Kaleidoscope (1935)
Filed under: Animation, 1930s, Color, Direct Animation, Dufaycolor, Experimental, Gasparcolor, GPO Film Unit, Latin, Len Lye, London Film Society, New Zealand, Painted Animation, U.K.,
Kaleidoscope
Directed by:
Producers:Gerald Noxon
Animated by: Music by:Don Baretto And His Cuban Orchestra
Layouts by: Backgrounds by: Release date:27/10/1935
Running time:3:33
Color process:Dufaycolor
Synopsis
Premiered at the London Film Society in 1935, Kaleidoscope is an early example of experimental animator Len Lye’s pioneering direct or “cameraless” animation techniques. The film’s notable use of stencil work illustrates Lye’s textile-like approach to animation, with him treating the filmstrip as if it were a piece of fabric.
Although commissioned by the Imperial Tobacco Company to advertise Churchman’s Cigarettes, Kaleidoscope demonstrates how the material culture of the Pacific Ocean inspired Len Lye’s direct animation. The film features stencilled motifs derived from tapa (barkcloth) patterns, alongside other graphic icons and geometric shapes. Washes of teal suggest a tropical milieu and shades of warm ochre and turmeric echo colours used by Samoan siapo makers. Synchronised with Latin music from Don Baretto’s Orchestra, rotating and sliding symmetrical forms take on a rhythmic pattern, illustrating the underlying principles of movement Lye saw embedded in barkcloth design.
Critical reception of the film was positive, with it reportedly moving viewers to a “state of sheer glee.” Audiences delighted in the film’s use of colour, such as the bright white cigarette shapes juxtaposed against saturated backgrounds. Lye achieved this effect by manually cutting out the cigarette shapes on each print, allowing the light of the projector to hit the screen directly. Such innovative filmmaking reflected Lye’s desire to further develop his direct animation techniques, which debuted with A Colour Box (1935) just a month prior.
References:
Flueckiger, Barbara (2012 ff.): “Kaleidoscope.” Timeline of Historical Film Colours, https://filmcolors.org/galleries/kaleidoscope-1935/. Accessed 28 June 2025.
Gadassik, Alla. Interlaced: Animation & Textiles, edited by Zara Stanhope, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre, 2024, pp. 115–125.
Gadassik, Alla. “Trade Tattoos: Animation Stencils and Readymade Movement.” The Long Dream of Waking: New Perspectives on Len Lye, edited by Paul Brobbel, Canterbury University Press, 2017, pp. 84–203.
Horrocks, Roger. Len Lye: A Biography. Auckland University Press, 2015.