# Modern day B&W movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2006, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599 "2006-09-29T11:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/1 "2006-09-29T11:30:48Z")
Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=390147) thread, I have started wondering about movies made in black and white after color film became the standard. Here’s a couple off of the top of my head: Young Frankenstein Clerks. Sin City mostly counts, though it more belongs in the other thread (I’m gonna go post that if someone hasn’t beaten me to it…) So, cinema dopers, list me some modern day B&W movies! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/2 "2006-09-29T11:53:36Z")
Paper Moon Good Night and Good Luck ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/3 "2006-09-29T12:07:15Z")
The most famous one has to be “Schindler’s List” ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/4 "2006-09-29T12:09:05Z")
The Man Who Wasn’t There going back a while Some Like It Hot was planned to be shot in colour, but Tony Curtiss’ and Jack Lemmon’s make up apparently looked a lot more realistic in B&W, si it was shot thay way. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/5 "2006-09-29T12:16:29Z")
The arthouse crowd gave us Pi and those wacky Japanese gave us Tetsuo. Meanwhile, Tim Burton had to make do with a [man in an angora sweater](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109707/)😛 ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/6 "2006-09-29T12:24:17Z")
I don’t know if _The Call of Cthulhu_ counts or not. It was shot on video, not film, and was never released to theaters. The [DVD](http://www.amazon.com/Call-Cthulhu-Sean-Branney/dp/B000BQTC98/sr=1-1/qid=1159532003/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3276427-8633517?ie=UTF8&s=dvd) is available from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which produced the film on a shoestring budget. The gimmick with this flick is that it’s presented as a faux silent film made in the silent film era, a very clever way to cope with the sever budget limitations. The soundtrack offers two versions, one with modern stereo high fidelity, the other with the kind of mono, lo fidelity you’d expect from the early talkies period. They even added phony “damage” to some frames to make it look like it had been sitting around in some studio vault for decades. Well worth watching if you’re either a Lovecraft fan or a silent film buff. I love it, but I’m a major Lovecraft fan. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/7 "2006-09-29T12:26:59Z")
_Celebrity_ _Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid_ _Young Frankenstein_ ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/8 "2006-09-29T12:31:03Z")
How far back you wanna go? PSYCHO, reportedly because the blood was too shocking in color (hmm, compare to today’s standards…) The sad bit is that most film made in B&W nowadays doesn’t look great – tolday’s cinematographers aren’t trained in how to do B&W. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/9 "2006-09-29T12:40:12Z")
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven] The sad bit is that most film made in B&W nowadays doesn’t look great – tolday’s cinematographers aren’t trained in how to do B&W. [/QUOTE] Yeah, requires a different bag of tricks. I’ve taken some good B&W pictures, and I’ve taken some absolutley horrible ones that would have been good if only I had used color. :smack: And then I’ve taken some photos that were just lousy all around, but whatever. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/10 "2006-09-29T12:40:40Z")
A David Lynch double bill - Elephant Man and Eraserhead ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/11 "2006-09-29T12:43:35Z")
For some reason, _Pi_ was the first answer that came to mind. Reasons for using B7W seem to be economics (_She’s Gotta have It_), nostalgia (_Paper Moon_ and _Zelig_), and artistic decisons (chocolate syrup makes scarier blood than ketchup). Then there’s the oddball reasons. I read that the war movie _Is Paris Burning?_ was shot in B&W was because the French government wouldn’t allow big, red Nazi flags to be flown in the streets. Hijack: I once heard a radio show ask “what was the most expensive B&W movie ever made?” but missed the answer. I’ve had to live with the nagging 1% uncertainty of guessing _The Longest Day_ ever since. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2006, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/12 "2006-09-29T13:00:51Z")
> [@](#): > > How far back you wanna go? PSYCHO, reportedly because the blood was too shocking in color (hmm, compare to today’s standards…) I suspect Hitchcock used black and white as much for the claustrophobic atmosphere as the blood – Normal Bates and his mansion against the sky look so much better in b&w than in color. (Still, Hitchcock was fond of new technology, and he’d been doing color for years – Psycho was clearly a conscious choice in b&w) Keep in mind that black and white was still pretty standard in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Not only **Psycho** , but **Twelve Angry Men** and **To Kill a Mockingbird** and **The Train** and **King Rat** and plenty of other movies were all black and white. As late as 1965 **The Bedford Incident** was black and white – and I don’t think it was for artistic reasons. But by the mid-1960s color was common and cheap enough that it was becoming the default. I’d say that anyone making a black and white flick after 1970 certainly was doing it on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/13 "2006-09-29T13:01:06Z")
_Raging Bull_ _Ed Wood_ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/14 "2006-09-29T13:14:45Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] But by the mid-1960s color was common and cheap enough that it was becoming the default. [/QUOTE] The tipping point came in 1954, when the number of color features produced in the U.S. exceeded the number of black and white. In Britain, the same didn’t occur until 1965. Ironically, most black and white movies produced by Hollywood in the 1960s were A-budget pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/15 "2006-09-29T13:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Hitchcock was fond of new technology, and he’d been doing color for years – Psycho was clearly a conscious choice in b&w. [/QUOTE] I heard (on NPR) that he did \*Psycho on the fast & cheap, using the production crew from his TV show instead of his usual movie crew, and the economy extended to B&W over color stock as well. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/16 "2006-09-29T13:18:11Z")
Following by Christopher Nolan ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/17 "2006-09-29T13:36:45Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove] I heard (on NPR) that he did \*Psycho on the fast & cheap, using the production crew from his TV show instead of his usual movie crew, and the economy extended to B&W over color stock as well. [/QUOTE] While that is true, B&W was also chosen so no one would realize Marion Crane’s blood was Hershey’s syrup. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/18 "2006-09-29T14:59:04Z")
Shadows and Fog Stardust Memories Manhattan Broadway Danny Rose ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/19 "2006-09-29T15:02:29Z")
_Der Himmel über Berlin_ by Wim Wenders, called _Wings of Desire_ in English, remade as _City of Angels_ has inventive use of b&w vs. colour footage. A superb film. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599/20 "2006-09-29T15:06:41Z")
_City of Angels_ was turned into a black-and-white stage play. Now _that_ is inventive use of lighting and color. I’d like to do Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard” in B&W [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-b-w-movies/374599.md?page=2)