30 April 2018

Technicolor fragments from the 1920s

I absolutely love this collection of 'two-strip' Technicolor film snippets from the 1920s, which were discovered recently by the BFI as scrag-ends spliced into other films when they were surplus to requirements. While they're generally very short glimpses, they're also amongst the earliest 'proper' colour film footage ever made, and it's intriguing to see the 1920s in this way when we're used to only viewing it in black and white. The Louise Brooks screen test for the 1926 Famous Players-Lasky film The American Venus, which is otherwise almost completely lost, is a priceless example of this important work.

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