B&W : Throne of Blood

[jtk]

Kurosawa's Throne of Blood is a gorgeous b&w movie, shot in the 50s by

one of the greatest. Beautiful blacks and greys with the smallest

brilliant whites...sensitivity to tone.

 

See it along with Polanski's Macbeth, read Alan Bloom on Macbeth and

especially the wonderful new book by Stephen Greenblatt, Will In The

World (about Shakespeare's origins).

 

Kurosawa's B&W images stand by themselves as Leica-worthy images,

frame after frame.

[terry_rory]

After that watch "A Canterbury Tale" and "The Edge of the World" on DVD. (Or even "I know where I'm going")

 

Exquisite B&W and originality and good old fashioned Powell and Pressburger quirkiness.

[terry_rory]

Here is a link to some DVD scans. The actual DVDs are an awful lot better quality but this gives an idea....

 

<a href="http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Images/44_ACT/DVD-Scans/index.html">Powell and Pressburger Images (beware lots of 'em)</a>

[gubo]

Do you mean Harold Bloom? Also try Camille Paglia.

 

My favorite b&w Japanese film is Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari.

A ghostly tale of mist and moonlight photographed to perfection.

[Robert_Lai]

Thanks for the hint, John! I love Kurosawa films - especially those with Mifune in the lead.<p>Trevor, I did try to find "A Canterbury Tale" here in North America. No luck. The DVDs that you suggested in the past do not have the "Region 1 encoding" required for DVD players in North America. I'll just have to wait until Criterion gets around to it. I almost bought "I know where I'm going". Do you think it's worthwhile?

[saotome_genma]

<P>Robert, you might easily be able to make your DVD player region free, take a look in <a href="http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?s=3&p=all">dvdanswers</a>, <a href="http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayershack.php">videohelp</a> or <a href="http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/hackable.asp">dvd reviewer</a>.

[stuart_richardson]

Throne of Blood is excellent, but I prefer The Seven Samurai as a movie. For other extremely

well shot B&W movies, Ingmar Bergman is hard to beat -- particularly the Seventh Seal. His

stills rival some of the best photos I have seen. Here are a few from google image search:

<P><img src="http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/images/large//

seventh_seal2_rgb.jpg"><P><img src="http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/images/large//

seventh_seal3_rgb.jpg"><P><img src="http://utopia.duth.gr/~adamand/destruction/

cinema/The_Seventh_Seal-02.jpg"><P>Visually, Bergman is fantastic...Antonioni and Fellini

are also great to check out.

[brunom]

John

 

There are so many old b/w films that are dazzling, and I think that the films of Michael Cacoyannis[ a Girl in Black, Zorba the Greek, Stella etc] should be included.

 

Regards

 

Bruno

[jtk]

Wow, this has turned into a great thread! Thanks for all the B&W suggestions!

 

DVDs don't need to be region free to run them on your PC, at least that's my experience with various Euro DVDs in the US. Videotape's more trouble, there's probably only one current multi-region VCR, a Samsung (I think NEC's quit).

 

Yes, HAROLD Bloom...I think he diverts attention from Shakespeare's human brilliance (jealousy imo). Greenblatt tells more truth, even when he's stretching points or making possible mistakes. It's wonderful to see Throne of Blood and Polanski's Macbeth within a couple of days. Each is better than the other! I think that directly invalidate's Bloom's theses (cosmic values) and expands on Greenblatt's.

[ben_johnson3]

For a more contemporary film with great B&W compositions, have a look at Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law (1986). The Criterion edition has an interview with the DoP, Muller.