Lester James Peries Foundation launch tomorrow:
The legendary film-maker
Edwin ARIYADASA
This event pulsates with an intriguing nuance. The explanation is
starkly simple. Both Lester James Peries and his versatile spouse
Sumitra Peries, are already well established and solidly entrenched as
venerable 'Foundations', in the cultural life of Sri Lanka.
Given this background, the official launch of the Foundation, is in
effect, the formalization of a long - held mass credo.
To fully appreciate why Lester James Peries deserves this distinction
of having a Foundation in his name, one has to go beyond the cliches
that usually clutter, many a discourse about him.
To begin with, it seems quite appropriate to itemize some of the
outstanding contributions he has made to Sri Lanka's national cultural
heritage.
Lester James Peries introduced a professional elegance to the
business of film - making in Sri Lanka, going counter to the shabbiness
that generally prevailed in that field, prior to the appearance of his
'Rekawa' (Line of Destiny, 1956). The effort to instil the 'Sinhala
feel', (the indigenous sensitiveness) into Sri Lankan cinema was
initiated by Lester James Peries, when he based his films firmly on
themes, deeply rooted in our native soil.
In the oft-quoted phrase, the revolutionary poet and aesthetic guru
T.S. Eliot declared, that the purpose of criticism, is the "Elucidation
of Works of Art and the Correction of taste".
Cultivated a taste of quality
Most people tend to overlook the fact, that Director Lester James
Peries, waged a valiant battle - single handedly at first - to correct
the cinematic tastes of the Sri Lankan film-goers, who were fully
addicted to the popular entertainment film, deriving from the widely -
prevalent tinsel-dazzle formula. Director Lester James Peries weaned the
Sri Lankan film - goers, off these soul-searing formula films and
cultivated in them a taste for quality cinematic works that discuss
significant human issues and psychological snarls. He brought into
being, a keen coterie of film aficionados who looked on Lester Films
with the ardour of the followers of a close cult. These included Reggie
Siriwardene, Tissa Abeysekera, A.J. Gunawardene, Benedict
Dodampegama-among many others. In turn, these too, influenced Sri
Lanka's thoughts on cinema - one way or another.
Lester elevated Sri Lankan cinema to global heights. This resulted in
the pronouncing of Lester James Peries' name with the same hushed tones,
as those of such other stalwarts like Akira Kurosawa, Satyajith Ray and
Ingmar Bergman. For several decades now, Director Lester James Peries
has decidedly been the 'Cinema Establishment' of Sri Lanka. In any
field, people respond to an Establishment in one of two ways. They may
resent it, revolt against it or denounce it. Or else, they would adore
it, admire it, esteem it or emulate it. Whatever may be the attitude
adopted, a well - entrenched establishment, generates the Dynamism that
ensures progress.
No worthwhile discourse on cinema is possible, without Lester's name
assuming centre - stage in that kind of colloquy.
For ages, Lester campaigned for the setting up of a National Film
Archives, to preserve our indigenous cinematic heritage, enabling the
in-depth study of cinema, especially by those in the younger
generations, who have the duty to protect and perpetuate our cinema
tradition.
As is well-known, Lester's own tradition of creativity, is the
outcome of an assiduous pilgrimage. At a very early age, his doting
father Dr. James Francis Peries, gifted him an 8mm Kodasko Projector,
that ran Charlie Chaplin's silent movies. This early cinematic
experience got deeply embedded, in child Lester's mind, no doubt. His
later urge for cinematic creations goes back to the late 1940s when he
was very young and living in London.
For him and for a like-minded group of young enthusiasts, the
cine'-camera became an absorbing toy. This gave them an instrument to
impose a semblance of visual discipline upon the disarray of diffuse
experiences of their youthful days in a cosmopolitan urban centre, far
away from home.
Documentary genre
Peries' initial cinematic efforts were exclusively in the documentary
genre. But they were instructive. This erratic progress in the
documentary medium was a fitting apprenticeship for a talent whose 'Line
of Destiny' was eventually to lead him to glorious creative heights in
fiction film.
His return to Sri Lanka, which was to have a far-reaching effect on
the course of Sri Lanka's cinema, was largely due - strangely enough -
to an expatriate who headed Sri Lanka's Government Film Unit at that
time.
The person in question - Ralph Keene - was so persuasive, that Lester
came back home and joined the unit. He plunged into documentary film
making with zest and zeal and created a body of documentaries, that
still remains pioneering works in this genre in Sri Lanka.
The documentary period, in Lester's evolution made him appreciate how
resource -rich Sri Lanka was, for the film-maker.
The locations impressed him, especially after his recent sojourn in
the West. Since he was looking at his native land as an outsider,
because of his absence from home, the exotic in our culture - the fresh
appeal of our way of life, began to entice him.
When he travelled through Sri Lanka, armed with the Government Film
Unit's cameras, he discerned details of the country' s landscape with
the keen perception, nurtured by his documentary discipline.
First-ever Sinhala film
The central event that was to determine his future career took place
in January 1947, when the first-ever Sinhala film was screened to the
massive enthusiasm of Sri Lankan film - goers. For the audiences of Sri
Lanka, the novelty of a film speaking Sinhala, was an overwhelming
experience.
But, soon the novelty wore off - partly because the country's compact
society tends to be much more critical than the amorphous audiences that
have been the main-stay of the popular South Indian films for decades.
The theatricality of the presentation and the cloying artificiality
of the story-line of the pioneering Sinhala films began to jar the
sensibilities of Sri Lankan film - goers in the first few years of
Sinhala Cinema.
Peries took his film - making into a village and allowed a portion of
it to happen in that rural setting, enlisting real villagers too, to
play a minor role or two.
Still the outsider in the indigenous culture of Sri Lanka, Lester
managed to capture at least a few authentic accents of the idiom and the
rhythm of the folk who inhabited the traditional village.
To my mind, it is the sure eye of the documentarist, that will
discern with alacrity the telling detail that so precisely profiles a
sentiment or an individual.
This is what enabled Director Lester James Peries - in the first
instance - to come to some realistic terms with his village in 'Rekawa'
(Line of Destiny)
In retrospect, we might see that Peries may have missed some of the
finer nuances of the intricate relations, that keep a traditional rural
community ticking.
Firm place in cinema
But, in Rekawa, he began his exploration, which led him, years later,
in Gamperaliya (Changing Village - 1964) to achieve a much more intimate
entry into the ways of life of a village as it goes about its business
of daily living.
Years later when his Gamperaliya enabled Lester to establish himself
as a force to be reckoned with, he acquired a name, a fame and a firm
place in cinema, with a distinct 'imprint' of his own. He could no
longer fail, but only fluctuate.
When he won the Golden Peacock Award in India in 1965, Director
Lester James Peries, elevated Sri Lankan cinema to the International
Cinema Scene.
In the 64-year span of Sri Lankan Cinema, Gamperaliya is still a
climactic work. It represents the seamless fusing of Cinema with the
quintessential in the Sri Lankan way of life - rural innocence and
candour and the disintegrating touch of urban dynamics.
Gamperaliya is totally cinematic in concept and execution. The script
is derived from Martin Wickremasinghe's novel, which, without any doubt,
is the best known work of fiction in Sinhala.
Director Lester's remarkable personal achievement as a film-maker in
'Gamperaliya', is that, he could visualize the story-material entirely
in terms of sight - and - sound metaphor, as a stark counterpoint to its
literary version.
Director Lester James Peries' cinema philosophy is characterized by a
cautious, non-confrontational stance. He may deal with vital socially
relevant issues at times, but these are viewed with such detachment and
objectivity that not even a trace of partisanship can be detected. His
cinematic style is essentially reflective and is almost totally bereft
of comment or polemics.
His total oeuvre exudes the flavour of the Sri Lankan ethos.
Transformed the field of film
For over 55 years, Director Lester James Peiris has nurtured,
influenced and transformed the field of film making and through it, the
totality of Sri Lanka's social make-up. If we pause to ponder deeply on
his works in sustained hindsight, a significant fact invariably emerges.
His career-long effort has been to build a cinematic conduit, to the
heart of Sri Lankan culture.
The setting up of the Foundation for Lester James Peries and Sumitra
Peries, is the right moment to make a national resolve to launch a solid
cinema culture in this land, as a tribute to his cinema.
Our Theatres are largely abandoned. The Foundation could launch a
national movement, to bring about a robust cinema culture, that will
ensure the making of distinguished cinematic works, possessing the
potentiality to bring back viewers to cinema halls, ensuring the
emergence of a thriving cinema industry.
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