Carnival of Colours
About Carnival of Colours
Nikolai Ekk's color anthology is a string of separate pieces. Paintings of Soviet art are filmed in the two-color process. A May Day parade crosses Red Square, in footage from 1934 and 1935. Amateur performers are recorded at their shows. A travel sketch looks at Soviet Georgia.
Cast & crew
More about Carnival of Colours
Mezhrabpomfilm produced the documentary. Ekk also wrote the screenplay. It was shot on a two-color subtractive bipack, not an additive process, to show what domestic color photography could do.
Themes
Making
Fyodor Provorov photographed the bipack. Yakov Stollyar wrote the music. Gosfilmofond kept the original elements later used for the 2012 digital restoration.
Look
Fyodor Provorov shot the film on a two-color subtractive bipack: two strips of stock run together in the camera, and the dyes are combined in the print.
Technique
The short exists to demonstrate that bipack system on paintings, a parade, and travel footage.
Music
Yakov Stollyar composed the score.
Preservation
Gosfilmofond holds the original elements. A digital restoration from those elements was completed in 2012.
Notes
- The Russian title is Карнавал цветов.
- Ekk had directed Road to Life (1931), the first Soviet sound feature.
- Wikidata also lists a 42-minute timing beside the 45-minute figure.
- The parade material covers May Day on Red Square in both 1934 and 1935.
Scenes
- Soviet paintings are filmed so the two-color dyes can be judged.
- Marchers, banners, and portraits cross Red Square on May Day.
- The Georgia sketch moves through landscapes and people in color.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Карнавал цветов (1935) документальный фильм.webm)
