'Royal' memories
By Upatissa Attygalle
The Royal College Film Society had its origin in the Amateur
Cinematic Society which was inaugurated in 1945. One of the principal
persons who was responsible for it having been mooted was the
revolutionary, the wittiest, the most discerning, the most integrated
and now legendary teacher of English, Ceylon ever had - the late R.C.L.
Attygalle popularly known as
'Dickie'. He persuaded the then principal of Royal, the late J.C.A.
Corea to allocate funds for the purchase of a 33 mm film projector and a
copy of the film "Henry the V" for the film society. Dickie Attygalle
had hoped to build up a library of films for the Society, regrettably
Royal being a Government school he was unable to obtain funds to buy
more films.
Dickie had the extraordinary ability to make the classics of English
Literature come alive and kindle the interest of all his students.
Therefore, the Technicolor 1944 version of William Shakespear's
"Henry the V" produced, directed and starred by Sir Laurence Olivier was
a big hit with the students. Dickie Attygalle
had many students in his class who acquired a love for the humanities
thanks to his skill not just as a teacher but as an educator. Most of
his students in later life excelled in their respective fields. One such
student who distinguished himself as a politician was the late Felix
Dias Bandaranaike, then known as Felix Dias.
Just after a year since the commencing of the film society, Dickie
Attygalle left Royal for Paris as he was appointed as the chief of the
division managing all UNESCO's adult education programmes. The mantle of
continuing the film society then fell on the able broad shoulders of
another brilliant teacher and multi-talented master Bevil St Elmo de
Bruin who passed away in his 80th on July 19, 2003 in Montego Bay
Jamaica. Mr. Bruin who was fondly referred to as 'Bruno' by students was
a teacher of Mathematics, English and English Literature, Cricket and
Athletics during his tenure at Royal College. He too like Dickie
Attygalle had the unique ability to make students who never read
anything but comic books to take an interest in English and English
Literature. Many students who did science as I did, took up English
Literature as a subject thanks to Mr. Bruin showing us the beauty, the
might and the grandeur of the English Language.
Mr. Bruin arranged with the British Council to hire films from their
library to be screened at our Society's film shows. During my stay at
Royal Mr. Bruin screened a number of top grade films on a variety of
subjects and themes. Some of them I remember are "Nanook of the North" a
documentary on the life of an Eskimo and his family made by the very
influential American documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, "Scott of the
Antarctic" the Technicolor film about the ill fated 1912 expedition to
the South Pole starring Sir John Mills as Captain Scott, and "Kind
Hearts and Coronets", a first class British Ealing comedy. Sir Alec
Guiness who was one member of the admirable cast played eight roles in
the film. Out of all the films I saw at Royal there is one particular
film that I shall never forget and that film was "Arsenic and Old Lace".
It was the screen version of the immensely popular comedy written by
Joseph Kesserling for the stage.
The film version was directed by the legendary Frank Capra and
starred the inimitable Hollywood star Cary Grant supported by a
distinguished cast who played their parts brilliantly to make the film
one of the funniest rib-tickling comedies ever made up-to-date. I recall
the film was screened in one of the Science lecture rooms which had pews
of tiered seats and we were all rolling in the aisles clutching our
stomachs in uncontrollable laughter. Many of us had to walk slightly
crouched the next morning due to the pain in our over-strained abdominal
muscles. I have seen the film over a dozen times since then and even
today have the same reaction to it.
I am not sure whether there is a Film Society in Royal College today
but in our time at College we enjoyed the film shows and had a lot of
fun during the breakdowns of the rather old film projector. I am sure
all old Royalists who attended these film-shows must be fondly
remembering those wonderful hours spent in the darkened lecture room
watching the silver screen unfolding great films. |