La Haine

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/videos/a54270/black-and-white-movies-explainer/


When watching La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz I couldn't help but wonder why people still make movies in black and white anymore. As we learned earlier in this class the invention of technicolor, like sound, was one of the two biggest advances in filmmaking. This article explains that the black and white of today is actually very different than that of before. Because of advances in camera technology filmmakers can actually play around with texture, lighting, and depth, all without color. But the article also highlighted another more important reason to make a movie in black and white, theme. Like the article, I think that the absence of color is an artist chose that sets the tone of the whole movie. By stripping a film of 99% of its color, the filmmaker is forced to find inventive ways to achieve similar things as if he was to use color. Black and white can also be useful, stylistically, when making period pieces.