There is a special,elegant kind of beauty reserved for the contrast and simplicity of black and white. Watching black and white movies or looking through black and white photographs puts you in a softer mood then you were in the color of reality. Black and white has several advantages, especially in art. Not only does it create a nostalgic feel but it adds several visual and emotional appeals.
The emotions and tones of black and white films seem much more complete than color. Black and white romance moves are more romantic than color movies. Black and white suspense movies are more suspenseful than color. Film noir is often defined as black and white by requirement. It creates stark shadows, brilliant rays of light with clear paths of travel, and beautifully lit and textured faces.
Another element of black and white film is the greater freedom and responsibility of the viewer to create their own images and interpretations much like the readers of a book must use his imagination. In black and white film the viewer is given an incomplete view and must fill in the blanks of color. In Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times the female character greats Chaplin’s character outside of jail in what I have always understood to be a country blue and yellow dress. In reality it could be something very different. To another viewer it may be another color. Each viewer is free to make the film his own.
There are some movies in particular that are especially elegant in black and white and could not be any other way. Examples are: Hitchcock’s Psycho, Darryl F. Zanuck’s The Longest Day and the Humphrey Bogart movie The Treasure of Sierra Madre. In a Zagat’s review of the scenic camera work of The Treasure of Sierra Madre someone commented “color, we don’t need no stinking color” making a play of words on the famous line of the movie. The person who colorizes Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life will be the one who destroys Christmas.
There is also black and white photography that deserves mentioning. One of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen is the Ansel Adams photograph ‘Moonrise over Hernandez, NM.’ What I saw (it was in a museum) was an actual print by Adams; it was not a poster or a reproduction. It was easily the greatest piece of art I have ever witnessed, and quite possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The contrast was perfect making the photograph seem deep and real. The silvery brilliant white of the moon and distant clouds were perfectly set against the shining black of night. All the posters and prints seen everywhere else do little justice to the real thing.
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