MovieChat Forums > Heimat - Eine Chronik in elf Teilen (1985) Discussion > Black and White

Black and White

posted 16 years ago by phatfish
5 replies | jump to latest

I've been trying to work out if there is any pattern to the use of black & white, and colour, but i cant see any. I've only watched the first two episodes but the seemingly random changes are a bit annoying.

There is one scene in Episode 2 where the Nazi flags are highlighted with colour, against the rest of the scene which is black & white -- which makes more sense -- but apart from that the switching about serves no purpose.

I would have much preferred the whole thing to be filmed in b&w; as the b&w scenes definitely feel more like the 1930's. When it drops into colour i get the feeling of moving forward in time, like i have been dropped into the 1980's. The years after 1960 should be colour, and before 1960 b&w. That would make more sense to me.

Apart from that its great, ill go and watch the rest now, and pretend there are no colour scenes :)

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] nephihaha 15 years ago

I can't crack the scheme either. I'm more used to seeing this continual swap from B&W to colour and back in Soviet films. The most notable English language films to have this are "The Wizard of Oz" and "If"

Seriously, am I the only one who thinks that Spielberg may have been inspired by it for Schindler's List?

[–] f-ascaso 11 years ago

The story is told from old photographs, the stories are made up to fit the photograph, they are not THE actual story of the photograph, as photos for the most part are staged to convey the events when the picture was taken.

The use of color/bw filming is random, but random for a reason, the story is of Heimat is being told from memory, and memory is random, out of order and arbitrary...just like the use of black and white and color images in Heimat.

"if it was any good they'd have made an American version by now." Hank Hill

[–] Artimidor 11 years ago

Well, I'd say that Reitz tries to make the series a historical document and at the same time show that for those who live in this time it's the present. This is why the colors are changed rhythmically to have both perspectives present. Sometimes there's an element he can pick out and he does it intentionally (e.g. the swastika flag, the glowing iron at the blacksmith or the red roses being dropped from the plane), but other than that it's basically to keep the rhythm, regardless of the actual events.

Artimidor
Artimidor's 111+ Movie Masterpieces, Reviews & Trailers:
http://www.imdb.com/list/e-VkvtHDDNQ/ - recommendations welcome!

[–] chrissso 8 years ago

IMHO ... when we have to go to such a great length to explain and or understand what Reitz was doing with the shifting from B&W to C ... that is an indication of fecklessness.

I found it perplexing and unjustified and in turn a distraction.

I do not like this B&W/C shifting ... Schindler and Wizard of Oz did it well ... but this film seemed to be art house reaching.

This is a great film bit not worthy of the 8.9 it has