Dark as Ripley: 7 Sleek Black-And-White Movies to Stream on Netflix
Color is everything, black and white is more, and these titles prove it.
New Netflix ’s top tier show, Andrew Scott ’s Ripley, is shot entirely in black and white, to enhance viewers’ experience of facing the main character’s relentless crimes. Indeed, sometimes monochrome adds to the spectacularity of a feature more than bright colors.
Here are 7 movies available on Netflix which serve as the best examples of it.
1. Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
The Avengers director definitely demonstrated superpowers here as his Shakespeare based romcom filmed entirely in a black-and-white palette over a period only of 12 days is full of wit, visual accents and allusions and, moreover, timeless romanticism.
2. Malcolm & Marie (2021)
Zendaya and John David Washington’s movie about the failed relationship between a director and his girlfriend exploits monochrome to emphasize the dark, but clear nature of the couple’s conflict, pointing out the strain which is obvious in the air between them.
3. Frances Ha (2012)
This movie’s black-and-white lighting and the free-flowing camera work, reminiscent of the French New Wave movies, here serves as a depiction of the timelessness of a topic of finding yourself and maturing, through which is going Greta Gerwig’s heroine.
4. Maestro (2023)
Bradley Cooper ’s once-in-a-lifetime project, focusing on the life and career of celebrated composer Leonard Bernstein switches between colorful and monochrome scenes, with the latter ones paying homage to the Old Hollywood cinema.
5. Following (1999)
This crime thriller’s black-and-white cinematic code and the hand-held camera work create the impression of peeping at somebody, just like the main character’s pursuing strangers, which makes an inventive neo-noir of this Christopher Nolan ’s feature.
6. Mank (2020)
David Fincher’s biographical drama, following the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz during his work on the screenplay for the 1941 Citizen Kane movie is made in the style of 1930s cinema, serving as a big visual callback to the works of its main real-life character.
7. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
This breaking-the-canon vampire black-and-white movie combines modern pop culture references and parodying of both spaghetti Westerns and the James Dean features, emphasizing the negative aspects of mainstream culture of the West.