Thursday, March 5, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks: Black and White Movies Made Since 1970


Happy Thursday! That means it is once again time for Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. You can play along, too. Just check out her site and get the particulars. The general idea is that she provides a theme and us bloggers suggest three movies that comply.

It's March. For us folks in the Northern Hemisphere that means Spring is on its way. Allegedly. If it ever gets here, it will bring warmer temperatures and reintroduce us to many of nature's natural colors. Until then, we're stuck with nothing but drab exteriors and the looming threat of even more snow. Fittingly, our theme for this week is black and white movies made since 1970. However, these movies are anything but drab.


Young Frankenstein
(1974)
If you're a participating blogger in this weekly meme, you may already know that it was me who suggested this particular topic. In her infinite wisdom, Wanderer accepted and here we are. Are you catching the humble-brag I've got going on? Aside from tooting my own horn, the reason I'm telling you this is because when I thought of this theme, Young Frankenstein was the movie I had in mind. We follow Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, but he pronounces his surname Fronk-en-steen to distance himself from his grandfather's grave-robbing, monster-creating legacy. He's traveling back to Transylvania since he just inherited the family's estate. This is among the finest work done by either director Mel Brooks or star Gene Wilder. And it's clearly the best horror-comedy ever made. (click here for my full review)

She's Gotta Have It
(1986)
It's been a few weeks since I was able to sneak in a Spike Lee Joint to the Thursday proceedings. This one is the very first. At least it's Lee's first full-length feature. Over the years, one of the knocks on the director has been that his female characters are poorly rendered. There is good reason for this, but on several occasions, including this one, he has shown the ability to tell a compelling story revolving around women. Our heroine here is Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns). She's a free spirit who has three guys she spends time with, separately of course. The problem is that each of them seems to want more. Aside from jump-starting the director's career, this movie is also important for a couple other reasons. One is that it helped usher in a wave of Independent films that made a splash in the mainstream. Next, doors began to open for other directors of color, as well as for Spike himself. It was also rare at the time for a movie to explore sexuality from a woman's perspective, especially one examining a promiscuous woman without depicting her as a mindless whore and damning her to the lowest rungs of hell. That such a movie was about a black woman may have been an unprecedented feat. More important than any of that, this is the movie that gave us Spike's Mars Blackmon persona. You know, the one he used in those old commercials for Air Jordans...




Persepolis
(2007)
Stranded in an airport, native Iranian Marjane reminisces about her childhood growing up Tehran. Really, she relives most of her life up to the point where she is now. It's an extremely fascinating and engaging character study. It's also a daring movie that presents a sobering look at what life is like in her particular neck of the woods. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature that year at the Oscars, but lost to Ratatouille. I love Ratatouille, but the Academy got it wrong.

Click below for reviews of other black and white movies made since 1970

27 comments:

  1. Great choices! I still have to watch all your picks, but most excited to watch Persepolis, as I'm reading the graphic novel related to it.

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    1. Thanks! Persepolis is really fantastic. I haven't read the graphic novel so I'm curious to hear the perspective of someone who has.

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  2. Young Frankenstein is great. I wanted to use that one for this week, but I already did it for the week on Zombie Movies. I remember seeing Persepolis in one of my classes last year, that one was actually very interesting if a bit odd at times with its surreal stylized animation.

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    1. That's right, you did! I always forget Frankenstein's monster is technically a zombie. YF is just a wonderful movie. Glad you enjoyed Persepolis, too.

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  3. Persepolis is an interesting choice. I never got around to seeing that film, but I wanted to. I love Young Frankenstein, but I've never seen She's Gotta Have It. Great picks!

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    1. I think you would really like Persepolis. I'm excited to see all the love for YF. Such a fabulous film. I'd love to see what you think of She's Gotta Have It, too.

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  4. Love Young Frankenstein so much! I almost went with it, but figured someone else would for sure, so I opted for some other films. I'm glad you mentioned She's Gotta Have It, because I'm currently digging into 1986, and so this gives me another one to queue up!

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    1. I can't say enough good things about YF. It's pretty damn amazing. Can't wait to see what you think of SGHI.

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  5. Young Frankestein, classic, it clearly is the greatest.

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  6. LOL somehow I just knew you were gonna pick She's Gotta Have It this week! LOVE Young Frankenstein (I picked it too). Persepolis looks SO good; I can't believe I still haven't seen it!

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    1. Hmmm...guess I'm getting predictable in my unpredictability. YF is just gold. Please see Persepolis. Soon.

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  7. I have mixed feeling about Persepolis. I had read the novel before I watched the film. So I was a bit bored because I had known the entire story. Good story, but they should make some differences or something from the novel.

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    1. I've been meaning to see Persepolis for a while. I've only read the first graphic novel and that was quite a long a time ago; the movie is based on two. Anyway I can understand how one can get bored by the movie. The novel is black and white and the movie being also animated doesn't bring enough new interesting things unlike say a live action movie.

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    2. I can see that side of it. Lucky for me, my viewing experience was unspoiled since I hadn't even heard of the GN until after seeing the movie.

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  8. I was so bummed with Young Frankenstein. It was one of those films I heard a lot about growing up. When I finally got around to it I was kinda let down. I think my expectations were way too high. My fault. :/

    I couldn't get through reading the Persepolis graphic novel. I hear great things about the film, so I'll have to check it out.

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    1. Had that happen to me for a few movies myself. Hate wjen that happens. To help keep that from happening again I'll just say that Persepolis is fairly solid. ;)

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  9. Young Frankenstein is a great choice. An amazing ensemble and endlessly quotable. I haven't seen your other two yet.

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  10. I've only seen Young Frankenstein, which is perfect for this week. Comedic masterpiece! I had no idea Spike Lee did a black-and-white film. I haven't seen his earliest work, which I will get to eventually. Persepolis always looked wonderful. I just never got to it. Great picks!

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    1. It's Spike's only b&w flick and largely the reason why those Nike ads were b&w also. Hope you get to check it out soon. Persepolis is awesome.

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  11. Great list! I love Persepolis, both the graphic novel and the film. I am a fan of Young Frankenstein, too. I came very close to buying a t-shirt with "Abby Normal" written across the front.

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    1. Wow. I definitely would've bought that shirt! So many quotable lines in that movie.

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  12. I've seen 2 of these. Young Frankenstein.... classic.... Persepolis is one of the finest animated films though there's a few of those sequences that is shot in color but... I'll allow it. She's Gotta Have It is one of those films I'm eager to see in case I plan on doing a Spike Lee retrospective.

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    1. Glad to see all the love for Persepolis. It's so wonderful. Yeah, I purposely ignored those color shots for this post. She's Gotta Have It has a color sequence at the end, but thankfully you're lenient enough to allow this, lol. I would love to see you do a Spike Lee retrospective.

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  13. Some nice picks here! I still have to see Persepolis.

    Also, you can never go wrong with Young Frankenstein.

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    1. Thanks. And I agree 100%. You can never go wrong with Young Frankenstein.

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