How black-and-white photography became Hollywood’s new favorite color

In Hollywood, black-and-white is the hottest new trend, with Oscar contenders like “Belfast” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” embracing monochromatic for its storytelling potency.

Kenneth Branagh’s boyhood drama and Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaption are two of a slew of recent critically praised films filmed fully or primarily in black-and-white, as directors strive to exploit the medium’s innate feeling of historical authenticity and humanizing closeness.

“Color allows you to wonderfully express individuals,” Branagh said of his highly personal film about bloodshed in 1960s Northern Ireland, which is competing for seven Oscars on Sunday, including best picture.

While color may make a “sweeping panorama of a desert or a mountain range epic,” the human face is “an epic dimension of black-and-white photography, on a big screen.”

Meanwhile, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel of “Macbeth: A Tragedy” told The New York Times that the effect was “meant to impart theatricality” to the picture and give it a timeless air. Denzel Washington, the film’s lead, is up for best actor.

Monochrome films have existed since they went out of popularity in the 1950s, when cheaper color technology permitted more directors to mimic the brilliant tones that had captivated viewers in “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind” years before.

“I adore black-and-white photography. I’m quite arrogant. I watch a lot of black-and-white movies — after all, they’re the movies of my heroes, right? They’re fantastic, and I adore them “AFP quoted Mills as saying.

The format is used to tackle the issue of racism in “Passing,” whose star Ruth Negga has been nominated for a number of awards and won at the Film Independent Spirit Awards earlier this month.

In Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, “racial passing” is explored when two childhood friends of mixed racial background meet by accident in 1920s New York while both claiming to be white.

“It wasn’t just a matter of taste. Making a picture on colorism… that is devoid of color, I believe, was a conceptual choice “Hall stated during the screening of the film at the Sundance Film Festival.

“When we look at people’s looks, we quickly categories them… categorizations become significant, but they’re also silly in some ways.”