GPO film A Colour Box showing at Tate Modern and at cinemas around the UK
Hear this page read aloud
In collaboration with the British Film Institute,
the GPO film A Colour Box will be
screened at the Tate Modern and at cinemas across the UK from May 2007.
Len Lye’s pioneering film A
Colour Box (1935, UK) will be screened at the Tate
Modern from May 2007–April 2008.
Shown on a looped DVD in the Idea & Object collection display on Level 5,
it will be accompanied by information about the GPO’s significant involvement
in film.
A Colour Box is also being shown at cinemas across the UK from 11 May 2007 with Patrice Leconte’s film My Best Friend, starring Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon. The film will screen before the main feature at over 35 venues (a full list is included below) including Cineworld and City Screen cinemas and a range of independent art houses, courtesy of Optimum Releasing. A Colour Box is the third title to be used in the BFI’s archival shorts initiative, which aims to bring the UK’s national film heritage to a wider cinema-going public.
Len Lye – painter, sculptor and director of A Colour Box – was born in New Zealand in 1901 and emigrated to London in the 1920s where he became involved in the art world. His animation work is associated with the stylish formal innovation of the British Documentary Movement. Len Lye pioneered the technique of painting directly onto film stock itself, dispensing with the need for a camera. When he showed his initial version of A Colour Box to John Grierson, Grierson was impressed by the technique and suggested that he add an end sequence about the introduction of new cheap parcel rates. With this added, Grierson was able to buy the film for the Post Office and offer Lye a position with the newly formed GPO Film Unit.
A Colour Box is one of the great classics of British animation – a dizzying parade of dancing lines, squiggles, dots and arabesques – set to a joyful Cuban soundtrack. A daring and delightful three-minute film, it is also probably one of the most innovative uses of film in the history of advertising and a tribute to the instincts of the GPO Film Unit under John Grierson.
Presented with permission of Royal Mail Group and The British Postal Museum & Archive, the original hand-painted elements of A Colour Box have been painstakingly preserved and restored by the BFI National Archive and are as fresh and bright as when they were first seen on British cinema screens.
Details of UK cinemas showing A Colour Box before My Best Friend
|
Start Date: |
End Date: |
Cinema: |
|
11/05/2007 |
23/05/2007 |
Chelsea Cinema, 206 Kings Rd, London SW3 5XP |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Curzon Mayfair, 38 Curzon Street, London W1Y 8EY |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Renoir Cinema, Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AW |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Richmond Filmhouse, 3 Water Lane, Richmond TW9 1TG |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Clapham Picturehouse, 76 Venn Street, London SW4 0AT |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Greenwich Picturehouse, 180 Greenwich High Road, London SE10 8NN |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Phoenix Cinema, 52 High Road, East Finchley, London N2 9PJ |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Harbour Lights, Ocean Village, Southampton SO14 3TL |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Cambridge Arts Picture House, 38-39 Andrew's Street, Cambridge CB2 3AR |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Little Theatre, St Michael's Place, Bath BA1 1SF |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Phoenix Picturehouse, 57 Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6AE |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Gate Cinema, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JZ |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Duke of Yorks Cinema, Preston Circus, Brighton BN1 4NA |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Broadway, Nottingham Media Centre, 14 Broad Street, Nottingham NG1 3AL |
|
25/05/2007 |
31/05/2007 |
City Screen, 13-17 Coney Street, York YO1 9QL |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Barbican Cinema, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5NH |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Watershed, 1 Canon's Road, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5TX |
|
11/05/2007 |
24/05/2007 |
Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow G3 6RB |
|
11/05/2007 |
07/06/2007 |
Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9BZ |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, 142 Fulham Road, London SW10 9QR |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, Trocadero, 7-14 Coventry Street, London W1D 7DH |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, Hertsmere Road, West India Quay, London E14 4AL |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, Mary Ann Street, Cardiff CF10 2EN |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, 181 Broad Street, Birmingham B15 1DA |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, Valley Centetainment, Broughton Lane, Sheffield S9 2EP |
|
11/05/2007 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, 7 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G2 3AB |
|
11/05/207 |
TBC |
Cineworld Cinema, Fountain Park, 130-3 Dundee St, Edinburgh EH11 1AF |
|
25/05/2007 |
31/05/2007 |
Exeter Picturehouse, 51 Batholomew Street West, Exeter EX4 3AJ |
|
01/06/2007 |
07/06/2007 |
Pictureville, National Museum of PF & TV, Pictureville, Bradford BD1 1NQ |
|
01/06/2007 |
07/06/2007 |
Hyde Park Picturehouse, Brundenall Road, Leeds LS6 1JD |
|
01/06/2007 |
07/06/2007 |
Regal Picturehouse, 2 Boroma Way, Henley-on-Thames RG9 2BZ |
|
08/06/2007 |
14/06/2007 |
Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Canton, Cardiff CF5 1QE |
|
08/06/2007 |
14/06/2007 |
Belmont Cinema, 49 Belmont Street, Aberdeen AB10 1JS |
|
15/06/2007 |
21/06/2007 |
David Lean Cinema, Croydon Clocktower, Katherine Street, Croydon CR1 1ET |
|
15/06/2007 |
21/06/2007 |
Ritz Cinema, 76B King Street, Belpher, Derbyshire DE56 1QA |
|
24/06/2007 |
28/06/2007 |
Cinema City, St Andrew's Street, Norwich NR2 4AD |