Preceding: a selection of film realized with the Chronochrome Gaumont system. Piano accompaniment by Dimitri Sillato

GAUMONT CHRONOCHROME
Perhaps the most beautiful of all the early colour film systems, whether ‘natural’ or ‘artificial’, was Chronochrome. Though its commercial life was not long, and though it was apparently not seen widely, recent restorations have unveiled a precious colour record of belle époque France. They have a magical reality about them, capturing an ineffable something of those Proustian times. Chronochrome was patented by Léon Gaumont in 1911. It was the first working example of a three-colour additive system in natural colours. Gaumont’s system employed a three-lens camera with red, green and blue filters, through which three images were exposed simultaneously. To get around problems experienced by previous inventors trying to move three frames at high speed (48 frames per second), Gaumont came up with a narrower frame height (14mm). The projector was likewise equipped with three lenses, similarly reduced in height to reduce fringing.

Luke McKernan

(In case of rain, the screening will take place at Cinema Jolly)