A half century later a significant group of filmmakers begs to differ.
Don't look now but the black and white movie is making a comeback. Long after the form fell out of vogue and in an era when many big budget studio films pack the screen with saturated candy colors and in your face 3 D effects indie filmmakers and even the occasional studio movie veteran are turning to the monochromatic.
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One of the biggest art house hits of the year Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha was shot in black and white following 2012 best picture Oscar winner The Artist. The director who boasts the highest grossing film of 2012 The Avengers' Joss Whedon shot his most recent movie a personal adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing that he filmed in his own home in the same muted color scheme.
And one of the most anticipated movies of the fall Alexander Payne's father son drama Nebraska received a rapturous reception at the Cannes Film Festival in May is equally devoid of almost anything that can be found in a Crayola box.
Throw in the black and white 3 D opening sequence of Oz the Great and Powerful and the entirety of Randy Moore's Disneyland set 2013 Sundance Film Festival sensation Escape From Tomorrow and it adds up to a black and white bumper crop.
There's something about making a black and white movie in this moment of huge superhero films that says we're still doing it we're still making movies said Greta Gerwig who starred in and co wrote Frances Ha. It feels like an act of rebellion.
Few of course are predicting black and white movies will become the dominant coin even for art house pictures. But there's little doubt it's on the rise offering the cinematic corollary to the vinyl record and ushering in a moment for and a set of commercial and artistic questions about a long forgotten form.
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Already a small brotherhood is forming around the style. When Baumbach unveiled Frances Ha at the Telluride Film Festival last year he was quickly approached by Payne who was preparing to shoot Nebraska and wanted some tips. The two spent hours discussing it.
For many of us black and white films offer a nostalgia factor. Almost no one younger than 60 came of age seeing them in a theater and even black and white television sets are a curiosity to many under 40. The black and white movie in the 21st century is something that's old enough and far enough in the past that it can start to feel like the avant garde again said Robert Thompson a pop culture professor at Syracuse University.
But the filmmakers say that their motivations go beyond simply ginning up some throwback charm. For Whedon setting a 16th century play in the modern day meant a complex balancing act he needed a technical trick to ensure it all still felt like the Bard. I wanted to get the elegance without the formality he said.
Oz producer Joe Roth said he sought to have his film's opening feel as different as possible from every other big budget movie at the multiplex. This way when the film segues to its modern vibrant section viewers would really notice the difference.
Frances Ha about a twentysomething lost soul had its own creative reasons It was trying to capture the fleeting nature of youth. Black and white creates an instant nostalgia which is right for the story which is about moments passing that you're not even aware are passing until after they're gone said Gerwig who noted that the style also helped her performance. It adds an element of unreality that allowed me to feel I could be as big as I wanted to be and it wouldn't read as false.
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In Nebraska the black and white lends Payne's film which is about an older character returning to his childhood hometown a similar trip down memory lane feel. The monochrome also neatly reflects the desolation and economic blight of the movie's small town setting much like classics The Last Picture Show or The Grapes of Wrath.
It fit both thematically and with the story said Payne adding that nearly every day on set he wondered how he'd go back to color. Black and white is king he said.
Moore saw black and white as a tool to make a political point in his film which is a horror movie of sorts set at the country's well known amusement parks. Disneyland wants to present itself as such a colorful place and I wanted to show that the cheer could make people feel very lonely and drab he said.
Certainly a black and white film offers a different viewing experience. For certain genres like mysteries black and white can create a harder edged vibe. The French New Wave employed it to create a sense of brooding atmosphere. And in film noir the interplay of shadows and light is helped immeasurably by black and white.
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