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The Seasons

Accession number: 
1953.0022
Alternate Titles: 
Les Saisons
French version
Production Years: 
1953
Release Year: 

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
648 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
18

Subjects:

Holding Institutions: 

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario: 16mm.
"A cine-poem in colour, in which Vivaldi's symphony 'THE SEASONS' is given visual form through the pageantry of the passing year. Filmed at Lake Simcoe, Ontario, by Christopher Chapman, himself an artist with the camera, the film evokes the beauty of the land and forest, sky and water through all the changing moods of spring, summer, fall, and winter."

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm.

Bibliography: 

"Business in Motion: Films of Current Interest," Canadian Business 27 (July 1954): 96.
"Described as 'an adventure in image and sound' this production, winner of the 1953 Canadian Film Award, records in music and pictures the natural beauty of the passing year. As each season comes and goes, the camera follows its coming, its fulness and its merging into the next, accompanied by the music of contemporary composers."

"Trade Notes...," Film News 14, no. 4 (1954): 22.
"Crawley Films Ltd., Ottawa, Canada, has added Chris Chapman of Toronto to its staff of producers. Mr. Chapman's THE SEASONS was recently chosen as the Canadian Film of the Year."

"The 6th Annual Canadian Film Awards," Film News 14, no. 5 (1954): 15.
"Canada's top cinematic distinction, the title 'Canadian Film of the Year', has been won for productions released in 1953 by Christopher Chapman of Toronto, with his 18-minute color study THE SEASONS. The coveted honor has been conferred only four times in the six years of the Canadian Film Awards. The other winners are THE LOON'S NECKLACE (1948); a Norman McLaren experimental film in third-dimensional technique (1951); and ROYAL JOURNEY (1952)."

"The 6th Annual Canadian Film Awards," Film News 14, no. 5 (1954): 15.
"Non-Theatrical. THE SEASONS was the First Award production in the 'Non-Theatrical: Open' category; or, as the French half of the program puts it, the 'Non-commerciaux: omnium.' Created by producer-cameraman Christopher Chapman from a series of sequences taken during the passage of a year on the shore of Lake Simcoe, it won the award 'for its outstanding artistic achievement.' Its choice as 'Film of the Year' on the part of the adjudicators was by unanimous agreement."

"World-Wide News...Selected for Significance," Film News 17, no. 1 (Spring 1957): 7.
"A 300-seat theater has been approved for the Canadian Pavilion to be erected at the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition in 1958. The theater will be used to tell some of the expected 25-million Exhibition visitors about Canada. Films to be shown will be in three major categories: Resources and Industry; Education and Information; also, Canadian Culture. Among films selected so far are: CANADIAN PROFILE (National Film Board of Canada); A NEW FUTURE LIES NORTH and NEWFOUNDLAND SCENE (Crawley's Ltd.); CALGARY STAMPEDE (Davart); THE SEASONS (Christopher Chapman); and JAMBOREE (Chetwynd Films)."

National Film Board of Canada, Films by Other Producers Distributed in Canada by the National Film Board of Canada/Films de divers producteurs distribués au Canada par l’Office national du film du Canada (Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, c.1968), 10.
"Impressionant spectacle des saisons: explosion vitale du printemps, orage d'été, chute des feuilles à l'automne, tempête de neige à l'hiver."

Imperial Oil, Selection of 16mm Films Available Without Charge to Schools, Church Groups, Service Clubs and Similar Organizations (n.d.: Imperial Oil).
"An unusual film about the changing seasons of the year.
Alone on the shores of a Canadian lake, you watch nature's 12-month story unfold. As you watch, you things of beauty and drama, things that are not normally brushed aside unnoticed in the rush of modern life.
That's how it is when you watch 'The Seasons'. In this unusual film the camera becomes your personal eye. It brings an experience that only a few in this busy world are able to have.
It is the first film of the talented young Canadian photographer, Christopher Chapman. Some of the techniques he has used have been called revolutionary by film experts.
His camera, ranging year-long over 160 acres on the shores of a Canadian lake, has caught nature in all her moods and shows how the earth, water and sky respond to her changes. It reveals the quiet beauty of a leaf floating serenely on a placid lake; the grotesque frozen shapes like petrified humans sitting on the lakeshore in the winter freeze-up; the tempestuous glory of a summer storm.
Chosen by the Canadian Film Awards as 'Film of the Year' in 1954, 'The Seasons' is a simple film, and much of its beauty comes from its simplicity. It is a film that will remind many of us of things we have forgotten and which will introduce us all to new and wonderful things about us."

Imperial Oil, Un choix de films 16mm prêtés, à titre grâcieux, aux maisons d'enseignement, clubs sociaux et autres groupements (n.d.: Imperial Oil).
"Un film exceptionnel montrant l'évolution de la nature de saison en saison.
Laissé seul à lui-même en quelque sorte sur les rives d'un lac du Canada, le spectateur assiste à la lente évolution que s'impose la nature. La vie des choses l'imprègne, des choses souvent passées inaperçues, particulièrement dans la fièvre de la vie contemporaine.
Voici ce qui se passe lorsque se déroule 'Les Saisons'. Magiquement, la lentille de la caméra se substitue à l'oeil. Elle montre la nature telle que très peu de gens ont eu le bonheur de la voir.
C'est là la toute première oeuvre du jeune photographe canadien Christopher Chapman. Des experts de la caméra ont qualifié de révolutionnaires certaines de ses techniques.
Sa caméra, braquée pendant toute une année sur quelque 160 acres en bordure d'un de nos lacs, a croqué les sautes d'humeur de la nature et montré comment ciel, terre et eau répondent à ces caprices. Elle montre toute la beauté sereine d'une feuille qui, délicatement, se pose sur l'eau du lac ; les formes grotesques qu'empruntent, sur la rive, des branches recouvertes de givre ; l'imposante majesté d'un orage qui s'abat avec violence.
'Les Saisons' est d'abord et avant tout un film simple, simple comme la beauté. Il évoque des scènes que la plupart d'entre nous n'ont peut-être jamais si bien vues ; d'aucuns trouveront l'occasion d'aiguiser et d'affiner leur sens d'observation."

Service de ciné-photographie de la province de Québec, Films 16mm: édition 1956-57 (Quebec City: Service de ciné-photographie, 1956), 364.
"Les saisons prêtent à la nature mille visages dont l'intensité d'expression donne libre cours à l'imagination la plus lymphatique. Christopher Chapman a su capter, avec une patience et un art remarquables, l'image de ces visages : calme champêtre d'une journée d'été, ciel à la Greco, tourmenté, sombre, terrible, lourd de la tempête qui va fondre, mélancolie des feuilles multicolores de l'automne entraînées dans leur chute vertigineuse vers le sol, enfin fantasmagorie des choses givrées, figées par le gel soudain qui étaient leurs formes étranges sur la neige diamantée de l'hiver."

Canadian Tourist Association, Conservation Films (1954): 12.
"A pageant of nature's images and sounds along the shore of Ontario's Lake Simcoe. Catches the changing moods of the seasons in sensitive photography and responsive music. Won Canadian Film of the Year Award, 1954."