Can anyone expert in this field explain why and how the colours look so vivid in "Genevieve"? I'm always astounded by the use of colour in the film- the commissionaire's electric blue coat, John Gregson's yellow socks, the pink of Wendy's bonnet- amazing to this day, and maybe even better despite the improvements in technology. Reminds me of "It's Great to be Young" with John Mills, in this regard.
shareIn the credits at the start it says "Color by Technicolor", which to me suggests the movie may have originally been black and white. Colourization is something that Technicolor do all the time with old films so that could explain it.
shareIn the credits at the start it says "Color by Technicolor", which to me suggests the movie may have originally been black and white.
This film was not "colourized"! It was made in Technicolor. It was, however, released in America in black and white prints. The distributor wanted to save money. The same thing happened with John Ford's "Gideon's Day"/"Gideon of Scotland Yard." Released in colour in Britain, black and white in the U.S.
shareGenevieve was always in color. It was photogrpahed by Christopher Challis, who just two years earlier photographed the austounding-looking Tales of Hoffman. His work on even the most routine of his color movies (e.g., The Long Ships) is never less than stunning. Two for the Road and Mary Queen of Scots, slightly more recent films of his, are also beautifully shot.
Aside from Challis himself, I always thought that that standard for color films in the U.K. was very high in this period (say, 1945-55)--Blithe Spirit, A Kid for Two Farthings, A Matter of Life and Death, etc.
"Call me when you change one of your minds."
I can remember when it first came out and it was in colour then. In those days most films were in black and white, and colour caused a big sensation. My mother practically refused to see films made in B/W and she hated them till the day she died.
Colour must have received the same reaction as when the "talkies" first hit the screen. It was so much better.
And now as a geriatric, I appreciate that most of my favourite films were in B/W.
It was somebody like Alex Baldwin, who said, did ne not, that all the best movies were made in black and white.
Mind you, there is always the exception to the rule, and Genevieve is one of them.
I worked in the British film business of that period.This movie was made in Technicolor.Unfortunately,our prints always looked a little 'over-exposed'or slightly 'bleached'out effect.
Thus leaving faces white & clothes etc looking too colour bright.It was just the way the Brits done things at that time.Perhaps Austere after the war years.
Whereas American Technicolor was always very 'colourful'even though they used the same Technicolor cameras.
B/W film stock then was developed in b/w chemicals.Today,they run it through the same chemicals as colour,giving it a not so 'pure'look as the original black & whites of the 1940's.Example "Great Expectations" or "Always Rains on Sunday".Real B/W movies.
I would say the very vivid colours you refer to were standard fare for Technicolor. Part of the contract for use of Technicolor was allowing a Technicolor employee ('consultant') to sit in on the film's production, and overview the maximising of the use of colour in each & every scene. There's an excellent documentary on this on the "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) dvd release. I think that at the time Genevieve was filmed, the consultant in U.K. may have actually been Natalie Kalmus, wife of the inventor/promoter/owner of Technicolor.
The startling colours of Technicolor are still as yet unsurpassed by any later technology. I recently bought "The Wizard of Oz" on dvd, fully restored from original Technicolor elements. Apparently the colours in the film survive better, too. Only the scratches & dirt really need to be removed. Great stuff, anyway, and a joy to watch. "Oklahoma" is another restored favourite. Cheers.
Technicolor was a three-strip process whereby two strips were subjected to a red and green dye and laid on a third emulsified strip creating the saturated, brilliant (and beautifully unrealistic) color seen in Genevieve as well as the Powell/Pressburger pictures of the period. In addition, a printing process known as IB Technicolor (imbibition) was used to make film prints (both 35mm and 16mm) up till about 1974 when the final US Technicolor plant was closed. Understandably, Technicolor was expensive but interestingly enough, it is the only film print with stable color. Prints from the '30s and '40s have retained their color through the years while Kodak Eastman film turned red over a relatively short period (up until about '82 Eastman color film was unstable -- you'll see red prints of such films as Star Trek II). There's a great website with way more info if you're curious: http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm
shareIt's ironic that today it costs you more to have your ordinary holiday snaps produced in black and white than it does in colour!
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