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A Colour Box (U*)

Silent Film & Live Music

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Dutch Types

Burst into summer with this vibrant programme of early and pre-Technicolor short films featuring butterflies, fairies, fireworks, crystals and more.

We tend to think of early films as being black and white, when in fact cinema has been a colourful medium and artform from its earliest decades. From the mid-1890s, filmmakers could make use of tinting, hand- and stencil-colouring, and the early experimental systems that predated Technicolor.

A surprising variety of material was brought to the screen in colour – not just the prestige productions of foundational filmmakers such as Georges Méliès, but also science films, travelogues, and early abstract animations.

We have carefully curated a selection for you here, all presented with music composed by the Electronic & Produced Music Department at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Tagged with: Cinema Silent Film & Live Music Guildhall School

Please note: two films (Lichtspiel Opus I and Lichtspiel, Opus IV) in this programme may be unsuitable for people with photosensitive epilepsy

Director and Music Supervisor: Barbara De Biasi

Executive Producer: Mike Roberts

Film information

Runtime: 1hr 21min (approx)

Ticket prices

£11.80

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Students £13.50

Unwaged £13.50

Over 60s £13.50

Wheelchair spaces, free companion seats may now be booked online.

Please select the relevant preferences on the access registration page during your booking, so we can provide you with the correct information and discounts.

Booking a wheelchair space

Select a seat displaying the wheelchair user icon and then select 'wheelchair user' ticket type. The ticket will be priced at the lowest price for that event. If you need an essential companion, please select the E icon next to the wheelchair space you have selected.

Booking essential companion tickets

Please select at least two tickets and one of them will be automatically discounted to zero in the basket.

Booking British Sign Language or Captioned Seats

Select seats in the area appropriate to your needs.

*Excludes £1.50 booking fee

Film Programme

Ruttmann: Lichtspiel Opus I  (Germany 1921 Dir Walter Ruttmann 11 min) Courtesy of Lightcone, Paris

Metomorpheses of a Butterfly (France 1911, 10 min) Courtesy of CINEMATEK – Cinémathèque royale de Belgique

The Fairy of the Stars (France 1902, 2 min) Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam

From the Realms of the Crystals (The Netherlands 1928 Dir Jan Cornelis Mol 9 min) Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam

The Factory of Hats of Paper in Japan (France 1916 Pathé 12 min) Courtesy of the Gaumont-Pathé Archives. Image credit: The Factory of Hats of Paper in Japan, Pathé newsreel, 1916 © GP archives

Dutch Types (France 1910 Pathé 3 min) Courtesy of the Cineteca di Bologna

Bob's Electric Theatre (France 1906 Dir Segundo de Chomón 5 min) Digital presentation courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Grand Display of Brock's Fireworks at the Crystal Palace (UK 1904 Dir G A Smith 5 min) Courtesy of Collezioni Museo Nazionale del Cinema - Torino

The King of Dollars (France 1905 Dir Segundo de Chomón 2 min) Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam

Lichtspiel, Opus IV (Germany 1925 Dirs Walter Ruttmann, Lore Leudesdorff 4 min) Courtesy of Lightcone, Paris

The Merry Frolics of Satan (France 1906 Dir Georges Méliès 18 min) Courtesy of FPA Classics

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