Name: Autochrome: Life in Colour - Making History
Uploaded: 2021-11-06T05:00:00.000+01:00
Duration: 1039 s
Description: The Lumière brothers not only invented the cinematograph: in 1903 they also succeeded in fixing colours on glass plates. Looking at those images, time flattens. These long-dead models staring back through a now non-existent lens seem vivid and alive. But thirty years later, colour had once again been drained out of the frame. Historian Adrien Genoudet explains what happened.

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Autochrome: Life in Colour

El autocromo: la vida a todo color

The Lumière brothers not only invented the cinematograph: in 1903 they also succeeded in fixing colours on glass plates. Looking at those images, time flattens. These long-dead models staring back through a now non-existent lens seem vivid and alive. But thirty years later, colour had once again been drained out of the frame. Historian Adrien Genoudet explains what happened.

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Making History

The oldest colour photography in the world distorts time: these long-dead models seem vivid and alive

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In the 18th century, patterned fabrics became fashionable and were used both in dresses and in bourgeois furniture upholstery. This trend was the result of the international cotton trade from India, an exchange that foreshadowed globalisation. Indiennes fabrics are considered the first specimen of "fast fashion", as we know it today.

Indiennes fabric from the 17th century is considered the first specimen of "fast fashion"

Indienne Fabrics and the Birth of Fast Fashion

While the shipping container is instantly recognisable in today's era of globalisation, its ancestor in Greco-Roman Antiquity looked very different: it was the amphora. Patrick Boucheron and the historian Sarah Rey reveal the secrets and meanings behind this "simple" terracotta object.

While the shipping container is instantly recognisable in today's era of globalisation, its ancestor in Greco-Roman Antiquity looked very different: it was the amphora

The Amphora

The heroicisation of athletes conflates their physical ability with personal economic success. The football shirt is at once a useful everyday object and the stuff of legend. It's the modern day, real life hero's cape.

The football shirt is at once a useful everyday object and the stuff of legend

The Football Shirt: The Modern Hero's Uniform

The ceremonial smoking pipe is Amerindian, but without a name from the Amerindian language. It was 'discovered' by French and British colonists who came into contact with the indigenous population in the 17th century. Amerindians then boarded French ships and took the pipe to the other side of the Atlantic, where it quickly became popular.

 What was the original meaning of the 'peace pipe' used by Native Americans?

Ceremonial Smoking Pipes: Conflict and Resolution

Around 4 billion postcards were sent in France during the First World War as soldiers on the front kept in touch with family and loved ones back home. But did these postcards accurately depict what life was like at war?

Around 4 billion postcards were sent in France during the First World War. But did these postcards accurately depict what life was like at war?

The Postard - War Hero

With the advent of the modern cemetery, came the coffin. Gone were the days of mass graves and ossuaries. The adoption of the coffin results in the development of a funeral market as discreet as it is profitable.

How changing customs created a booming death industry

Coffins Gain Ground

The political history of the microphone throughout the 20th century is also the story of how free speech became democratised. This advance in technology triggered major cultural shifts, as the voiceless suddenly found they could make themselves very, very loud.

The political history of the microphone throughout the 20th century is also the story of how free speech became democratised

The Microphone

The gilded frame appeared in the Middle Ages transforming a work of art into a picture that could be bought and sold. Historian Charlotte Guichard explains how the invention of the frame made the modern art market, and art collections, possible.

The Picture Frame - A Window on the Art World

In the tropical colonies, Europeans wore a white pith helmet to protect themselves from the sun. This humble piece of headwear came to symbolise colonial oppression and reinforced the separation between coloniser and colonised.

The Colonial Pith Helmet

The history of tax returns is also the story of how the state slowly became more centralised and more controlling. From historical documents, to the most contemporary and computerised forms, this is the history of income tax returns (and tax evasion).

This is the history of income tax returns (and tax evasion)

A History of Taxes

China, after having been for centuries at the heart of a world where the adoption of Chinese customs, included how they ate, was the main criterion of civilisation, was looked down upon by the West in the 19th century. Historian Clément Fabre traces the history of the humble chopstick through the ages.

Historian Clément Fabre traces the history of the humble chopstick through the ages.

How Chopsticks Made the Chinese

Paris, 12 May 1588: the so-called "day of the barricades" marked a high point in the Wars of Religion, pitting Catholics against Protestants in 16th century France and Europe. Prompted by the Catholic League, Parisians piled rubbish and barrels full of stones to block the way of King Henry III's troops.

The Barricade: Fortifying an Insurrection

Polished axes from the Neolithic period were the tools used for perhaps the biggest change that man has brought about on Earth: the clearing of the land for agriculture.

Stone Age Axes - Clearing the Land

Napoleon's gray frock coat was a way of conveying to Europe that though he was now a statesman, he was first and foremost a man of war. Even more than the legendary bicorne, the frock coat became a piece of visual propaganda, proof of the Emperor's power.

Napoleon's gray frock coat was a way of conveying to Europe that though he was now a statesman, he was first and foremost a man of war

Napoleon: Snappy Dresser?

The pirate flag flies high at most carnivals and fancy dress parties, but it's got a long and violent history behind it. The scull and crossbones once played an important role in the creation of nation states and the concept of national sovereignty.

The pirate flag flies high at most carnivals and fancy dress parties, but it's got a long and violent history behind it

The Pirate Flag

In 1912 a German archaeologist discovered the bust of Nefertiti, wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, when he uncovered the workshop of an ancient artist at Amarna. The discovery of this beautiful sculpture caused a sensation at the time and chimed with contemporary ideals of feminine beauty

In 1912 a German archaeologist discovered the bust of Nefertiti, wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, when he uncovered the workshop of an ancient artist at Amarna. 

The Nefertiti Bust: The Birth of an Icon

Looking at history through the prism of one object. In this episode, the intrauterine device (IDU) in plastic or copper brought birth control to the masses in the 20th century. But this form of contraception has not always been a force for women’s liberation.

The history of the intrauterine device (IDU) , this plastic or copper contraption that brought birth control to the masses.

Birth Control: Emancipation or Forced Sterilisation?

Patrick Boucheron brings history to life through objects. With the inventions of photography the Turin shroud, a relic venerated for centuries, found a new lease of life as the photographic negatives seemed to confirm its sacred status. A relic in the age of mechanical reproduction.

The Turin Shroud - A Relic for the 20th Century

The parasol or beach umbrella is synonymous with summer beach holidays but it has not always been so. Historian Elsa Devienne tells us the social and cultural history of an object that has appeared on and disappeared from our beaches as fashion, tanning practices and our attitudes to our bodies change.

The parasol or beach umbrella is synonymous with summer beach holidays but it has not always been so.

The Parasol and Beach Culture

Claire Judde de Larivière, a specialist in Renaissance Venice, analyses how the drawing of lots partly reduced corruption and constituted a ritual that united the community of patricians in the Venetian Republic. We also understand what links the ballot box and the lottery box, throughout history.

The Lottery Ball and the Politics of Chance

Ostracism is still commonly used in our contemporary political vocabulary to designate exclusion and has its origins in Ancient Greece. Paulin Ismard, a specialist in the political anthropology of ancient Greece, traces the genealogy of a ritual that founded Athenian democracy.

Paulin Ismard, a specialist in the political anthropology of ancient Greece, traces the genealogy of a ritual that founded Athenian democracy.

Ostraca: A Piece of Clay Means Exile

Is it possible to write a history of our own reflection? Historian Philippe Artières, reflects on the mirror as an object and the action of observing oneself that for ordinary citizens only dates back to the nineteenth century.

Is it possible to write a history of our own reflection? Historian Philippe Artières, reflects on the mirror as an object.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

How did meat become a commodity? By transforming beef into a syrupy, energetic material, the chemist Justus von Liebig revolutionised mass nutrition with his extract of meat.

When Food Meets Chemistry

The object seems recent: its international standardisation is barely a century old, and yet questions of identification and control have never ceased to haunt the history of societies. For the passport was invented to control populations considered dangerous: Vagrants, deserters, illegal immigrants.

The object seems recent: its international standardisation is barely a century old, and yet questions of identification and control have never ceased to haunt the history of societies.

The Passport - A Paper Border

The history of the suit and tie, from the end of the 19th century onwards, overlaps with the Americanisation of the industrial world. Manuel Charpy deciphers the suit's ideal of dynamism and modernity and the social distinctions of the clothes we wear.

The Suit: Uniform of the Modern Man

In 12th century Sicily King Roger II had a ceremonial cloak made to show his power and magnificence with beautiful Arabic inscriptions adorning its hems. Religious historian Valérie Theis explores the history of this mysterious mantle

The Mantle of Roger II of Sicily

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Some Paleolithic burials are exceptional. Dated around 25,000 BC, they are far more complex and decorative than we usually give the era credit for. Of great beauty, they also trigger the question: who were these individuals buried with so much care and adornment?

Ladies and Princes of the Paleolithic

Dated around 25,000 BC, some Paleolithic burials are complex and decorative

The Nobles of Prehistory

This is the story of death and survival, exclusion and hope told by those who lived through it. 40 years ago an HIV infection seemed like a death sentence. When the first patients fell ill with high fever, pneumonia and fungal infections in the early 1980s, doctors were at a loss. Most of those affected were gay men, but the cause of the mystery illness escaped them.
After much protests and medical advancements, the stigma of HIV has lessened but the virus is still with us.

Silence = Death

This is the story of death and survival, exclusion and hope told by those who lived through it.

40 Years of AIDS

In the aftermath of Franco's coup d'etat in 1936, Dolores Ibarruri took to the radio waves to call for resistance. Her famous phrase - No Pasarán - became a rallying call to action and continues to be used today.

Great Speeches That Made History

In the aftermath of Franco's coup d'etat in 1936, Dolores Ibarruri took to the radio waves to call for resistance

No Pasarán! - Dolores Ibárruri

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in the worst place at the worst time twice over. On August 6, 1945, he was working in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb exploded over the city. Traumatised by the apocalyptic experience, he just wanted to go back home to his family. Except home was Nagasaki. 

The Lost Ones

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was traumatised by Hiroshima, and went back home as soon as he could. Except home was Nagasaki. 

Yamaguchi, Survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Marchioness Casati was admired throughout Europe for her incredible parties and expensive tastes. She was an eccentric patron of the arts, and her face appears again and again in the works of all the notable painters of her day. But she would rip through her inheritance by the age of fifty and end up wondering the streets of London, going though rubbish bins.

The Marchioness Casati went from living in a palace to eking out an existence on the streets of London

Luisa Casati, the Ruined Marchioness

Séraphine de Senlis is one of the most important French painters of naïve painting. She was an uneducated woman who earned a living as a cleaning lady. But one day a vision from God told her to pick up a paint brush. Entirely self-taught, from then on she painted incessantly until her mental illness took over. She died in 1942 in a mental hospital.

Séraphine de Senlis was an uneducated cleaning woman until one day a vision from God told her to start painting

Séraphine de Senlis, The Painter's Delirium

Today every nation wants their very own nuclear programme. The Islamic Republic of Iran claimed to be developing nuclear energy for peaceful means whereas many Western nations thought otherwise. However, everything was running smoothly until a certain American president came along.

Stories of Conflict

Iran's Nuclear Programme

In 1924, a woman entered the capital of Tibet after having travelled thousands of kilometres on foot. It was the first time a foreigner had crossed the border of the sacred city. This mythical feat, one of many by Alexandra David-Néel, made the reputation of this explorer, writer, anarchist, feminist and traveller.

Alexandra David-Neel: An Adventurer in Tibet

On February 14, 2003, in the UN Security Council, Dominique de Villepin refused ratify the Iraq war. He spoke on  behalf of peace and on behalf of the Iraqi people. But his warnings were never heeded and they still ring true today.

Great Speeches that Made History

On February 14, 2003, in the UN Security Council, Dominique de Villepin refused ratify the Iraq war

Against the Iraq War - Dominique de Villepin

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To celebrate 50 years of French radio station FIP, Sting gives a special performance in the monumental surroundings of the Pantheon in Paris.

50 Years of FIP Radio

Sting at the Pantheon in Paris

With globalisation and its effects on production, distribution and consumption, fashion is undergoing a massive makeover. As both a commercial product and art, it can also be a vehicle for social commentary on major events such as terrorist attacks or the refugee crisis.

TWIST

With globalisation and its effects on production, distribution and consumption, fashion is undergoing a massive makeover

Antwerp: Fashion Crazy

Many countries in the Middle East do not allow civil marriage which means that mixed-faith couples cannot easily marry. But just 30 minutes’ flight from Lebanon and Israel lies Cyprus where foreigners can easily tie the knot.

ARTE Reportage

Many countries in the Middle East do not allow civil marriage which means that mixed-faith couples cannot easily marry. Nearby Cyprus has become a centre for foreigners wanting to tie the knot.

Cyprus: Forbidden Love Island

The Bronx, 1973: A new subculture is emerging and spreading all over New York: Graffiti. In these first episodes meet the early pioneers such as LEE, FUTURA 2000 and SKEME and how they were influenced by the film ‘Wild Style’.

THE ORIGINS | 1973 - 1982

The Bronx, 1973: A new subculture is emerging and spreading all over New York: Graffiti.

The Rise of Graffiti Writing – From New York To Europe (1/10)

A region of Europe with a shared experience of communism and USSR dominance, Eastern Europe today is characterised by nations with diverse cultural and political identities.

Mapping the World

How many Eastern Europes?

A new substance is taking Europe by storm: cannabidiol (or CBD) from the hemp plant. Available as an oil, herbal tea, spray or cream, it is said to have soothing properties and can relieve chronic stress, without making the user high. But what are the real powers of this molecule?

A new substance is taking Europe by storm: cannabidiol (or CBD) from the hemp plant. Available as an oil, herbal tea, spray or cream, it is said to have soothing properties and can relieve stress.

Re: The CBD Revolution

How does sex, identity and self-expression interlace? We explore this muli-faceted question through the lives of multiple Berliners, starting with four voguing performers who've created a safe space for themselves, and an asexual model who posts sexy pictures online. Next we visit a hypersexual couple and discover puppy play with Marion and Leo.

Streetphilosophy

How does sex, identity and self-expression interlace? We explore this muli-faceted question through the lives of multiple Berliners

Embrace Your Sexuality!

A desert is growing in the southwest Romanian region of Oltenia. Extreme heat and drought are making it bigger every year with sandstorms reaching Bucharest. But a group of ecologists are trying to keep it at bay by replanting trees in the region.

Climate Change in Romania

Re: Desert on the Danube?

Sting appears at the Reeperbahn Festival opening gala in Hamburg performing "Rushing Water", a track from his forthcoming album "The Bridge", due for release on 19 November. Discover the track exclusively! As a bonus, one of the Police's biggest hits "Every Breath You Take".

Reeperbahn Festival 2021

Sting appears at the Reeperbahn Festival opening gala in Hamburg performing "Rushing Water", a track from his forthcoming album "The Bridge", due for release on 19 November. 

Sting - 'Rushing Water'

Viktoria and Zoltan are in love. They live in Budapest but Viktoria is moving to Berlin for a chance of a better life. Will Zoltan be able to follow her there? The Hungarian couple are one of many that have left Hungary in the last decade.

Hungarians Leaving Home

Viktoria and Zoltan are in love. They live in Budapest but Viktoria is moving to Berlin for a chance of a better life. Will Zoltan be able to follow her there?

Re: One Way Ticket to Berlin

Giovanni comes from a small town near Venice in Italy. He has come to Poland to study at the illustrious Łódź film school and dreams of working in cinema.

Migrants Inside Europe

An Italian Film Student in Poland

Every year Israel builds more and more road infrastructure in the occupied West Bank, encouraging new settlements to house the overspill from the crowded urban centres of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But where is the space for a Palestinian state?

Every year Israel builds more and more road infrastructure in the occupied West Bank, encouraging new settlements to house the overspill from the crowded urban centres of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. 

Israel: Making (In)Roads into the West Bank

In Northern Ireland tensions are high as the realities of Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol become apparent. ARTE meets members of the loyalist community leading up to 12 July, Orangemen’s Day.

Tensions in Northern Ireland

Re: A Brexit Powder Keg

A look at German Jewish people who have settled in the occupied West Bank. In international law these Israeli settlements are illegal and yet the settlers feel they have a right to the land. What attracted these Europeans here? And how do they see life living amongst Palestinians?

German Jewish Settlers in the West Bank

A look at German Jewish people who have settled in the occupied West Bank.

Re: Who Does the Holy Land Belong To?

Jamie Cullum, Britain’s best-selling jazz artist, natural showman and fearless performer, made his mark with covers of Rihanna’s “Don't Stop the Music” and “Frontin'” by Pharrell Williams. This special live performance comes from Versailles’s old royal hospital, the Espace Richaud.

Jamie Cullum: piano solo

Sasha Nazar wants to save a crumbling synagogue in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, one of the last in the city. Where once a thriving Jewish community lived, now only a small community is present.

Re: Saving a Ukrainian Synagogue

In August 2020 1,500 individuals attempted to cross the straits of Dover, all looking to start a new life in Britain. Paying extortionate prices to people traffickers or going it alone in tiny dinghies, it’s a dangerous game to cross the cold waters of the world’s busiest shipping lane.

In August 2020 1,500 individuals attempted to cross the straits of Dover all looking to start a new life in Britain. Paying extortionate prices to people traffickers or going it alone in tiny dinghies, it’s a dangerous game to cross the cold waters of the world’s busiest shipping lane.

Calais: Migrants Crossing the Channel

Written and directed by Floriane Bonanni, this playful work opens the doors to a world where music, poetry and surrealism meet. With musicians Jean-Claude Gengembre and Lucas Henri, narrated by Michel Robin.

This playful work opens the doors to a world where music, poetry and surrealism meet. With musicians Jean-Claude Gengembre and Lucas Henri, narrated by Michel Robin.

Elementary, My Dear Celestin

A focus on the world’s largest country by landmass. Russia is a major world power that excels in certain spheres but glaring inequality, major structural problems and Western sanctions mean it may struggle to keep up with other world powers.

Making History

Making History

Indienne Fabrics and the Birth of Fast Fashion

The Amphora

The Football Shirt: The Modern Hero's Uniform

Ceremonial Smoking Pipes: Conflict and Resolution

The Postard - War Hero

Coffins Gain Ground

The Microphone

Autochrome: Life in ColourMaking History

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