Customer Reviews

Disorderly Order: Colours in Silent Film

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This book is a transcript of a film festival of early color, silent films that was held in the Netherlands in 1995. By color, I mean two-strip technicolor, tinted, toned, or hand-stenciled color. This is a frustrating book for a couple of reasons. One reason is that the participants keep referring to specific scenes in a film. While there are about 20 beautifully reproduced color frames in the book, the reader can't exactly follow along the film by looking at the photos. Also, this book is basically a group discussion. One participant will propose a theory as to how color was used by filmmakers, or how it was perceived by audiences. Then another participant will completely rebut the theory, leaving the reader to wonder if we know anything at all about how color was used in silent film.

There is a wealth of information on the different color processes and the difficulty in preserving and restoring them. Since this is a group discussion, there is not a specific section covering this topic. Neither is there an index. Still, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in restoring and preserving classic films from the silent era.