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Is Paris Burning? Could It Have Been Done In Color?

posted 9 years ago by layton59
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Is Paris Burning? Could It Have Been Done In Color?

I read that the movie was done in Black and White because the French government forbids allowing a Nazi flag to be hung in its true red color.

I just wonder if the film could have been made in color and later the Nazi flag be frame by frame colored in it's true colors?

Of course, the use of black and white documentary film would have been an issue in a color film.

Still I can't help but wonder...

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[–] jcarroll-1 8 years ago

They originally planned to shoot the film in color (I mean, PARIS?) but ran into French law. It is illegal to fly or display the Nazi flag in France. No way, not even for a movie, were the French going to allow that piece of bloodied cloth fly over Paris again. By filming in black-and-white, they could make the Nazi flags out of grey cloth, which had the right appearance on-screen. This had the added advantage of allowing them to include news film (such as the sniper operating just two blocks away from where De Gaulle was proclaiming the liberation of Paris) without the visual shock of switching between color and B&W.