The gift that keeps on giving...

kippledweller

MemberOvomorphMarch 23, 20121137 Views4 Replies

Had the day of work work today (end of financial year... use it or lose it!) and after a bit of this and that had a whole afternoon off. All this 'Prometheus' chat had me itching to go back to the Alien universe. I've had the BD anthology for almost 2 years now and its still full of surprises, recently me and Mrs Kippledweller watched the re-cut of 'Alien 3' and found a new respect for the film that we previously had little time for. But I've pretty much exhausted 'Alien'... or have I?? I put in the disc, drew the blinds, and.... turned down the colour. I do this with films I love every now & then, sometimes it works and sometimes not but you always view the film slightly differently and subtle things you've never noticed before stand out. Anyone else watched 'Alien' in black & white?

Jv8r
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March 23, 2012

No, but I now will as soon as I get the chance. I've seen it dozens of times and this will be a welcome twist. Thanks for the tip!

Ripley Clone 8
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March 23, 2012

No I haven't seen Alien in black and white. How was it this time around for you?

http://i.imgur.com/vbAPQY6.gif

kippledweller
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March 23, 2012

Well the caveat with doing this is that colour films are lit to be viewed in colour, B&W films are lit very differently so there are some scenes that don't work, Kane's drop into the egg cave for example, but the film overall works really well. The B&W shift definitely refocuses you on the sound, perhaps because there is less overall visual stimulus, and I spotted loads of little details as you eye is drawn to odd things, like the brand of cigarettes Lambert smokes and the Weyland-Yutani logos all over the place. The weather on LV-426 is more wild somehow. One of the best scenes is the lights coming on in the cryo-chamber right at the start of the film as the contrast is huge. A funny effect is that the Jerry Goldsmith score makes some of the scenes with the creature, particularly in the Narcissus seem like an old universal horror, really weird at times!! And the contrast really shows off the 'skull' under the dome of the creatures head in a way I'd only noticed in production stills before. Its a real trip, get on it!

IO
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March 23, 2012

Awesome! Can't wait to check out the b&w effects on the alien...still the best depiction of the scariest creature of all time....30 years BEFORE CGI ruined everything IMO