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Posted: |
Jul 17, 2007 - 12:25 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....I always feel sorry for those people who refuse to watch B&W films, or call them unrealistic. They're missing so much.....
With all due respect, Mr. Greg.....
B&W films ARE unrealistic. They're beautiful, they're striking, they're artistic, but they're also unrealistic, and since the '60s, particularly, filmgoers have demanded that films SEEM more realistic (.....not that THEY are either, for other reasons---but they SEEM to be.) And I agree that people who don't experience B&W films ARE missing something wonderful.
.....What still surprises me is that TCM was launched by Ted Turner with a mandate to respect the film, yet Turner was also the "genius" behind colorization in the 80's.....
Turner's primary mandate for himself and TCM was to keep the library and its stars---his huge investment---continuously living before the public eye, and thus maintain its value.
The stars of the films Turner owned, MGM, WB pre-48, and RKO, are the most exposed stars of all time and probably, in entirety, the most famous yet remaining in peoples' minds.
Ted Turner utilized colorization on a grand scale in its rudimentary form for business purposes, but he hardly started it, or was a "genius" behind it, or will finish it. It was valuable to many detractors to have an up-front "whipping boy", however.
.....So often, I try to imagine certain B&W films in color, but I just can't.....
I can imagine, in color, all the Rogers-Astaire films, particularly TOP HAT and SWING TIME, THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, WESTWARD THE WOMEN, GREEN DOLPHIN STREET, INTERMEZZO, THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, GOLDEN EARRINGS, BEAU GESTE, TALE OF TWO CITIES, CAMILLE, the MacDonald-Eddy films, particularly MAYTIME, NEW MOON, NAUGHTY MARIETTA, and ROSE MARIE, LOST HORIZON.....and many, many more. You need to listen to old radio for awhile and sharpen your imagination skills. 
.....Color seems to add so much light to films that shadows essentially don't exist in color movies.....
You just haven't seen the right color movies, and if so, ones photographed by bad color cameramen. Have you not seen the "shadows" in BLACK NARCISSUS or BLOOD AND SAND?
.....But there is so much going on in the whites and blacks and grays and shadows and fogs and so on in B&W.....
Well, see, we tricked you there! There is NOTHING going on in the blacks, grays and shadows. You only think so because we wanted you to and you want to believe!
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People who don't like black and white, should just die.
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B&W films ARE unrealistic. They're beautiful, they're striking, they're artistic, but they're also unrealistic, and since the '60s, particularly, filmgoers have demanded that films SEEM more realistic (.....not that THEY are either, for other reasons---but they SEEM to be.) And I agree that people who don't experience B&W films ARE missing something wonderful.
Don't confuse realism with naturalism. The moment you try to force the random occurrences of life into formalized drama, or make the images more dramatic or "clearer" than they'd be if captured by a camera that had been set up at an arbitrary position in the street, it ceases to be realistic.
Black-and-white is utterly subjective. It is as artificially unnatural as silent cinema was: one lacked sound, and the expression of thought through speech; the other lacks color. B&W is, therefore, a very specific storytelling tool, requiring a specific approach as to its use.
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I remember going to buy a ticket to THE GOOD GERMAN earlier this year...
Counter Girl: Sir, are you aware that this film is in black and white?
Me: I like it already!
Amazing to think that people in the past must have insisted on getting their money back because a film unexpectedly turned out to be black and white!
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Posted: |
Jul 17, 2007 - 11:49 AM
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By: |
Greg Bryant
(Member)
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With all due respect, Mr. Greg.....
B&W films ARE unrealistic. They're beautiful, they're striking, they're artistic, but they're also unrealistic, and since the '60s, particularly, filmgoers have demanded that films SEEM more realistic (.....not that THEY are either, for other reasons---but they SEEM to be.) And I agree that people who don't experience B&W films ARE missing something wonderful.
I think that if you immersed yourself in B&W films, you might feel differently.
And, BTW, it's "Dr. Greg..." 
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Creative black and white is always connected to the 1920's German Expressionist cinema, isn't it Manderley?
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I find it ironic that younger people will turn-up their noses at black and white films, when so many popular, mainstream movies are so desaturated and bleach-bypassed they are practically black and white anyway! 
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I find it ironic that younger people will turn-up their noses at black and white films, when so many popular, mainstream movies are so desaturated and bleach-bypassed they are practically black and white anyway!
I think you've got a point here: for instance, the young generation who enjoys gloomy films done by David Fincher (see "Se7en", "Fight Club", "Panic Room", "Zodiac").
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To all B&W fans,
Let me know your favourite directors of photography and an example?
I can't resist to tell you mine:
Conrad Hall for "In Cold Blood"
John Alton for "Reign of Terror"
James Wong Howe for "Seconds"
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To all B&W fans,
Let me know your favourite directors of photography and an example?
endquote]
The two gentlemen who directed photography on "The Twilight Zone" from '59 to '64.
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The two gentlemen who directed photography on "The Twilight Zone" from '59 to '64.
Actually, there was a main DoP named George T. Clemens.
Joseph LaShelle shot the pilot.
Harry J. Wild shot "Third from the Sun".
William Skall shot "Mr. Dingle, The strong".
By season 3, entered Robert W. Pittack and Jack Swain.
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Posted: |
Jul 17, 2007 - 6:55 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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I'm turning 30 in November, so I guess I fall into the 'whippersnapper' category (old whippersnapper, perhaps). This means I obviously connect more easily to colour films and films from the time I grew up. HOWEVER, that does NOT mean that I can't appreciate b/w films, of course. In fact, one of my favourite films of all time is in b/w (SCHINDLER'S LIST). In many ways, it's just another way of putting together the "film palette", if you will - like the difference between oil and water painting. As I've viewed films, read about films and analyzed films from the entire history of Cinema - both in my profession and on my sparetime - I've come to appreciate the peculiarities of each time period, style and trend. German expressionism, for example (which Stefan mentioned above), would certainly not have been the same in colour. Much of its power - both political and aesthetic - is derived from the dynamic between shadows and light; black and white.
I can't comment on all the technicalities of cinematography like manderley and the others above, but what I often find interesting is how certain contemporary colour films approximate the b/w FEEL and look by using shadows, non-garish colours or simply faded colours (A.I., SKY CAPTAIN, certain parts of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS etc.).
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From my favourite black and white film from the 1960's:
SECONDS
directed by John Frankenheimer
shot by James Wong Howe
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