Cinematography technique · used in 7 films
Adding 1 colored element to an otherwise black-and-white image, or a brief color sequence to a black-and-white film. The contrast pulls your eye and gives that color a lot of meaning.
Examples
Alfred Hitchcock · 1945
The film is in black and white except for 2 frames of bright red at the end. After 111 minutes without color, the flash shocks you. It also puts you in the line of fire.
Where to see it: The final confrontation. Dr. Murchison turns the gun and shoots himself, and the frame flashes red.
Andrei Tarkovsky · 1966
The film is entirely in black and white until the final sequence, which is in color. It shows close-ups of Rublev's actual icon paintings. This single burst of color arrives as a revelation. The 3 hours of black-and-white suffering were preparation for this moment. The survival of art gets the strongest emphasis the film can give it.
Where to see it: The final icon sequence. Color enters the film for the first time as Rublev's paintings appear. The contrast says that art rises above the suffering of history.
Francis Ford Coppola · 1983
The film is almost entirely black and white, except for the Siamese fighting fish. Coppola's cinematographer Stephen Burum shot the actors in black and white, then rear-projected that footage behind a color fish tank. The fish become the only living color in a grey world.
Where to see it: The pet store. Rusty James becomes fascinated with the fighting fish, the film's only source of color.
Wim Wenders · 1987
Before Damiel fully changes, Wenders shows brief, isolated moments of color, such as Marion on the trapeze. They are not from an angel's point of view. They hint that the human world holds something the angels can't see. The flashes arrive before his fall is complete.
Where to see it: The isolated color flashes as Damiel's desire grows. Patches of color show up in the black-and-white world. They mark his move toward having a body before the full change.
Steven Spielberg · 1993
The girl in the red coat is the most discussed visual choice in the film. She is a single burst of color in the black-and-white liquidation sequence, and Schindler follows her with his eyes from a hillside above the ghetto. Later, she appears on a cart of corpses. By then, the mass killing has a face.
Where to see it: The Kraków Ghetto liquidation sequence. The red coat moves through the chaos.
Kenneth Branagh · 2021
Film and theater screens inside the film burst into color while the world around them stays black-and-white. Cinema and performance are the escapes from the grey weight of political reality.
Where to see it: Buddy and his family watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the cinema. The screen blazes in color while the audience watches in black-and-white.
Wes Anderson · 2021
Anderson shot much of the film in black and white and used color as punctuation. The editor has described color as punctuation or emphasis. One reviewer points to a painting revealed in full widescreen color after long stretches of black and white.
Where to see it: The Concrete Masterpiece: Imprisoned painter Moses Rosenthaler creates frescoes in a prison hall.
Questions