Church lower, one can hardly except a Cambridge audience to appreciate fully "Barberina", which demands a knowledge of German art and history, as well as of the language. The response to the film would have been warm despite the technical imperfections had there been spectators capable of understanding it.

Poor reproduction the officials of the Germanic Museum can remedy in today's presentation, though they can hardly improve the rather inconvenient Renaissance Hall. But the very inconvenience of that hall may prove mortal to future productions; the use of the Geography Institute might be more acceptable to those who are vulnerable to drafts and had ventilation. Hans Sachs would point the further moral that now that Harvard has a chapel, a Geography Institute, a business school, and seven well-run hotels, it might well replace Sanders Theater as the last word in auditoria.