CHROMATIC (1972) film no: 3293

Experimental short predominantly contrasting the greyscale interior of a house with the vibrant colours of its garden.

Sunlight shines through leafy trees. The camera zooms in until the image is out of focus. When it zooms out, it reveals a different shot: sunlight through leaves as reflected in the window of a house. A red flower lies on the lawn. From the inside of the house, a woman, shot in black and white, walks by a window. Outside, in colour, the cameraman places a mirror on top of the flower, and the camera and photographer are reflected. The woman, black and white, and now inside and nude, walks past the windows of a room. Black and white images of this naked woman sitting, wandering, opening the windows of the house and looking out are interspersed with colour images of various features of the garden outside: a pond with water lilies and a statue of a frog, various cultivated flowers, including pink daisies, foxgloves and many others brightly coloured plants, some of which are visited by bees. Several of these outdoor scenes are shot, with zooms, through the house's windowpanes. Eventually, the original images of the cameraman, his mirror, the flower on the grass, the reflection in the window and the sunshine though the trees are repeated. The Cutting Copy ends with two similar-looking Caucasian men standing on either side of a black woman. They bend and kiss her cheeks symmetrically. The soundtrack is a compilation of instrumental tracks from Jerry Garcia and Howard Whales.

The double-perforated Cutting Copy is the most complete template for the film, but it is scratched and has tramlines generally absent from the original material. Furthermore, it is completely in black and white. The single-perforated Reversals are less damaged, and they maintain the variations between Kodachrome and black and white images.