Screen Guilds Magazine (July 1935)

Will Talking Pictures Become “Talking Paintings”? S EVEN years ago, motion pictures were revolutionized by the advent of sound. Theretofore silent, the screen acquired the gift of speech. The term “ motion pictures” Was changed to “talking pictures.” If definitions are to keep up with the changes of the screen medium, then within a few years, the term “talking pictures” in its turn will he replaced by “talking paintings.” This because of the coming of color to the screen. Perhaps this is not so much of a rev¬ olution as sound was, still it is a most drastic change in the progress of screen art and is no less of a miracle than sound. Let me make it clear that I am not talking about the old two-color process which brought the most unhappy re¬ sults on the screen and which I person¬ ally considered a complete artistic fail¬ ure. Everything on the screen looked either green or red. The shades ran together, the outlines were blurred and fuzzy and the whole effect was that of a cheap animated valentine. It gave one a headache and miade one long for the serene and quiet beauty of black and white. Today this old two-color process belongs to the unsuccessful ex¬ periments of the past, and in its stead we have the new three-color process Which is an amazing achievement. There is no room to go into the tech¬ nicalities of the new invention. Suf¬ fice it to say that being based on the reproduction of the three basic colors of the spectrum, it is capable of trans¬ mitting onto the screen practically all colors and shades visible to the eye. We never missed color on the screen because the very art of the cinema was born black and white. It was a con¬ vention which had to be accepted, but once real color comes to the screen, we shall feel its absence as forcefully as we feel the absence of sound when look¬ ing at a silent film made some years ago. I DO not mean to say that necessarily all the films will have to be in color, but certainly the great majority of them will be. As in the art of painting, while we admire and love black and white drawings and etchings, could we ever do without paintings? So far the screen has been using a pencil; now it is given a palette with paints. I don't want to be misunderstood. I don't Want to imply that the black and white film is not beautiful nor that the color film completely displaces the black and white. As a matter of fact the black and white has a beauty of its own that could never fade away. The very unreality of those pale shadows moving on the screen and that remote quality of a dream,, constitute the attraction and the spell of the black and white film that could not be destroyed. There will always be room for certain subjects to be treated in terms of these fascinating grey shadows. But color comes to the screen now as a new Spring to the earth. It comes as an inspiring and exciting gift, which opens new hor¬ izons of creation for the artist and en¬ joyment for the onlooker. I am stating this now not merely as a theoretical point, but as a result of an actual experience I went through recently. This experience w]as direct¬ ing “Becky Sharp,” the first full- length feature in the new three color process. That was a new and wondrous adventure. It had all the thrill and ex¬ citement of pioneering in a new field and discovering a theretofore unex¬ plored fairyland. C OLOR is one of the most powerful and fascinating attributes of nature. Just imagine what the world would look like if you took color out of it. What would life be like if we were forced to spend it among sky trees, flowers and all things black, grey and white? Hav¬ ing known the joys of color, we would probably die of melancholia. Love of color and susceptibility to color is one of the strongest instincts in human beings. If you want to dis- By Rouben M amoulian cover the most organic, basic elements of the sophisticated human being of today, go to children and go to savages. You will find that next to food, they love things of vivid color and sparkle. That instinct is alive and strong in every one of us. I N relation to motion pictures, our need for color has so far been un- gratified. We accepted the situation just as we had accepted the fact of moving on solid ground until we learned to fly. But once color comes to the screen, we will be unhappy without it. It brings a new ! terrific power to the screen. Our strongest impressions come through vision. So far, visually, we are dealing with light and shade and compositions on the screen. Now we have an additional element of color. This, not merely to superficially adorn the images in motion, but to increase the dramatic and emo¬ tional effectiveness of the story which is being unfolded to the spectator. Color, like all power, can be harmful and destructive when used badly, life- giving and creative when used well. Animals and human beings have always been and are unconsciously subject to a strange hypnotic influence of color. How many times have you walked in¬ to a strange house and felt depressed because of the color of the wall-paper? How many times have you found con¬ solation in the rich riot of shades of a gorgeous sunset? A PART from pure pictorial beauty and the entertainment value of color (that makes a colored comic strip of a newspaper more attractive to the reader than one in black and white) there is also a definite emotional content and meaning in most colors and shades. We have lost sight of that because like all important and inevitable phenomena, it has become subconscious with us. It is not an accident that the traffic lights of a city street today are green for safety and red for danger. Colors convey to us subtly different moods, feelings and impulses. It is not an accident that we use the expression : “to see red,” “to feel blue,” “ to be green with envy” and “to wear a black (Continued On Page 24) The Screen Guilds' Magazine