Rare Film Presentations: Black & White Widescreen

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SalParadise · #1 Post by **SalParadise** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:11 pm

Full screen B&W - oodles of 'em
Full screen colour - can you count them?
Widescreen coulour - they are making them like they are going out of fashion.

B&W widescreen? An honour to watch in the cinema. Maybe my favourite combination of colour and format, perhaps because they are so rare.

the oringinals:

Europe first: 400 Blows, Mouchette, La Notte, The Battle of Algiers, The Innocents, Lord of the Flies, Last Year at Marienbad, L'Avventura, Repulsion, Jules and Jim, Au hasard Balthazar.

Next USA: Hustler, 12 Angry Men, Psycho, To Kill a Mockingbird, Touch of Evil, Anatomy of a Murder, The Apartment, In Cold Blood, Inherit the Wind , Sweet Smell of Success, Dr. Strangelove, The Train.

Lastly Japan: (perhaps the best country for this format) Harakiri, Yojimbo/SanjÃƒÂ»rÃƒÂ´, Naked Island, Onibaba, Red Beard.

more recent ones: Eraserhead, Raging Bull, Elehpant Man, Rumble Fish, Schindler's List, Devils on the Doorstep, Ed Wood, Pi, Tarr Bela, Dead Man, The Man Who Wasn't There, 13 Tzameti.

I guess I missed a couple, but wouldn't you agree these movies have imprinted their expansive black and white images on to your brain?

denti alligator · #2 Post by **denti alligator** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:20 pm

"Rare" is a bit too strong, don't you think?

Oedipax · #3 Post by **Oedipax** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:29 am

Don't forget Peter Tscherkassky's amazing Cinemascope trilogy!

Belmondo · #4 Post by **Belmondo** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:33 am

denti alligator wrote:"Rare" is a bit too strong, don't you think?

Yes, it is a bit too strong, but, since color film was easily available by the time widescreen came along, it means the filmmaker is making an interesting choice. Military and war movies benefit particularly from this choice and "Sink the Bismark", "The Americanization of Emily", "Guns at Batasi" and "In Harm's Way" are good examples. And, don't dismiss "In Harm's Way" as just another John Wayne movie - Preminger knew how to compose a scene and the composition transcends its own melodrama just as it did in the similarly photographed "Advise and Consent".

I also love John Huston's use of widescreen black and white for "Night of the Iguana". It must have been tempting to use color since they were on location in Puerto Vallerta, but, those characters exist strictly in shades of gray.

glaswegian tome · #5 Post by **glaswegian tome** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:25 am

In terms of Widescreen black and white presentation, my favourite would have to be Shock Corridor.

#6 Post by **domino harvey** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:55 am

Bitter Victory

Polybius · #7 Post by **Polybius** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:22 am

The case of Anatomy of a Murder is a bit more iffy than the rest of your examples.

MichaelB · #8 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:45 am

Just to get bang up to date, Anton Corbijn's Control.

Official site here

Dr Amicus · #9 Post by **Dr Amicus** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:00 am

Back in 2003, I was at a conference on Widescreen Cinema. On the same panel as myself were Steve Chibnall, talking about b&w widescreen in British films, and Gerry Coubro, talking about HammerScope.

Steve Chibnall's argument was that b&w scope was quite common in British films in the late 50s & early 60s - going so far as to claim it as almost being a defining characteristic of Britishness.

Anyway, both of them showed clips from films directed by Val Guest - The Abominable Snowman and Hell Is A City. Based on my viewings of his Yesterday's Enemy and Jigsaw, there is much to suggest that Guest is a vastly underrated user of the scope format.

Also, Winston Wheeler Dixon, in his book length interview with Freddie Francis, tries to argue that b&w scope is his favoured format - both as director and cinematographer. Francis demurs, but has stated that The Innocents is his favourite work.

Chull · #10 Post by **Chull** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:16 am

SalParadise wrote:Lastly Japan: (perhaps the best country for this format) Harakiri, Yojimbo/SanjÃƒÂ»rÃƒÂ´, Naked Island, Onibaba, Red Beard.

If you haven't already, check out Suzuki's Underworld Beauty. Gorgeous looking.

exte · #11 Post by **exte** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:29 am

Yet another reason why I love this forum - great subject for a thread!

Tommaso · #12 Post by **Tommaso** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:34 am

It seems that with many older b&w white films presented in widescreen or scope it's not quite clear what the intended ratio was, or at least that the scope ratio was imposed by the studio at the time on an alreading existing negative. Most famous example: Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", and I'm not sure about a few other so-called Sci-Fi "B-Movies".

To add to the list: "Ill met by moonlight" (Powell&Pressburger, another case of a film probably shot open matte, Powell maintains the AOR was 1.33, but the disc is 1.85, and looks completely allright). Also Pasolini's "Gospel" and "Hawks and Sparrows", and Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev".

Jean-Luc Garbo · #13 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:11 am

Ah, Andrei Rublev. Now THAT is the sort of film that as Sal says imprints itself on your mind! I love 2.35 anyway, but something about Rublev makes it my favorite B&W 2.35 film.

Michael Kerpan · #14 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:45 am

One of my very favorite kind of films (purely visually)

A few examples:

Bunuel's Diary of a Chambermaid

Kozintsev's Hamlet and King Lear

Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Wanderer's Notebook, Yearning

Shinoda's Pale Flowers

Nomura's Stakeout and Zero Focus

Uchida's Kiga kaikyo (Straits of Fear)

HerrSchreck · #15 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:34 am

A nice thread for fetishism, yes, but I think calling widescreen b/w a rarity is waayyyy off the mark. ALL those great Shindo's, Kurosawas, Kobayashis, the great Freddie Francis English features like THE INNOCENTS (one of the more beautiful examples of this format) or NIGHTMARE. How about 1.66 to 1.85 horror stuff like THE DEVIL DOLL, CITY OF THE DEAD, NIGHT OF THE EAGLE, all the Antonioni, there's just way way too much to mention here. Stuff like KRONOS, god I could go on and on. Tons of material. Renoir's later material, HORRIBLE EXPERIMENRT, ELUSV ZCORPORAL, etc..

ANDRE ROUBLEW indeed... CC upgraded an already pretty decent THIRD MAN, so they better put out an anamorphic box for this greatest of widescreen masterpieces in a reissue, at least 3 discs.

Edit: as a matter of fact I'd say, past the early 60's to the present, 1.33 black and white is FAR more difficult to find.

montgomery · #16 Post by **montgomery** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:04 am

Persona was on your list, but it's not widescreen. Unless you've been watching the bungled MGM DVD, in which case you better buy yourself a corrected version, and quick.

Michael Kerpan · #17 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:05 am

HerrSchreck wrote:Edit: as a matter of fact I'd say, past the early 60's to the present, 1.33 bacl and white is FAR more difficult to find.

colinr0380 · #18 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:18 am

Another great modern 2.35:1 widescreen film is Suture from 1993.

Steven H · #19 Post by **Steven H** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:24 am

Along with SalParadise's great list, some of my favorite Japanese directors, Naruse (already mentioned) Okamoto, Yoshida, and Imamura did GOBS of work in scope B&W in the 60s. Okamoto's Age of Assassins, Yoshida's Eros Plus Massacre, and Imamura's Insect Woman are some of the best examples of it, I think Actually, all three directors also did a handful of great past early 60s 1:33 B&W films: The Human Bullet (Okamoto), Coup d'etat (Yoshida), and A Man Vanishes (Imamura), but these were definitely the exception to the rule.

Michael Kerpan · #20 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:27 am

Steven H wrote:Along with SalParadise's great list, some of my favorite Japanese directors, Naruse (already mentioned) Okamoto, Yoshida, and Imamura did GOBS of work in scope B&W in the 60s. .

I had just remembered I left Imamura off the list. Pigs and Battleships is just plain awesome -- and the others aren't bad either....

HerrSchreck · #21 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:34 am

OKAMOTO.. christ, it's almost corny to mention it owing to its classic nature, but truly one of the greatest widescreen exhibitions of raw compositional power verging on the avant (much similarity to the adventurous widescreen compositions of Kobayashi, say in REBELLION), and hearkening back to the beauty of the silent eras pictorialism: SWORD OF DOOM. You just can't say enough to praise the achievement of this film. I love films that lose nothing thru repeated viewing-- I mean this on the straight cinematographic plane, not in terms of poetic depth, meaning, or simple human enjoyment. As you view great shots over and over again thru repeated viewing, you anticipate them and they lose their power to stun as they did upon the first viewing. The sheer power and muscle of the mise en scene in DOOM is just so organic that the shot impact just never goes away... fucking gift that just keeps on giving. I get the same feeling that I got from Robert E. Howard's dark gloomy words as a kid when reading the original Conan stories. Sublime.

colinr0380 · #22 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:34 am

Steven H wrote:...and Imamura did GOBS of work in scope B&W in the 60s.

That reminded me of The Pornographers, one of the most beautifully composed films I've ever seen: action going on inside buildings but seen from outside with the world occurring on the very edge, the hair parlor which can be seen completely through, the long walk down the corridor the son's new girlfriend makes towards the boy and his mother with sections illuminating and being darkened as she approaches, the fishtank! - boxes within boxes that perfectly capture the way people are catching glimpses of others and being watched in return. All in crisp black and white!

Steven H · #23 Post by **Steven H** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:48 am

Pigs and Battleships, Insect Woman, The Pornographers, and Intentions of Murder and even some of his earlier films are all gorgeous to look at in scope B&W. Okamoto's war films (Westward Desperado, Desperado Outpost, Japan's Longest Day, Battle of Okinawa, and Fort Graveyard) are all great examples of this format (not to mention his comedies, again scope B&W.)

Also, you can get an idea of how Yoshida Yoshishige used B&W scope from from this trailer for his Woman of the Lake, his adaptation of Kawabata's The Lake from 1966 (right after he did one of the BEST looking films in this format, A Story Written With Water.

edit: also, from what I've seen lately, any fans of Sword of Doom level samurai stuff should check out Kudo Eiichi, especially the Wild Side set. His The Great Killing is another fine example of black and white 2:35

tryavna · #24 Post by **tryavna** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:51 pm

Dr Amicus wrote:Steve Chibnall's argument was that b&w scope was quite common in British films in the late 50s & early 60s - going so far as to claim it as almost being a defining characteristic of Britishness.

there is much to suggest that Guest is a vastly underrated user of the scope format.

I'm inclined to agree with both assertions, especially the latter. Guest is vastly underrated, period.

Someone mentioned Eastern Europe earlier. Valley of the Bees deserves to be singled out, for sure.

Widescreen b&w is by no means rare, as all these wonderful examples quickly verify.

GringoTex · #25 Post by **GringoTex** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:10 pm

The damn near forgotten Joseph H. Lewis' amazing b&w widescreen in The Big Combo, The Halliday Brand, and Terror in a Texas Town.