This is Film! #4 Colour in Film

Each session will cover a different topic and feature an introductory lecture by Giovanna Fossati (Chief Curator at EYE and Professor of Film Heritage at the UvA), followed by an extended Q&A with an invited (inter)national expert on the theme and a film screening.

The fourth lecture of the series will focus on the magnificent world of colour in film, and more specifically on Technicolor. Technicolor is a series of colour motion picture processes that became known and celebrated for its highly saturated colour. It was the most widely used colour process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952.

EYE has invited Michael Pogorzelski (Director of the Academy Film Archive) to discuss and showcase the “Reference Collection”. When the Technicolor Corporation shut down the dye transfer printing line at its Hollywood laboratory in 1974, a large collection of film was donated to the Academy Film Archive. The collection consists of single reels of titles that Technicolor was “release printing” for the Hollywood studios. If a new print was made after a film”s initial release, the reference reel could be consulted to make sure the colour palette of the new print matched the look of the original. This program will be a rare chance to see six reference reels of the Technicolor films made by different Hollywood directors.