Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema

Tom Gunning is Distinguished Service Professor in the Art Department at the Cinema and Media Committee at the University of Chicago. Giovanna Fossati is Professor of Media Heritage, Technology, and Culture at Utrecht University. Formerly Chief Curator of Eye Filmmuseum and Professor of Film Heritage at the University of Amsterdam, her research focuses on audiovisual archiving with a global and sustainable approach. Joshua Yumibe holds a joint appointment as assistant professor and director of Film Studies at Michigan State University and as a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews. Jonathon Rosen is painter, illustrator, animator, and faculty member of the MFA Visual Narrative and Illustration/Cartooning departments at The School of Visual Arts in New York.

"Track down a copy and prepare to have your mind blown."- Thomas Gladysz in the Huffington Post's Best Film Books of 2015 "I could gaze at the images in this book for hours. They are as fascinating as illuminated manuscripts or magic lantern slides."- Martin Scorsese "The most gorgeous collection of photos I've ever seen. These images, somehow still fresh with the power of their novelty, startle the eye every time I behold them. Mysterious and wondrous effect! And such a fascinating history!"- Guy Maddin, director of My Winnipeg and The Heart of the World "Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema is a brilliant, revelatory book, one that provides an instant cure for the color blindness that afflicts most viewers of early cinema, and a gateway into a little-known world of imagination and technical virtuosity. Illuminated by dazzling reproductions and authoritative essays by leading film scholars, this is the first book to do visual justice to the magical world of early cinema. It is also a masterpiece of book art in its own right."- W.J.T. Mitchell, author of What Do Pictures Want? "In the endless rewrite of art history the moving image seems indefinably futuristic. Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema makes the case for the importance of these mind-blowing masterpieces. These stunningly chromatic film stills link technology and the human touch while revealing one of film's best kept secrets. Traditional painting and sculpture relies on reflected light while projected light opens a wildly new path of experimentation. Here we see, for the very first time, images made at the speed of light."- Tony Oursler "Het boek Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema is een must voor elke filmliefhebber. ... De magie van vroege cinema wordt hiermee terecht in de spotlights gezet. In full color."- Nico van den Berg, MovieScene.nl "A beautiful, indulgent, interesting celebration and examination of colour in early film, reproducing individual high-resolution frame stills, thoughtprovokingly grouped in loose themes: ‘the dream’, ‘fairyland’, ‘voyage’, ‘metamorphosis’ and ‘fancy’. Let’s hope that Fantasia of Color in Early Film will inspire another generation [of film lovers].'- Bryony Dixon, Sight & Sound "This book will both inspire and educate."- Stephen Bottomore, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

• - Acknowledgements - Introduction (Martin Scorsese) - Applying Color: Creating Fantasy of Cinema (Joshua Yumibe) - The Archival Life of Early Color Films: Restoration and Preservation (Giovanna Fossati) - Gluttonous Visual Overdose (Jonathon Rosen) - A Guide to Using This Book (Tom Gunning) - Plates - List of Illustrations - Introduction to Filmography (Elif Rongen-Kaynakci) - Filmography - Bibliography and Contributors - Ackowledgments