I färg! Introduction, Evolution and Acceptance of Photographic Colour Film in Sweden, 1933-1967

This project investigates the history of the emergence of photographic colour film in Sweden. It attempts to understand the introductory and transitional stages of the then-new technology in a relatively small industry. As an instance of media archaeology, the aims of this research are to 1) explore the journalistic and critical reception and general discourse about photographic colour in film at the time, 2) to look into the economics and strategies around a film production that are using colour processes 3) to understand some filmmakers’ creative tendencies with regards to colour film. Role of film production houses like AB Svensk Filmindustri and AB Sandrews in producing colour cinematography are explored. By analysing discourses, the research tries to grasp the essence of the transient phase when various economic, technological, and ideological factors interplayed with one another within the Swedish film industry and the press.

Methodologically, it is an archival study, so the empirical documents such as cinema programs, advertisements, articles of Swedish film periodicals of the chosen time (e.g. Chaplin, Filmjournalen, Biografbladet, Svensk Filmtidning and more), journalistic reviews published in newspapers, and available relevant scholarship are investigated. The production and post-production phases of films made using various colour film processes are examined through archival notes. It is a data-driven film technology history in the light of various approaches of film study, like film promotion, Region-specific film economy, genre studies and remake studies.

The film corpus only includes photographic colour films, which means the film colour was the outcome of photographic and optical techniques, and not added using external colourisation like stencil colouring, tinting or toning. The corpus is constrained to live-action feature-length fiction films released between 1946-1967, made using film stocks of brand names like Cinecolor, Gevacolor, Technicolor and Eastmancolor. The few colour short films produced in Sweden from 1933-1947 are also examined.