“The first knee jerk reaction of my kids is that they don’t want to see a black and white movie… 10 minutes into the picture, they don’t know whether it’s black and white or in colour.” (Steven Spielberg)
For many, black and white (B&W) films belong firmly in the past. This is understandable; 1961 was the last year in which the majority of films released were B&W. Despite this, two B&W films still grace IMDb’s list of the top ten greatest films as voted by users. One from 1957, despite colour becoming more commonplace, the other from 1993, which was a very clear, conscious, stylistic decision. These are Sidney Lumet’s “12 Angry Men” and Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”. This suggests that there’s still an audience capable of appreciating black and white films as some of the best movies ever. Yet, inexplicably, many younger viewers refuse to watch anything in B&W, some of my friends and Spielberg’s own children included. I personally much prefer the look and feel of B&W and believe monochrome to be far superior to movies shot in colour for aesthetic, historic and genre related reasons.
Nowadays colour is often assumed to be the more interesting and realistic option; however, popularity seldom equals greatness. B&W provides a simplistic, beautiful quality that colour is unable to replicate or replace. Over time, B&W has been overtaken by colour and now remains a rare artistic choice. Since most of the content I consume daily is in colour, I pause when I see something in monochrome because it allows me to dive into a whole other reality. Films aren’t real. We use them as an escape to another world, not simply a reflection of our own, and B&W enhances the experience. We live in a world full of colour; why would you want to watch something so familiar? It can be utilised as a tool to embrace the distinction between the real world and the fictional place the medium transports us to. Frank Darabont, celebrated director of “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), believes that this unique view of the world “is what makes black and white so very cool.”
Remarkably, B&W films are also able to achieve the very opposite and make a film feel even more real, director/screenwriter Samuel Fuller said, “Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.” This can be done by giving it a serious, gritty documentary tone – “La Haine” (1995), or by making it feel authentic to the time period – “The Elephant Man” (1980).
B&W can place a movie in a specific time period by creating a link to the past; “Ida” (2013) succeeds beautifully in establishing its setting as bleak, post war Poland. It can also be used to pay homage to certain genres or film techniques. Noah Baumbach chose to shoot his film “Frances Ha” (2012) in monochrome to mimic the French New Wave movement from the late fifties and sixties. They were usually B&W, used low budget, simple techniques and rejected typical film conventions. I really love that B&W is still being used to pay tribute to some of the most influential periods of cinema and is often the perfect choice.
Classic Hollywood, a time rightfully referred to as ‘The Golden Age’ catapulted stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn to icon status and was a hugely influential era of cinema. The grayscale glitz and glamour of this era in cinema history I believe is unmatched. B&W is an integral and iconic feature of films made in this period. Classics like “Casablanca” (1942) and “Citizen Kane” (1941) were colourised and rereleased during a failed attempt to attract viewers by Ted Turner of Turner Classic Movies proving only that films intentionally shot in black and white should be left that way. The Golden Age of Hollywood was an important time that revolutionised many aspects of the film industry, these films remain essential watches. Monochrome is perfectly suited to this era because so many of the popular themes are enhanced by the lack of colour and the contrast between black and white: paranoia, suspense, morally ambiguous characters, good versus evil and their often-cynical view of the world.
Furthermore, film noir, one of this period’s most iconic genres as well as my personal favourite, would not exist without B&W. The monochrome enhances every aspect of these films that includes “Double Indemnity” (1944) or “The Big Heat” (1953), from their dark atmospheres to the figures that emerge from the shadows, cigarette in one hand and pistol clutched in the other. “The Man Who Wasn’t There”, the Coen Brothers’ 2001 film, mimics the style of film noir through use of B&W. Other neo-noirs, filmed in colour, for example “LA Confidential” (1997), use popular film noir tropes yet, along with the loss of B&W, the essential noir atmosphere and look is also lost. In this movie, when audience and protagonist are introduced to Kim Basinger’s femme fatale, she is dressed head to toe in black and white, paying homage to its inspiration and suggesting the director would prefer it to be monochrome. Guillermo del Toro has a star-studded neo-noir coming out next January in colour. Although I am looking forward to this, would it be better in B&W? Obviously, the answer is yes.
Black and white films should not become a thing of the past. They have captivated audiences for over one hundred years and I hope that they continue to do so for another hundred. I would love to see more films make this stylistic choice in modern cinema but I also think it’s very important to continue to watch classics. Glorious technicolour was a revelation when the world was first introduced to it but now, films in colour just feel too ordinary. Even some of my favourite films in colour are ones made by directors like Alfred Hitchcock who started in black and white and continued to use it when colour became available, only using colour if it was to play a significant role in storytelling. Through perfecting the craft of making films without colour, he shows that you can tell a story flawlessly without it. However, recently an article by Variety predicted that the cinematography category at the 2022 Oscars may be dominated by B&W, including films such as ‘Belfast’ and ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ showing that monochrome might be making a well-deserved comeback. While some may still disagree, for me, colour has never moved from beyond the gigantic shadow cast by black and white cinema.
And cut!
Bibliography:
https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/casablanca-gets-colorized-but-dont-play-it-again-ted
Sidney Lumet: Interviews by Sidney Lumet
Steven Spielberg on the Importance of Studying Classic Films – AFI
https://variety.com/2021/artisans/awards/female-cinematographers-could-dominate-oscars-1235104934/