Why You Should Watch Your Favorite Movies in Black and White
Movie snobs the world over were mocked when director Zach Snyder announced that his condescending superhero opus Justice League by Zach Snyder would be re-released in a desaturated black and white version, which he dubbed Zach Snyder’s Justice League: Justice is Gray. … I was among them, but mainly because Snyder’s bleak look at DC’s pantheon of heroes had already lost everything that resembled a primary color. And Snyder is hardly the first filmmaker to think there is value in watching a black and white version of a film shot in color. Click on Snyder whatever you want (or viciously defend him with offensive tweets and emails if you want), but he only follows a precedent set by people like Oscar winner George Miller, who considers the colorless “Black and Chrome” edition of Mad Max: Fury Road “the best version of the movie . “ James Mangold’s Logan is the most acclaimed entry in the X-Men franchise , and a positive critical reception likely supported the director’s decision to release a bleached version that reinforces the film’s post-apocalyptic noir vibes .
And you have to appreciate the honesty of Bong Joon Ho, who admits that the driving force behind last year’s Best Picture award-winning black and white version of Parasite ‘s satire was … vanity. “When I think of classics, they are all black and white,” he said during the 2020 Rotterdam International Film Festival, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter . “So I had the idea that if I turned my films into black and white, they would be classics.” While this is certainly controversial (there are a lot of bad films from Hollywood’s black and white Golden Age), Bong is right. One thing: removing color from a movie changes the way it is viewed. “We can focus more on the texture [of each scene], ” he told the film festival attendees . “[This] film seemed more intense; it was [still] cruel. ” This means you need to re-watch all your favorite color films in black and white – even if no such officially sanctioned version has been released yet – simply by adjusting the settings on your TV (specifically, reduce color, increase contrast, and adjust brightness). Let’s clear up the caveats first, even if you might still leave angry comments by highlighting them. Yes, it’s the height of arrogance to assume that watching the discolored version unless the filmmakers sanctioned it (a sin almost as bad as watching a movie at double speed is another heresy that I don’t mind ). Yes, filmmakers have protested for years against coloring old black and white films , but it’s not quite the same – there is no chance that the color version will disappear because you fiddled with your TV.
And yes, there is a difference between a film that is filmed in black and white and the “fake” black and white that you see when you adjust the contrast of your TV, or even something like a parasite in artificial grayscale that has been tuned digitally. appearance, but still only approaches the appearance of “real” black and white film. (At one time, the unprecedented colors of makeup, props, and costumes were chosen to complement and contrast with each other on black and white film .)
But even if there isn’t a “real” black and white version of your favorite color film, there’s nothing wrong with giving it one more non-RGB twist to see if it hits you in a different way. Famed filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh knows this: back in 2014, he shared a desaturated digital version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a fact I learned from the blog of writer and artist Austin Cleon , who, following Soderbergh’s example, continued sampling and Enjoy another black -white film by Steven Spielberg – ” Jurassic Park” (velociraptors: the most femme fatale). According to Cleon:
I couldn’t believe how good it looked – all the rain and smoke from Samuel L. Jackson’s cigarette in the control room made it almost noir. (And it definitely highlighted the elements of horror.) The old movie becomes new. Magic!
So give it a try and see how it changes your favorite movie experience. Ferris Bueller’s day off now seems like a sophisticated French farce? Will the love panoramas of New York in When Harry Met Sally … start filling you with the Manhattan vibe? Is the new Godzilla vs. Kong finally a tribute to the classic kaiju? Judge with your own eyes and fuck the haters.