# Color segments in b/w films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110 "2002-11-03T13:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/21 "2002-11-04T16:05:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AnnaLivia \* > \*\*Thanks for the link- the second answers a long-standing question about the first. The two color process seems to be responsible for the abundance reds and blue-greens in this scene. (It always seemed counter-intuitive and lessened the visual impact of the Red Death.) The books I had only noted it as being “technicolor” > AL \*\* Walloon, my thanks also for the Technicolor link! I did see _The Phantom of the Opera_ in an undergrad film class, and remember that scene as being very crimson and lurid. Another film I thought of while reading the list: the French silent film _Napoleon_. During the sequence where the screen is split into 3 sections, at one point, one section is tinted red and another blue, so that the screen resembles the tricolor flag. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/22 "2002-11-04T16:53:53Z")
In one of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes Sunday strips, Dad explains to Calvin why old photographs and movies are black and white. According to Calvin’s dad, it’s because color wasn’t invented yet. So sometime during the 50s, I think, color was invented and then the old films and photographs that had accidently used color film in portions became colored. As Calvin points out inconsistancies, Dad’s explanation gets more convoluted. Comic Genius. I wish I could find it online. ---
**Author:** ![Fibonacci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Fibonacci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibonacci)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/23 "2002-11-04T17:13:18Z")
Lindsay Anderson’s “If…” starring Malcolm McDowell, was shot in color, but would cut to scenes in black & white of Sunday services in the cathedral. It was very stylistic, every time they cut to a scene in the cathedral, it was in black and white. Very deep. Switching from color to B & W. However, in an interview I read many years later, he said it was due to using up their budget too soon, so the last scenes shot, (those in the cathedral) were shot on black and white film because they couldn’t afford color at that point. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110/24 "2002-11-04T18:55:10Z")
Needless to say, _Broken Blossosm, The Great Train Robbery_ and even _Napoleon_ don’t really count since they’re not color-processes and are movies that, back then, would’ve likely been completely tinted or toned anyway. Other examples: _[Dixiana](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0020828)_ (1930) had a Technicolor Mardi Gras finale. _[Victoria the Great](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0029734)_ (1937) had a Technicolor Diamond Jubilee finale. The last reel of _[The Moon and Sixpence](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0035078)_ (1943) was in color. The Eden sequences in _[The Private Lives of Adam and Eve](http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?0055328)_ (1961) are in color. Spike Lee’s _She’s Gotta Have It_ (1986) has a music sequence in color. Wim Wenders’ _[Wings of Desire](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093191)_ (1987) begins largely in B&W but gradually employs more and more color, separating angel life from the “real” world. Though I haven’t seen them, other films supposed to have color sequences include: _The House in the Square_ (1951), _The Solid Gold Cadillac_ (1956) and Stanley Donen’s _Movie Movie_ consists of two hour-long films, one in B&W the other in color. The separation of an artist’s life from his work is divided along B&W and color lines in _The Mystery of Picasso_ and _Mishima_. Other films with the _Oz_-like B&W framing devices for color films were _The Blue Bird_ (1940) & _Jack and the Beanstalk_ (1952). _Martin, Dead Again_ and _Memento_, among others, separate B&W from color sequences for flashbacks or -forwards. Oliver Stone has also merged B&W and color on several occasions (_JFK, Nixon_). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-segments-in-b-w-films/135110.md?page=1)