Rare color footage provides a glimpse into the lifestyle and cafes of 1920s Paris

It’s been a long time since the first camera was invented in the early 1800s, and ever since then humans have been fascinated with capturing life’s important moments through a lens. It’s good because it helps us go back in time and find out how the generations before us lived. If you look at old footage from early photo cameras, most of the old footage is grainy, black and white or sepia-toned due to the aging of the film rolls. But thanks to modern technology, editing software, and artificial intelligence, recovering footage from history has become much easier.

NASS is a YouTube channel that devotes an entire page to restoring clips from a bygone era. As explained in the channel’s “About” section, NASS “uses neural networks to restore and upscale old videos, then enhances them with modern software tools to improve stabilization, speed correction, contrast, and sharpness. We love to enhance, remove noise, remove dust and scratches, and add additional features.” Express colors and create atmosphere with AI and sound. As one of their many restoration projects, they retrieved a large number of black-and-white clips from Prelinger’s archives, documenting the lifestyle and cafe society of people in Paris in the 1920s.

The digitally colored and enhanced clip takes viewers back in time, offering glimpses of iconic buildings such as Notre Dame Cathedral and the Palais Garnier. The Parisian upperclassman looks shy yet seductive for the camera, along with elegantly dressed women. Café societies seem to be buzzing with people smoking, chatting, and drinking in outdoor dining spaces. I also took some photos from a fancy restaurant called Haut Canetton. Waiters walk past patrons decked out in suits and hats for the afternoon’s work.

If you look closely, you’ll find plenty of early Ford Model Ts on the streets of Paris. NASS says in the video description that most of the effect may have been achieved by restoring and stabilizing the motion of the old footage, but the colorization may not be accurate. But this is enough to make us look back and see what would happen if we photographed our surroundings with a DSLR camera or smartphone that can provide accurate colors.

Another remastered clip from 1920s Paris shows carts and vehicles being pulled by horses. There is a huge liquor store selling one of his most expensive cognacs (Grand Marnier) and a beautiful Arc de Triomphe built to commemorate the success of the French army in the Battle of the Three Emperors. The cloudy sky footage shows busy people heading to their respective destinations.

Viewers also noted several things they observed in these videos. @LOL-cringe wrote: “I love the curiosity in their eyes when they see it being photographed. It’s so amazing to know that these images have been around for 100 years and these people haven’t. Inspiring!” @TheOrnithorhynchidae said: “I’m from Paris and it’s amazing to see that even after 100 years, not one of these spots/street/places has changed. Le Dome and Le Café de la Paix are still… It’s still there. It looks pretty much the same. The only difference is that they added a vestibule in front of Notre Dame.” @Gravityworks said, “As a French person, I’m deeply moved by this colorful video. .Thank you very much.” he added.