The recently-released film The Good German brings back memories of the charm of black and white movies
In Monochrome A scene from the outstanding Schindler’s list. Most parts of the film were made in black and white
As “The Good German” opens, you are immediately transported into another time. The fact that the film is shot in black and white is one of the factors that contribute to the time warp feeling. Director Steven Soderbergh is no stranger to experiment. His multiple Oscar winning “Traffic”, about all aspects of the drug business, used different colour palates to differentiate between the stories – from the cold blue to tell Michael Douglas’
judge track to the bleached colours to tell the Mexican part.
Soderbergh says the decision to go black and white was because he wanted to make the film on a studio lot. “I wanted to make the film in Burbank, the way they would have made ‘Casablanca.’ And that was going to necessitate getting hold of footage, real footage, and blending it with the rest of the movie. That dictated that it had to be black and white.”
The film, an over-heated murder mystery complete with slinky femme fatale and lantern-jaw hero, is set in post-War Berlin against the backdrop of the Potsdam peace conference and is a tribute to the noir tradition. While Soderbergh fills his film with hot whites and languorous blacks, the morals are definitely grey. It is millennial look at what might have been the scene in the city of opportunity that was Berlin post World War II, with every wheeler dealer out to make a quick buck.
One of the main reasons filmmakers choose to go black and white is to give it a documentary feel. George Clooney, who plays the intrepid war correspondent, Jake in “The Good German”, directed and acted in the Academy-award nominated “Good Night and Good Luck”. The film about the conflict between journalist Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy, was in black and white. Monochrome lent a documentary feel to the film.
Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” (1993) used colour only in the beginning and end. The film, which won Spielberg the best director nod at the Academy Awards, told the story of Oskar Schindler, who saved Jews working for him from Nazi concentration camps. Colour is eschewed to remove any distractions and give the film the sombre tone to echo the content.
Another reason to go black and white is suggest a time gone by, it is also the favourite device for flashbacks. Tony Kaye’s crime thriller “American History X” (1998), extensively used black and white in flashbacks. Even the latest James Bond film, “Casino Royale”, used a black and white sequence to show Bond make his first two kills to earn his double “0” status.
Christopher Nolan’s twisty little mind altering psychological thriller, “Memento” (2001) made the cleverest use of colour juxtaposed with black and white footage.
Guy Pierce plays an insurance agent who hurts his head when his wife is attached. The head injury causes him to lose his memory. The movie is divided into five-minute real time sections in colour interspersed with the black and white sequences that narrate the story in chronological order.
Black and white on celluloid also reduces the gore quotient of a film. Alfred Hitchcock purposely went for black and white for “Psycho” (1960) to tone down the violence. And if there was any doubt of whether Hitch knew best, it was comprehensively put to rest with Gus Van Sant’s reimaging of the Sixties’ shocker. Called “Psycho” (1998), the film was a colour Xerox of the original – right down to storyboards and framing. The film with Vince Vanghn as Norman Bates and Anne Heche as the unfortunate Marion Crane was a spectacular failure with the infamous drain-to-eye dissolve merely provoking giggles.
Martin Scorsese was fighting depression and cocaine addiction when he made “Raging Bull”, the story of a paranoiac boxer Jake LaMotta, (Robert De Niro in an Academy Award winning turn). Scorsese consciously chose not to make a sporting film – rather he used the boxing ring as a metaphor for all that was happening in LaMotta’s life outside the ring. The film, which boasts of the most exquisitely framed and shot fight scenes, was entirely in black and white except for some home movies. The black and white sequences go a long way in neutralising the brutal violence of the ring.
Then there are filmmakers who decided to walk the monochrome path because they can. They are the masters of style and Robert Rodriguez with Quentin Tarantino have pushed the envelope as far as it can go stylistically on celluloid. His “Sin City” based on Frank Miller graphic novels is in black and white but in true Rodriguez style, there are splashes of colour, notably red.
As a stylistic device, or for a need to go back to a more innocent time, in our vividly-coloured world, black and white offers an oasis of calm. A time to pause, reflect, and take a deep breath before plunging right back into a lurid world.
Printer friendly
page Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
