Classic Movies (and TV) in Black and White

To see a film in black and white is to go back to a time when the following were in vogue: talkies, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Hitchcock, and many others were the talk of the town in their day. Nowadays black and white is utilized not just in motion pictures, but photography, music videos, and home movies as a creative form of expression.

Black and white movies (and let’s not forget tv shows like The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, and The Rifleman) are some of my favorites. They represent a time when acting seemed more realistic—when a kiss on screen was just that and nothing more because the rest was left to the imagination. A time when the hair was slick, the screams were loud, and the plot had a way of making you think about the larger context of the message. It also signaled my fascination as a kid upon first watching in a lack of color to believe that the real world outside of the movie during those times were literally lived in black and white.

Ekstrom’s Media Resources on the 1st floor has a large array of classic film and television made in black and white available for checkout on DVD and VHS. Here are few of the notables:

Some Like It Hot, 1959

The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964

Roman Holiday, 1953

Sunset Boulevard, 1950

Imitation Of Life, 1934/1959

Grapes of Wrath, 1940

Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 1955-1962

   

All About Eve, 1950

Urbanized

What makes a city great? How are cities designed? Which comes first in city planning priorities: the person or the vehicle? These are some of the questions broached by Urbanized, a documentary film by Gary Hustwit.

A couple weeks ago I attended “Creating a Healthy, Vibrant Louisville,” one of the Sustainable City Series forums, and heard Gil Peñalosa speak about great transformative changes to cities. The Sustainable City Series was created by the University of Louisville’s Urban Design Studio to “raise the community’s awareness of better design practices for our built environment with a focus on moving our city and region towards a sustainable future.”

Peñalosa’s brother Enrique is one of the featured speakers in Urbanized. I really wanted to see the film, but the library didn’t have a copy. So I filled out the Order Recommendation Form and they got a copy!

The documentary takes the viewer around the world to see the successes and failures of cities in meeting the needs of their people. From bike lanes in Copenhagen to the streets of Bogotá, the documentary traces design decisions and the insightful programs that help turn dangerous or disconnected cities into one’s that thrive. The element that ties these programs together (or makes them fail, in its absence) is the focus on people. From a violent neighborhood in South Africa springs a safe walking zone. Government subsidies allow former slum dwellers in India to own and develop their own homes. And then there this heartbreaking story of planner-citizen disconnect in Stuttgart.

So whether you’re into design or urban planning or social change , I’d highly recommend this film.
Here’s a clip from the DVD’s extras to whet your appetite.

Urbanized is available in the Ekstrom Library SGA video collection.

When you’ve finished the book…

Watch the Film! Over the years many books have been adapted for the big screen. Sometimes the film adaptation is spot-on (e.g., The Lord of the Rings). Others are more “loosely” based; varying from things like the country setting to plot (e.g., Apocalpyse Now, I Am Legend). Nevertheless, what’s great about this is Ekstrom’s Media Resources has several of them available on DVD for checkout in the SGA Collection. Just bring your UofL I.D. and you can check out 3 of these movies at one time. 

Here are a few suggestions from the library staff:

Remember: Media Resources is located on the 1^st floor, East side.

Media Student Movie Reviews – Hunger

Hunger

Directed by Steve McQueen

by Ashley McKenzie

Michael Fassbender gives an amazing and heartbreaking performance as Bobby Sands, an imprisoned IRA member who initiates a hunger strike in the prison where he and his fellow members are being held. A bit draggy in the set up of the story, it eventually evolves into a fast paced journey of a man who does not believe in giving up without a fight. And fight he does, going three solid months without food, just for the right to be called a member of the Irish Republican Army—which the prison has been refusing to recognize. The cinematography is raw and uncensored, forcing you to observe the conditions these men went through during their inhabitation of the prison without leaving a gap large enough for your own interpretation. Even though it is up in your face, whether you’d like it there or not, Hunger has honesty. This is something oft forgotten once the movie is in actual production. You watch a man suffer, and he suffers for a cause in which he truly believes.

Steve McQueen hits all the marks to draw you into the plot and more than likely send you out crying because of his grasp on humanity. Hunger is dark and poetic. It’s miserable, yet brilliant and by the end you’ll find yourself pleading with the main character in hopes that he will finally eat something that is placed in front of him. As the outsider looking in, you question his morals and methods during his protest that lasts a grueling 66 days, and you wonder if you can say that it’s worth it or not. McQueen questions us as viewers, and that’s what makes for an intriguing plot of a movie that has the potential to be dry and leave us all wondering what we just spent the last hour and a half of our lives watching.

Whether it be horrifically burned into your brain or put onto your ‘watch again’ list, Hunger is a hard movie to forget.