The beauty of black and white

September 19th, 2008 at 02:58pm Will Pfeifer

Here’s a nicely written piece by Stefan Kanfer about black-and-white movies and why they’ve got a timeless appeal that color films can never quite achieve. As Kanfer says …

Black-and-white film was Hollywood’s principal offering from the silent era to the late 1930s. Then, curious ticket buyers began flocking to rainbows like GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ —the Technicolor era had opened. Confined to lower budgets, B&W producers and directors battled back. Emphasizing narrative, they came up with fresh pictorial techniques: stark, angular shots; tight close-ups of the stars; backgrounds that evoked a vital sense of place. En route, they insisted on lean, incisive scenarios and musical scores that enhanced every emotion from pathos to hilarity.

Kanfer goes on to argue how the strongest films in many genres — horror and noir, of course, but also comedy, drama and even musicals — are black and white, listing dozens of examples that’ll make you want to either turn the dial to Turner Classics or reconfigure your Netflix queue. Looking back on my own list of favorite films, I’m not surprised that seven of the 10 are black-and-white movies  — THE APARTMENT, CAT PEOPLE, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, A FACE IN THE CROWD, DR. STRANGELOVE and THE BLACK CAT. Off the top of my head, I could easily add THE SEVENTH VICTIM, OUT OF THE PAST, MAD LOVE, FIVE STAR FINAL, THE FOUNTAINHEAD, SUNSET BLVD., KING KONG, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MEET JOHN DOE and several others.

It’s not like I can’t see the appeal of color movies, and used correctly, the full pallette of colors can be a beautiful thing, too. But there’s something about black and white, so undeniably cinematic, that it’s almost impossible to verbalize. You just have to feel it on some level. I mean, look at that picture of Simone Simon from CAT PEOPLE at the top of this entry. Is there anyway possible that color — any color, no matter how skillfully applied — could improve it?

No, there’s not. And that’s the beauty of black and white.

Entry Filed under: Classic movies