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JOAN BRIDGE - A COLOURFUL FILM CAREER

Derbyshire-born Oscar winners are quite a rare breed. Among their ranks is Joan Bridge. Although not a name widely-known to the public she fulfilled a vital 'behind the camera' role in countless films both in Britain and in Hollywood, first as a 'colour consultant' and later a costume designer. Here Peter Seddon presents what is known of her and ponders whether any more information on her Derbyshire roots might be forthcoming.

A lobby card from the acclaimed 1947 film 'Black Narcissus' - Derbyshire-born Joan Bridge worked on the film as a Technicolour consultant to very distinctive effect.

Once in a while a Derbyshire-related story emerges which falls into the 'incomplete' category.

One such concerns an Oscar winner by the name of Joan Bridge. She was never an actress, but instead worked on the other side of the camera as a technicolour adviser and costume designer. As such she affected the 'look' and 'atmosphere' of countless well-known films and worked with many of the biggest names in world cinema.

As a colour consultant she was active from 1938 in an era when the use of colour in the cinema was developing apace. She continued in that technical and design capacity into the 1960s, thereafter inclining towards the related discipline of costume design. In that capacity she won both an Oscar and a British Academy BAFTA award for 'Best Costume' for her work on the 1966 film 'A Man For All Seasons'.

Brief biographical notes appended to a number of relevant websites say this about her origins - 'Joan Bridge was born in Derbyshire, England, on 13 March 1912.' But that is all they say - exactly where in Derbyshire is never stated, nor if Bridge is her birth-name or married name. Nor is it known if she is still alive - it is possible, although at the time of writing (2008) she would be aged 96.

Perhaps further information may be forthcoming. Meanwhile, in honour of a rare Derbyshire-born Oscar winner, here is an overview of her career in the film industry.

First a note on 'colour' in the cinema. The earliest rudimentary experiments in colourising moving images were attempted in 1905 with only limited success. But it was a 'problem' to be resolved, and in 1923 the process known as Technicolor was invented.

Even then further experimentation was necessary before the use of colour became more widespread, and it was not until 1935 that the cinema industry embraced colour wholeheartedly. Even so, countless films were made in black and white well after that date, and right into the 1960s some high-profile British films were being shot in monochrome.

The main reason for the slow uptake was that colour presented film-makers with new technical problems. Some colours did not light well. Others appeared too bright. Colour clashes occurred which jarred the eye. And sometimes the whole scheme just lacked the realism that colour was 'supposed' to bring to the screen.

For those reasons most film projects were allocated a 'colour consultant' whose job it was to work with the director, cameramen, lighting controllers and costume designers - the role of the colour consultant was to produce the 'right' look within the technical boundaries which prevailed.

Quite how Joan Bridge entered into this sphere has not been documented. But her first credit in any film appears to be the 1938 British short entitled 'Making Fashion' - it ran for only 7 minutes and featured a Norman Hartnell catwalk show.

Joan was at that time aged 26 and undoubtedly still learning her art, but she quickly progressed to much bigger projects. Between 1938 and 1962 Joan Bridge was credited as 'colour consultant' on 69 films.

Among her most striking successes were a number of films in the late 1940s and 1950s noted for their particularly distinctive use of colour - it is not unusual for critics to label these 'garish' or 'surreal', or even 'like a magic painting'.

A still from the cult movie 'Black Narcissus' (1947) illustrates the striking nature of the film's colour photography

'The Red Shoes' (1948)

Two such examples are the cult movies Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948) - the rather unreal colours in these represented a deliberate attempt to create atmosphere. Another in the same vein was the very unusual Gone to Earth (1950). All three were directed by the acclaimed pairing Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Joan Bridge was 'colour consultant' or associate 'colour controller' on each of these films - all were to varying degrees 'dark' in their subject matter but often very vibrant in colour, an unusual but extremely effective combination - perhaps even a little unsettling - but at a stroke giving a recognisable stamp to the films.

Other well-known titles which followed in her 'first period' included the rather more light-hearted Genevieve (1953) and Doctor at Sea (1955) along with the acclaimed epic Ben Hur (1959).

In her 'second period' embracing the 1960s and 1970s Joan Bridge inclined towards costume design. The inference here would be that consultants were less in demand as the technicalities of colour had been largely 'cracked' - but costume design was a natural extension to the discipline.

Joan Bridge was a great success at this too, although her projects in that capacity numbered far less - only 16 or so films. But these included some big titles - Half a Sixpence (1967), Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (1969), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Day of the Jackal (1973).

She was nominated several times for Academy and BAFTA awards and was rewarded with victory on two occasions, both times for the acclaimed historical drama A Man For All Seasons (1966) - the film won 6 Oscars and 7 BAFTA awards.

At the 39th Academy Awards held in the USA in 1967 Joan Bridge collected her Oscar in the 'Best Costume Design - Colour' category. She repeated the triumph at the BAFTA awards in London in the same year, on each occasion sharing the honour with her working colleague Elizabeth Haffenden.

Joan Bridge continued working in the film industry until the age of 68 - her last recorded credit was as costume designer for the TV film Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980). By then she had worked on almost 100 films.

So we now know what Joan Bridge 'did' but we do not really know who Joan Bridge 'was' - and there is a difference. Notwithstanding the paucity of personal information, she certainly sounds an interesting character and remains one of that rarefied and uncommon breed - a Derbyshire-born Oscar winner.

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County:  Derbyshire