Wednesday, January 28, 2009



YouTube - Colour on the Thames (1935)

This film is tricky to describe: is it a boat study, a film-poem, an experiment, a picture postcard? One thing is certain: it's a rare colour snapshot of the Thames and London in the 1930s - and it looks
quite magical.

Its artistic qualities may look a bit
old-fashioned to us today; the slow pace, orchestral music and moody colours definitely belong to a bygone era, strikingly peaceful and
undemanding. Yet colour film was still a novelty for audiences in 1935, and the photography (using the new Gasparcolor system) succeeds in
accentuating the sharp contrast between the vivid green banks of the countryside and the drab tones of the industrial landscape. (Sonia
Genaitay)