Discovering Cinema (2003-2004)
DISCOVERING CINEMA is a 2-part film program comprised of "Learning to Talk" and "Movies Dream in Color", produced by Lobster Films/Histoire, 2003-2004. Film historians Eric Lange and Serge Bromberg compiled materials from their own Lobster Films collection and material from archives throughout Europe and the USA to create these two historic documentaries illustrating the birth of sound and color cinema, perhaps the greatest cultural achievement of the twentieth century.
Told from a European perspective, American viewers of these documentaries will be surprised by moving footage of Emile Reynaud's pre-cinema animation "Pantomimes Lumineuse"; the gadget-packed Allefex machine for live sync sound effects; Gaumont's 1905 Chronophone sound film system, using a compressed-air amplifier and their Chronochrome three-color systems; additional unique examples of the Kodacolor lenticular color system, Kinemacolor, an additive system using filters; and NotoFilm in which notes of the intended musical accompaniment streams across the bottom of the silent screen.
Bonus Features:
Flying High (1929) - An example of a "part-talkie" as an episode of the silent serial "The Collegians"
La Cucaracha (1934) - A short musical-comedy which displays an early use of the "three-strip" technicolor process.
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Learning to Talk (2003)
In LEARNING TO TALK, director's Eric Lang and Serge Bromberg dive deep into the fascinating and often times hilarious history of sound in film.
Beginning with experiments that far preceded the "talkies", this documentary examines the many trials and tribulations of attempting to bring sound to ...
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Movies Dream in Color (2004)
The struggle to bring color to the black & white images of early film is profiled in this documentary, MOVIES DREAM IN COLOR, the second part of the Discovering Cinema program.
From the very early years of painting on glass to produce magic lantern images in the 18th century, color and colo...
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Flying High (1929)
An early example of the merging of silent and sound film, known as a "part-talkie", at a time when film-going audiences couldn't get enough of the new talking pictures.
FLYING HIGH is part of the fourth series in a continuing film serial about The Collegians, college students who find their way ...
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La Cucaracha (1934)
One of the very first attempts at showcasing what the new "three-strip" technicolor process could do with live action footage, LA CUCARACHA was a smash success as vibrant colors seem to explode off the screen.
Produced by Pioneer Pictures and costing about $65,000, an exorbitant amount for a sh...
