With Our King and Queen Through India | |
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Produced by | Charles Urban |
Cinematography | Joseph De Frenes Albuin Mariner Alfred Gosden Hiram Horton |
Distributed by | Natural Color Kinematograph Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 150 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Languages | Silent English intertitles |
With Our King and Queen Through India (1912) is a British documentary film. The film is silent and made in the Kinemacolor additive color process.
The film records the 12 December 1911 celebrations in India which marked the coronation of George V and Mary of Teck and their proclamation as Emperor and Empress of India. The film is often referred to as The Delhi Durbar or The Durbar at Delhi. Although it is commonly referred to as a single film, it is more accurate to think of it as a set of films documenting the royal visit to India in December 1911, with the Durbar ceremony as the centrepiece. Different showings of With Our King and Queen Through India would be made up of different sets of the films, so that the show (a more accurate concept) was exhibited in several different lengths. [1] Today only two reels survive, one showing a review of troops after the main ceremony and the other a procession in Calcutta from the end of the royal tour. [2]
The film showcased the use of Kinemacolor, which had been launched by Charles Urban in 1908 as the first successful natural colour motion picture process. It was produced by Urban's Natural Color Kinematograph Company and he took five camera operators with him: Joseph De Frenes, Albuin Mariner, Alfred Gosden, Hiram Horton and an unidentified fifth (possibly John Mackenzie). [3]
British filmmakers had previously filmed the Delhi Durbar marking the coronation of King Edward VII in 1903 (which Edward did not attend). [4]
The films were premiered at the Scala Theatre, London on 2 February 1912, with an accompaniment provided by a live orchestra of forty-eight pieces, a chorus of twenty-four, a twenty-piece fife and drum corps, and three bagpipes. The music echoed that played at the actual ceremonies in Delhi. The stage set featured a mock-up of the Taj Mahal, and there were elaborate lighting effects. Live commentary was provided by the Scala's stage manager St John Hamund. [5] An article in the American periodical Munsey's Magazine praised the music, describing the band as "one of the best I have heard in London". [6]
The full show was made up of several sections, according to the 1912 Kinemacolor catalogue: [1]
When the film was released, there had been several short black-and-white films of the Delhi Durbar made already by other companies. With Our King and Queen Through India made a huge impact worldwide because of its colour, length and multi-media spectacle. It had a great appeal for middle class audiences that had previously avoided film shows because of their low social status, and it was exhibited before royalty. George V saw it at the Scala on 11 May 1912, accompanied by Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra and Empress Maria of Russia. The Empress wrote to her son Nicholas II of Russia about the show.
We are lunching today with Georgie and May at Buckingham Palace. They both send you greetings. Last night we saw their journey to India. Kinemacolor is wonderfully interesting and very beautiful and gives one the impression of having seen it all in reality. [7]
The films were also shown at Buckingham Palace on 12 December 1912.
One of the surviving sequences from the film, The Pageant Procession, has been released on the DVD set Kinemacolor and Other Magic. [8]
Emperor or Empress of India was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1876 to 22 June 1948 to signify their sovereignty over the British Raj as its imperial head of state. The image of the emperor or empress appeared on Indian currency, in government buildings, railway stations, courts, on statues etc. Oaths of allegiance were made to the emperor or empress and the lawful successors by the governors-general, princes, governors, commissioners in India in events such as imperial durbars.
The Delhi Durbar was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by the British at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was held three times, in 1877, 1903, and 1911, at the height of the British Empire. The 1911 Durbar was the only one that a sovereign, George V, attended. The term was derived from the common Persian term durbar.
Charles Urban was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the documentary, educational, propaganda and scientific film, as well as being the producer of the world's first successful motion picture colour system.
Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process. Used commercially from 1909 to 1915, it was invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. It was a two-colour additive colour process, photographing a black-and-white film behind alternating red/orange and blue/green filters and projecting them through red and green filters. It was demonstrated several times in 1908 and first shown to the public in 1909. From 1909 on, the process was known and trademarked as Kinemacolor and was marketed by Charles Urban’s Natural Color Kinematograph Company, which sold Kinemacolor licenses around the world.
Durbar is a Persian-derived term referring to the noble court of a king or ruler or a formal meeting where the king held all discussions regarding the state. It was used in South Asia for a ruler's court or feudal levy as the latter came to be ruled and later administered by foreigners. A durbar may be either a feudal state council for administering the affairs of a princely state, or a purely ceremonial gathering, as was increasingly the case during British rule in India.
A salute state was a princely state under the British Raj that had been granted a gun salute by the British Crown ; i.e., the protocolary privilege for its ruler to be greeted—originally by Royal Navy ships, later also on land—with a number of cannon shots, in graduations of two salutes from three to 21, as recognition of the state's relative status. The gun-salute system of recognition was first instituted during the time of the East India Company in the late 18th century and was continued under direct Crown rule from 1858.
Nawab Sir Ahmed Hussain, Amin Jung Bahadur, KCIE, CSI, LLD (Osmania), MA, BL (Madras) was born in Madras on 11 August 1863 in the family of a leading businessman.
The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as the Prince of Wales's Theatre.
Coronation Park is a park located at Burari Road near Nirankari Sarovar in Delhi, India. It was the venue of the Delhi Durbar of 1877 when Queen Victoria was proclaimed the Empress of India. Later it was used to celebrate the accession of King Edward VII in 1903, and, finally, it was here that the Durbar commemorating the coronation of King George V as Emperor of India took place on 12 December 1911, subsequent to his coronation at Westminster Abbey in June 1911. This last celebration had all the princely states in attendance. The decision to hold the Coronation Durbars in Delhi at the vast open ground at Coronation Park was a move to emphasise the historical significance of Delhi as the former capital of the Mughal Empire.
Sir Jehangir Hormasji Kothari,, was a Parsi businessman, merchant and a prominent philanthropist from Karachi during British colonial rule. Today, he is best remembered for the Jehangir Kothari Parade, an elevated sandstone walkway used to walk to Clifton Beach on the Arabian Sea.
The Empress of India Medal, also referred to as KIH Medal, was a commemorative medal awarded to mark the occasion of the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India in 1877. It was the first wearable medal issued to mark a commemorative occasion within the British Empire. The medal was awarded in gold to Indian princes and senior officials and in silver to selected British and Indian military officers and civilians, as well as one soldier from each British and Indian regiment serving in India at the time of the proclamation celebrations of the 1877 Delhi Durbar.
The Jaipur Column is a monumental column in the middle of the courtyard in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential residence in New Delhi, Delhi, India. In 1912 Madho Singh II, the Maharaja of Jaipur, offered to sponsor its construction to commemorate the 1911 Delhi Durbar and the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to New Delhi.
Britain Prepared is a 1915 British documentary feature film. The film is silent and made in black-and-white with some colour sequences in the Kinemacolor additive color process.
Delhi Durbar Medals were instituted by the United Kingdom to commemorate the Delhi Durbar where the new Emperor of India was proclaimed, in 1903 for Edward VII, and in 1911 for George V. On both occasions the medals were one and a half inches in diameter and were awarded in both gold and silver. They were worn in date order alongside Coronation and Jubilee medals on the left chest, suspended from a ribbon one and a quarter inches wide. These Royal commemorative medals were worn before campaign medals until November 1918, after which the order of wear was changed, with them now worn after campaign medals and before long service awards.
The 1911 Delhi Durbar was held in December 1911 following the coronation in London in June of that year of King George V and Queen Mary. The King and Queen travelled to Delhi for the Durbar. For the occasion, the statutory limits of the membership of the Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire were increased and many appointments were made to these and other orders. These honours were published in a supplement to the London Gazette dated 8 December 1911.
Bakhatgarh is a town and former princely state in the Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, India. The royal family of Bakhatgarh belongs to Mahipawat sub-clan of Paramara Rajputs. They are descendants of King Bhoja.
The coronation of George V and his wife, Mary, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Thursday 22 June 1911. This was the second of four such events held during the 20th century and the last to be attended by royal representatives of the great continental European empires.
Alfred G. Gosden was a British cinematographer active in the American film industry during the silent era. Before moving to Hollywood he filmed in Kinemacolor, most notably with the Natural Color Kinematograph Company, filming the documentary With Our King and Queen Through India and later with the Kinemacolor Company of America. In America he worked on a number of films for Triangle, Universal Pictures and other studios.
The Natural Color Kinematograph Company was a British company formed by Charles Urban in 1909. It sold licenses and produced films in Kinemacolor, the first successful colour motion picture process.