E L E C T R O N I C M E S S A G E Date: 09-Jun-1994 09:36am EST From: Stephen Hart HARTS2 Level: Post-secondary/University Tel No: 904-644-4839 TO: Remote Addressee ( _jnet%screen-l@ua1vm ) Subject: re: B&W It seems to me that the use of black and white nowadays is purely an aesthetic choice on the director's part. Woody Allen (along with Sydney Pollack and other) defended the creative use or choice of B&W against the potentially wanton use of colorization before a congressional committee a few years ago: If one chose to use balck and white over color, no one should be able to colorize the film if that's not what the director intended, was the sum of the testimony. Though it probably could've worked just as well in color, _Schindler's list_ did have a tone that the B&W helped to create, as someone mentioned yesterday (as to it contributing to historical accuracy, I don't know, but I won't go into that now). Recent films like _JFK_ and _Malcolm X_ used some b&W clips for dramatic impact, and to recreate news footage and historical events (so it does contribute to historical accuracy!). Some other films use similiar effects for impact and to emphasize flashbacks, dreams and the like. _Internal affairs_ and _Passanger 57_ come to mind. (I don't know what the effect is called technically, but it involves the frame being tinted in a single color, as in _Internal affairs_, or the film made to look like a negative, seen early in _Passanger 57_) Someone may want to expound on this a bit more ... ? Stephen Hart, Florida State Univ. HARTS2@firnvx