GROUNDS OF GRANTING
Here follows the 1965 Resolution of the Board
of the Foundation:
His Royal Highness the Prince of the Nether-
lands
- in virtue of article 2 of the Statutes of the
Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, stating
the object to confer annually one or more
monetary prizes as awards to individuals or
institutions having made a contribution of
particular importance for Europe in the cul-
tural, social, or social-scientific sphere,
- having regard to the provisions concerning
the appropriations from the prize-fund iaid
down in the ,,Rules on the awarding of
prizes",
- having heard the advisory members,
- has confirmed the resolution of the Board
to award the Praemium Erasmianum 1965 to
Charles Spencer Chaplin and to
Ingmar Bergman.
GROUNDS FOR GRANTING
THE PRIZE TO
CHARLES CHAPLIN
Because through an extensive and universally
acclaimed oeuvre, characterised by a masterly
blending of seriousness and humor, of tears
and laughter he was made a decisive con
tribution towards the development of an in-
dustry into an art;
because by creating a character beloved of
old and young alike who has already entered
history he has entertained and moved many
millions of people and because he has suc-
ceeded in wrapping sorrow, disappointment
and injustice so poetically in jokes and co-
mical situations, that a message of warm,
human compassion has emerged which has
been understood by everyone;
because he has in several great works por-
trayed both the weariness of the West and the
undaunted vitality of mankind and in the film
The Great Dictator was among the first to
recognize and exposé the tragedy Europe was
haeding for;
because he has thus, during forty years of
cinematographic activity outside Europe, re-
mained the interpreter of the characteristically
European hesitation between collectivism and
individualism.between the absolute and the
relative, between the preaching of a message
and the enjoyment of laughter;
because he has stood up courageously and
chivalrously for human values which help to
decide the spiritual climate of our society and
by doing so has shown himself to be a great
European and a great world citizen.
GROUNDS FOR GRANTING
THE PRIZE TO
INGMAR BERGMAN
Because for more than twenty years he has in
an entirely personal and penetrating manner
explored the ideas, the desires, the faith, the
uncertainties, the doubts and aspirations of
modern questing man, explorations which he
has interpreted in his films with keen artistic
judgment;
because he has in an exceptional way raised
the film to a medium for expressing important
values and problems, the form of each of his
works bearing the inalienable stamp of his
personality;
because he has as distinct from many
continuously made high demands upon the
receptivity of the public, which - both in and
outside Europe - has justified his expecta-
tions;
because he has thus contributed materially to
the attainment and the acceptance of a high
artistic level in the European cinematographic
art and inspired many young cinematographers
to discover a form of their own and to make
a more profound inquiry into the stirrings of
the human soul;
because in his ideas and in his work he has
shown himself to be a worthy servant and
propagator of European culture.
ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY
MR. M. VROLIJK,
MINISTER OF CULTURE, RECREATION
AND SOCIAL WORK
This is already the third time in my short
career as Minister of Culture that I have been
called upon in this capacity to speak on behalf
of the medium of the film: first of all, at the
opening of the filmweek in Arnhem, then at
the awarding of the 1965 State prize and now
at the awarding of the Erasmus Prize. I find
this most gratifying. For a ministry which was
created largely as a result of television pro
blems, it is striking that the film should de-
monstrate so clearly and rapidly, - and this
in spite of competition from television! that
it is still alive and how!
Today this fact is being accorded a most unu-
sual sort of recognition because, to the best
of my knowledge, this is the first time in the
history of the cinema that such an important
distinction has been conferred on this art
from outside the film industry.
It is therefore also a pleasure for me to con-
gratulate the Regent and the Board of the
Foundation on their decision. But I should
like to congratulate them once more, namely
on their choice of laureates. In view of the
fact that this prize is not to be viewed as an
encouragement but as an award I should be
hard put to, to find a better combination than
this outstanding representative of the cinema
tographic art from the first half of this century
and an outstanding representative of the ci
nema of today.
When, in preparation for this event, I briefed
myself about the work of the Praemium Eras
mianum Foundation, I was pleased to see that
one of the conditions attached to this award
stipulates that a sizeable proportion of the
prize must always be given towards a project
of general European significance. I believe
that this fact is unknown to many people and
yet it is, after all, a condition of great impor
tance. So I learned that practically the entire
amount of the prize wich was conferred in
1964 on the Union Académique Internationale
will go towards a scholary edition of the works
of Erasmus. A most fitting way of spending an
Erasmus Prize! Chagall used half of his prize
money to award scholarships to young pain-
ters; Ingmar Bergman, so I was told, wishes
them to gain valuable experience in other
European countries.
In this short introductory speech I should just
like to say a word about the general impor
tance of such a big prize. And by that I don't
mean the money although that is a rather at-
tractive feature. I mean that the fact that in
the cultural sphere a foundation in this
case a Dutch foundation focuses attention
on people or institutions which have rendered
outstanding services to European culture - is
something of great value, something stimula-
ting. It can indeed enhance the interest taken
by the public in these great achievements.
And this is important for the artist and the
arts as well as for the man of scholarship.
Perhaps is this most true in the artistic field.
The Dutch government recognizes that it has
a responsibility to do what it can to create
the conditions under which the arts can deve-
lop freely as an essential element in our social
life. But it considers it no less important that
the arts should be enjoyed by as wide a public
as possible. Mutatis mutandis this also holds
true for the field of scholarship. In this con-
nection I should like te recall that the great
Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, whose death
we so deeply mourn, on receiving the Eras
mus Prize 1963, not only considered this as
a great honour but used the occasion to bear
witness before a iarge public to his views on
the problem of man, his fellowmen and God.
I should like to pay tribute to those respon-
sible for the work this foundation does and
does extremely well when one considers the
excellent choice of laureates over quite a
number of years now.
In the name of the Dutch government i should,
in conclusion like to offer my heartfelt con-
gratulations to the winners of the Erasmus
Prize for 1965, Mr. Charles Chaplin and Mr.
Ingmar Bergman, who have bot in the excer-
cise of their art sometimes moved, sometimes
amused but always won the devotion of mil
lions of people throughout the world. They
have made valuable contributions to the un-
derstanding of the mainsprings of man's emo-
tions.
ADDRESS BY HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE OF THE NETHERLANDS
TO MR. CHARLES CHAPLIN
Mr. Chaplin,
I regard it as a great privilege that today I
may try to teil in a few words what your life's
work has meant to millions of people. Still, I
feel, that not I, who am doing this in my capa
city of Regent of this Foundation, should ad-
dress you today; I feel that a poet should have
done this - someone who could - at your one
level - have recorded life's laughter and tears;
someone who could have spoken poetically of
chivalry and humility, in short, someone who
could have met you at the level of what is
perhaps the most poetical character of this
aera, who was created by you: Charlie the
tramp.
When you brought to life the now historical
figure of that touching vagabond with his
pathetic eyes and his little gestures and mo-
vements, you gave him something of Don
Quixote's recklessness and the innocence of
Voltaire's Candide. There was just this small
difference: the poet talks - Charlie walks.
This is the way you introduced him to your
employer Mr. Mack Sennett: „This fellow is
many-sided, a tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a
dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopefule of
romance and adventure".
To me, personally - and I think to many with
me - on looking back over the years, these
two qualities: the poet, the dreamer - quali-
ties to which many of us secretly aspire -
are those which have spoken strongest to the
imagination.
Critics have gone far back into history to de-
monstrate the poet in the Charlie created by
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