Fascintated by black and white movies.

[59Lark]

My youngest saw a black and white movie on tcm the other day and was intrigued by it, and said daddy is that movie a hundred years old. The time between that and now seems a very wide gap with my being one of the left behind peoples. WE watched confidently connie, and it was a charmer with van johnson , the father the rancher was also buffalo bill in annie get your gun, the idea of the wife giving up smoking so she could afford red meat for her unborn child, it was wild. The prices on meat that they thought was high and the general mayhem of the movie. WE loved it, oh for the good old movies. that was a keeper 59Lark

 

[Naphtali]

Black & white motion pictures, for me, have an ability to evoke tension or fear or uncertainty better than color. And the motion picture that is my best example is "The Third Man." Its use of nighttime contrast with sound effects makes a pretty good movie into a great one.

 

[Bugsy]

And don't forget "To Kill and Mockingbird" and the orginal "In Cold Blood". Both very powerful pictures that would gain nothing from color. What a concept. Great actors and a great script, and no CGI's.

 

[The Wolf]

Are "Confidently Connie" and "It Was a Charmer" two different movies?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[DutchIndo]

Black and whites are classic one has to remember there is no color to contrast the scenes. Next time you watch a BW watch how they use the lighting. They had to use various shades of grey to contrast a shot. For instance I was watching an episode of "Blondie" and there was a scene in Dagwoods office. In this scene they used diagonal lighting supposedly coming through his shutters to break up the background. There is a lot of straight lines in an office and they used this trick to contrast the shot. I get the same grief from my friends and family about BW movies. The great advantage for us is nobody buys them so it's cheaper for us.

 

[John in Covina]

Mood Lighting

B&W lighting is able to evoke the mood really well and is used in many film noir movies precisley for the tension, trapped, menacing etc.

B&W is rarely used in modern film but when it is, it is often to good effect.

 

[GwenLake]

We've grown up watching black and white movies/television shows, so now we sometimes don't remember if a given movie was in color or not. I guess we colorize them in our minds. [huh]

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I'm the same way, GwenLake, and I said that to an older friend last night. He said he doesn't like black and white movies, which is true he only likes the newest and biggest movies, but we're still friends.