The Wizard of Oz got here out greater than 80 years in the past, however there should nonetheless be a couple of amongst us who bear in mind seeing it within the theater. Solely they’d have felt utterly the ability of its well-known scene when Dorothy leaves black-and-white Kansas and enters the colourful land of Oz. A lot of the ability of artwork comes from distinction, and this explicit distinction might hardly have been a extra persuasive commercial for the ability of Technicolor. After a improvement historical past of greater than twenty years, that coloration motion-picture course of had by 1939 reached the stage of its technological evolution referred to as “Course of 4,” which enabled studios to utilize not just a few however all the spectrum.
This last type of Technicolor enraptures viewers even as we speak, reproducing colours because it did at intense, typically borderline-psychedelic depths of saturation. The method discovered its best materials within the fantasy of The Wizard of Oz, with its yellow brick street (selecting whose actual shade impressed a couple of week of deliberation at MGM), its ruby slippers (calculatedly modified from the silver footwear in L. Frank Baum’s authentic novel), and its host of settings and characters with nice chromatic potential.
You may respect this un-repeatably fortuitous intersection of content material and know-how once more in these scenes from an unofficial 4K restoration of the movie posted by Youtuber Oriel Malik.
That is certainly the sharpest and most-detail wealthy model of The Wizard of Oz most of us have seen, and, in these respects, it truly outdoes the unique prints of the movie. For some the picture may very well be too clear, making apparent because it does sure artificial-looking facets of the backgrounds and costumes. However in a way this will likely not run counter to the intentions of the filmmakers, who knew full nicely what style they had been working in: even on movie, a musical should retain no less than a few of the feel and appear of the stage. But it’s additionally true that the softer visible edges of the modern analog printing and projection applied sciences would have enhanced the dreamlike environment created partially by all these surreally vivid hues — which, based on die-hard Technicolor fans, solely actually come by means of on movie anyway.
Associated content material:
The Full Wizard of Oz Sequence, Obtainable as Free eBooks and Free Audio Books
The Wizard of Oz Damaged Aside and Put Again Collectively in Alphabetical Order
Darkish Facet of the Rainbow: Pink Floyd Meets The Wizard of Oz in One of many Earliest Mash-Ups
Watch the Earliest Surviving Filmed Model of The Wizard of Oz (1910)
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and tradition. His tasks embrace the Substack publication Books on Cities, the guide The Stateless Metropolis: a Stroll by means of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles and the video sequence The Metropolis in Cinema. Comply with him on Twitter at @colinmarshall, on Fb, or on Instagram.
