Agfacolor: The New Color Film Stock and Its Challenges for the Czechoslovak Film Industry in the Postwar Period

• In Event: Film Stock in Eastern Europe: Industry, Geopolitics, Aesthetics

Abstract

The introduction of color film in postwar Czechoslovakia is indelibly linked to the East German film stock Agfacolor. On one hand, Agfacolor’s arrival in Czechoslovakia brought the benefits of a color film stock that allowed all colors to be recorded on a single strip of film. On the other hand, it created challenges for creative and technical staff, due both to the specific way the stock reproduced color and to the stock’s technical limitations. Based on interviews with filmmakers, archival research, and analysis of film materials preserved in the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv), Prague, this paper reconstructs the creative approaches and technical processes that emerged in the postwar Czechoslovak film industry to adapt to Agfacolor film stock. It does so within the broader context of postwar Czechoslovak politics and history.

Author

• Tereza Frodlová, National Film Archive (Czech Republic)