The Scrivener: The Proof In Black And White
…We can see amazing armies rushing across the vast plains of Middle Earth; multitudes of magical creatures whizzing around Hogwarts; nasty denizens of netherworlds emerging from ripped abdomens; zoom-zap intergalactic wars by the dozen. The work of the computer boffins who produce all this is certainly admirable, but do we really need such a barrage of colour, action and noise?...
Brian Barratt says that great films with “special effects’’ were being made fifty years ago – films shot in black and white.
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Special effects in films range from the unrealistic ripples of the sea around an inadequate model of the Titanic, in the film of the same name, to the remarkably realistic Crusoe, a baby Loch Ness monster, leaping around in a tub of water in "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep".
We can see amazing armies rushing across the vast plains of Middle Earth; multitudes of magical creatures whizzing around Hogwarts; nasty denizens of netherworlds emerging from ripped abdomens; zoom-zap intergalactic wars by the dozen. The work of the computer boffins who produce all this is certainly admirable, but do we really need such a barrage of colour, action and noise?
It's worth having another look at some of the great films of the past and their "special effects".
In 1941, Orson Welles directed and acted in "Citizen Kane". It remains at the top of AFI (American Film Institute) lists as the greatest film ever made. Welles did not have computers but he did use cameras in new ways, and in the laboratory he applied processes which had never been tried before. Some of the things he achieved more than 60 years ago might well be unnoticed by 21st century eyes. In a long shot he was able to keep all foreground and all distant background objects in focus. He skilfully manipulated lighting and shadow to enhance the characters and the drama. The clue to an underlying mystery is so subtly conveyed by visual hints over a period of two hours that present-day viewers might well miss it.
In 1945, the great British film director David Lean gave us "Brief Encounter". The story was by Noël Coward; the leading actors were Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. This film remains in the second place in the BFI (British Film Institute) list of the greatest British films. Its powerful motif is a long shot of a steam train rushing through a railway station at night. Even though it does not use any special effects in the way we now understand them, the soundtrack of Rachmaninoff's glorious music, the lighting, and the photography help to make this a memorable sequence in an exquisite film.
David Lean's version of the Charles Dickens novel "Great Expectations" was released in 1946. In the opening sequence, the boy Pip, played by Anthony Wager, is seen in the distance and almost in silhouette, running across the bleak marshlands while the wind howls around him. He passes a stark gibbet before going into a dark, lonely churchyard to place flowers on his parents' grave. The church looming in the background was actually a model, only about 12 feet tall — the film-maker used a technique known as "forced perspective" to create this and other images.
The gnarled old tree trunks and mass of moving branches frighten Pip but as he starts to run home his fear is turned to terror when he is grabbed by Abel Magwitch, a sinister, ugly, escaped convict, played by Finlay Currie. No computers were needed to produce this powerful sequence in a film which is no. 5 in the BFI list of greatest films.
Carol Reed's "The Third Man", based on Graham Greene's novel, has long been at the top of the BFI list. It was released in 1949, starring Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. The opening credits roll in front of a full-screen close-up of the twanging and vibrating strings of a zither, letting us know that we are about to see something very unorthodox. This is, of course, highlighted by the tune the zither is playing: the immortal "Harry Lime Theme" by Anton Karas. What unfolds in the next 100 minutes, set in the immediate post-War streets of Vienna, is a masterpiece of photography and lighting effects.
One of the most striking scenes is of something apparently ordinary — a small cat walking along a dark street reveals where Harry Lime is hiding. A bit of trickery makes this a "special effect" in its own right — three cats and a piece of string were cunningly used, and the trousers and shoes we see in the gloomy doorway are not in fact those of Orson Welles, but a stand-in. It would take far too long to describe how in this film the commonplace is transformed into the extraordinary, long before CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) had been thought of.
Perhaps we should remind ourselves, at this stage, that none of these films is in colour. They are all in black and white.
Ingmar Bergman's "Det Sjunde Inseglet" (The Seventh Seal) was released in 1957, featuring Max von Sydow and Bengt Ekerot. Bergman could have filmed in colour but chose to use black and white, as he did in many of his films. With Gunnar Fischer's cinematography and Erik Nordgren's music score, the overall result is stunning — one reviewer refers to "the scorching images", another to "the crystalline depth and detail". This timeless tale of a weary knight who returns from the Crusades and plays a game of chess with Death, to determine his fate, is abundant proof that some genuinely great films were made over half a century ago. It's all there, in black and white.
© Copyright Brian Barratt 2009
