It’s hard to overstate the importance that color has to cinematic storytelling, but that only makes it more effective when a movie chooses to utilize black and white. Once the only way to make a movie, today ‘black and white’ is a stylistic choice that can totally transform a film.
In this list, we’re looking at modern movies no-one should miss, which use only or primarily black and white to tell their stories. We’re considering any film that had a black and white theatrical release – so sadly, movies like The Mist that only did so as a DVD extra don’t count.
We’re also only considering fantastic movies that everyone should see once in their life – the absolute best of the best.
8
The Lighthouse (2019)
Written by Max Eggers, Written and Directed by Robert Eggers
Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star in a dark comedy about the ultimate case of cabin fever, as two men locked in isolation begin to be swallowed into superstition and past sins.
The use of black and white acts as a destabilizing effect, immediately removing the characters from reality and placing them into a world of extremes, even before they begin to break down emotionally. Eggers and Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography draws focus to contrast, texture and light rather than color, emphasizing elements that would otherwise be lost, especially with the focus on being trapped in such an isolating, cramped location.
Like a lot of films on this list, The Lighthouse uses black and white to break down reality on a fundamental level, so that when things turn horrifying, there’s no easy way to separate out the bizarre.
7
The Artist (2011)
Written and Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
The Artist depicts silent film star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) as his career begins to crumble following the dawn of ‘talkies.’ The movie follows both Valentin’s career and his romance with dancer-turned-actress Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), whose star rises with the advent of this new kind of film.
Black and white is used to mimic the silent film era, and the movie is almost totally without diagetic sound. These choices allow for some classic tricks (most notably, a misleading written sound effect near the movie’s end), while also emphasizing the era and way of life that Valentin is so reluctant to let go.
6
Godzilla Minus One/Godzilla Minus Color (2023)
Written and Directed by Takashi Yamazaki
The acclaimed Godzilla Minus One follows Ryunosuke Kamiki’s former kamikaze pilot as he struggles with the trauma and guilt of his ‘failed’ military service in WWII. When Godzilla arrives, mutated by the war, Kamiki is given a chance to redeem himself – but one that might rob him of the love that’s grown around him while he’s been busy hating himself.
Originally released in color, the Godzilla Minus Color cut saw a theatrical run in 2024, and it’s arguably the better film. The already impressive CGI is rendered even more realistic without color, erasing the last instinct that the viewer is watching anything but a real monster raining down genuine destruction.
Obviously inspired by the original 1950s Godzilla, the black and white edition was substantially altered in terms of contrast and masking, subtly changing the focus of key shots. Yamazaki told The Wrap:
For us, removing the color in some way increases the reality, feeling almost like a documentary and making audiences feel that Godzilla actually exists. [It’s] way scarier than ‘Godzilla Minus One’ with color, even the team members working on it, we’d get goosebumps.
Black and white also bolsters the movie’s period setting, emphasizing both Kamiki and Godzilla’s status as the continuing fallout of a historic conflict and trapping them in that time period – the perfect complement to Kamik’s redemptive arc.
5
Roma (2018)
Written and Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Roma follows a 1970s housekeeper in Mexico City, as her tumultuous personal life combines and contrasts with the political upheaval and violence spreading around her. The film is an exploration of class, gender and race, as two women from different social strata (Yalitza Aparicio’s Cleo and Marina de Tavira’s Sofía) close the distance between them after very similar betrayals.
The movie’s black and white cinematography grounds it in the real, recent past, with Cuarón drawing plot elements from his own childhood. The choice evokes documentary footage, suggesting an objective lens that places the onus on the viewer to unearth their own empathy rather than have it handed to them.
4
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Written and Directed by Joel Coen
Coen’s take on the Shakespeare classic is brutally minimalistic – the perfect choice for the story of a man reaching for what he can’t have and losing everything as a result.
Macbeth has a major focus on destiny and unavoidable fate, and the artificiality of Coen’s cinematography emphasizes the fact that Macbeth is a story told countless times, always reaching the same tragic conclusion. The black and white is timeless and unreal – compounded by nightmarish sets clearly influenced by German Expressionism.
At the same time, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver excellent performances, ensuring the human element isn’t forgotten, even while forced to repeat endlessly in an artificial world.
3
Mad Max: Fury Road | Black and Chrome Edition (2016)
Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris, Directed by George Miller
Originally released in color, Millar sees the black and white version as “the best version of the movie” (according to a Warner Bros. behind-the-scenes look at the ‘Black and Chrome’ edition.)
It’s easy to see why. While Fury Road is a riot of color that turns the deadliest elements of this post-apocalyptic future into gorgeous spectacle, the black and white version is truer to the characters’ experiences, turning the desert into a bleak canvas only given meaning by other people.
Millar had wanted to make a black and white Mad Max since coincidentally seeing a stripped-down version of Road Warrior in 1980, and Black and Chrome is a realization of that intent. Ultimately, any fan of Max Max needs to experience both versions.
2
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Written and Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour
A reimagining of classic vampire horror, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night refuses to come to a simple conclusion about Sheila Vand’s undead character. The movie follows Arash Marandi’s character as he attempts to escape a hardscrabble life, weighed down by the criminality and addiction of those around him.
Meeting a mysterious woman, Arash believes he’s found someone to run away with, not realizing he’s romancing a predator who may or may not decide to take his life.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night exists in constant conversation with past vampire media, and clearly homages films like Nosferatu with its black and white. However, it also uses black and white to echo the moral grays of its characters. Vand’s vampire is both heroic and dangerous, and can’t be reduced to purely ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – either in moral terms, or in what loving her might mean for Arash.
1
Persepolis (2007)
Written and Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Based on the 2000 graphic novel of the same name, Persepolis is an autobiographical exploration of Satrapi’s childhood during the Iranian Revolution. Color is used to fix the movie in time, with Satrapi’s childhood in black and white and her adulthood in color. It’s a straightforward metaphor, but one that’s essential to the narrative’s effect.
This contrast between color and monochrome emphasizes the loss of freedoms during Satrapi’s childhood, as the Iranian government cracks down on women’s rights. In her commentary for the film, Satrapi states that the lack of color in her original 2000 comic was intended to generalize some of its elements, making it harder for the reader to dismiss the potential for extremism to take hold in their own country.
Black and white also simplifies the movie’s art, intensifying the sense of a childhood interpreted by the person who lived it – almost drawn by Satrapi’s younger self, or playing out in her mind.
Those are our eight modern black and white movies that everyone should watch, but we also want to hear your picks. Should Frances Ha have appeared on this list, was it a crime to leave off Sin City? Let us know in the comments below.
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