In keeping with the jovial mood of summer, the Nickelodeon Theater is bringing a splash of color with a side of film education onto the big screen in its current film series, “Everything is Better in Technicolor.”
“I want our theater to be a place for entertainment, celebration, and education,” said Nickelodeon Theater director Alison Kozberg. “This series was programmed to be pleasurable, eclectic, and informative.”
“Everything is Better in Technicolor” is a collection of six films that span four decades of film history and aim to capture the evolution of Technicolor’s impact in the industry. Consequently, the series is deliberately meant to be viewed in order, as “each of these films use color in different ways in accordance with the vision of its director and the state of film technology at the time of its production.”
Although films shot in color are the standard today, prior to the creation of Technicolor they weren’t considered a possibility, and as a result its influence remains a touchstone in the art form.
According to Kozberg, “Technicolor is a company, technology, and for many years was synonymous with achievements in film color.”
Although modern special effects have eclipsed its predecessors in more ways than one, Kozberg stresses that at the time of its implementation, “color was once a totally novel example of movie magic.”
“It's important to remember that beginning in the 1920s cinema color was both a storytelling device, used to accentuate and punctuate film narrative, and a dazzling technology, as impressive to viewers as contemporary special effects like 3D,” Kozberg said. “The films included in the series do a wonderful job of demonstrating how color was used for both art and spectacle.”
Over the course of the series, the Nick is showcasing a wide variety of old favorites and lesser-known gems. With entries ranging from Technicolor’s breakthrough “The Wizard of Oz” to one of the company’s final films, “The Godfather," Kozberg believes that the lineup is “great fun and essential viewing.”
While the main goal of the series is for the community to enjoy itself, Kozberg hopes audience members leave with an appreciation of the art form and its impact on modern cinema as well.
“Revisiting Technicolor offers a window into the cinematic past but also puts our present in context," Kozberg said. "It's easy to believe that eye-catching special effects are new or unique to the Marvel-verse, but in reality cinema has always intertwined artistry, trickery, and spectacle.”
The next film in the series is Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds," which runs from July 22-23.