Monochrome Dreams

As a film fan, and a filmmaker, I am always dazzled when a director takes an old medium and reinvents it for modern audiences… Sometimes this can be as easy as a new take on an old shot, a new way to use old equipment, or a re-imagining of a once oft practiced routine…

My favourite, though, is when a modern filmmaker uses black and white to present their story.

Black and white, Monochrome, two tone — cinema used to be so simple and so effective when it was all in this format, before the dawn of techicolour.

Story and acting and design had to replace the gimmicks that sometimes over-saturate modern films at the expense of decent storytelling.

Black and White allows you to strip a story bare and allow the words and actions to take shape, and allow you to enjoy the barebones of a tale — without kowtowing to fads and crazes.

What follows is a comprehensive list of my five favourite modern Two Tone films, and a couple of honourable mentions — to films who are not afraid to push the Black and White on an audience almost entirely comprised of sugar-rushing, teeny-boppers looking for the nest fix of gornography or vampire melodrama when there is a hotbed of talent and beauty and finesse out there, if they would just allow the reality of the shite they watch to open their eyes…

In no particular order, here we go…

Twenty Four Seven

Directed by: Shane Meadows

Year of Release: 1997

Bob Hoskins stars in the no-budget, black and white Brit-flick, by then unknown Shane Meadows. It is a film about a Nottingham Boxing academy, and the put upon trainer trying to turn the lives around of the Boys who frequent it…

Upon it’s release, it was almost universally praised for its stark B&W photography -—yet, everyone was in agreement the acting and direction was lacking, but made up the marks it received in its ratings due to sheer bloody mindedness, Hoskins' brilliant, down-in-the-jowels turn, and the energy of its young, and as then untrained cast…

Watch it now, and you can see baby steps toward films like Dead Man Shoes and Room for Romeo Brass, as Meadows learns to use a camera, and the medium of film from almost scratch.

Watch it again, and just sit back and enjoy a film that ticks all the right boxes, and gets by on breezy and near effortless enthusiasm.

PI

Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

Year of Release: 1998

The outstanding debut from Darren Aronofsky, this film is completely and utterly, from start to finish, a work of genius and a how to guide for water tight plotting, performance, and direction.

Genre-wise, it steps into many areas — thriller/sci-fi/drama/body horror and even at times a little comedy. What it has in spades though is STORY, and what a story it is…

Max is a mathematical genius, obsessed with Pi and the repetition of numbers in nature. His hypothesis is that numbers are everywhere, and with Pi as a starting point, he thinks he can crack the code of nature and find the meaning of life.

His first step in this is by using Pi to crack the Stock Market. He applies Pi to Wall Street financial figures to prove that numbers can be controlled, and that by controlling the numbers you can control the way we live…

However, his hypothesis catches the eyes of sinister corporations who want to steal his idea and apply it themselves to corner the market, as well as orthodox Jewish scholars, who believe his work could be the breakthrough they need to decode the Torah, the ancient Jewish scriptures, which are also number-based algorithmic sequences.

Watching the film cold can literally melt your brain, but it is a debut that basically opened every door in Hollywood for Aronofsky, and allowed him to pick and choose his projects in much the same way Stephen Spielberg did before him, and Christopher Nolan did after.

Pi is true original and also a riveting watch.

Following

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Year of Release: 1998

Maybe it was a case of budgetary constraints, or maybe it was because B&W stock was so cheap that year compared to Colour, but 1997/1998 really was a watershed year for the release of highly influential, as well as groundbreaking for the directors, releases…

Next of which, we have Chris “Inception/ Dark Knight" Nolan’s debut feature Following.

It is a film shot for a meager budget, produced by the director, his wife and the lead actor — and starring a collection of unknowns and the directors stage actor uncle (easily the biggest name in the whole film, with the smallest part) but, again, another film that opened doors in Hollywood and allowed the filmmakers the carte blanche to do whatever the hell they wanted.

Basic premise: a writer follows people so he can gain a wealth of information for characters on a book he never seems to write. One day, he spots a man in a dark suit carrying a hold all, and follows him, discovering that the man is a thief named Cobb.

Cobb rumbles him, takes the writer under his wing, and introduces him to the idea that by breaking into people houses and by taking meaningful — if inexpensive things — he is waking these people up from their slumber and malaise and welcoming them open armed into reality, where everything takes on a higher meaning and they treasure and trust with a heightened sense of whats at stake.

What starts as a case of learning and observing soon becomes a case of cat and mouse and trust. Identity and rationale are all explored and cast about the wayside as masks fall off and the reality of his increasingly worrying situation becomes stark and real…

Released in 1998, yet, due to the incredible success of Inception — about to see a Stateside re-release — this is a low budget B&W thriller that could easily have been a darker episode of The Bill in less experienced hands, but is elevated above the norm by brilliant performances by everyone involved, and a Fly-On-The-Wall feel that makes viewing sometimes very hard indeed.

Memento was the film that made him famous, but Following was the film that got him noticed.

Schindler's List

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Year of Release: 1993

Is it really almost twenty years since the Oscar Winning Schindler's List was released in cinemas? Can it really be so long?

Overly long, emotionally wretching and — at times — hideously preachy, but, for all its many minor flaws, it maintains its position as one of Spielberg’s, if not Cinema's, greatest films.

Where to start?

• The Shower Scene — where the hurried, emaciated bodies of Jews are pushed expecting their imminent end — and are bathed instead in fresh water?
• The sight of pot-bellied Ralph Fiennes taking Pot Shots at the Jewish workers as they go about the chores and jobs designated to them — unable to run, unable to hide — never knowing if the next bullet will be for them.
• The little girl who runs into the crowd, a flash of Pink — in a film otherwise devoid of life, colour, or hope?

It’s a masterpiece of cinema, a film that tells a story that needs to be told — everyone NEEDS to know — and tells it with pathos, empathy, and a sliver of hope where there really ought not to be any.

Spielberg takes a subject that should never be tackled by Hollywood's engine of wealth, greed, and soullessness — and delivers a film that deserves every kudos imaginable for never once mollycoddling the details, never once hiding in the light of the easy option, and that never once pulls its punches, showing everyone to be a monster they were. Even Schindler himself, who — let's face it, for all his positives — was a wartime profiteer, taking what he could when he could and making money at the same time — often saving, but also exploiting an entire race — and sometimes, but not always, for the right reasons.

Schindler's List is a magnificent film, and well worthy of its timeless status.

Control

Directed By: Anton Corbijn

Year of Release: 2007

Director Anton Corbijn had the dual honour of knowing and filming Joy Division for many years — not only taking photos of them live and for records, but also socially as well as in the studio.

When the idea was first mooted about a Joy Division - and more specifically Ian Curtis — biopic, he was always head of the queue for the job, due to the insight he had and the knowledge of the times, as well as his relationship with the band.

When Ian Curtis died on May 18, 1980, Anton Corbijn was one of the people more affected than most. He directed the posthumous video of "Atmosphere" in 1988, and was widely recognised as one of the people who knew the band best from his frequent photography assignments…

What's so strange about Control, though, is the restraint, the lightness of touch, and the fact that black and white is not as saturated and dark as the trademark Corbijn style.

Famous for his stark monochromatic portraits for artists like Metallica, Depeche Mode, and Johnny Cash, the mood and style and fingerprint of the director is almost invisible, as he allows the subject matter to be the main concern, almost devoid of egocentricity. The film is all about Curtis — played to perfection, down to every tick and nuance, by newcomer Sam Riley — worthy of every award and piece of praise written about him — and equal to the task of acting as vessel for Curtis spirit-incarnate in the film itself.

If you are a fan of the band and the man, this will bring you near on to tears. If you enjoy music and movies, this film is indispensible, as it breaths life into the biopic formula, and wakens the rage inside the belly of any musician, as they watch the inevitable unfold in front of their eyes.

Perfect in every way, your soul is dead, dried up, and useless if you are not moved by the final moments of Curtis’s life, and the flashes of inevitability to come.

Clerks

Directed by: Kevin Smith

Year of Release: 1994

Where would any B&W film list be without the brilliant, trailblazing and genuine original that is Clerks. Regardless of what you think of the man, Smith, his debut is a piece of unarguable perfection.

Timeless, hysterical, and so, so real.

Dante and Randall have entered the zeitgeist as cyphers for the everyman battling back against the man. Jay and Silent Bob became household names and stars in their own right, The dialogue is endless quotable and the story is a case of less-is-more-is-perfect.

Argue all you want. Clerks is impossible to knock.

I first watched this on Channel Four late one night after a discussion at college with a friend. I bought a VHS copy the very next day, and I now own three versions on DVD… Johnathan Ross may argue that Smith is puerile and offensive and a blight on the cinematic landscape, and you may well agree, but as a filmmaker who has well and truly found his niche, and produces films that challenge and diversify with equal measure, he is right up their with Woody Allen. Yes, he may rely on the same tricks over and over, but Jesus, if it ain’t broke — why fix it?

Clerks remains a true original. And if you haven’t already — watch the extended making-of called the "Snowball Factor" on the Clerks X boxset… It should be compulsory viewing for any aspiring filmmakers, and is another piece of perfect celluloid.

I love it… And you should, too.

37!!!

Honorable mentions…

La Haine

Directed By: Matthieu Kassovitz

Year Of Release: 1995

Starring a young, shaven-headed Vincent Cassell, and written and directed by Amelie actor Matthieu Kassovitz, La Haine is the French film that changed the rules and broke the back of the myth of France being just like a Jean Luc Goddard movie…

Instead, we were faced with racial tension, anti-authoritative rebellion, and skin heads with guns terrorizing the Paris night time.

It is a stunning and allegorical debut that paved the way for the reality of the world of Paris to come — namely race riots, police brutality, and mass immigration.

Never has a film been so ahead of its time, and never has a performance haunted an actor as much as that of Vinz for Vincent Cassell — forever in the shadow of the punkish little oik, and always needing to sidestep the boy in every film since.

Watch it and be amazed by film again…

And finally…

Young Frankenstein

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Year of Release: 1974

Mel Brooks has had a hard few years, but has never been so much more on the money with this 1974 spoof that literally defined a genre, before a slew of hacks came in and killed it behind his back (and indeed, with his later films Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Dracula: Dead And Loving It).

Young Frankenstein was literal perfection: casting, set design, storyline, and direction, the works, was flawless. It holds up as well nowadays as it did in ‘74 upon its release.

Not only is it STILL funny — but it is funnier now than back then. All children should be made to sit and watch this film and Monty Python's Life Of Brian on their 12th birthday and educated in what REAL comedy is all about.

Gene Wilder has a tendency to sometimes be the Jim Carrey of his age, wide-eyed and mugging, sometimes shouting when a whisper will suffice, but in this film, he does the film a service by always being on the right side of the joke, and never getting carried away with himself.

Adjectives do not exist to allow me to tell how important this movie is to me. But it will be forever a slice of untouchable class and filmmaking at its very, very best.

So, there you have it.

What are your favourite monochrome movies? What classifies as a modern Monochrome Dream? You may think I am wrong in my choices... Everyone is entitled to their opinion. This is mine for you all to see and I welcome your — no doubt — speedy, witty, and delicious acerbic retorts.

Films, eh?

Fucking amazing, aren’t they?