More History in Colour

A city of ghosts.

Previously I mentioned the odd effect that colorized historical photos had on me.

This delightful film of Berlin in 1900 has been colourized and edited for Facebook by Paul Hardy.

It is a city of ghosts indeed, since every single person shown has passed now.
Seeing black and white photos and the grainy old movies sometimes brings on  a bit of "memento mori" but this film with its muted colours, showing street scenes from a bustling metropolis is moving indeed.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ


https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153303691386248&set=vb.769001247&type=1

SOMEWHERE IN TIME 1900.
A HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN YEAR OLD FILM MADE NEW. MAINLY BERLIN & MUNICH, GERMANY.

Over a Million FB viewers have been moved by my film, experiencing a surreal mixture of emotions that few have been able to fully describe.It was coloured about 10 years ago but I've now digitally sharpened it as well as removed dust and grain to give an even better experience.Truly magical, moving footage that I've cut and edited to my favourite piece of classical music. The original film which I took the footage from is very much darker and also depicts a large amount of military segments.I wanted to edit this however to show the positivity and pride of the everyday people in their day to day lives as they embrace all the splendour of that time period on a human level.Clearly, like today, some seem richer than others, yet all of them seem to display a sense of dignified purpous often missing in todays world.

All these forgotten souls are left rotting on old grainy dark films often with sombre depressing music thrown over. It's my belief that they deserve better. Beautiful music and beautiful images presented in the right way can be incredibly emotive and powerful and I felt that this was needed in order to properly transport the viewer back through time and really ''feel'' what it was like.I've worked hard to convey that sense of splendour and make people see and feel that a sunny day then looked just like a sunny day today. These people lived, loved, laughed and cried and had real lives. They did not live in darkness with grey skies and grainy mist as we are often used to seeing on decaying films.

The wonderfully emotive music I've used is the soundtrack from the movie 'Somewhere In Time' and was written by Film Composer John Barry, not to be confused with 'The Eighteenth Variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' which also runs throughout the film.Savour this as you watch it. All these people whose lives were just as important to them in their time era as we think ours our now. I noticed how happy they seem to be going about their business and I tried to study different characters.... who were they?... what was their story? Watch the woman adjusting her hat for example at the end of the film. She seems very concerned about her image as she proudly sports the latest fashion..and notice how happy the kids are playing in the street.The more you study these people the more it will fascinate you. Their lives are less complicated than ours in terms of technology but you can clearly see the overwhelming community spirit here without video games, TV or computers. Somewhere in time, all gone forever..all just ghosts....yet frozen here for you to glance upon as if through some magical time machine window.

Enjoy, The Time Guru.
Posted by Paul Hardy on Thursday, 30 April 2015