Colour Box

The first of Lye's "direct films" to receive a public screening. The direct application of paint to the surface of film transformed the dynamics of the graphic film. A wavy, vertical line multiplies itself and interacts with circles and fields of dots against a background washed with paint. Promoted by Sidney Bernstein's Granada chain of cinemas, it eventually came to be seen "by a larger public than any experimental film before it, and most since" (as the film historian David Curtis has pointed out). Its soundtrack is a beguine - a dance popular in France during the 30s - played by Don Baretto and his Cuban Orchestra. The G.P.O. Film Unit sponsored the film and used it to add fun, colour and energy to its otherwise sober programmes. Colour Box won a medal of Honour at the 1935 International Cinema Festival in Brussels - there was no suitable category for it, but the jury was so impressed that they invented a new category.