Author Topic: Old B/W movies ? (Read 3285 times)

tp4tissue · « **on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 09:33:24 »

Been seen' lots of these lately. .

The feel is very different. it seems easier to focus on plot vs color.

Many of these earlier B/W's were 4:3 aspect vs the standard 16:9, 2.35:1 these days.

They occupy less of the overall visual field.

If we assume the brain has limited processing power, removing color and making the image slightly smaller, that would give the mind some room to breath and run perceptual recognition.

In comparison perhaps the latest 4K HDR is so bandwidth heavy, that it demands so much throughput just for input, it overwhelms ?

Also, Everyone smoked, and the Dames were usually all THICC

Your thoughts ?

xtrafrood · « **Reply #1 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 10:23:43 »

Metropolis.

noisyturtle · « **Reply #2 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 14:46:37 »

Personally I love old black and white horror and noire films. It feels like somewhere along the lines most of Hollywood forgot about getting the perfect shot in lieu of having computers create a spectacle. I miss meticulously planned angles and shots in movies, people just don't care about details like that anymore.

tp4tissue · « **Reply #3 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 16:00:25 »

Quote from: csmertx on Thu, 30 May 2019, 10:23:43

Metropolis.

In the darkness Tp4 belongs ?

Sintpinty · « **Reply #4 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 16:24:02 »

No, not my thing .

xtrafrood · « **Reply #5 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 16:41:06 »

Quote from: tp4tissue on Thu, 30 May 2019, 16:00:25

Quote from: csmertx on Thu, 30 May 2019, 10:23:43
Metropolis.

In the darkness Tp4 belongs ?

tp4tissue · « **Reply #6 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 16:48:21 »

Quote from: csmertx on Thu, 30 May 2019, 16:41:06

Show Image

Is a hand too high a price to pay ?

fohat.digs · « **Reply #7 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 17:09:20 »

They can be great, but are usually awful.

Just like when "talkies" added a new dimension of naturalism, and old-timers like Harry Warner who famously said "Who in the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

Black and white can bring other aspects of film and film-making to the forefront, pretty much the opposite of what "special effects" do to go beyond realism.

Kubrick chose to do "Dr Strangelove" in B&W, for example, and it was an inspired decision.

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #8 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 17:28:12 »

Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'

noisyturtle · « **Reply #9 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 19:30:20 »

Just watch this opening sequence of Touch Of Evil, 1958. I think Wells basically revolutionized how cinema was shot, between stuff like this and Citizen Kane modern cinema (at least until recently) owed so much to that man. No one was really doing **** like this mainstream at the time.

now everything is fake CG or done in front of a screen, so there's no real weight to anything anymore but no one seems to notice because of all the flashy fx and jingling keys in their faces.

tp4tissue · « **Reply #10 on:** Thu, 30 May 2019, 20:50:31 »

Long tracking shots like that won't hold up given modern fidelity. It will look fake and forced.

It's the same issue if we move to higher frame rate. Actions have to be performed so deliberately, that it would be unreasonably time consuming if not impossible to get certain shots done.

SBJ · « **Reply #11 on:** Fri, 31 May 2019, 02:50:17 »

Recently saw The Night of the Hunter.
Great movie, would really recommend if you're into black and white stuff.

Kelseer · « **Reply #12 on:** Fri, 31 May 2019, 03:03:39 »

12 Angry Men for me. The interplay between characters...and for a movie that's shot almost entirely in one room.

Sintpinty · « **Reply #13 on:** Fri, 31 May 2019, 15:11:03 »

I've only watched White Christmas in colourized version.

fohat.digs · « **Reply #14 on:** Fri, 31 May 2019, 16:32:26 »

Of all the things I hate about colorized movies, the black tongues are the worst.

xtrafrood · « **Reply #15 on:** Fri, 31 May 2019, 16:48:11 »

Quote from: fohat.digs on Fri, 31 May 2019, 16:32:26

Of all the things I hate about colorized movies, the black tongues are the worst.

Melanoglossia? When I groked "black tongues", Melanoglossia (also known as black hairy tongue) was one of the first results. Looks uncomfortable..

Seems like that would show in the closeup shots for both B&W films and B&W films remastered in RGB. I'm a little confused to say the least.

rowdy · « **Reply #16 on:** Wed, 05 June 2019, 22:03:59 »

Must have taken them ages to paint everything black and white!

Carcharocles · « **Reply #17 on:** Sun, 09 June 2019, 16:44:40 »

Quote from: Computer-Lab in Basement on Thu, 30 May 2019, 17:28:12

Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'

The Birds is one of Hithcock's few color movies though.

For his black and white films though, choose Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo... heck, pick one, it'll probably be good. This is a man whose weakest films were merely "not masterpieces."

noisyturtle · « **Reply #18 on:** Sun, 09 June 2019, 17:28:07 »

Sin City made use of b&w quite well, capturing the feel of the comic book perfectly.

And look at a film like The Seven Samurai that's shot SO far ahead of what should have been technically possible at the time, and you can sometimes forget the film is in b&w at all.

Pi was a great film, I think being shot in color would have detracted from the vibe of the movie.

I JUST remembered American History X and Schindler's List were b&w as well, they were done so masterfully I had to see them on a list to recall they were not in full color.

Natural Born Killers, Clerks, Man Bites Dog - now they are really flowing. Color means nothing if the content is good enough.

xtrafrood · « **Reply #19 on:** Sun, 09 June 2019, 17:38:35 »

How could I forget that Clerks is B&W? One of my favorites.

News:

Author Topic: Old B/W movies ? (Read 3285 times)