Colour Films in Britain

The Negotiation of Innovation 1900-1955

Sarah Street

• Editore: British Film Institute
• Anno: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781838715144
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Media & Performing Arts
• Categoria: Television History & Criticism

How did the coming of colour change the British film industry? Unlike sound, the arrival of colour did not revolutionise the industry overnight. For British film-makers and enthusiasts, colour was a controversial topic. While it was greeted by some as an exciting development – with scope for developing a uniquely British aesthetic – others were deeply concerned. How would audiences accustomed to seeing black-and-white films – which were commonly regarded as being superior to their garish colour counterparts – react? Yet despite this initial trepidation, colour captivated many British inventors and film-makers. Using different colour processes, these innovators produced films that demonstrated remarkable experimentation and quality. Sarah Street's illuminating study is the first to trace the history of colour in British cinema, and analyses the use of colour in a range of films, both fiction and non-fiction, including The Open Road, The Glorious Adventure, This is Colour, Blithe Spirit, This Happy Breed, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The Tales of Hoffmann and Moulin Rouge. Beautifully illustrated with full colour film
stills, this important study provides fascinating insights into the complex process whereby the challenges and opportunities of
new technologies are negotiated within creative practice. The book also includes a Technical Appendix by Simon Brown (Kingston University, UK), which provides further details of the range of colour processes used by British film-makers.

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Colour in Silent Britain: The Kinemacolor Story
• 2. Colour Adventures with Prizma and Claude Friese-Greene in the 1920s
• 3. Debating Colour in the 1930s
• 4. Glorious Technicolor Comes to Britain
• 5. Colour Enthusiasts: Colour Transformations in World War II
• 6. British Colour Feature Films in Wartime
• 7. Into A Postwar World of Colour: A Matter of Life and Death
• 8. Colour Genres in Postwar Cinema 1: Topical Spectacles – Biopics and the Empire Genre
• 9. Colour Genres in Postwar Cinema 2: The Colour of Melodrama
• 10. Colour Genres in Postwar Cinema 3: Musicals and Comedies
• 11. Colour Asethetics in Postwar Cinema: Image, Sound, Colour
• 12. Collaboration and Innovation in the 1950s: Jack Cardiff and Oswald Morris
• Conclusion: Creating Colour in British Cinema
• Appendix 1: Kinematograph Year Books, 1938–55 – Colour Films in Britain
• Appendix 2: Technical Appendix by Simon Brown
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• List of Illustrations
• eCopyright