Sunday, March 23, 2008

Why Black and White is Better than Color


In this episode, Joe and Dan argue the merits of black and white over color. Films and filmmakers discussed...

FILMS: Attack of the 50 Foot Woman * No Country for Old Men * Shaft * Dr. Zhivago * Sweeney Todd * Raging Bull * In Cold Blood * The Day of the Locust * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid * American Beauty * The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari * Nosferatu * The Golem * Young Frankenstein * Cat People * The Body Snatcher * Invasion of the Body Snatchers * The Curse of the Cat People * I Walked with a Zombie * The Leopard Man * The Grapes of Wrath * The Ox-Bow Incident * High Noon * The Day of the Jackal * Dirty Harry * Chinatown * Taxi Driver * The Twilight Zone * Manhattan * Stranger Than Paradise * Down by Law * The Outer Limits * Ed Wood * The Adventures of Robin Hood * The Mummy * My Darling Clementine * The Tingler * Sunrise * Double Indemnity * Carnival of Souls * A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies * Night of the Living Dead * Invisible Invaders * The Last Man on Earth * I Am Legend * The Maltese Falcon * From Here to Eternity * It's a Wonderful Life *

FILMMAKERS: Georges Melies * Nathan Juran * Gordon Parks * Nicolas Roeg * David Lean * Tim Burton * The Coen Brothers * Martin Scorsese * Joel Schumacher * Richard Brooks * Conrad Hall * Val Lewton * Mel Brooks * Boris Karloff * Marlon Brando * Dashiell Hammett * Gary Cooper * John Wayne * Anthony Mann * Fred Zinnemann * Clint Eastwood * John Huston * Mickey Spillane * Don Siegel * Philip Kaufman * Woody Allen * Jim Jarmusch * Henry Fonda * Vincent Price * F. W. Murnau * George Romero * John Agar * Humphrey Bogart *

Theme from The Conversation by David Shire... Blog image from Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane shot by Gregg Toland...

36:44 / 33.7 MB / Rated: PG-13... "Thanks for the download"...

Next Episode: The Films of Samuel Fuller

1 comment:

trav himself said...

Another great show -- really excellent stuff.

The comment that "the dark space has more weight to it" really resonated with me. I was reminded of something I once heard (possibly from Hendrix... can't remember); to paraphrase:

"It's not the notes you play, but the space you put between them."

So much media today is over-saturated with noise, or color, or superfluous "look at me! look at me!" nonsense. Old media (whether it be black and white film, or old jazz records, or classic prose) is so refreshing sometimes because those guys weren't afraid to back off a bit, set you up, and then grab your attention all at once.