Holiday

In Hollywood, way before World War II, Technicolor found its way. There were many gorgeous films in color such as Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz.
In France though, much smaller production values forbade color to even be considered until after the war. The first French feature film in color is Le mariage de Ramuntcho, released in 1947 using the Agfacolor process, soon followed by La belle meunière directed by Marcel Pagnol with a soon forgotten process called Rouxcolor.
In spite of their historical interest, these two films are simply not unforgettable.

In the race to color, on of the first color films of the time that is fondly remembered has been known as a black and white masterpiece ever since its initial release and for decades after that.


In fact, when Jacques Tati started shooting his first feature Jour de Fête (Holiday a.k.a. The Big Day) in 1947, he was convinced by Thomson to use the Thomsoncolor process, which was developed decades before by Albert Keller Dorian, an 1929 example of which can be seen on this blog.

Thanks to his cautionary cinematographer, a second camera, placed right next to the first one, shot a safety version in black and white. Tati wanted to fully integrate color to the story. So the arrival and subsequent departure of the feast was to be mirrored in the arrival of color in the otherwise grayish world of Sainte-Sévère-Sur-Indre , a village where Tati had decided to shoot, in remembrance of the war during which he had hidden there.

When the lab turned out to be unable to strike a usable copy from the color negative, it was decided to use the safety version and to release a black and white version which became an instant success and launched Tati's career.


But the latter kept his color idea and decided in 1964 to add scenes with a painter and, for the occasion, many elements of the frame were hand colorized.


After Jacques Tati's death, his daughter decided to restore the miraculously preserved color negative, and in 1995, the color version rose from the ashes and saw a general release on the silver screen and on DVD. Check out the soundtrack on CD too.

That's all for today folks!