The Best Black and White Movies of the Past 50 Years

Publish date: 2024-05-13

What’s one way to make a film stand out in a world of CGI and cutting edge VFX? More than ever, filmmakers are finding black and white gives a distinctive look and feel that isn’t just for period fare. Every year, a handful of black and white movies remind viewers that living color isn’t always the best way to tell your story. In 2021, “Malcolm and Marie” started off the monochrome trend, while awards contenders “Passing,” “Belfast,” “C’mon C’mon” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” are bringing wintry contrast to the end of the year.

Last year, David Fincher’s “Mank” premiered on Netflix, capturing the events behind screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s development of the 1941 film “Citizen Kane.” Fincher made the choice to mirror the films of the “Citizen Kane” era by filming in black and white.

Though nearly all movies had switched over to color by the early to mid-1960s, since then directors such as Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Radha Blank and Rebecca Hall have turned to black and white to capture their creative visions. Whether chosen for aesthetic or storytelling reasons, every year a few movies continue to film in monochrome to set their mood. Here are some of the best modern-era movies whose filmmakers made the choice to shoot in black and white.

The Last Picture Show
The critically acclaimed coming-of-age 1971 drama captures the stories of Texas high schoolers learning to navigate their desires and dreams of escaping the small town they grew up in. Starring Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges, the film was released in black and white after director Peter Bogdanovich discussed the merits of grayscale filming with Orson Welles.
“Orson Welles says every performance looks better in black and white,” Bogdanovich told the Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s the fact that you don’t see blue eyes and blond hair. You focus on the performance, not the look of the people. And it enables you to capture the period better.”
Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks shot 1974’s hilarious spoof “Young Frankenstein” in black and white as an homage to classic Hollywood monster movies. But coming just a decade or so after most of the industry had switched to color, his producers were not on board at first with the seemingly uncommercial move. Brooks told Conan O’Brien that the producers tried to trick him into shooting in color, promising they would release the film in black and white. But Brooks countered, “No, because you’ll screw me, you will say this, and then in order to save the company you’ll risk a lawsuit, and you will print everything in color. It’s got to be on Agfa black and white thick film.”
Manhattan
A film that’s something of an ode to the bustling, colorful island might not seem like the obvious choice to shoot in monochrome, but director Woody Allen has a deep nostalgia for the cinema of the past.
So 1979’s “Manhattan” was shot without color as an homage to Allen’s cinematic memories of the titular location. Old photographs and films from his past contributed to Allen’s association of the city with black and white, leading him to run the idea past cinematographer Gordon Willis. Years later, he also shot “Shadows and Fog” in black and white.
Raging Bull
Martin Scorsese’s 1980 drama follows American boxer Jake LaMotta, portrayed by Robert De Niro, whose self-destructive personality destroys his relationship with his family.
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, nabbing two wins for best editing and for best actor for De Niro.
Preparation for production began with Scorsese shooting color footage with De Niro in a ring. When Scorsese’s advisor pointed out that the gloves at the time would have only been maroon or black, the filmmaker settled on creating a black-and-white movie.
She’s Gotta Have It
The iconic romantic comedy that launched Spike Lee’s film career, 1986’s “She’s Gotta Have It” centers on artist Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), who is juggling her friends, her job — and three relationships.
The micro-budgeted film was shot in Brooklyn and except for a singular color sequence, is entirely in black-and-white. “She’s Gotta Have It” won a Cannes Award of Youth and an Indie Spirit for best first feature. At the advice of Tonya Lewis Lee, Spike Lee’s wife, it was turned into a Netflix series in 2017 starring DeWanda Wise.
Ed Wood
This 1994 cult classic starring Johnny Depp zooms in on the period of Ed Wood’s life in the 1950s when the filmmaker created his well-known works, such as “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”
The Academy-winning film was originally in development with Columbia Pictures, but when Burton decided to shoot in black-and-white, studio executives wouldn’t agree to the decision, unless Columbia was given a first-look deal.
Burton, however, was adamant, saying the style was “right for the material and the movie, and this was a movie that had to be in black-and-white.” “Ed Wood” was taken to Walt Disney Studios, which produced the film through its Touchstone Pictures label.
Schindler’s List
Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama “Schindler’s List” follows industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) as he gradually becomes distressed over witnessing the persecution of his Jewish workforce by the Nazis. The somber black-and-white film, which swept the 1994 Academy Awards with seven wins, including best picture and best cinematography, is one of the highest-ranked movies of all time.
The pic was shot entirely on black–and–white film stock by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski who said he was aiming for a documentary-like quality in the scenes, according to The Guardian. According to Spielberg, “The Holocaust was life without light. For me the symbol of life is color. That’s why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black and white.”
But Spielberg’s film isn’t wholly monochrome — it features a dash of red in the form of the little girl in a red raincoat, a symbolic victim of the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto.
Pleasantville
Lack of color becomes a plot element in Gary Ross’ 1998 film “Pleasantville,” which features a combination of color and black-and-white scenes. Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon star as two 1990s teenagers who accidentally get placed into a 1950s TV show that lacks color.
The innocent, rule-driven town of Pleasantville slowly gains glimpses of color as the two teens teach residents about the world of pleasure and freedom they were previously unaware of. As characters begin to explore themselves and the realities of life, they begin to see color and ultimately regain their own colors.
“You can drain the life and nuances and complexity out of things by homogenizing them to make everything harmoniously dull, flat, conflict-free, strife-free,” Ross told CNN the year his film was released. “The tougher thing is to give yourself that kick to be alive and to be fully engaged and stay alive.”
Good Night, and Good Luck
1950s-era broadcast television is the focus of 2005’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” directed by and starring George Clooney. The period piece’s black-and-white release harks back to the similar color limitations for media during the Red Scare, a period of heavy anti-communist sentiment in the U.S.
In an interview with Mother Jones, Clooney said the film comments on the political realities of 2005 through parallels found in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s scare tactics. The “War on Terror” fed into unfair treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, he said.
“You’re not really allowed to take on contemporary issues anymore because they’ve found a way to marginalize you if you do,” Clooney said. “So the trick was to keep the issues in a historical context.”
Sin City
Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez found a wealth of inspiration from the black-and-white “Sin City” comic books when they set out to recreate it as a neo-noir anthology movie.
The film, which debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, won the technical grand prize for its “visual shaping,” rendering most of the movie in black-and-white, while retaining and adding color for selected objects.
Control
The 2007 biographical film chronicles the life of Ian Curtis, singer of the English post-punk band Joy Division. Based on a book by his wife Deborah Curtis, the film portrays his life in the industrial north of England, the formation of the band in the burgeoning Manchester music scene, and his suicide in 1980. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where Anton Corbijn received the Director’s Fortnight award.
The film was shot on color stock and printed to black-and-white to “reflect the atmosphere of Joy Division and the mood of the era,” Corbijn, a noted music photographer and music video director, said of his directorial debut.
Persepolis
The 2007 animated film based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel follows Satrapi’s life growing up in Iran and Austria. It also captures her stories of run-ins with the government over the freedoms she believes are inherent to her and the laws that prevent her from expressing herself.
Satrapi said using mostly black-and-white aesthetics challenges her artistic style. The limited colors on characters also have the benefit of making it a story about human beings of any color, and not just those who look Iranian.
“I heard so many stupid things about my country,” she told the Independent. “[Journalists] dehumanize the people who live there because they reduce them to some abstract notion.”
The Artist
The 2011 French comedy-drama silent film “The Artist” follows an egomaniacal silent movie star (Jean Dujardin) as he struggles to accept the changing times of the dawning talkie era in the 1920s. Some films in the twenties were tinted or toned or even had Technicolor scenes, but making a purely black–and–white film was a long-time fascination for writer-director Michel Hazanavicius.
“I really wanted to make an entertaining movie,” Hazanavicius told The Hollywood Reporter, noting that many European silent films were tragic romantic dramas. “I thought it was unfair to ask people to come to a black-and-white silent movie that was also dark — it would be too much.”
The film’s director of photography shot “The Artist” on color stock, then converted it to black-and-white in post-production to render the black and white colors grainier than they would be traditionally. “The Artist” garnered five Academy Awards, including for best picture and best achievement in directing.
Frankenweenie
Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” follows a young boy who spends the majority of his free time cooking up experiments in his lab, in line with the writer-director’s previously concocted spooky and charming worlds, characters and tales. The 2012 black-and-white stop-motion pic features Sparky in the spotlight, Victor Frankenstein’s dog, who meets a tragic end when chasing a ball into the street. What comes next is Victor’s greatest experiment — bringing Sparky back to life.
In traditional Burtonian fashion, the movie boasts plentiful references to revered horror films, most notably 1931’s “Frankenstein.” Burton noted that it was crucial for the film to be devoid of color and that if Disney had mandated it in color, he would not have made it.
Frances Ha
Noah Baumbach’s 2012 comedy-drama indie “Frances Ha” paints a black-and-white portrait of a 27-year-old struggling woman (Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the script) who apprentices for a dance company, although she’s not a dancer. Frances throws herself head-first into her dreams even as their possibility of coming true diminishes over time.
In a Q&A with IndieWire, the director said “It’s near impossible to make a movie in black and white in the system. I wanted to reinvent how I could make a movie and with technology as it is, there was an opportunity for it. The material felt black-and-white to me. I’m not 27 anymore, but there’s something both old and new about the film, almost an instant nostalgia. At the same time, because you aren’t distracted by color, there’s more immediacy to it.”
However, Baumbach admits he just wanted to make a movie in black-and-white.
Nebraska
Directed by Alexander Payne, the 2013 movie follows an elderly Montana resident and his son as they try to win a million-dollar sweepstakes prize on a trip to Nebraska. It was nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, best director, best actor for Bruce Dern, best actress for June Squibb, best original screenplay and best cinematography.
During the time of its release, Payne told the Canadian Press that he felt pressured by distributor Paramount Vantage to cut an alternate color version of the dramedy in order to make it financially viable.
“Something about the screenplay, the austerity of it, the austerity of the people and the landscapes it would evoke just felt black and white to me,” he said. “Eventually I said, ‘I’ll even give you a colored version for those specific TV outlets in Moldova and Sierra Leone and Laos or wherever.’ So I made a color version. I hope no one ever sees it.”
Cold War
The 2018 historical drama, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Janusz Głowacki and Piotr Borkowski, chronicles Cold War history in Poland and France during the 1940s through the 1960s. The movie, shot with a painstakingly composed, crisp monochrome look, explores the love story between a musical director and a young singer.
At the time of “Cold War’s” premiere, Pawlikowski told Variety that he continues to be drawn to period dramas. “I don’t have a hook on contemporary. I don’t know how to do it, because I’m living it and watching it with horror,” said the director who won an Academy Award for another black-and-white picture, “Ida.”
The Lighthouse
Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” a 2019 follow-up to “The Witch,” tells the story of two lighthouse keepers (Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe) trapped on a remote island after a tumultuous storm. Unable to leave their station, the film depicts their gradual mental demise as they lose their grip on reality. Set in the 1890s, the fantasy drama was shot in rich black–and–white in a 1.19:1 aspect ratio.
“Something about black and white was going to bring the story to life and to a new level,” Eggers told Variety. The director said he wanted to be as authentic to the time period as possible.
Dafoe added, “The choice of black and white and aspect ratio informed everything we did. The visual language was so specific, you can’t separate character from the location.”
Roma
The 2018 drama depicting the life of a middle-class family’s maid (Yalitza Aparicio) in Mexico City in the 1970s, which garnered three Academy Awards, including best foreign language film and best achievement in cinematography for Alfonso Cuarón, was filmed in color but later converted to black-and-white in post-production, according to IndieWire.
Cuarón collaborated with Technicolor to achieve the black-and-white finishing using Autodesk Lustre and Flame. The software was used to isolate areas of the frame and manipulate color and tones to achieve the precise monochromatic feel Cuarón wanted. So while viewers don’t see color in the final product, filming in color helped determine what would be lighter and what would be darker.
In an interview with three-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer and long-time friend Emmanuel Lubezki, Cuarón said the black-and-white coloring of the film is intrinsic to its plotline.
“I wanted to do a modern film that looks into the past,” Cuarón said. “It’s not a vintage black and white. It’s a contemporary black and white. Black and white was part of the DNA of the film.”
Mank
David Fincher’s “Mank” chronicles the life of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and his tumultuous battle with director Orson Welles (Tom Burke) over the screenplay credit of “Citizen Kane.” The black-and-white biopic is based on a script written by Fincher’s late father Jack Fincher.
Fincher was originally set to direct the film following his 1997 movie “The Game,” but production plans fell apart because of the filmmaker’s insistence on shooting “Mank” in black-and-white, as “Citizen Kane” was filmed, according to Deadline. The retro black-and-white cinematography of Eric Messerschmidt, along with Donald Graham Burt’s production design won two Oscars for the Netflix film.
The 40 Year Old Version
In her feature directorial debut, Radha Blank portrays a New York-based playwright who is desperate to make a breakthrough as a rapper at age 40. The film originally premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where Blank nabbed the U.S. dramatic competition directing award. Some tried to dissuade her from making the movie in black-and-white, but Blank saw it as a homage to the movies she grew up with, she said in an interview with the New York Times.
Passing
Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and André Holland star Rebecca Hall’s film about a Black woman in 1920s Harlem who reconnects with a former childhood friend who is now passing as white and married to a racist husband.
Thompson talked to Variety about Hall’s motivation for shooting in monochrome. “She was on page 10 of reading the novella when she started to imagined it in black and white. She also imagined it in 4:3 [aspect ratio] because she wanted to talk about the suffocating nature of the way in which society at large puts us in boxes,” Thompson explained.
Belfast
Director Kenneth Branagh chose black and white to shoot the story of his Irish childhood in part as an homage to street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. Set in 1969 during the troubles, the film turns to color when a Hollywood movie is playing, then returns to black and white while showing the turmoil on the streets of Belfast. Branagh told Entertainment Weekly, “Belfast is in the north, it rains a lot, it can be quite grey. And for me, there was always going to be a balance between seeing life in black-and-white, which photographically can be very beautiful, but we use a kind of liquidy, silky, velvety black-and-white. I would call it a Hollywood black-and-white, a way in which Buddy, our 9-year-old, saw the world rather glamorously and then when we use color in the movie, it kind of explodes in his mind in the same way as movies were exploding for me. The film as much as anything is the story of a love affair with film, a love affair with going to the movies and so, the black-and-white started all of that.”

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The Best Black and White Movies of the Past 50 Years

The Last Picture Show

Young Frankenstein

Manhattan

Raging Bull

She’s Gotta Have It

Ed Wood

Schindler’s List

Pleasantville

Good Night, and Good Luck

Sin City

Control

Persepolis

The Artist

Frankenweenie

Frances Ha

Nebraska

Cold War

The Lighthouse

Roma

Mank

The 40 Year Old Version

Passing

Belfast

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