Cinematography technique · used in 3 films
Shooting the past in black and white and the present in color. You always know which time you are in, and the past feels distant, like old archive footage.
Examples
Tony Kaye · 1998
Kaye, who was also the cinematographer, shoots Derek's neo-Nazi past in harsh black and white. Danny's present-day narration is in color. The black and white puts distance between you and the past without making it look pretty. Those years come across as something already judged, with nothing left to debate.
Where to see it: The opening black-and-white sequence. You see Derek's brutality in a style that already marks it as the past.
RaMell Ross · 2024
Ross cuts away from the first-person, present-tense footage to found photographs, archival images and fragments of memory in black and white. The black-and-white frames make the events look like historical record. The first-person camera keeps them feeling like they are happening right now.
Where to see it: The real photographs of reform school survivors woven into the story. The faces from the archive run up against the first-person views of the fictional boys.
Yorgos Lanthimos · 2024
According to Kodak, the dream sequence and brief flashbacks were shot on black-and-white 35mm stock. The change in look tells you when the story leaves the present. It also makes those moments feel more remote than the color scenes around them.
Where to see it: The dream and flashback scenes: they switch from color to black and white.
Questions