One of my favorite trends of the past few years has been black-and-white director’s cuts of popular films. Back in 2016, “Mad Max: Fury Road” director George Miller followed through on his promise to release an exclusive ‘Black & Chrome’ edition of his movie on Blu-ray. Similarly, in 2017, director James Mangold and 20th Century Fox announced a special black-and-white screening of “Logan” in theaters across the country. In both cases, the director worked to entirely remaster the film, optimizing the footage for the new grayscale color palette.
READ MORE: Watch Four Clips From the ‘Black & Chrome’ Cut of “Mad Max: Fury Road”
And it looks like we will soon be able to add Bong Joon-ho‘s “Parasite” to the list as well. Earlier this week, the International Film Festival of Rotterdam added a special black-and-white screening of the lauded – class thriller? let’s go with a class thriller – to its upcoming schedule. Although the selection does not have an official festival date yet, the IFFR website does note that the full festival information will be made available on January 15.
From a critic’s perspective, there is a lot of value in seeing a black-and-white version of a movie. Every film bombards you with visual information; the combination of light, color, and movement onscreen can sometimes cause you to underappreciate – or even miss – some of the decisions made by the filmmakers and their cast. Stripping the color from a movie removes a variable, keeping your focus on the performers and the lighting of each scene. When done well, this transfer can heighten your appreciation for the filmic elements of a movie without taking anything away from the original color scheme.
READ MORE: James Mangold Confirms a Black-and-White ‘Logan’ Release
And since “Parasite” so-often toys with the notion of binaries throughout the film, the idea of a black-and-white version of the movie adds an extra element of delicious metatext. For now, we’ll have to content ourselves with wondering if this means a black-and-white version of the film will find itself onto the Blu-ray or 4K release of the movie. Fingers crossed!