The Vintage Home Movie featured in this post is the first part in a longer film which was taken during a road trip through France which seems to have been taken in about 1958.
About the film
I've actually had this film sitting around in a draw for quite a while without looking at it because it had a label written on the side of the film box which said, 'Keystone come out'. I took that to indicate that it was a commercial film which featured the Keystone cops; I remember they used to be on the TV on a Saturday morning when I was a small child, and were a likely source of material for commercial films in the 1960s.
A few weeks ago, I was having a session of film conversions to add new films to the site and I put the film on the scanner to see if this was true. It turned out that it is actually a home made movie of a trip through France in what I estimate to be about 1958.
The film was taken on Kodachrome standard 8 film stock and is about 300 feet in length on an aluminium reel.
The quality is frankly not very good - time has not been kind to the film and there are sequences where most of the colour has bleached from the images. I haven't actually checked beyond the first few feet of the film, but I wonder if some parts were shot on different film stock - Kodachrome is normally very good at retaining it's quality.
Thumbnail index of the film
The images below were all taken from the film and I've included them to give a flavour of the contents.
The film of a Road Trip through France in 1958
The first part of the film is shown below. I've split it into two parts because of the youtube limitation of 15 minutes duration - this film is about 16 minutes in total.
I think the starting sequence was shot at Versailles, and it seems to show a film crew making a period film in the grounds of the palace. I found a list of feature films made at Versailles and when I get time I'm going to research the list from the 1950s and see if I can confirm this.
An interesting image which occurred in the film is the shot of an impressive looking staircase to a large house. I don't know if this is at Versailles or another French house, but I recognised the staircase from an image in the Challenges section of the found-film site I run.
Anyway, the film is below so have a look and see what you think. If you recognise any landmarks in France please let me know in the comments section below.
In a few days I'll add the second part of this film, either as a separate post, or I might add the film under this one to keep together with the first part.
It's regrettable that the colour is so degraded because I think the content is very interesting.
I have never travelled through France in such a way but the film shows a very varied terrain and general surroundings. I was very attracted to the scenes in the sunny South. I noticed (at about 6:57) a very grand-looking hotel there and it certainly looks like the International Carlton Cannes (https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/hotels/gb/en/cannes/ceqha/hoteldetail).
As a wild guess I think the earlier clip showing a resort with more rugged terrain and a palm-tree lined promenade, may be the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
Hi Roy - thanks for taking the time to comment on the film.
Yes I think you are right about the Carlton Cannes Hotel - it certainly seems to match. Well spotted!