Top Five Black and White Dramas
Ok, this may seek like a stretch, but it will make sense. There are plenty of classic black and white movies that I enjoy, and far too many to make 'Black and White' a Top 5 category in itself. Can you pick your Top 5 color movies? Of course not... you'd be picking some of your favorite movies of all time, and that's just too difficult when you love movies as much as I. So, as carved up as I dare to make it, below are my top five dramas that happen to be in black and white:
(1) Othello: Not just any version of Othello, but the brilliant version filmed by Orson Welles in Morocco (and Venice, Rome and some other places, but mostly in Morocco). In many ways this was filmed like many independent films are today. Shot over the course of three years (1949-52), this film was started and stopped several times due to production difficulties -- including the financial backer going bankrupt in the first year of filming. In many ways this was a white whale that Welles just had to finish, and it appears to have been very personal to him. Anyone that knows the Shakespearean masterpiece understands that this story is much about race and gender. What is interesting in this film is the way that it appears that Welles acts out Shakespeare's concerns by simply not paying attention to those issues! Welles plays the Moore in black-face, and Desdemona is merely window dressing instead of one of the driving forces of the original. The duplicity is interesting, and the inventiveness of Welles in his cinematography is fascinating as he slowly overcomes production difficulties. I'm not doing this story justice, but this is certainly one of those movies that has just as interesting and twisted back story as the story of the film itself, and armed with that knowledge it only adds to the haunting atmosphere created in the film. A beautiful and creative work.
(2) Les Enfants du Paradise: In English, Children of Paradise, this is a fascinating movie. Filmed in France during the Nazi occupation of World War II, this movie takes a fictional leading lady (Garance) and then has four historical figures fall in love with her, all meeting her, by chance, at around the same time during the French period of Enlightenment (mid 1800s): Baptiste Debrue - the mime and artist, Frederick Lemaitre - the actor, Lacenaire - the gentleman thief, and Count de Montray - the high society nobleman. There are so many themes woven into this movie (which was originally split into two parts because of the restriction of feature length movies to be limited to 90 minutes running time), that it would take me several typed pages to explore them all. Let me just say that this movie takes all of those basic human themes of love, freedom, society and morality and throws them all into the mix. It is a story about chance, about the fickle nature of life in general, our impassioned failings and our most dubious achievements as human beings. It is about dealing with the desires we have in life and yet understanding the responsibilities we have to other people and the difficult balancing act that realization entails. It is a beautiful story about the essence of man, and despite it's three hour running length, is an enthralling film to read... er, watch.
(3) To Kill a Mockingbird: Do high school kids still have to read this book? If not, they should, or they should at least be required to sit down, watch and then discuss this film. This story, originally given to us by Harper Lee, is an essential tale informing us that even though we may not succeed, we must always do the right thing. There is no life lesson more difficult than the realization that the good guy doesn't always win, and that sometimes injustice will be carried out by the majority. This is an essential tale because we are forced to ask the question: if we don't stand up to do the right thing, even when we know we will loose, what chance do we have as a society? Someone must stand up, and we must recognize that courage... despite what side of the issue we stand. Gregory Peck's performance in this work, as Atticus Finch, is as heartbreaking as it is noble and courageous. A great and timeless movie.
(4) Les Diaboliques: In English, The Devils, this is a classic 1955 thriller (often referred to as a horror film) that is simply timeless. This is the story about two women - a wife and her husband's (unwilling?) mistress - who conspire to murder the abusive man that they both despise. If it wasn't in French, you'd swear this was a Hitchcock classic, and is sometimes even reported to have heavily influenced Hitchcock's own Psycho - which I can totally see. This is one of those classic cautionary tales about all of the things that can go wrong when you plot evil deeds, and it is a fascinating story. There have been several imitators after the fact, and at least one remake of the film (Glen Close's Fatal Attraction, and Sharon Stone's Diabolique, respectively), but the original, in my opinion, is still the best.
(5) 12 Angry Men: In contrast to To Kill a Mockingbird, this is the story about what should be happening behind closed doors in our justice system. Unlike Mockingbird, here a persistent man who is willing to stand up for what is right actually can bring about the right solution because he is tenacious and he refuses to allow the 'wrong' to prevail. Sadly, this movie is, in my opinion, not nearly as realistic as Mockingbird, and is what we wish our fellow man would do for us when our own necks are on the line. The theme, of course, is the same: stand up for what is right and do NOT give up in the face of overwhelming odds. As Edmund Burke put it so succinctly: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." This film inspires the hope that while we may see many Mockingbirds in our lives, occasionally, if we continue to stand, we can inspire the action of 12 Angry Men. Or something like that...
