In 1926, Robert and Sonia Delaunay made an experimental short film in conjunction with Chevreau, the cameraman. This was the first publicly screened film to adapt the Keller-Dorian-Berthon lenticular process for use indoors under artificial lighting conditions. The inventor’s son, Roland Berthon, a friend of the Delaunays, probably initiated the project. The work survives only in an incomplete form. It was originally projected during the course of a lecture by Sonia Delaunay at the Sorbonne on January 27th, 1927 and represents a series of mannequins photographed against a background of textiles and paintings. The last shot of this short reel shows Sonia Delaunay herself enthroned amid brightly coloured draped fabrics.
The Keller-Dorian-Berthon is a virtual network process that uses a triple-reel trichromatic selection filter set against the lens. The filtered image offers a trichromatic selection obtained by means of micro-dioptres physically engraved into the film material. The inventor, Rodolphe Berthon, patented this process in 1908. The First World War interrupted research in France, but in 1924 several experimental films were shown, even though printing problems were far from solved. In 1929, Eastman-Kodak bought the patent for the 16mm amateur film market.
Then in 1931, Rodolphe Berthon established a rival company, Cinéchromatique, and sold his patent to Siemans-Halske, a German conglomerate. Thomson-Houston then resumed research in France, but this was further interrupted by the Second World War. In 1947, Jacques Tati’s Jour de fête was publicised as having relied upon the Thomsoncolor process, but this proved impossible to print and the film was only released in black-and-white. Audiences did not discover a colour version of Jour de fête until 1995.

François Ede