watch it: “Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test”

I found that strangely moving. It's nearly 90 years old, and usually films from the 20s are black and white so you're one step removed, but the colour made it so much more immediate. It was like a window into the lives of those women and they were alive and young so long ago. I don't know how to explain it.

Thank you for this link! I love looking at the richness of the color, as well as it being a great snapshot of the hair styles and fashion of the moment. Really wonderful.

Wow. According to Wikipedia, this brand of film wouldn't be released to the public for another 13 years. Had it been released in the 20's it might have made some serious changes to classic black and white films. Both Keaton and Chaplin did a lot of their work in this era, as did the Marx Brothers after sound was introduced. Imagine if The Jazz Singer had not only been the first Talkie, but one of the first shot in color as well? Some of the old sci fi classics, Metropolis and King Kong, as well as horor staples Dracula and Frankenstein were also made between this test and the official release of Kodachrome.

Frankenstein... that's an interesting one to consider isn't it? It would also have meant that the Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder homage and spoof, Young Frankenstein would not have been shot in black and white either. It also makes you wonder if Schindler's List would still have been shot in black and white, had colour film been popularized during the 30's, rather than after WW2 ?

Isobel: I know what you mean. I found myself oddly moved while watching that, and thinking that they are probably long gone now. Of course, we have tons of film of people who've died, but there's always something astonishing about seeing a glimpse of real, live people from practically filmic prehistory! Like the guy says on Kodak's blog, it's like time travel.

And on a sillier note, wow, look at that pancake white! Guess they had yet to develop makeup for color filming. And it's a bit surreal to watch these women in color, still posing in that particular black-and-white silent-film style.

I think I see Mae Marsh and Mary Pickford.

That was absolutely riveting.

Oop, I meant Mae Murray.

Mae Murray (if that's the third woman) has a gorgeous smile.
The male gaze has always been with us.
I can almost hear the director's voice telling them what to do.
No fake/abnormally large breasts!
Some aspects of the 20's were awesome.
Hmm, I guess I'm a male gazer.
I should watch Pandora's Box again someday.
Sad to think that some of these women would be considered overweight now.
Is that flickering light to test the contrast or unintentional? Must be the latter.
I wonder if a similar film exists for male actors' color screen tests in the 20's?

Thanks for posting this. It really does feel like time travel...I wish they would have captured everyday life on color film in addition to posing actresses. One thing's for sure, no one will ever forget what our everyday lives were like (even if they really really want to). Well...at least not until we go extinct. Someday people will be watching some 3D video blog, thinking "weird, it feels like they're talking to me, but they all died like a hundred years ago... this thought was sponsored by the great taste of IV Diet Coke, bet you can't inject just one bag!"