Dont yell at me but I wish they would colorize
this film. It would be so beautiful. they spent SO much money on costumes and set dressings.
ok
i have said it
caymandj
You're treading on pretty dangerous territory. Just a friendly warning. Anyway, I disagree with you completely, but I'm not going to yell at you. Personally, when people try to compare this movie with "Gone With The Wind" I always think that their opposing cinematographies are among their greatest defining features. "Gone With The Wind" shows how stunningly gorgeous vivid technicolor can be, while "Jezebel" exemplifies how effective black and white cinematography can be for creating a more subtle mood, and for conveying color without actually showing it. Think of the famous red dress sequence (The dress was actually bronze because red wouldn't have showed up on black and white film). Regardless of whether or not we are actually seeing the color red, we see a vivid, silver sheen of satin twirling around a ballroom laden with white frills. We are stunned by the contrast and we believe it, or I do anyway. black and white cinematography is a unique art form, especially in Jezebel, because it must affectively communicate a scene that revolves entirely around color with materials that are entirely devoid of color. That's what makes the scene so brilliant. That being said, in the 1930s it was rarely an artistic choice to shoot a film in black and white. Technicolor was a new medium and very expensive, and "Jezebel" was probably shot in black and white more out of budgetary concerns than artistic ones. But they made the best of what they had to work with, and they made it brilliant. At least I think so. Furthermore, I find most colorizations to be sloppy and unconvincing, as if someone let loose a child on a black and white photgraph with a crayon.
shareClever use of bronze dress, yes I knew. I am more interested in the house and so forth. Plus lets face it a lot more kids would watch some of these movies. As I told a friend that was screaming at me about it, Well, we can always just turn the color off the set if it offends you if you HAPPEN to be at MY house and watching.
I would love for them to color Captain Blood and a few others. Not all. But Shirely temple black and whites shure did well with coloring and some werent too bad.
So for the sad public that loves color, just for us
caymandj
Another one who won't yell at you - :) - but colorizing pieces of art so that kids might be attracted by the pretty colors is like pouring sugar all over sauteed veggies so they'll eat them. Ruins the veggies, and doesn't give them a real appreciation of the true article, anyway.
shareI tend to agree with you. Black and white leads us to the kind of imagination we're not allowed in cinema anymore. The first time I saw this film on TCM, the host said that fans would call in complaining that they hadn't aired the colorized version, swearing on how vividly they could recall that red dress . . . The host said there never has been a colorized version, that it was just the viewers' imaginations catching up to their memories. I think that's a beautiful thing. Just let me imagine it.
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"Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned. But I have many excellent excuses."
I agree completely with your last sentence!!!!!!
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