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favorite Black & White films (in part because they're B&W)


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OK, I just stumbled on this...

link: Our 8 Favorite Movies That Are In Black And White Even Though Color Was Available

Which also gives me an excuse to start this thread, AND to ask this question...

Does anybody remember an art-house movie from about 12-15 years ago, in Black & White, about a pair of twins who were separated at birth, one having a rather poor ($) working-class upbringing, and the other having an uber-rich, multi-millionaire type upbringing. And if my vague memory is right, when the poor twin discovers the rich twin (after they’re both adults), the poor twin sets out to murder his rich brother -- and then take his place (after all, they are twins, and identical twins at that), impersonating him.

OK, so far, so good. Thing is, the actors who play the roles of the twins (who are 'identical' remember), one of the actors is White, and the other is Black (and I'm talkin' a "Miles Davis" shade of black, at that). Other characters in the movie who discover that they're brothers are "astounded at the resemblance" -- even though one of the actors is lily white, and the other back as night.

Can anyone here remember such a movie (it may have been British), or does someone with better Google-fu want to take a crack at it??

It was SUCH a cool movie (and so incredibly well shot), I'd love to try and rent it sometime -- if it's ever been reissued on DVD.

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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Does anybody remember an art-house movie from about 12-15 years ago...

OK, so far, so good. Thing is, the actors who play the roles of the twins (who are 'identical' remember), one of the actors is White, and the other is Black (and I'm talkin' a "Miles Davis" shade of black, at that). Other characters in the movie who discover that they're brothers are "astounded at the resemblance" -- even though one of the actors is lily white, and the other back as night.

Ah, my Google-fu is getting better. I didn't get all the details right, but here's the NTY review of the movie I was thinking of...

Suture (1994)

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There are so many b&w films to choose from it's impossible to say. Ones that look especially splendid to me are Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Lolita, Elevator To The Gallows , The Killers and the recent Criterion of This Sporting Life.

For a b&w film shot in the colour film era, The Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There takes some beating

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"Since color became available"? Color has been "available" since the 1930's...so what are we talking about here?

"The color era"? What is this? Color movies became common in Hollywood in the 1950's. But then there was a brief period of producing prestige pictures in B&W in the first half of the 1960's because they figured the films would look better on TV (which was then overwhelmingly B&W) because Hollywood had finally admitted that the TV aftermarket was where it's bread was buttered. When TV programs started being shot and broadcast in color, in the mid-60's, Hollywood dropped B&W like a hot potato and never looked back.

Nevertheless....

The Third Man, The Seven Samurai, Children of Paradise, Trouble In Paradise, Ikiru, My Man Godfrey, His Girl Friday, The Maltese Falcon, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Grand Illusion, Notorious, The Lady Vanishes, It Happened One Night, Out of the Past, Force of Evil, Laura, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Sweet Smell of Success, The Ox-Bow Incident, Crime Wave, etc. etc. etc..........................................(many more)............

Edited by BruceH
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