''A Colour Box'' is a 1935 British

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

animated film Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, M ...

. Commissioned to promote the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

, it was Lye's first direct animation to receive a public release.

Production

In mid 1935, Lye struck a deal with

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fla ...

to make a direct animation for the

GPO Film Unit The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films ...

. Lye was paid £30, with his materials paid for by the GPO. Lye and sound editor

Jack Ellitt Jack Ellitt (20 May 1902 – 2001) was a British filmmaker, composer and musician. He was born Avrom Yitzhak Elitski to an orthodox Jewish Lithuanian family in Manchester and raised in Sydney from the age of 3. Career Ellitt’s career began wi ...

went through hundreds of records looking for music to use as the soundtrack. They selected a

beguine The Beguines () and the Beghards () were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take forma ...

called "The Belle Creole" by Don Barreto and his Cuban Orchestra. After the music was transferred to film, Lye made cue marks on the sound track, which he used as a guide as he painted on the image track. Lye painted long, continuous patterns on the 35 mm film stock, without

frame line A frame line is the unused space that separates two adjacent images, or film frames, on the release print of a motion picture. They can vary in width; a 35mm film with a 1.85:1 hard matte has a frame line approximately high, whereas both a ...

s to separate individual

film frame In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many ''still images'' which compose the complete ''moving picture''. The term is derived from the historical development of film stock, in which the sequentia ...

s and with few splices used. He used combs or sticks to create linear patterns on the film stock. It took him five days to finish most of the film. Before settling on the title ''A Colour Box'', Lye used the titles ''Cheaper Parcel Post'' and ''La Belle Creole''.

Release

''A Colour Box'' was first shown to critics and journalists on 6 September 1935. Cinema owners were hesitant to screen the work because of its experimental approach and promotional nature. The Granada Theatre and the Tatler Cinema were among the first to screen it. The film had its international premiere in October 1935 at the International Cinema Festival in Brussels. The jury created a special "fantasy film" category so that they could award ''A Colour Box'' with a Medal of Honour. The film was later screened at the 1936

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

, where

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

viewers labeled it

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

and protested the film. They stomped their feet loudly, leading to the three-minute film being stopped before its completion.

Reception

Contemporary reactions to ''A Colour Box'' were polarised. Many critics recognised its originality but viewed it as little more than a novelty. Robert Herring called it "the first ballet in film". One review in ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' said that Lye had "stirred the abstract film to a new vitality." Canadian animator Norman McLaren carefully studied the film, inspired by Lye's "technical inventiveness". It became a major influence on his own direct filmmaking practices.

References

External links

''A Colour Box''
at the Len Lye Foundation * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colour Box, A 1935 short films 1935 films 1935 animated films 1930s animated short films 1930s avant-garde and experimental films Advertisements British animated short films British avant-garde and experimental films Drawn-on-film animated films Animated films without speech Cuban music Films directed by Len Lye GPO Film Unit films British musical films 1935 musical films 1930s British films