Colour on the Thames

[Nick Dando]

I found this on the Caught on the River website (caughtbytheriver.net) and they've just posted a YouTube video of a forthcoming BFI DVD release.



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LGavykBbxM[/ame]



"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)



‘Colour on the Thames’ is included on the BFI DVD ‘Science is Fiction / The Sounds of Science: The films of Jean Painleve’ – and available from the BFI Store.



thanks to Phil Thornton for sending this in."

[penfold]

Nick; you should subscribe to the BFI 'channel' on Youtube....that film has been on there nearly two years. Good innit.....now look for English Harvest.

[ANNETTE MASTERS]

Thank you for that -- very beautiful , & for me nostalgic , as I spent my early childhood by the Thames at Kew , Richmond , Brentford , etc.

[Freddy]

Wonderful, thanks to you and Pen for expanding my you tube list of must see.

[Bernardo]

Nice colour stock, exceptionally well preserved and a good steady film, someone who used a tripod. Film is amateur and it shows it. This sequence is evidence for my contention that old films that are rubbished by critics have a social and historical value apart from the artistic merit and should be cherished for this.