History Main / DeliberatelyMonochrome

Sometimes, the less we say, the more gets said. Despite and because of its simplicity, complexity, [[{{Chiaroscuro}} stark contrast]] and cultural cachet, Black and White movies and stand-alone TV episodes have remained popular in a few genres and story niches that can pull it off without seeming pretentious. Its uses vary, but these works are [[PaintingTheMedium deliberately desaturated]] to help the [[EnvironmentalSymbolism general mood and theme]] of the {{Film}}.

* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062830/ The Hotshots]]'' (''Les Cracks''): The beginning of this film with [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0100186/ Bourvil]] (a 1968 movie, but set in 1901) is not only in Black & White, but filmed like a silent movie. But it switches to sound and vibrant colors at the start of the TourDeFrance.

* The credits’ scene in [[FanWorks/DiamondsCut Diamond's Cut]], which makes it look cool in spite of the budget limitations.

* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': The opening was deliberately filmed in B&W to highlight its transition to the then-new color filming. It was one of the first movies to use three-strip Technicolor. In the book, Kansas is gray, just like a black and white movie. In the movie (non-TV prints), Kansas is [[RealIsBrown sepia and white]]. Presumably it's supposed to echo old photographs.
* ''Film/CasinoRoyale'': The opening sequence of the 2006 film, prior to Bond receiving his 00 rating, is shot in black and white.
* ''Film/AMatterOfLifeAndDeath'': Earth is in color and Heaven is in black and white -- a deliberate inversion of expectations. At one point one of the Heavenly characters actually lampshades this by remarking, "One is so starved for Technicolor up there."

* ''Film/TheGirlCantHelpIt'' (1956): Starts in B&W and narrow screen, but this lasts only a few moments (which include the 20th Century-Fox sign-on). When Tom Ewell appears at the start of the opening credits to mention that the movie is in Technicolor and Cinemascope, the screen adjusts accordingly.
* ''Film/TheThreeStooges'': Most of the [=1960s=] films, done as an homage to their more popular [=1930s=] and [=1940s=] shorts.
* ''Paris brûle-t-il ?'' (''Film/IsParisBurning''): This French movie was shot in B&W in 1966 (save for the final view of modern Paris). It allowed the StockFootage of the actual liberation of Paris to mix more seamlessly with the film. Also, hanging red Nazi flags in Paris wasn't allowed by the French authorities, even for a movie; the flags had to be gray instead.
* ''Task Force'' (1949): Has the early parts in black & white to match existing footage; once it reaches WWII, the movie switches to color to match that footage.
* ''Film/TheLongestDay'': This 1960 [[AllStarCast Star-Studded]] epic is in Black and white to give it a documentary feel.

* ''Film/{{If}}'' (1968): Some scenes are in black and white. Many people have tried to find the "pattern"; some think that the black and white scenes are fantasy or dreams, but others think that the color scenes are. Star Creator/MalcolmMcDowell claims that some of the scenes would have taken too long to light properly if they had been shot in color, and then other scenes were shot black and white to add "texture". But another view is that the filmmakers ran into money troubles halfway through shooting and so had to shoot the rest of the scenes in black and white.
* ''Film/PaperMoon'': Set in the Great Depression.
* ''TheLastPictureShow''
* ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'': In order to better parody the old Frankenstein movies. (As Mel Brooks himself puts it in the trailer, "In black and white! No offense!") According to Creator/MelBrooks, he refused to shoot the film in color and took the project to a different studio when the first was too chicken to release a B&W movie then.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': This film was supposed to be in black and white until the first chorus of ''The Time Warp'', signifying the entrance into the new, colorful world of the Transylvanians.

* ''Film/TheElephantMan'': David Lynch's next film did this as well, except instead using it to make the environment seem more old fashioned.
* ''Film/JMenForever'' (1979): This comedy consists of clips from Republic serials from the 1940s and 50s, edited together and [[GagDub re-dubbed for comic effect]]. In order to frame the resulting incoherent story, creators Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman act in [[MrExposition scenes]] as the Chief of the J-Men and his bumbling sidekick Barton. The scenes are naturally filmed in B&W to match the rest of the footage.
* ''Film/RagingBull''
* ''Film/ManBitesDog'': The low-budget SerialKiller BlackComedy ''C'est arrivé près de chez vous'', translated as ''Man Bites Dog'', is filmed as black-and-white [[{{Mockumentary}} documentary]].
* ''Film/SchindlersList'' (1993): This was filmed in black and white to make it "timeless", and to fit [[NaziGermany the period]], with a few exceptions: A girl's red coat is shown in full color twice in the film, and the flames of the Sabbath candles symbolically fade to black and white early in the film, returning to color later. The effect wasn't so much to fit the period, as much as it was to emphasize the four different scenes that do have color.
* ''Nadja'' (1994): This vampire movie.
* ''Film/EdWood'' (1994): This was shot on real black and white film because it made it easier to recreate the spirit of Creator/EdWood's 1950s monster movies, and it made the actors look more convincing as people (Vampira, Creator/BelaLugosi, etc.) whose iconic images were always black and white. It was also felt that it just wouldn't be right to make a movie about Ed Wood in colour.
* ''Film/{{Clerks}}'': While the first film used black and white film to save money, ''Film/ClerksII'' has brief scenes shot in black and white as a CallBack to the first movie.
* ''Film/LaHaine'': This French movie by Mathieu Kassovitz. The scenes shot in the inner city of Paris were originally intended to be shot in colour, to create a more stark contrast with the black and white scenes shot in ''les banlieues'', but the budget wouldn't run to it.
* ''Film/{{Pi}}'': Creator/DarrenAronofsky's first film, was notorious for combining extremely high-contrast B&W with his "hip hop montages" to show the character's distorted world.
* ''Film/{{Memento}}'': The series of scenes that occur in chronological order, as well as the flashbacks contained within them, are filmed in black and white to distinguish them from the scenes that are shown in reverse chronological order.

* ''TheManWhoWasntThere'': This is an interesting case; the film was shot in color, made monochrome for the US releases but released with the color in Europe due to the contract. The black and white is presumably an homage to old noir films.
* ''Film/KillBill'': Parts of this film. Allegedly to fudge around censorship rules, due to the sheer amount of graphic bloodletting in the infamous battle royale with the Crazy 88. The second film as well, but as an artistic choice. It was a homage to the old westerns such as High Noon as well as an emulation of their themes. They went beyond just black and white: the first reel of the film (the part that is black and white) is actually recorded and distributed on an older form of film made out of vinyl instead of plastic. A real pain for the projectionists, and vinyl film scratches about ten times easier than modern plastic films.
* Creator/StanleyKubrick: In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many directors such as Kubrick choose to stick with black and white film despite the rapidly rising popularity of color film, precisely for these reasons (not to mention at the time black and white still had an edge in picture clarity and contrast, and B-movies used B&W for budget reasons). Arguable examples include Creator/MarilynMonroe's last film ''The Misfits'', the original ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma'', and ''Film/DrStrangelove''.
* ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'': Creator/BillyWilder and Ingmar Bergman mostly directed black and white films until the 1970s. Wilder's film was shot in black and white because the make-up used to drag-up Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon looked too garish on color film.
* ''Film/TheLostSkeletonOfCadavra'': This film is in black and white, being an AffectionateParody of 50s B monster movies.
* ''Film/VanHelsing'': The opening scenes of this film, in homage to the old monster movies of the 30s and 40s.

* ''Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu'':
** The 2005 movie is deliberately done not only in black and white but as a silent movie.
** The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society also did an adaptation of ''TheWhispererInDarkness'' which was shot in black and white in homage to a 1930's talkie.
* Creator/ClintEastwood: His films ''FlagsOfOurFathers'' and ''LettersFromIwoJima'', though filmed in color, are shot and lit as if done in black and white, giving it the same effect. Adding to this, the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima is really not a very colorful place.
* ''The Good German'': This film was shot in color (because this allowed the use of faster film than currently available in black-and-white, and the ability to use "green screen" techniques), but the color was then converted digitally to a grainier black and white, in order to recreate a 1940s ''film noir'' style, and blend with carefully restored period archival footage.
* ''Control'': This biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, was shot entirely in black-and-white to recreate the appearance of '70s band photography. Particularly those taken by the film's director, Anton Corbijn, a photographer for NME, Rolling Stone and other magazines.
* ''TheMist'': The DVD has two discs: one with the film in color as theatrically released, one with the film deliberately monochrome.
* ''Music/FlamingLips'' (''Christmas on Mars''): This is mostly in black and white to emphasize the dreariness of life in an abandoned Mars colony, with more fantastical or just plain MindScrew sequences in vivid color.
* ''Defiance'': At the beginning of this film, we see black-and-white film footage of German soldiers rounding up Jews. We cut to a scene which you swiftly realise is not contemporary footage, which then turns into color. At the end of the film, things return to black-and-white.
* ''Film/TheWhiteRibbon'' (2009): This was originally shot in color and then altered to black and white in post-production in order to [[WordOfGod create a distance from a false naturalism that suggests we know exactly what happened]] in that village set right before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'': ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' was shot in black and white, not because it couldn't be shot in color, but because it was decided that black and white would send the message better, and because although it was possible to shoot film in color, doing so would have poor quality (see ''Film/{{Rodan}}''), and also because it is easier.
* ''Casshern'': Has scenes with liberal use of color, and scenes reduced entirely to black and white. The point is contrast -- black and white is only used for scenes taking place in Zone 7, where the war is going on.
* ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'': This 2004 movie includes several black and white scenes. In this case, these are the "present day" scenes, and the past is shown in full color. There's also a SplashOfColor moment at the end -- the rose on Christine's grave.
* ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance'': There is a version of this film called ''Fade to Black and White'' in which the movie starts in full color, but the color gradually fades until the last scenes are completely monochrome. Even the regular version has a similar effect: The locations and outfits in the first few scenes make use of very bright colors, but towards the end, the bright colors are replaced by pastels, greys, and black and white. Park had planned to film ''Film/SympathyForMrVengeance'' this way, but the idea was scrapped due to budget limitations.
* ''Film/LeGendarmeDeSaintTropez'': The opening of this French movie, set in a small village of the French Alps, is in black and white. Then it switches to color with the arrival in the much more colorful town of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Tropez Saint-Tropez]].

* ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'': This is a FilmNoir parody-homage that contains a mixture of recycled footage from real films noir and new footage shot in black-and-white to match.

* ''Three to Get Ready'': This 1987 Music/DuranDuran documentary was shot in black and white to highlight the ''cinema verite'' aspect of the documentary, which chronicles the band's first attempts at managing themselves while also promoting the album ''Notorious'' and preparing for an accompanying tour.

* ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'': Released in 1945, was shot in black and white, but Dorian's title portrait is shown twice in three-strip technicolor.
* ''Film/{{Friday}}'': Smokey's flashback scenes were black and white.
* ''Theatre/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'': This was shot in black and white mainly because the makeup to turn ElizabethTaylor (then in her early 30s) into a woman in her fifties looked unconvincing in color.
* ''Comrade Stalin's Trip to Africa'': This Georgian film was shot in black and white. It uses a lot of stock footage, especially of Stalin and his victory parade, and the new footage matches. (There's also a little color stock footage.)
* ''Film/TheArtist'': This 2011 film is not only shot in black and white, but is [[SilenceIsGolden silent]] as well.

* ''Film/TheNotoriousBettiePage'': This film is mostly black and white, but changes to lush 1950s style color in order to convey the sense of release the main character feels when visiting Miami.
* ''Bonjour Tristesse'': Has present-day scenes in black-and-white and flashbacks in color.
* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'': The second film has two such cases. One has young AlCapone, whom the BigBad uses as one of his [[TheDragon Dragons]], and Capone's {{Mooks}}. Also, when the protagonist and AmeliaEarhart are escaping from {{Mooks}}, they enter the famous WorldWarII victory photo ([[TheVJDayKiss the one with the kiss]]), where everything but them appears monochrome.
* ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'': The beginning and the end of this Soviet classic are in black-and-white, while the rest of the movie is in color. This serves to indicate that the monochrome scenes are [[spoiler:the mundane RealLife]], while the color scenes are [[spoiler:AllJustADream]].
* ''Film/ThirteenDays'': Done a couple of times, probably to mimic the TV coverage of the time.
* ''Film/{{Help}}'': The Beatles' second film, made a big deal of being in color - then, at the beginning, the scene shifts from a death-cult sacrifice being cut short to the band playing the title tune in black-and-white...turns out it's a film the cult is watching.
* ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'': In the timeline where Evan was caught in the explosion and rendered a quadruple amputee, ironically, this ended up being the one reality where everyone ''else'' had the perfect life. Because of this, Kayleigh, Lenny and Tommy are all shown in much [[ColourWash stronger colours]], while Evan is heavily desaturated and appears almost grey.
* ''Film/AngelA"'': Luc Besson's film was shot in black-and-white.
* ''GirlOnTheBridge'': Patrice Leconte's film was shot in black-and-white.

* ''Film/FrancesHa'': This is filmed entirely in black-and-white.

* The opening to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' was deliberately filmed in B&W to highlight its transition to the then-new color filming. It was one of the first movies to use three-strip Technicolor. In the book, Kansas is gray, just like a black and white movie. In the movie (non-TV prints), Kansas is [[RealIsBrown sepia and white]]. Presumably it's supposed to echo old photographs.
* The opening sequence of 2006's ''Film/CasinoRoyale'', prior to Bond receiving his 00 rating, is shot in black and white.
* In ''Film/AMatterOfLifeAndDeath'', Earth is in color and Heaven is in black and white -- a deliberate inversion of expectations. At one point one of the Heavenly characters actually lampshades this by remarking, "One is so starved for Technicolor up there."
* Famous Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky really liked black and white and usually only used color as a specific visual device. Two notable examples are ''Andrei Rublev'' where the only color sequence is the ending montage of the title character's paintings and in ''Stalker'' where the characters' home town is black and white while the Zone is in color.
* ''Film/TheGirlCantHelpIt'' (1956) starts in B&W and narrow screen, but this lasts only a few moments (which include the 20th Century-Fox sign-on). When Tom Ewell appears at the start of the opening credits to mention that the movie is in Technicolor and Cinemascope, the screen adjusts accordingly.
* Most of Film/TheThreeStooges [=1960s=] films, done as an homage to their more popular [=1930s=] and [=1940s=] shorts.
* The French movie ''Paris brûle-t-il ?'' (''Film/IsParisBurning'') was shot in B&W in 1966 (save for the final view of modern Paris). It allowed the StockFootage of the actual liberation of Paris to mix more seamlessly with the film. Also, hanging red Nazi flags in Paris wasn't allowed by the French authorities, even for a movie; the flags had to be gray instead.
* Similarly, ''Task Force'' (1949) has the early parts in black & white to match existing footage; once it reaches WWII, the movie switches to color to match that footage.
* The 1960 [[AllStarCast Star-Studded]] epic, ''Film/TheLongestDay'' is also in Black and white to give it a documentary feel.
* The rock concert sequence in ''Film/{{Bedazzled 1967}}'' is in black and white, perhaps to mimic the look of mid-1960s television. Logical, since Britain's two main networks didn't get color until 1969.
* Some scenes of ''Film/{{If}}'' (1968) are in black and white. Many people have tried to find the "pattern"; some think that the black and white scenes are fantasy or dreams, but others think that the color scenes are. Star Creator/MalcolmMcDowell claims that some of the scenes would have taken too long to light properly if they had been shot in color, and then other scenes were shot black and white to add "texture". But another view is that the filmmakers ran into money troubles halfway through shooting and so had to shoot the rest of the scenes in black and white.
* ''Film/PaperMoon'', set in the Great Depression.

* ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', in order to better parody the old Frankenstein movies. (As Mel Brooks himself puts it in the trailer, "In black and white! No offense!") According to Creator/MelBrooks, he refused to shoot the film in color and took the project to a different studio when the first was too chicken to release a B&W movie then.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' was supposed to be in black and white until the first chorus of ''The Time Warp'', signifying the entrance into the new, colorful world of the Transylvanians.
* ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'', to facilitate NothingIsScarier.
* David Lynch's next film ''Film/TheElephantMan'' did this as well, except instead using it to make the environment seem more old fashioned.
* The comedy ''Film/JMenForever'' (1979) consists of clips from Republic serials from the 1940s and 50s, edited together and [[GagDub re-dubbed for comic effect]]. In order to frame the resulting incoherent story, creators Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman act in [[MrExposition scenes]] as the Chief of the J-Men and his bumbling sidekick Barton. The scenes are naturally filmed in B&W to match the rest of the footage.

* The low-budget SerialKiller BlackComedy ''C'est arrivé près de chez vous'', translated as ''Film/ManBitesDog'', is filmed as black-and-white [[{{Mockumentary}} documentary]].
* ''Film/SchindlersList'' (1993) was filmed in black and white to make it "timeless", and to fit [[NaziGermany the period]], with a few exceptions: A girl's red coat is shown in full color twice in the film, and the flames of the Sabbath candles symbolically fade to black and white early in the film, returning to color later.
** The effect wasn't so much to fit the period, as much as it was to emphasize the four different scenes that do have color.
* The vampire movie ''Nadja'' (1994).
* ''Film/EdWood'' (1994) was shot on real black and white film because it made it easier to recreate the spirit of Creator/EdWood's 1950s monster movies, and it made the actors look more convincing as people (Vampira, Creator/BelaLugosi, etc.) whose iconic images were always black and white. It was also felt that it just wouldn't be right to make a movie about Ed Wood in colour.
* While ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' used black and white film to save money, ''Film/ClerksII'' has brief scenes shot in black and white as a CallBack to the first movie.
* The French movie ''Film/LaHaine'' by Mathieu Kassovitz. The scenes shot in the inner city of Paris were originally intended to be shot in colour, to create a more stark contrast with the black and white scenes shot in ''les banlieues'', but the budget wouldn't run to it.
* ''Film/{{Pi}}'', Creator/DarrenAronofsky's first film, was notorious for combining extremely high-contrast B&W with his "hip hop montages" to show the character's distorted world.
* In ''Film/{{Memento}}'', the series of scenes that occur in chronological order, as well as the flashbacks contained within them, are filmed in black and white to distinguish them from the scenes that are shown in reverse chronological order.
* Nolan's feature debut ''Film/{{Following}}'' is filmed this way.
* ''TheManWhoWasntThere'' is an interesting case; the film was shot in color, made monochrome for the US releases but released with the color in Europe due to the contract. The black and white is presumably an homage to old noir films.
* Parts of ''Film/KillBill''. Allegedly to fudge around censorship rules, due to the sheer amount of graphic bloodletting in the infamous battle royale with the Crazy 88. The second film as well, but as an artistic choice. It was a homage to the old westerns such as High Noon as well as an emulation of their themes. They went beyond just black and white: the first reel of the film (the part that is black and white) is actually recorded and distributed on an older form of film made out of vinyl instead of plastic. A real pain for the projectionists, and vinyl film scratches about ten times easier than modern plastic films.
* In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many directors such as Creator/StanleyKubrick choose to stick with black and white film despite the rapidly rising popularity of color film, precisely for these reasons (not to mention at the time black and white still had an edge in picture clarity and contrast, and B-movies used B&W for budget reasons). Arguable examples include Creator/MarilynMonroe's last film ''The Misfits'', the original ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma'', and ''Film/DrStrangelove''.
* Creator/BillyWilder and Ingmar Bergman mostly directed black and white films until the 1970s. Wilder's ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' was shot in black and white because the make-up used to drag-up Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon looked too garish on color film.
* ''Film/TheLostSkeletonOfCadavra'' is in black and white, being an AffectionateParody of 50s B monster movies.
* The opening scenes of ''Film/VanHelsing'', in homage to the old monster movies of the 30s and 40s.
* ''Film/GoodNightAndGoodLuck''. This made the black and white footage of the real Senator Joe [=McCarthy=] in the film integrate very well visually.
* The 2005 ''Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu'' movie is deliberately done not only in black and white but as a silent movie.

* Creator/ClintEastwood's films ''FlagsOfOurFathers'' and ''LettersFromIwoJima'', though filmed in color, are shot and lit as if done in black and white, giving it the same effect. Adding to this, the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima is really not a very colorful place.
* ''The Good German'' was shot in color (because this allowed the use of faster film than currently available in black-and-white, and the ability to use "green screen" techniques), but the color was then converted digitally to a grainier black and white, in order to recreate a 1940s ''film noir'' style, and blend with carefully restored period archival footage.
* ''Control'', a biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, was shot entirely in black-and-white to recreate the appearance of '70s band photography. Particularly those taken by the film's director, Anton Corbijn, a photographer for NME, Rolling Stone and other magazines.
* The DVD of ''TheMist'' has two discs: one with the film in color as theatrically released, one with the film deliberately monochrome.
* ''[[Music/FlamingLips Christmas on Mars]]'' is mostly in black and white to emphasize the dreariness of life in an abandoned Mars colony, with more fantastical or just plain MindScrew sequences in vivid color.
* At the beginning of ''Defiance'', we see black-and-white film footage of German soldiers rounding up Jews. We cut to a scene which you swiftly realise is not contemporary footage, which then turns into color. At the end of the film, things return to black-and-white.
* ''Film/TheWhiteRibbon'' (2009) was originally shot in color and then altered to black and white in post-production in order to [[WordOfGod create a distance from a false naturalism that suggests we know exactly what happened]] in that village set right before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* [[Film/{{Gojira}} The first]] ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' film was shot in black and white, not because it couldn't be shot in color, but because it was decided that black and white would send the message better, and because although it was possible to shoot film in color, doing so would have poor quality (see ''Film/{{Rodan}}''), and also because it is easier.
* ''Casshern'' has scenes with liberal use of color, and scenes reduced entirely to black and white. The point is contrast -- black and white is only used for scenes taking place in Zone 7, where the war is going on.
* The 2004 ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' movie includes several black and white scenes. In this case, these are the "present day" scenes, and the past is shown in full color. There's also a SplashOfColor moment at the end -- the rose on Christine's grave.
* There is a version of ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance'' called ''Fade to Black and White'' in which the movie starts in full color, but the color gradually fades until the last scenes are completely monochrome. Even the regular version has a similar effect: The locations and outfits in the first few scenes make use of very bright colors, but towards the end, the bright colors are replaced by pastels, greys, and black and white. Park had planned to film ''Film/SympathyForMrVengeance'' this way, but the idea was scrapped due to budget limitations.
* The opening of the French movie ''Film/LeGendarmeDeSaintTropez'', set in a small village of the French Alps, is in black and white. Then it switches to color with the arrival in the much more colorful town of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Tropez Saint-Tropez]].
* The beginning of ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062830/ The Hotshots]]'' (''Les Cracks'') with [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0100186/ Bourvil]] (a 1968 movie, but set in 1901) is not only in Black & White, but filmed like a silent movie. But it switches to sound and vibrant colors at the start of the TourDeFrance.
* ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'' is a FilmNoir parody-homage that contains a mixture of recycled footage from real films noir and new footage shot in black-and-white to match.
* The 2002 film ''Marathon'', aside from being a "SilenceIsGolden" adherent, was also shot in black and white.
* The 1987 Music/DuranDuran documentary ''Three to Get Ready'' was shot in black and white to highlight the ''cinema verite'' aspect of the documentary, which chronicles the band's first attempts at managing themselves while also promoting the album ''Notorious'' and preparing for an accompanying tour.

* ''Film/{{Psycho}}''. Black-and-white films were common in 1960, but seven of Creator/AlfredHitchcock previous eight films were in color.
* ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', released in 1945, was shot in black and white, but Dorian's title portrait is shown twice in three-strip technicolor.
* Smokey's flashback scenes in ''Film/{{Friday}}'' were black and white.
* ''Theatre/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'' was shot in black and white mainly because the makeup to turn ElizabethTaylor(then in her early 30s) into a woman in her fifties looked unconvincing in color.
* The Georgian film ''Comrade Stalin's Trip to Africa'' was shot in black and white. It uses a lot of stock footage, especially of Stalin and his victory parade, and the new footage matches. (There's also a little color stock footage.)
* 2011's ''Film/TheArtist'' is not only shot in black and white, but is [[SilenceIsGolden silent]] as well.
* The first half of ''Disney/TheReluctantDragon'' is in black and white, with the main character [[LampshadeHanging commenting on the switch to color]].
* ''Film/TheNotoriousBettiePage'' is mostly black and white, but changes to lush 1950s style color in order to convey the sense of release the main character feels when visiting Miami.
* ''Bonjour Tristesse'' has present-day scenes in black-and-white and flashbacks in color.
* The second ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'' film has two such cases. One has young AlCapone, whom the BigBad uses as one of his [[TheDragon Dragons]], and Capone's {{Mooks}}. Also, when the protagonist and AmeliaEarhart are escaping from {{Mooks}}, they enter the famous WorldWarII victory photo ([[TheVJDayKiss the one with the kiss]]), where everything but them appears monochrome.
* The beginning and the end of the Soviet classic ''Film/{{Ivan Vasilievich|ChangesProfession}}'' are in black-and-white, while the rest of the movie is in color. This serves to indicate that the monochrome scenes are [[spoiler:the mundane RealLife]], while the color scenes are [[spoiler:AllJustADream]].
* Done a couple of times in ''Film/ThirteenDays'', probably to mimic the TV coverage of the time.
* ''Film/{{Help}}'', the Beatles' second film, made a big deal of being in color - then, at the beginning, the scene shifts from a death-cult sacrifice being cut short to the band playing the title tune in black-and-white...turns out it's a film the cult is watching.
* In ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'', in the timeline where Evan was caught in the explosion and rendered a quadruple amputee, ironically, this ended up being the one reality where everyone ''else'' had the perfect life. Because of this, Kayleigh, Lenny and Tommy are all shown in much [[ColourWash stronger colours]], while Evan is heavily desaturated and appears almost grey.
* Luc Besson's ''Film/AngelA"'' was shot in black-and-white, same as Patrice Leconte's ''GirlOnTheBridge''.
* ''Film/RomanHoliday'' used black and white film because director Creator/WilliamWyler feared that if they filmed it in color, the viewers would spend too much time admiring the Roman landmarks to focus on the story.
* ''Film/FrancesHa'' is filmed entirely in black-and-white.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''
** The world, in one of the more surreal Sunday strips, turns into a bizarre patchwork of heavy monochrome blotches. The last panel returns to the normal color format:

** ''Calvin and Hobbes'' used this theme on several occasions. For example, Calvin's Father's explanation of why old pictures are in black-and-white....
-->'''Calvin:''' Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn't they have color film back then?\\
'''Dad:''' Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It's just the world was black and white then. The world didn't turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.\\
'''Calvin:''' That's really weird.\\
'''Dad:''' Well, truth is stranger than fiction.\\
'''Calvin:''' But then why are old paintings in color?! If their world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted it that way?\\
'''Dad:''' Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.\\
'''Calvin:''' But... but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn't their paints have been shades of gray back then?\\
'''Dad:''' Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the '30s.\\
'''Calvin:''' So why didn't old black and white photos turn color too?\\
'''Dad:''' Because [[MindScrew they were color pictures of black and white]], remember?
* As a matter of fact, for much of newspaper comics' history all the comics were printed in black and white (except the Sunday editions) due to the cost of printing them in color.

* The French movie ''Paris brûle-t-il ?'' (''Film/IsParisBurning'') was shot in B&W in 1966 (save for the final view of modern Paris). It allowed the stock footage of the actual liberation of Paris to mix more seamlessly with the film. Also, hanging red Nazi flags in Paris wasn't allowed by the French authorities, even for a movie; the flags had to be gray instead.

* For years now, Website/PlatypusComix cartoonist has drawn his comics with a tablet PC and published them in color. However, he draws ''Webcomic/FreeSpirit'' comics with just pencil and paper, and doesn't ink or color them.

* ''SinCity'' even uses key bits or red and yellow... albeit, this might have something to do with being faithful to the source material. The movie has noticeably more color than the comic book. For example, in The Hard Goodbye, the movie not only has red blood, but orange fire, blonde hair, red lips, a red bed, orange pill bottle, red tail lights, blue eyes and a full color (though slightly desaturated) bar. The comic version of the story has no color whatsoever. Usually in the comics color is used to signify a character or item of importance, while the movie follows the Rule of Cool.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "The Post-Modern Prometheus" was black & white in homage to old Frankenstein movies and, presumably, the Deliberately Monochrome ''Film/TheElephantMan''.

* Most of ''{{Avalon}}'', a film about a virtual reality {{M|assivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame}}MORPG in a dystopian future, is deliberately shot in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TTgzumaI0w murky sepia]]. The movie switches to normal color and lighting at the end, when [[spoiler:the protagonist arrives in the level "class real", which looks much like our world]].

* The beginning of ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062830/ The Hotshots]]'' (''Les Cracks'') with [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0100186/ Bourvil]] (a 1968 movie, but set in 1901) is not only in Black & White, but filmed like a silent movie. But it switches to sound and vibrant colors at the start of the Tour de France.
* ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'' is a ''FilmNoir'' parody-homage that contains a mixture of recycled footage from real ''films noir'' and new footage shot in black-and-white to match.

* ''TheNotoriousBettiePage'' is mostly black and white, but changes to lush 1950s style color in order to convey the sense of release the main character feels when visiting Miami.

* The second ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'' film has two such cases. One has young AlCapone, whom the BigBad uses as one of his [[TheDragon Dragons]], and Capone's {{Mooks}}. Also, when the protagonist and AmeliaEarhart are escaping from {{Mooks}}, they enter the famous WorldWarII victory painting (the one with the kiss), where everything but them appears monochrome.

* [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-316]] is a camera that induces this effect on people.

** ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' uses a strongly saturated monochrome of gold colors as both a nod to the "golden age" of its setting as well as the FilmNoir genre. Other colors, such as red and greens, serve as a SplashOfColor.
*** In-universe, it's because you're looking from behind Adam's yellow sunglasses. When the camera cuts outside his POV, it's much less yellow.
** To a much lesser extent, the previous two games did this, the original ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' using electric blue and ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' using purple.

* Despite the locations being full colour, the character sprites in ''HotelDuskRoom215'' and its sequel ''LastWindow'' are almost entirely in black and white, likely to add a FilmNoir feel to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Kyle Hyde's]] investigations.
* In ''{{Tsukihime}}'', all of Shiki's flashbacks are done in a sepia tone. This is done in part to disguise a plot point, [[spoiler:mainly the identity of which of the twins Kohaku and Hisui he met and when -- the two are identical apart from eye color]] and the flashbacks later switch to color once this is revealed.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'' does this intentionally with a few notable exceptions, [[{{Gorn}} and blood, lots and lots of blood]].

* ''{{Cypher}}'' is shot predominantly in a heavily desaturated, high contrast and near-monochrome world of drudgery, suits and concrete. It's only at the end, [[spoiler: when Sebastian has realised his true identity and is sailing with Rita,]] that true colour returns.

* The Greyzones of ''Webcomic/TheWayOfTheMetagamer'' cause desaturation.
** The sequel, ''The Way of the Metagamer 2: InNameOnly'', is monochrome with the occasional SplashOfColor.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In one Sunday ''ComicStrip/PricklyCity'' strip, Carmen and Winslow are sitting on a butte, in grayscale. In the second panel, Winslow hugs Carmen; the background is sunshine yellow and all the panel yellow tinged. The third panel has reverted to full color, with a blue and purple and cloudy background.
[[/folder]]

* Parts of the epilogue of ''BioshockInfinite'' take place in a monochrome environment, [[spoiler: particularly flashbacks to when Booker [=DeWitt=] sold his daughter Anna to Zachary Comstock to pay off a debt and then tries to get her back.]]

* The opening of the French movie ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Gendarme_de_Saint-Tropez Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez]]'', set in a small village of the French Alps, is in black and white. Then it switches to color with the arrival in the much more colorful town of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Tropez Saint-Tropez]].

* Some scenes of ''Film/{{If}}'' (1968) are in black and white. Many people have tried to find the "pattern"; some think that the black and white scenes are fantasy or dreams, but others think that the color scenes are. Star MalcolmMcDowell claims that some of the scenes would have taken too long to light properly if they had been shot in color, and then other scenes were shot black and white to add "texture". But another view is that the filmmakers ran into money troubles halfway through shooting and so had to shoot the rest of the scenes in black and white.

* In ''Film/TheBookOfEli'' and ''TheRoad'' the colors are bleached to give a bleak, desolate, post-apocalyptic scenery.

* The 2005 ''[[Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu]]'' movie is deliberately done not only in black and white but as a silent movie.

* ''Film/TheElephantMan''

* The 2005 ''[[LovecraftOnFilm The Call of Cthulhu]]'' movie is deliberately done not only in black and white but as a silent movie.

----

'''Dad:''' Because [[FridgeLogic they were color pictures of black and white]], remember?

* Used in ''Webcomic/SoreThumbs'', in one story arc where [[spoiler: Cecania is shipped off to Guantanamo Bay]]. Cecania is a RoseHairedGirl, and it is the first time the audience gets to see it. The guard mentions "I find I enjoy the color of your hair. [[LampshadeHanging I was unaware that more than two colours existed.]]

In [[AdvertisingTropes infomercials]], DeliberatelyMonochrome signifies the "old-fashioned" (and usually inferior) way of doing things. [[TooIncompetentToOperateABlanket The woman tangled in a mess of cling wrap or cutting her fingers off while paring potatoes with a knife]] will usually be in black-and-white, while the woman easily covering leftovers with a Covermate or "peeling" a potato with the Handy-Peel will be in full color.

* ''Film/TheWhiteRibbon'' (2009) was originally shot in color and then altered to black and white in post-production in order to [[WordOfGod create a distance from a false naturalism that suggests we know exactly what happened]] in that village set right before WorldWarOne.

* In ''TheButterflyEffect'', in the timeline where Evan was caught in the explosion and rendered a quadruple amputee, ironically, this ended up being the one reality where everyone ''else'' had the perfect life. Because of this, Kayleigh, Lenny and Tommy are all shown in much [[ColourWash stronger colours]], while Evan is heavily desaturated and appears almost grey.

* ''DeBlob'' starts out so. It's up to the player to restore the world to its vibrant state.

* [[SciFiChannel SyFy]]'s ''WebVideo/TheMercuryMen'' is filmed in black and white, reminiscent of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' and old [[TheFifties Fifties]] serials.

* The {{HBO}} TV movie ''TheCatsMeow'' takes place during TheRoaringTwenties and is about the TriangRelations between William Randolph Hurst, his actress mistress Marion Davies, and Creator/CharlieChaplin [[spoiler: who Hurst tries to kill but winds up mortally wounding another guy instead]]. Because all the characters are involved in the silent movie business their [[GorgeousPeriodDress fancy clothes]] are black, white, and grey (which makes it look like a live-action Creator/EdwardGorey story) and [[spoiler: the victim's funeral]] is in black and white.

* In one Sunday ''PricklyCity'' strip, Carmen and Winslow are sitting on a butte, in grayscale. In the second panel, Winslow hugs Carmen; the background is sunshine yellow and all the panel yellow tinged. The third panel has reverted to full color, with a blue and purple and cloudy background.

----