Rainbow Dance

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Rainbow Dance
Rainbow Dance film Opening titles (1936).jpg
Opening titles
Directed by Len Lye
Written byLen Lye
Produced by
Starring Rupert Doone
CinematographyFrank Jones
Music byRico's Creole Band
Distributed by GPO Film Unit
Release date
  • 1936 (1936)
Running time
4 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Rainbow Dance is a 1936 British animated colour film, directed and written by New Zealand-born animator Len Lye. It was commisioned by the British Post Office, produced by the GPO Film Unit [1] [2] [3] and was filmed using the Gasparcolor process. [4]

Contents

Synopsis

A man is holding an umbrella in the rain. Then, he starts dancing, and as he does, the backgrounds completely change. Then, he starts dancing near the ocean, with a woman and fish following. Then, he plays tennis with cel-animated circles as another man watches. A colorful array of shapes follow, and the man sits and thinks, as the shapes come back and images come off the score sheet. The music ends, and a man's voice says: "Post Office Savings Bank puts a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for you", followed by "No deposit is too small for the Post Office Savings Bank".

Cast

Reception

Sight and Sound called the film a "syncopated, startlingly experimental animation ... dreamy avant-garde dramatisation of young love cruelly dashed by a faulty address, N or NW." [5]

Jamie Sexton wrote for the British Film Institute: "The advanced effects, visual motifs and music that Lye used on this short film can be seen as a precursor to today's music videos." [4]

In Art Monthly , critic David Trigg wrote: "It may seem rather quaint to modern eyes, but Lye's use of jump cuts and extreme close-ups was way ahead of its time – so much so that this Post Office advertisement was even lauded by the British surrealists." [6]

Home media

The film is included on the DVD We Live in Two Worlds: The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 2. [5]

References

  1. ↑ "Rainbow Dance". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  2. ↑ Horrocks, Roger (2001). Len Lye: A Biography. Auckland University Press. pp. 210–217. ISBN   978-1869402471.
  3. ↑ Anthony, Scott; Mansell, James, eds. (2011). The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit. BFI. p. 131. ISBN   978-1844573745.
  4. 1 2 Sexton, Jamie. "Rainbow Dance (1936)". screenonline.org.uk. BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Rainbow Dance". Sight and Sound . 19 (5): 87. May 2009. ProQuest   1836583.
  6. ↑ Trigg, David (February 2011). "Len Lye: The Body Electric". Art Monthly (343): 19–20.
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