The only them was colour and the fact that all of the
films had recently been restored by their respective archives – from Eye to BFI
via Il Cineteca Bologna, Lobster Films, George Eastman House, and the Center
for Visual Music.
They were loosely in chronological order with the first
half a silent section illustrated beautifully by Cyrus Gabrysch nimble piano
playing and the second a mix of the sound-tracked and dialogued. All were held
together by a focus on colour whether stenciled, technicolored or stripped
down to basics. We even had a lesson in dyes and pigments from Imperial
Chemical Industries.
It was informative and impressive: exactly what the BFI is here for.
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| Dutch Types |
Le farfalle
(1907)
The sequence opened with the monochrome-to-stencil-coloured
madness of The Butterfly an Italian mini-epic featuring a battle of the
butterflies. The story begins with some Geisha-style movements before the troop
pulls back to reveal a colourised “butterfly” who then engages in a dance tot
eh death with a black-winged month-man. It culminates in some Loie Fuller-style
arm-waving in flowing robes all beautifully tinted… Man, they could have used
this on back projection at the UFO Club in 1967…
The film features 3.38 minutes into this compilation of serpentine dancing.
Next to this the gently, hand-coloured Fountains of
Versailles were a little tame in a short Pathé brothers document but then it
was over to Blighty for an outrageous display of fireworks as filmed by George
Albert Smith. I expected some colourfully-loud explosions but the fireworks
were arranged in the shapes of fire engines, fighting cocks and, gawd-luv-em,
the King and Queen. Hurrah!
You can see the fireworks here.
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| Crystal Palace |
Mr Smith also filmed this fascinating footage of horses
and carts crossing a deep stream someone in England in an as yet un-named port.
Seeing these colourised-compatriots as they went about their daily inconvenience
shows how we should never take the existence of motorised transport and bridges
for granted. Smith made the film for the Natural Colour Kinematograph Co.
Dutch Types
(1915)
A few years later we were seeing the folk of Veere and
Arnemuiden in Zeeland as they walked along canals and went to school. As the
schoolgirls smiled the colour dissolved the distance of 101 years.
See it here.
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| Lucio Flamma and Ann Christy |
The silent section finished off with some light fiction
as John Pevere (Lucio Flamma) spied some dancing girls on a south sea island
whilst on a boring boat trip with his fiancée (Jean Mann) and her parents.
He becomes enamoured with a pretty local girl, Nita (Ann
Christy) who is specified inter-title-y as the daughter of an English trader
just to avoid any misunderstanding…
The film ends unresolved but we know from John’s final
longing look that he’ll be back.
The film can be found on the excellent National Film
Preservation Foundation set AmericanTreasures from the New Zealand Film Archive.
After long applause for Cyrus’ efforts accompanying all
of the above we moved on to sound.
Berlin Horse (1970)
In Malcolm Le Grice’s experimental film a horse is shown
repeatedly in a haze of filtered motion with an electronic track creating a
pleasantly disorientating state as you scan for any variations in motion or
music. Only at the end do you see horses being pulled out of a burning stables.
Ruins of Palmyra
and Baalbek (1938)
Given recent events, this film was all the poignant,
showing us King Solomon’s great city as it was still standing after the last
invaders who tried to destroy it. Jack Cardiff – the King of Colour, provided
cinematography that captured the site’s atmospheres with almost a
magical-realist tint.
Palmyra is drenched in atmosphere and hopefully still is…
As with the other clips, this only hints at the loveliness on screen.
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| Palmyra |
An inventive animation advertising toothpaste… they just
don’t make them like this anymore.
Divertimento (1968)
This film was made for British Petroleum and features microscopic
images taken from their labs and set to Malcolm Arnold's Divertimento for oboe,
flute and clarinet. Somehow this captures the optimistic spirit of sixties scientific endeavour.
 |
| Divertimento |
Jordan Belson’s film is abstract in vision and sound with
the kind of music much beloved of Broadcast and the Ghost Box ensembles… "It
is primarily an abstract cinematic work of art inspired by Yoga and Buddhism.
Not a description or explanation of Samadhi." said its creator.
  |
| Landscape and Samadhi |
Landscape
(1971)
Jules Engel’s experimental short features pulsing colours
and electronica bleeping in time to flash and flicker. There’s a trailer here.
In truth Landscape
hit us with its flashing minimalism just when the hallucinogens were wearing
off: we needed a narrative and with the final film we got one.
This Is Colour (1942)
Directed by Jack Ellitt and featuring Jack Cardiff on
camera again, the finale focused on the nature of colour and its practical
application by ICI.
The film explained how we see colour and then detailed
the process of creating pigments to dye fabrics. Our new world is full of
colour from Tupperware to tableware and none of this is possible without the
creative application of science.
ICI, once at the forefront of British innovation, was
bought by Dutch multi-national AkzoNobel and ceased to exist in 2008.
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| Science in 1942 |
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