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I saw there was a couple of specific genres of black and white film threads and a "Your Favorite" one, but I wanted more or less a few lists. After looking through some of out personal Mofo-er's lists, I thought it was important to see some.

I would prefer if they have sound, however, if they fit in one of these catagories, just please indicate there's none.

So:
-Favorites
-Classics
-Must See
-Special for the Screen
(Anything that changed how movies were seen or made: editing, directing acting, ect...)
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I realize this is quite a bit, but if you're not a big b&w fan, the must-see list is a good place to start.

-Favorites:
Persona (1966), Raging Bull (1980), Touch of Evil (1958), The Rules of the Game (1939), Strangers on a Train (1951), His Girl Friday (1940), Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Seventh Seal (1957), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), Manhattan (1979)

-Classics: Persona (1966), Citizen Kane (1941), Casablanca (1942), Psycho (1960), Sunset Blvd. (1950), La Dolce Vita (1960), Seven Samurai (1954), The Lady Eve (1941), It Happened One Night (1934)

-Must See: Persona (1966), Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Third Man (1949), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
[silent], Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963), My Darling Clementine (1946), On the Waterfront (1954)

-Special for the Screen:
Persona (1966)--
just one of the greatest works in all of cinema,

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)--
sparked a revolution in film,

Rashomon (1950)-- i
ntroduced Kurosawa to American audiences, is highly influential, and one of the great movies of all time

Un chien andalou (1929)--
experimental, visionary brainchild of two of the great artists of the 20th century,

Breathless (1960)--
along with The 400 Blows, brought the French New Wave worldwide attention,

Metropolis (1926)
[silent]-- necessary viewing for film lovers,

Double Indemnity (1944)--
probably the quintessential film noir

Battleship Potemkin (1925)
[silent]-- highly influential, introduced new film techniques still used heavily today, essential viewing for film lovers

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)-- introduced Brando's method acting, marked a turning point in acting realism and style

Bicycle Thieves (1949)-- Italian neorealism, one of the great films of world cinema
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"I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema" -Francois Truffaut



-Favorites
Citizen Kane, Man Bites Dog, All Quiet On The Western Front, Psycho, All About Eve

-Classics
Citizen Kane, Psycho, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, On The Waterfront, White Heat, Seven Samurai,

-Must See
Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Public Enemy, The Wind (silent), Seven Samurai

-Special for the Screen
Citizen Kane, The Jazz Singer (1927), The Battleship Potemkin (silent), The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Just a few, there's loads, of course, but I thought I'd leave plenty for everyone else.



will.15's Avatar
Semper Fooey
I'm too lazy to make a list, but good choices by those who aren't.



Don't be lazy!! How about you just list ones that haven't already been said that you think should be here? I've actually been looking to see some more b&w films that are noteworthy for one reason or another. I like this thread, I'll probably watch a lot of the ones people list if I haven't seen them. I prefer them over color films.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
These aren't the Best B&W films, but they each have spectacular B&W cinematography and haven't been mentioned yet. As far as categories go, I'm not using them. The only film I don't recommend wholeheartedly is Eraserhead but it's still a triumph of photography and sound on a low budget.

The Innocents
Dr. Strangelove
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Sunrise (silent with sound effects and music)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
Great Expectations (1946)
The Night of the Hunter
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Ed Wood
Young Frankenstein
The Elephant Man
Eraserhead

I've got to take off but I'll try to come back later with some non-English-language flicks.
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planet news's Avatar
Registered User
Mark doesn't recategorize.

---

C&W basically covered everyone's bases there. So yeah, what he said +

Favorites: Dead Man, The 400 Blows, Bande A Part, Alphaville, Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Yojimbo, Ikiru, M
Classics: Man With A Movie Camera, A Bout De Souffle, The Grapes Of Wrath, Satantango, Pather Panchali, Ivan The Terrible, Andrei Rublev, Notorious

I'll leave the rest to the historicists.
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These aren't the Best B&W films, but they each have spectacular B&W cinematography and haven't been mentioned yet. As far as categories go, I'm not using them.

The Innocents


I've got to take off but I'll try to come back later with some non-English-language flicks.
This is THE best horror film of all time and one of the best b&w films ever made. If the OP wants to watch a great b&w movie just for the sake of it being in b&w, she should forget all the other suggestions and just watch this.



planet news's Avatar
Registered User
Sounds interesting. I just finished The Turn of the Screw a few days ago actually. The "horror" is really "creepiness" and most of it's in the description of the narrator as she explains just how creepy the ghosts are. I mean, it works, but it wasn't necessarily a visual experience. I dunno. It yall think it's awesome, it probably is.



I agree that The Innocents should be seen, but I'd put The Haunting above it. Of course, you then have Frankenstein, Bride Of Frankenstein, Them! and The Mist (if you watch the B&W version that comes with the 2 disc)

The Innocents is a better horror film than Psycho? Really? Although, I would say that I think of The Innocents as a horror film more than I do Psycho.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
The Innocents does have what I consider the greatest B&W cinematography I've seen, and it's certainly in my Top/Fave Movies list.

I'm still thinking, but some of the non-English language films not mentioned with great B&W cinematography include:

Zentropa aka Europa
Hiroshima mon amour
The Burmese Harp (1956)
Through a Glass Darkly
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Seven Samurai
Napoleon (silent with music)
Effi Briest
Wings of Desire
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
8 1/2



planet news's Avatar
Registered User
Zentropa has color... incredible B&W cinematography. At least it's clever.

Psycho
is pretty sparse on "scare". It starts off trying to be a thriller, then gets weird, then has a horror scene, then has this sweet real-time clean-up scene, then has a detective story, then horror till the epilogue, then a rambling psuedopsychological rant, then the face.

The Turn of the Screw is an all out ghost story. Barely anything happens besides the ghosts and the narrator going off about the ghosts.



The Innocents does have what I consider the greatest B&W cinematography I've seen, and it's certainly in my Top/Fave Movies list.
Just read your entry in your Top Movies List. I couldn't agree more with it.

I'm still thinking, but some of the non-English language films not mentioned with great B&W cinematography include:

Zentropa aka Europa
Hiroshima mon amour
The Burmese Harp (1956)
Through a Glass Darkly
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Seven Samurai
Napoleon (silent with music)
Effi Briest
Wings of Desire
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
8 1/2
I mentioned 8 1/2 and Seven Samurai I think. I chose Last Year at Marienbad over Hiroshima, mon amour for Resnais. And I didn't want to load my list with Bergman (Through a Glass Darkly). Although technically speaking, his top five or six b&w movies best nearly every movie named so far. His best photographed b&w film is hands down The Silence.

Diary of a Chambermaid, and especially Beauty and the Beast are EXCELLENT choices.

great post mark



planet news's Avatar
Registered User
Marienbad is the superior film, I agree.



I saw there was a couple of specific genres of black and white film threads and a "Your Favorite" one, but I wanted more or less a few lists. After looking through some of out personal Mofo-er's lists, I thought it was important to see some.

I would prefer if they have sound, however, if they fit in one of these catagories, just please indicate there's none.

So:
-Favorites:
Brief Encounter, A Streetcar Named Desire, Brighton Rock, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (no sound)

-Classics
Sunset Boulevard, Brief Encounter, Bringing Up Baby (one of the first 'screwball' comedy examples), Metropolis (no sound), The Blue Angel


-Must See
Anything I've mentioned above really. Brief Encounter, Sunset Boulevard, Metropolis (no sound), All About Eve, A Streetcar Named Desire, and something from the film noir genre (I'm not an expert on it so you might wanna do some research)



-Special for the Screen
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)- A prime example of German expressionism and a strong influence on Tim Burton.

Metropolis (1929)- Big budget dystopic film with masses of extras.Broke a few records at the time and new footage has recently been unearthed.

The Sheik (1921)- 1920's film star hottie Rudolph Valentino's most famous film.

The Jazz Singer (1927)- Not actually the first talkie as some assert; the only speaking was in the songs.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)- Method acting arises, with Brando's performance and Elia Kazan (famous for Method acting and denouncing communists) directing. Although it was diluted to an extent, they managed to get quite a lot past the censors (prostitution, Blanche having affairs with teenage boys, nymphomania, domestic abuse).

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)- Lauded for clever cinematography that recreated the claustrophobic atmosphere of the play, it's a landmark in cinema history. The play contained lots of things that would make the Hays Code go a bit crazy but surprisingly most of the bad language was retained (fancy a game of Hump The Hostess, anyone?). This is when film classifications were introduced.

(Anything that changed how movies were seen or made: editing, directing acting, ect...)
There ya go.
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Beauty and the Beast (1946)
If you're British, you'll probably hear it called by its original title- La Belle et La Bete. Other Cocteau films to watch out for are Orphee and Les Enfants Terribles.