1922 Kodachrome Test Footage; Kodak's earliest color film

[jimmy olsen]

Cool

You can watch the footage here.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/02/08/early_color_film_from_1922_actresses_vamp_for_the_camera.html

This 1922 Kodachrome Test Footage is Strangely Bewitching

By Joan Neuberger

Posted Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, at 1:00 PM ET

This clip is a very early, full-color Kodachrome film made by Kodak in 1922 to test new film stock and color processing. It is a lovely little four-and-a-half minutes of pretty actresses gesturing for the camera. The color and lighting are exquisite—all warm reds with flattering highlights—making it a purely enjoyable thing to watch.

In 1922, for all its technical achievements, Kodak hadn't yet done away with the flicker that gave movies one of their earliest and most enduring nicknames: the "flicks." The flicker resulted from variations in film speed produced by the slow, hand-cranked cameras of the time and by variations in the density of the film itself (as you can read in the post about this film clip on Kodak's blog, A Thousand Words).

Even more interesting to a modern viewer are the women's gestures. They act out fluttery, innocent modesty; warm maternal love; and in the longest sequence, sexy, puckered-lip vamping. Their open expressions of feeling and the particular way they move their hands and tilt their heads, even more than the fashions of their clothes and makeup, immediately mark them as women of the interwar period. Recently a Russian film scholar, Oksana Bulgakowa, has shown how various feelings and meanings were coded in the gestures of early film actors. Some of these are so unfamiliar now, they seem like a foreign language.

Today, when we watch a TV show or a movie, we see a wide range of acting styles and behaviors. A hundred years from now, which ones will be seen as defining our age?

[Eddie Teach]

Interesting. Some of their gestures make them seem much older than they are.

[Syt]

I'd hit all the actresses.

[mongers]

Harvesting with Oxen in Cirencester from 1924:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4k5hcndldI

House of Parliament, 1926:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=G9_gjh_YTJ0&feature=endscreen

Much later colour film, 1938, of the English harvest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcyzAIkMwrg

I really like the quality of this one, scenes from the river Thames,1935:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NObu5VXfTVI

[Josephus]

I'd hit all the actresses.

With what?

[garbon]

I'd hit all the actresses.

With what?

His penis

Also is it just me or is Syt getting a little more rowdy lately?

[CountDeMoney]

Recently a Russian film scholar, Oksana Bulgakowa, has shown how various feelings and meanings were coded in the gestures of early film actors. Some of these are so unfamiliar now, they seem like a foreign language.

Well duhski, comrade.  How the hell else were supposed to convey and communicate without the ability to speak through a soundtrack?

Russian scholars.    Take an undergrad non-verbal communication course.

[CountDeMoney]

Also is it just me or is Syt getting a little more rowdy lately?

It's deep winter, which means it's German mating season.

[Syt]

Also is it just me or is Syt getting a little more rowdy lately?

Am I? Just being myself.

[Admiral Yi]

I'd hit all the actresses.

I thought they were pretty woofy.

[garbon]

Also is it just me or is Syt getting a little more rowdy lately?

Am I? Just being myself.

I don't generally recall you posting these sorts of things.

They should have Spic History Month, though, considering that they're close to (or already have?) overtaken Blacks as largest ethnic minority.

Or is that covered by 5 May?

[alfred russel]

Harvesting with Oxen in Cirencester from 1924:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4k5hcndldI

House of Parliament, 1926:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=G9_gjh_YTJ0&feature=endscreen

Much later colour film, 1938, of the English harvest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcyzAIkMwrg

I really like the quality of this one, scenes from the river Thames,1935:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NObu5VXfTVI

Thanks for posting those, mongers. The one on the English harvest was especially good, and the comments were fun.

[Josephus]

I'd hit all the actresses.

I thought they were pretty woofy.

Actually they were allright. The last one, who had about two minutes of screen time was ...meh....but the others were Ok...for a bunch of what is now surely dead old ladies.

[Admiral Yi]

Actually they were allright. The last one, who had about two minutes of screen time was ...meh....but the others were Ok...for a bunch of what is now surely dead old ladies.

Chacun a son mauvais gout.

First chick was powerful plain.  Only reasonable one was that chick with the blue hat.

[Razgovory]

Recently a Russian film scholar, Oksana Bulgakowa, has shown how various feelings and meanings were coded in the gestures of early film actors. Some of these are so unfamiliar now, they seem like a foreign language.

Well duhski, comrade.  How the hell else were supposed to convey and communicate without the ability to speak through a soundtrack?

Russian scholars.    Take an undergrad non-verbal communication course.

Were there were odd styles of movement even before widespread use of motion pictures.  For instance Groucho Marx was know for doing an exaggerated walk with where he was stooped and had one arm on his thigh.  This was a popular fashion in the 1890's, but in the 1930's it looked old fashioned and subsequently funny.  Today, it's simply not recognized.