In yesterday's DBD, a member of our illustrious floating gathering divulged that until very recently they had never seen a black & white film. No, it wasn't rollonyoubears111, which made it all the more surprising, as this person (who shall remain nameless) is a fine, upstanding, mature and articulate adult. But this is baffling to me, as a fair number of the greatest films of all time were filmed in black & white.
Aesthetically, I find black & white films to have a certain remote beauty about them, they tend to idealize and make more beautiful and timeless the actors & actresses in them. I have nothing against color films in any way, but I do heartily despise colorizing films originally film in black & white as it changes them markedly for the worse. In a way black & white films have the look of classics - even though in the classic era of ancient Greece, they painted their marble sculptures like barbie dolls.
Would this look better with her nipples painted pink?
This list is only of films I've seen, and is by no means meant to be definitive, just a starting point of some of the finest films ever captured on celluloid.
1927
Metropolis*
1931
City Lights*, Frankenstein*, M
1932
Horse Feathers*
1933
Duck Soup*, The Invisible Man*, Gold Diggers of 1933* (just for the spectacle)
1934
It Happened One Night*, (very romantic) The Thin Man (being drunk all the time never looked more fun)
1935
The Bride of Frankenstein* (10 times weirder than the first), The 39 Steps* (one of my personal faves), A Night at the Opera*
1936
My Man Godfrey* (but the netfilx disc is unwatchable), San Francisco* (surprisingly convincing EQ scene), Modern Times* (if you liked City Lights)
1938
Bringing Up Baby* (zany fun), The Lady Vanishes*
1939 - widely considered a most excellent year for films
Destry Rides Again*, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*, Stagecoach*, Ninotchka*, The Roaring Twenties*, The Women*
1940
The Grapes of Wrath*, His Girl Friday*, Foreign Correspondent*, The Mark of Zorro*, Rebecca*
1941
Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Sullivan's Travels*, The Lady Eve
1942
Casablanca*, The Magnificent Ambersons, To Be or Not to Be*, Saboteur*
1943
Shadow of a Doubt*
1944
Double Indemnity, Laura
1945
Les Enfants du Paradis (filmed in Paris during the occupation), The Picture of Dorian Gray
1946
The Best Years of Our Lives, The Big Sleep, Gilda, My Darling Clementine*, Notorious
1947
Out of the Past, Nightmare Alley
1948
Red River*, Treasure of the Sierra Madre*
1949
Kind Hearts and Coronets* (wickedly funny), The Third Man*
1950
All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, The Asphalt Jungle
1951
The Man in the White Suit*, Rashomon, Ace in the Hole, Strangers on a Train
1953
The Big Heat, Shane*, The Wages of Fear
1954
The Seven Samurai, La Strada
1955
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Rififi (the first heist movie)
1956
Bob Le Flambeur
1957
Paths of Glory, The Seventh Seal, Sweet Smell of Success, Throne of Blood
1958
Touch of Evil (best opening tracking shot of all time)
1959
The Four Hundred Blows, Some Like it Hot*
1960
The Apartment, La Dolce Vita, Psycho (but this one, I haven't seen)
1961
Yojimbo
1962
Jules et Jim, The Manchurian Candidate, Lolita, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1963
Dr. Strangelove, 8 1/2
1964
A Hard Day's Night*, Fail Safe, The Killers
1965
The Battle of Algiers
1966
Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe?
1971
The Last Picture Show
1973
Paper Moon*
1974
Young Frankenstein* (but this will be much funnier if you watch both originals first)
1980
Raging Bull
2005
Sin City
2011
The Artist* (but your pleasure will be enhanced if you watch some silent movies before watching this)
Further thoughts; black and white cinematography is so entirely different from the color version, that there always ought to have been different Academy Awards for each. So much more focused on contrast, shadows and the play of light, I strongly feel that those who were best at it were very special in their profession. In fact one of the greatest American film genres, Film Noir (a genre defined from abroad by French Critics) would not exist (at least stylistically) if most of the Film Noir pictures were not filmed in black and white, and drenched in shadows (with little doubt).
Oh, and DC, all the titles with asterisks I think are safe viewing for 10-14 year olds.
via classiq.me
From Gilda - I can never find the still I want, but watch the first ten minutes of this movie, and just try to tell me it isn't the sexiest entrance of all time, just try, I dare you.