Monday, 6 April 2009

The Open Road - a cinematic postcard of Britain in the 1920s

A really wonderful series of super mini film clips (with lovely music!) featuring the natural beauty of 1920's Britian. From British Film Institute's National Archive channel on YouTube (another great find of mine).

In 1924 Claude Friese-Greene embarked on an intrepid road trip from Land's End to John O'Groats and recorded his journey on film, using an experimental colour process. Find out more and follow the journey in Google Earth here.



I especially like this one.


Another beautiful "film-poem" Colour on the Thames from 1935. Here is some information on this piece: 'Colour on the Thames' is included on the BFI DVD 'Science is Fiction / The Sounds of Science: The films of Jean Painleve'. 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)

1 comment:

lune_blanc said...

I hadn't seen the Dingle Gardens clip! That is so lovely.

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