# Black-and-white films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266 "2015-02-21T16:41:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/1 "2015-02-21T16:41:47Z")
In another thread, [Charlie Wayne said](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18151541&postcount=78): > [@I just watched Dr. Strangelove for the first time](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-dr-strangelove-for-the-first-time/713158/78): > > I love B&W films. Some modern films made by excellent directors (like Stanley Kubrick who directed Dr. Strangelove and Mel Brooks who directed Young Frankenstein) just don’t feel the same way to me as older B&W films. > > I’m not sure exactly why it is, but those earlier films transport me to the time and place shown in the film. I think I should just shut up now and list some of my favorites. A long list follows. I didn’t want to hijack the other thread, so I’m starting this new one. I want to talk about B&W film as a medium for cinema, but I’m sure this will evolve into a ‘favourite B&W films’ thread. We watch Turner Classic Movies a lot in this house, and many films shown there are B&W. Colour has been around for a very long time, but it was prohibitively expensive when studios were churning out film after film after film. Even when colour films were common, studios still shot films in B&W if they weren’t especially confident in them. We watched _Roman Holiday_ last week. Paramount wanted to shoot it in Hollywood in Technicolor. William Wyler insisted it had to be shot on location. Paramount gave in, but cut the budget so that the movie had to be shot in B&W. Nowadays, the decision to use B&W film is usually an artistic one. What really grabs my attention is when a film was shot on very fine-grained stock. This is especially true when the scenes are exteriors, and the story is set in a contemporary setting. I wish I could think of an example, because I’ve seen beautiful shots that I would like to share. Using an off-the-cuff example, I think of desert shots. Now, a desert is very colourful. You have the yellow sand, the extreme-blue sky, the muted green of the plants, bright spots of flowers, red or black or grey rocks, and so on. (Incidentally, we love seeing the Joshua trees from our old stompin’ grounds.) But compared to other settings, deserts can seem rather monochrome. They look good in B&W. Air Force flight lines do, too. Even shots in cities, when the lighting is bright and the stock is fine, look great in B&W; and small towns look even better. I wonder if it’s nostalgia. When I was born in the '60s, everything was shiny and colourful. The first TV I remember was colour, and so were the shows I watched. But the '60s weren’t that far removed from the '50s, which weren’t that far removed from the '40s, which weren’t that far removed from the '40s in terms of everyday life. Consider today. I’m typing this on a laptop computer, there’s a 46" flat screen TV playing the news in the background, a mobile phone sits on the coffee table, the SO’s work computer is on her ottoman, and her personal computer is in another room. Remember the line from Pink Floyd’s _The Wall_? ‘I have thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from.’ I don’t know how many channels I have available to me right now. I have the option of signing up for Netflix, Hulu, and others. It seems there have been many changes since even the early-'90s. Go back to the early-'80s, and the differences are even greater. Technological innovations in everyday life seem to be coming faster now than they did in the '50s and '60s. As a child, I’d pedal my bike in my safe suburban neighbourhood, play with my friends with toys that generally didn’t use electricity, let alone integrated circuits, and so on – pretty much like kids in earlier decades. I remember the smell of cars of that era, and the space inside of them (as opposed to the encapsulation we have now). Of course, I was much smaller then. Since most of the movies made in the '30s through '50s were B&W, and since everyday life was much more sedate than it is today – and not that much more sedate than in the '60s – B&W films may remind me of simpler times when I (personally) didn’t have a care in the world. But they don’t all evoke nostalgia. What really does it for me is when they use the slow stock with its fine grain. When the shot is well composed, when the camera doesn’t pan too fast (or at all), when the lighting – usually natural – is right, B&W film just blows me away. I have a short script I wrote back in the '90s. It was conceived in B&W. It wouldn’t work (for me) if I were to shoot in in colour. I loves me some black-and-white! ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/2 "2015-02-21T16:57:52Z")
I agree with you. I don’t think it’s just nostalgia. There is something about black and white film that distills the essence of a shot. The color, to me, is extraneous, superfluous, even distracting. The shape, the texture, and the tones are often all that really matter, and the monochromatic image burns that essence into your brain. Not to go into a list of favorites, but when I watch a movie like “The Third Man,” every image is so stark and affecting that I get mesmerized watching it. For the record, I also prefer black and white still photography. Probably for the same reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/3 "2015-02-21T17:08:57Z")
I learned photography in a HS class in the 60s where the teacher insisted on B&W film only, stressing composition, light and contrast. Those lessons stuck with me throughout my life, and when I’m looking through the viewfinder, my eye is interpreting things in those terms, and some of my favorite photos are the ones I’ve converted to B&W. Like the OP, I love a well-shot (and acted) B&W film like _Treasure of The Sierra Madre_ or _Casablanca_. It’s why I enjoy film noir, with its over-the-top angles and contrast. ---
**Author:** ![OHS201](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/6de8d8/32.png) [@OHS201](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OHS201)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/4 "2015-02-21T17:09:39Z")
I think the B&W keeps your eye focused; when there’s a lot of color, the eye wanders. Comparing the original PSYCHO with that horrible color-remake, and I don’t want to begin with what’s wrong with that remake, but comparing shots (B&W with color) makes it clear why the B&W is superior. There’s more focus and more visual drama. Also, I love cigarette smoke curling in B&W movies. No, I’m not a smoker, it’s just an amazing effect. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/5 "2015-02-21T17:18:46Z")
B&W movies should never, ever be colorized! They should be viewed as the producer and director intended them to be seen. I think most people don’t realize the amount of effort that was put into making them just as they were, or the enormous talent that was required to bring it off. I hate the current generation of overproduced movies with their garish color, mind-numbing noise, and never-ending CGI bullshit. Technology has helped remove talent from the equation almost completely. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/6 "2015-02-21T17:48:29Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > B&W movies should never, ever be colorized! They should be viewed as the producer and director intended them to be seen. I think most people don’t realize the amount of effort that was put into making them just as they were, or the enormous talent that was required to bring it off. Well, there’s Richard Elfman’s _The Forbidden Zone_. He claims that he _wanted_ to shoot it in colour, but couldn’t afford it. So he released a colorised version of it a couple of decades later. I have a bit of an obsession with this film. I have a ‘professional’ bootleg VHS copy, one I copied when it was shown on a movie channel in the '80s, the B&W DVD, and the colorised DVD. I love the B&W version, but it’s not one I would bring up when thinking of the quality of films I was thinking of in the OP. It’s all interiors, and the sets are stylised instead of realistic. And the film does not have the fine grain that tickles my artistic fancy. I like the colour version, too; though I’m not convinced Elfman wanted to do it that way from the outset. I think it was because he thought it would sell. But taken at his word, the colour version is the one Elfman wanted to make. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/7 "2015-02-21T18:07:47Z")
I’ll quote Roger Ebert: > [@](#): > > There will always be those who love old movies. I meet teenagers who are astonishingly well-informed about the classics. But you are right that many moviegoers and video viewers say they do not “like” black and white films. In my opinion, they are cutting themselves off from much of the mystery and beauty of the movies. Black and white is an artistic choice, a medium that has strengths and traditions, especially in its use of light and shadow. Moviegoers of course have the right to dislike b&w, but it is not something they should be proud of. It reveals them, frankly, as cinematically illiterate. I have been described as a snob on this issue. But snobs exclude; they do not include. To exclude b&w from your choices is an admission that you have a closed mind, a limited imagination, or are lacking in taste. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/8 "2015-02-21T18:21:19Z")
Okay, but there’s still a huge difference between a film originally shot in B&W and one originally shot in color. In a sort of reverse situation, I’ve seen both _ **The Cage** _ (the first _ **Star Trek** _ pilot) both in color and in the B&W version that came out when it was thought (erroneously) that the original color negatives had been lost. While I didn’t exactly _dislike_ the B&W version (Arthur C Clarke apparently saw it and loved it), I could tell it was _not_ the way Roddenberry et al. intended it to be seen. In this case, color definitely trumped B&W, so far as I was concerned. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/9 "2015-02-21T18:25:00Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > B&W movies should never, ever be colorized! They should be viewed as the producer and director intended them to be seen. I think most people don’t realize the amount of effort that was put into making them just as they were, or the enormous talent that was required to bring it off. > > I hate the current generation of overproduced movies with their garish color, mind-numbing noise, and never-ending CGI bullshit. Technology has helped remove talent from the equation almost completely. I have a colorized version of the 1935 **She**. According to Ray Harryhausenm, who supervised, Merian C. Cooper, who produced and directed, always wanted it to be in color, but the studio yanked the funding (at a pretty late date, too). So I have absolutely no objection in a case like that. The colorization they did was excellent, by the way. Films that were conceived as black and white, and used that in their composition asnd development, shouldn’t be colorized. Harryhausen himself cites the example of the original 1933 _King Kong_, for which Gustav Dore’s black and white engravings served as some inspiration (at least for jungles and rocky areas). Furthermore, Harryhausen notes, all the plants in the jungle were colorized in the same shade of green!. Not a great job. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/10 "2015-02-21T18:32:33Z")
I posted this note in the other thread: I wish to apologize to everyone in this thread for posting that long list of B&W films. If I ever do that again, I will put the list in spoiler tags so that people who are interested can examine the list but people who are not interested do not have to see that. I will now post my complete list of favorite B&W films but … I will post them within spoiler tags so that people who are not interested do not have to be bothered by looking at a long list. The following is my complete list of my 112 favorite B&W films. Most of them are “Film Noir”. But I have put them withing spoiler tags. The following list is sorted alphabetically by name. 12 Angry Men 1957 49th Parallel 1941 5 Fingers 1952 711 Ocean Drive 1950 Ace In T Hole 1951 Alias Nick Beal 1949 Anatomy Of A Murder 1959 Attack 1956 Blood On T Moon 1948 Born To Kill 1947 Caged 1950 City Lights 1931 Clash By Night 1952 Colorado Territory 1949 Crossfire 1947 Dead Of Night 1945 Deception 1946 Decoy 1946 Design For Living 1933 Don’t Bother To Knock 1952 Dr Strangelove 1964 Easy Living 1937 Gaslight 1944 Gentleman’s Agreement 1947 Green For Danger 1946 His Girl Friday 1940 His Kind Of Woman 1951 Human Desire 1954 Humoresque 1946 I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang 1932 I Wake Up Screaming 1941 Impact 1949 In Harm’s Way 1965 Inherit T Wind 1960 Invasion Of T Body Snatchers 1956 Is Paris Burning 1966 It Happened One Night 1934 Kansas City Confidential 1952 Kind Hearts & Coronets 1949 La Strada 1954 Lady In T Lake 1947 Laura 1944 Manhattan Melodrama 1934 Men In War 1957 Modern Times 1936 Monsieur Verdoux 1947 Murder My Sweet 1944 Mystery Street 1950 Nightmare Alley 1947 Nobody Lives Forever 1946 On Dangerous Ground 1952 On T Beach 1959 Once Upon A Honeymoon 1942 Operation Pacific 1950 Out Of T Past 1947 Panic In Year Zero 1962 Pickup On South Street 1951 Random Harvest 1942 Red Headed Woman 1933 Roman Holiday 1953 Scandal Sheet 1952 Schindler’s List 1993 Sink T Bismarck 1963 Some Like It Hot 1959 Son Of Fury 1942 Stalag 17 1953 Sullivans Travels 1941 Sunset Blvd 1950 T Americanization Of Emily 1964 T Apartment 1960 T Asphalt Jungle 1950 T Battle Of Algiers 1966 T Beast From 20,000 Fathoms 1953 T Best Years Of Our Lives 1946 T Big Clock 1948 T Big Steal 1949 T Desert Fox 1951 T Elephant Man 1980 T Glass Key 1942 T Haunting 1963 T Invisible Man 1933 T Killers 1946 T Killing 1956 T Little Foxes 1941 T Long Voyage Home 1940 T Longest Day 1962 T Man Who Wasn’t There 2001 T Manchurian Candidate 1962 T Naked City 1948 T Night Of T Hunter 1955 T Ox Bow Incident 1943 T Paradine Case 1947 T Postman Always Rings Twice 1946 T Public Enemy 1931 T Razors Edge 1946 T Reckless Moment 1949 T Setup 1949 T Seventh Victim 1943 T Tin Star 1957 T Uninvited 1944 T Unsuspected 1947 T Web 1947 T Wild Bunch 1969 This Gun For Hire 1942 Three On A Match 1932 To Kill A Mockingbird 1962 Trouble In Paradise 1942 Virginia City 1940 White Heat 1949 Winchester 73 1950 Women’s Prison 1955 Young Frankenstein 1974 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/11 "2015-02-21T18:36:00Z")
In re _ **The Cage** _ (and all shows produced in color before about 1970), I find it ironic that most TV sets at the time were B&W. Art directors, costume designers, cinematographers, et al. had to view their creations through a special filter to make sure they would “look right” when seen in the average person’s living room. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/12 "2015-02-21T18:36:39Z")
I love the look of B+W, too. Kurosawa’s early movies are excellent examples of what you can do with it. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > What really grabs my attention is when a film was shot on very fine-grained stock. This is especially true when the scenes are exteriors, and the story is set in a contemporary setting. I wish I could think of an example, because I’ve seen beautiful shots that I would like to share. Using an off-the-cuff example, I think of desert shots. Now, a desert is very colourful. You have the yellow sand, the extreme-blue sky, the muted green of the plants, bright spots of flowers, red or black or grey rocks, and so on. (Incidentally, we love seeing the Joshua trees from our old stompin’ grounds.) But compared to other settings, deserts can seem rather monochrome. They look good in B&W. Air Force flight lines do, too. Even shots in cities, when the lighting is bright and the stock is fine, look great in B&W; and small towns look even better. Yeah, when you shoot film in bright daylight, you can process it as a slower, more fine-grained film. Color benefits from the same effect, but B+W really loses its grain when shot properly in bright light. On top of that, you can use filters to do things like make the sky or foliage pop or become muted. You can’t do that in color film without making a surrealist movie. Digital processing makes this possible with color today, but that’s a pretty recent development. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/13 "2015-02-21T19:10:14Z")
There is one thing with colorized movies - spotting the little changes the geek doing it inserts sometimes. “Plan 9 From Outer Space” in the one colorized version has different pictures inserted into the artwork on the walls of the house and bedroom. But I’m one of those who would accept the death penalty being enforced for anyone colorizing a film. Black and white is more an art form than just a film and especially with horror more (for lack of a better word) chilling. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/14 "2015-02-21T19:14:44Z")
Several months ago, I saw a wonderful movie that came out 2013 called “Nebraska”. It was shot in B&W despite being set in the present day. Semi-spoiler: It’s worth watching just for the cemetery scene. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/15 "2015-02-21T20:08:21Z")
For years we’ve been watching a particular movie during the Christmas season called “A Christmas Memory”. This was an ABC Stage 67 TV film narrated by Truman Capote (who wrote the original short story), and starring Geraldine Page. It was shot in color, but for a long time the only copies available were VHS umpteenth generation copies that had degraded into B&W. Recently, I discovered that the color version survived and lives on YouTube. I went to look at it and found out that I much prefer the B&W version, as it gives the film the look and feel of the Great Depression era in which it is staged. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/16 "2015-02-21T20:56:01Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Several months ago, I saw a wonderful movie that came out 2013 called “Nebraska”. It was shot in B&W despite being set in the present day. > > Semi-spoiler: It’s worth watching just for the cemetery scene. 😛 Thanks for the tip! I just checked, and it is available on Netflix Streaming. And is now in my “list.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/17 "2015-02-21T21:36:24Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I went to look at it and found out that I much prefer the B&W version, as it gives the film the look and feel of the Great Depression era in which it is staged. Vic Morrow went on record as feeling the same way about _ **Combat!** _ switching to color in 1966. World War II, he said, was filmed in black and white! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/18 "2015-02-21T21:44:54Z")
One of the creators of _The Creature from the Black Lagoon_ (I forget which. It was either the producer, William Alland, or the director, Jack Arnold.) once stated that he would not mind if it was colorized, provided that he could supervise it. He said that the Gill-Man’s costume was a subtle shade of mossy green. Posters, comic books, and toys always made the colors too garish. > [@scabpicker](#): > > On top of that, you can use filters to do things like make the sky or foliage pop or become muted. I have read that in one version of _Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde_, the actor wore makeup that photographed differently, depending on the color of the lighting. When lit with one color, the B&W camera saw the handsome Jekyll. When lit with another color, the B&W camera saw the ugly Hyde. I wonder if any color pictures exist, to show how they did that? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/19 "2015-02-21T22:29:59Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > One of the creators of _The Creature from the Black Lagoon_ (I forget which. It was either the producer, William Alland, or the director, Jack Arnold.) once stated that he would not mind if it was colorized, provided that he could supervise it. He said that the Gill-Man’s costume was a subtle shade of mossy green. Posters, comic books, and toys always made the colors too garish. > > I have read that in one version of _Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde_, the actor wore makeup that photographed differently, depending on the color of the lighting. When lit with one color, the B&W camera saw the handsome Jekyll. When lit with another color, the B&W camera saw the ugly Hyde. I wonder if any color pictures exist, to show how they did that? This technique was used in B&W TV, too. There’s an episode of _The Twilight Zone_ where they used it t age a man rapidly on camera. To do the effect, you had to carefully ramp up one color while decreasing the other in such a way that they overall lighting, as seen by the black and white camera, looked the same. It’s a startling effect when done properly, looking as if they had CGI long before it was really a possibility ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266/20 "2015-02-22T00:18:32Z")
I went to an East Coast film school in the 70’s and we always shot 16mm in B&W (mostly cause it was cheaper) and Super 8 in color (probably cause I don’t think they made B&W stock). You can do wonderful things with B&W and light. And we associate it especially with noir and classics of the era. But it’s funny that I have the opposite reaction to you when I see a B&W exterior grand vista, fine grain or not. I always think it’s a goddam shame they didn’t have/use color. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-and-white-films/713266.md?page=2)