For
I appreciate this issue being raised. My husband and I are total opposites on this subject. He has very little appreciation for classic films and favors colorized versions, which gives the impression that a black and white film burns his eyes! For my part, I consider myself a lover of classic cinema and hate colorization. The atmosphere created by light and shadow, the subtlety, the dramatic effects cannot be reproduced in a colorized film. I am a subscriber to the (French) channel TCM Cinéma, specialized in the presentation of films produced from the creation of cinema to the present day. Silent, foreign with subtitles, black and white, color. I am always amazed by the talent and quality of a good film, regardless of era. Just watch the films of Chaplin, Fritz Lang, Jean Cocteau, Truffaut, Hitchcock, Spielberg, etc. But everyone has their own perception and tastes.
Lola Lefebvre Tremblay
What question ! Black and white serves richness so much better (from the series Ripley), the complexity of the scenario, the acting of the actors and the role of the magnificent locations, which are also important characters in the story. (…) I actually didn’t realize until about the sixth episode that everything was black and white. The absence of colors, in this case, enriches this fascinating production. And the movie Manhattan by Woody Allen? Would you prefer it in color?
Anne Fournel
For, when it serves the purpose, the atmosphere. As in photography, color brings a “liveliness”, a realism. It can also distract from the subject. Black and white photography is poetic, it is an “image”, less a reality. Our new 4K or other TVs offer the necessary definition, as in the photo works of Ansel Adams. Would we dare ask Van Gogh to use less yellow, as in a video currently circulating on social networks? A director makes us an offer. It is part of his work. I haven’t seen the series Ripley ; I take a general position on the subject.
Johanne Mercier
You state from the outset that you are opposed to it because it is in some way denying progress. That seems to me to be a bit of a short judgment. The technical choices of the director and his director of photography must translate the vision and atmosphere desired or that the film commands. And in the case of Ripley, it is, I am convinced, an absolutely judicious, even essential, choice. Indeed, it is an aesthetic inspired by expressionist cinema whose subjects were often mental disorders and madness. This movement gave rise to film noir, which you allude to in your article. The high contrasts created by the side lighting (chiaroscuro) were characteristic of this cinema. The numerous references to Caravaggio’s paintings, full of contrasts, support this choice. You lament that black and white deprives us of the beauty of the Amalfi Coast, but this is not a tourist film; the color would have distracted us from the point of the series. I loved this series in every way.
Michael Caron
Against
I am against black and white TV. This way of doing things was simply due to color technology which was non-existent at the time. There is no reason to use it now. In a pinch, black and white scenes could be inserted for aesthetic purposes or to create a period difference.
Jean Dagenais
I watched the first episode of Ripley on Netflix. Unfortunately, having seen the location where this film appears to have been shot, I regret that it is not in color. If you watch the film (not the same style at all) The Equalizer 3 with Denzel Washington, you will recognize that the landscapes are quite similar, but enormously more vivid in color. Dakota Fanning is luminous in The Equalizer and very little in Ripley. I’m unlikely to watch any other episodes of Ripley because of the lack of color.
Pierre Raymond
I lived in black and white from 1939 to 1960, in photos, in films and on television. Twenty years is plenty. I favor the vitality of color in everything. I leave the craze of a thousand and one shades from black to white to the aesthetes. Long live the colors.
Monique Jannard
Human beings are the only species whose eye can perceive all the nuances of color, so why deprive yourself of it? For my part, I can tolerate an old film or a period documentary in black and white, but not a recent series, no matter how good it may be, especially with the immense choice available to us on all platforms. Being from the generation that first experienced black and white television before the advent of color, I don’t want to go back at all!
Danièle Drolet
Read our column “For or against black and white on TV? »
reference: www.lapresse.ca