Black and White Films: Outdated or Timeless?
 |
Casablanca (1942) - Turner Classic Movies |
This is something that annoys me as someone who appreciates older films; if the film was made any year before Jaws (1975), then it's not worth their time. Now I get it, older films are simply what they are, old; the resolution tends to be pretty grainy, there's a lot of background noise a/o buzzing from the old audio equipment, some of the narrative points are moving too slow, and of course, there's no color. There were many older films I've watched that I genuinely could not get through because of those reasons. With that being said, I still think that filming in black and white has many advantages, even in today's cinema. In Russell Sharman's book, Moving Pictures, Sharman mentions some reasons why filmmakers may choose to film in black and white over color, even today. In this blog post, I'm going to go over some of those reasons and share my opinion on them in relation to films I've watched in the past.
Evoking an "Older" Feel
Whenever people see something that is filmed in black and white, the first thought that comes to mind is probably, "We're in a different decade," and it's probably in an era that's ranges from 1910-1950. And honestly, that's completely valid. Whenever directors want to evoke an older, "vintage" feeling, the easiest thing to do is take away color and make the scene black and white to replicate the colorless movies of early cinema. It's very common in pieces of cinema using historical fiction or fictional retelling of Hollywood cinema, like Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), and the Netflix film Mank (2020).
 |
| Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) |
 |
| David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) |
 |
| David Fincher's Mank (2020) |
What all of these films have in common is that they're all retelling historical moments a/o figures from the past; Schindler's List is about Oskar Schindler and his efforts to save Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust during World War II; The Elephant Man is about Joseph Merrick, an Englishman infamously known for his severe facial deformities in nineteenth-century London; Mank is about Old Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he develops the screenplay for Orson Welle's famous film, Citizen Kane. Looking into the production process for these three films, many of the decisions to film in black and white were made to either create a sense of timelessness or pay homage to the era the film is set in. So obviously if film directors want to make something look old, the film will be in black and white. But it's also to evoke a displacement in time, putting the audience into the era the film is meant to be in, especially if there's a historical significance in the setting.
Bleak Subject Matter
Sharman states that if the subject of a particular scene is bleak, filmmakers may want the "thematic element of literally draining the color from the image" (Sharman 105). Basically, if the mood of the film lacks warmth or life, the film will diffuse the color to reciprocate that bleak feeling. One particular film that comes in mind for this example is the film adaptation of Lois Lowry's novel, The Giver (2014).
 |
| Phillip Noyce's The Giver (2014) |
The film adaptation follows the same plot of the novel, following a dystopian society that rebuilt itself after a calamity called, "The Ruin." The reorganization of the society is built on no recollection of the past, a lack of conscience, and the suppression of emotion and desire. The film starts in black and white, partly due to the narrative detail that no one in the society sees color except for two people: The Giver and his protégé, Jonas, who is also the film's protagonist. As the film goes on, we start to see that Jonas starts to take on his duties of receiving memories from The Giver, which include war, death, joy, pain, and love. When Jonas is exposed to the harsh realities of the world, the film begins to slowly incorporate shots in color, starting with the memories from The Giver.
Aside from the fact that having no color is basically written into the story, the distinction between the black and white shots and the colored shots provides so much to the cinematic storytelling of the film. When the film starts out, the setting is established in a society that experiences no emotion, no desire, and a lack of free will. To put it in Sharman's words, their world is bleak. There's no life or warmth presented in this dystopian society, which is probably what both Lowry and Noyce wanted to portray in the beginning of The Giver. As Jonas begins to inherit the memories of the past, both good and bad, the flashbacks are all in color, and the film starts to be in color as well until the end. This shift from black and white to color is such an important aspect of the cinematography, because when Jonas starts to lose his innocence and naivete, the audience starts to see how this loss of innocence affects how he sees the world; there is pain, discomfort, joy, love, sexual desire, sadness, and so much emotion within the human experience. Jonas literally and symbolically started living life in color from then on. Color also establishes the main theme that when there is meaning and complexity to life, only then will you be able to fully live and experience everything around you.
Conclusion
So, are a lot of black and white films from over fifty years ago? Yes. Do some of them tend to be a little outdated for the generations of today? For sure. But just like many moments in history, you still have to learn about them, because everything in the past effects the present. Who knew that grainy, colorless 10-minute films would turn into high-definition, colorful two-hour feature films with dialogue and sound effects? I doubt that people from the 20s would even be able to fathom the fact that it's possible to watch films in 3D now.
Comments
Post a Comment