Bonsoir – La Fée aux fleurs (1906) / [Bloemenvelden Haarlem] (1909) / Les Chrysanthèmes (1907) / Le Chrysanthème, roi de l’automne (1914) / [Les Tulipes] (1907) / Les Fleurs dans les jardins (1914) / L’Après-midi d’une japonaise (1920) / The Beauty Thief ([1920]) / La Fée printemps (1906) / [Het schoonste uit de natuur] (1912?) / La Culture du dahlia (1911) / [Hollandse Tulpen en Klompen] (1920?) / Fabrication des fleurs artificielles (1911) / [Bonsoir tableau] (1906)

Fantastic Flowers is a compilation of short silent films produced between 1906 and 1920, displaying amazing colours that were applied to each frame using the Pathécolor process, or other similar stencilling techniques. Current digital technologies allow us to process each colour individually within the frame to reproduce the vibrancy of the coloured original nitrate elements. This programme of spectacularly coloured early films attempts to recreate for today’s audiences the experience of cinemagoers of more than a century ago. The films of this compilation were curated on a floral theme across various genres. They show the cultivation and use of flowers in parks, urban landscaping and daily life. Colourful flowers are also essential elements of the trick films of early cinema, where actresses in floral costumes conjure flowers out of nowhere. Short fiction films use flowers to reference their symbolic meanings.

Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi