A Lament for Black and White

[osprey_archer]

One of the minor tragedies of the last fifty years, on par with the disappearance of illustrations, is the death of the black and white film. Black and white oozes drama and artistic potential and opportunities to use the word “chiaroscuro”, and the fact that it’s been entirely superseded by color almost entirely is an aesthetic travesty.

Just look at Bewitched or The Avengers. The black and white seasons are far superior to the color. Or look at the brilliant use shadows in black and white:



The bars! The menacing shadowy figure! The stark black leather! Black and white films have an appealingly surreal edge, because of the stark tonal contrast and the clever shot compositions required to create ambience and emphasis without the crutch of color.

Despite the aesthetic possibilities, the movie industry has turned its back on black and white. It's become Artistic, which is the kiss of death; it’s used now only in dull and pretentious projects like Good Night, and Good Luck, which didn’t even do black and white well; the film is a morass of undifferentiated gray.

I think Good Night, and Good Luck’s success proves that critics, like nature, abhor a vacuum. Given the film’s total lack of plot or coherent character arc—given the fact that the climax of the movie is as flat as a piece of stale toast—the critics must have decided that any film so devoid of entertainment value must have Moral Worth.

I think this trend created the illusion that all black and white films are monuments of dullness, which is tragic. There are plenty of brilliant old black and white films to watch (I just saw this great movie called Gaslight, if anyone has seen that), but the fact that the form is basically dead is too sad for words.

Comments

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with that, and especially with the Good Night, and Good Luck comment. I was underwhelmed visually by that film... I also have seen a few old black and white films that have since been colored, which is a very strange experiece.

Speaking of artsy black and white films, there is an interesting-looking one coming out sometime this season (I saw the ad at a showing of American Teen) that offers a new year's eve love story. From the preview it looked, visually at least, fairly impressive.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

How do they color those black and white films, anyway? Is the color detail somehow stored in film, despite the fact that it's black and white? It does look odd--the color seems strangely flat.

Do you remember the name of the film coming out? It sounds interesting.

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

"Keep Ted Turned and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie!"

While the process of colorizing film has advanced recently (yay Photoshop), it still essentially has to be doen by hand. The gradiants are stored in the black and white version, but someone has to go through the frames and highlight areas and drop the colors in. It's like if you were to add a colored screen over a really nice black and white picture: the color's there, but it's not really connected.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's like an infinite high-tech coloring book!

It sounds like the most tedious job ever, really, especially given that the films are fine as they are. Black and white is not defective! Not! Defective!

I should start a crusade.

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

There's really nothing to be gained by colorizing these movies, and quite a lot to be lost, so, yeah, I'd stand on your picket line.

Random awesome? If you watched colorized episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, it's not uncommon for Andy's shirts not to match his pants. Turns out images that look the same in black and white don't match once a color is dropping over the gradiations.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

oooh, thanks for the info! i would never have known about the coloring techniques. interesting...

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

No problem! I'm just full of interesting facts. :)

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

my guess is that they color it anew, using ideas from any color promo pics available. in the least there's probably a way of guessing what color was used originally based on the shades of grey, if you stare at enough black and white films...


nope, but i went on apple movie trailers to hunt it down and it's called "in search of a midnight kiss." it looked pretty good... i'll be interested to hear what you think, though.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'd have to see the whole movie to have a real opinion, but--

1. That is a really beautiful shot of that Ferris wheel.

2. It's surprisingly easy to tell that this is a modern movie, just because of the speed of the cutting rate and the preponderance of close-ups.

On the non-technical side, I'm wary of romantic films that are solely from the man's point of view, because the girlfriend often doesn't have any discernible motivation. Vivian could go either way; in the trailer she seems like a collection of quirks, but she might be better in the movie.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

re #2: i totally agree. but if the alternative to a modern approach is a goodnight and goodluck which seems rather unoriginal, it's worth it.
not the same use of black and white, so i don't know if you'd quite count it. but i like to see the meduim getting some love anyway.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't mean #2 as a criticism - it did seem odd for the first few shots to see something so modern-looking in black and white, but it was fine after that.