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Swinging the Lambeth Walk

Len Lye

Synopsis

The Lambeth Walk was a popular 'swing jazz' dance in London in 1939; it included a hand gesture with the Yiddish "Oi!". New Zealand-born filmmaker Len Lye edited together different versions of the music (including Django Reinhardt on guitar and Stephane Grapelli on violin), and combined them with a variety of abstract images painted and scratched directly onto film, without using a camera. The colourful, dynamic animation was made with public money — for the (UK) Ministry of Information — scandalizing some government bureaucrats.

 

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Comments (2)

 Max Power

Max Power | website

THE MIKADO, COLOUR, 1939

It has been transferred to video, that is how I discovered it -- ON VHS in NTSC...

 Max Power

Max Power | website

This is a bit of UK and NZ film history I did not know ...

Other UK film history semi-forgotten :

THE MIKADO, COLOUR, 1939
-- May have been partly produced in 1938
-- Not the full version, about 10 minutes cut from the straight G&S version
-- Kiwis involved? None that I know of...

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