Color on our movie screens is just sort of there. But the sprightly Turner Classic documentary "Glorious Technicolor" traces the history of rainbowed film, especially the Technicolor folks. Eye Candy it was mostly in the early seasons, and although the road wasn't always in glorious Technicolor, it was colorful.
Writer-director-executive producer Peter Jones recounts the engaging saga with special appeal for movie fans and even more for people who toil in the biz.
There have been halting attempts to color film, even by labor-intensive, frame-by-frame hand painting. (If you're wondering, by the by, no-fool Jones makes no mention of network multi-tycoon Ted Turner's crusade a few years ago to colorize black-and-white films.)
Jones mostly charts the careers of former MIT professor Herbert Kalmus, who developed the Technicolor techniques in the 1920s, and his wife Natalie. Even after their divorce, she held a tight grip on the company and gave film studios persistently agonizing advice on how to color their films.
Jones tells how the two battled (ultimately victoriously) against a recalcitrant film industry that figured black and white was the true art form.
Funny, the way Hollywood works. Now black and white is sometimes employed as a special effect. (See "Pleasantville".)
There's some not-seen-in-color-before treats in this treatment -- including the Marxes in an "Animal Crackers'" rehearsal and screen testing of Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard in "Gone with the Wind".
TCM is taking advantage of the moment to run "Glorious Technicolor Week", with 21 movies to follow including the 1926 "Ben Hur", the 1925 "Phantom of the Opera", "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "American in Paris".
GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR
Turner Classic Movies
Peter Jones Prods.
Executive producer-director-writer: Peter Jones
Supervising producer: Andrew Tilles
Producers: Morgan Neville, John Griffin
Associate producers: Selina Lin, Amy Ford, Richard Hutt
Narrator: Angela Lansbury
Airdate: Monday, Dec. 7, 8-9 p.m.
Writer-director-executive producer Peter Jones recounts the engaging saga with special appeal for movie fans and even more for people who toil in the biz.
There have been halting attempts to color film, even by labor-intensive, frame-by-frame hand painting. (If you're wondering, by the by, no-fool Jones makes no mention of network multi-tycoon Ted Turner's crusade a few years ago to colorize black-and-white films.)
Jones mostly charts the careers of former MIT professor Herbert Kalmus, who developed the Technicolor techniques in the 1920s, and his wife Natalie. Even after their divorce, she held a tight grip on the company and gave film studios persistently agonizing advice on how to color their films.
Jones tells how the two battled (ultimately victoriously) against a recalcitrant film industry that figured black and white was the true art form.
Funny, the way Hollywood works. Now black and white is sometimes employed as a special effect. (See "Pleasantville".)
There's some not-seen-in-color-before treats in this treatment -- including the Marxes in an "Animal Crackers'" rehearsal and screen testing of Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard in "Gone with the Wind".
TCM is taking advantage of the moment to run "Glorious Technicolor Week", with 21 movies to follow including the 1926 "Ben Hur", the 1925 "Phantom of the Opera", "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "American in Paris".
GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR
Turner Classic Movies
Peter Jones Prods.
Executive producer-director-writer: Peter Jones
Supervising producer: Andrew Tilles
Producers: Morgan Neville, John Griffin
Associate producers: Selina Lin, Amy Ford, Richard Hutt
Narrator: Angela Lansbury
Airdate: Monday, Dec. 7, 8-9 p.m.
- 12/4/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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