GAUMONT CHRONOCHROME 1912

When arch-rival Pathé Frères brought stencil-colouring to mechanized perfection and extensive use, and the Kinemacolor films of the Natural Color Kinematograph Company of Charles Urban made their impact, Gaumont started to work seriously on a colour system. The result, called Chronochrome (also Trichromie, Gaumontcolor or simply cinématographie en couleur) was patented in February 1911 and first presented in Paris on November 15th 1912. A sophisticated three-colour additive system incorporating the blue that Kinemacolor lacked, it created seemingly natural colours deserving of the label: they are simply marvellous. There is no fringing; both camera and projector were equipped with three lenses to record simultanously three film images exposed through the three colour filters. In projection, the three images were reunited on the screen as a single colour image in an elegant panoramic format. (The reduced frame height helped in achieving the necessary triple projection speed of 48f/s, but even so wear and tear on the prints due to the excessively fast sprocket transport seems to have been a major problem.) To achieve good results, the lenses had to be constantly readjusted during shooting and projection, and the system never achieved commercial viability, its gorgeous colours notwithstanding. It remained experimental throughout its lifetime.
Accessible documents are few, and we do not know how many films were produced by this system and how many of them are still existing. Kodak bought the U.S. rights in July 1913; and the only material we are lucky enough to have at present are English version prints in the collection of George Eastman House sent by Léon Gaumont to George Eastman, probably in 1912-1913. Verreries de Venise (Venetian Glassware), Fleurs (Flowers) and Fruits are so-called vues tournantes, clearly produced to demonstrate the amazing quality of colour rendition. Deauville-Trouville la plage et le front de mer, Enghìen-des Bains, Venise la reine de l’Adriatique and La Grèce pittoresque are panoramas, that is travelogues, a genre crying out for colour as does the presentation of chic hats in the latest fashion of Paris.

Mariann Lewinsky

This restoration used the only surviving original black and white nitrate positives. The 6K scan was carried out by George Eastman House, Rochester, where the prints were preserved. Once the scan was completed, the individual frames were separated according to their original color filter. Blue, green and red filters were then associated, digitally, with their corresponding densities. Once the colour filters had been applied the individual frames were superimposed and aligned manually to provide a greater degree of accuracy. The restoration was carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2019.

The presentation of the Gaumont Chronochrome 1912 programme is part of the project A Season Of Classic Films, prolonging the celebrations of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage, and is sponsored by Creative Europe.