Living Colour: Pleasantville V Sin City

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Both of these films are tremendously made films with good stories, however the selling point of each film was down to the use of mixing black & white with dabs of colour.

Pleasantville is set in a 50s TV show, where 2 modern day teenagers (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) are sucked into the show after a mysterious TV repair man blesses/curses them with a remote with magical powers. The 2 siblings have been arguing over what they get to watch, with Maguire being intent on watching a Pleasantville marathon and Witherspoon wanting to watch a concert on MTV with a guy she's been pursuing at school. Their bickering causes the remote to be flung against the wall and smash to pieces, which is where the TV repair man enters the equation.

Once in the show, everything is black, white and grey. Maguire is in his element and understands how to play the role of the son in the show, while Witherspoon is rebellious against the times. Maguire has to guide his sister how to act and behave in a manner befitting of the time period so as not to mess with the show. Her rebellious instincts cannot be suppressed and once she starts to alter the sensibilities of the shows universe, a strange thing happens; colour begins infiltrating the world. As the show's morals, constraints and habits are challenged, more and more colour appears; either characters themselves change or shops, trees, cars etc suddenly take on coloured hues.

Contrasting the use of colour in Pleasantville with its use in Sin City, there is no real consistency with how it is used. Marv's blood is shown as red, whereas Hartigan's is shown as white. Some characters' eye colours stand out, whereas others are simply black and white. The use of colour in Sin City is a stylistic tool, utilised to reinforce the reference to the Sin City graphic novels that adopted the same technique of sporadically using splashes of colour in a world of black and white.

So, onto the questions;

Does one of these films use colour in a better way in your opinion, and why?

Should more films adopt the mixing of black & white with colour?

Your general thoughts about the films and/or techniques.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Finally watched Pleasantville, so I can respond to this thread.....

Does one of these films use colour in a better way in your opinion, and why?

In Pleasantville, color began to emerge, when the citizens experience something different. They broke their mundane daily routines, and curiosity sparked an urge to seek a different lifestyle. Plus, the colors show the differences between the people, who want to accept change (people in color), and the bitter citizens (people in black & white), who stick to a more traditional and more normal lifestyle. For Pleasantville, the transition from black & white to color is a necessary tool, because color represents major changes and new experiences.

As far as Sin City goes, yeah, I have to agree. The mixing of colors just feels like a fancy trick. There's no consistency whatsoever, and unlike Pleasantville, the color changes can feel very unnecessary most of the time.

So with all that said, I'd have to give the nod to Pleasntville for the better usage of colors.

Should more films adopt the mixing of black & white with colour?

Sure. But you'll have some failed experiments along the way. Frank Miller's The Spirit is a prime example. As long as the color mixing serves a purpose (Pleasantville), or provides an amazing visual experience (Sin City), then I don't see a problem.

Your general thoughts about the films and/or techniques.

Pleasantville is a very good film. Although, the pacing did feel a bit tedious at times, but I still enjoyed it.

But if I had to choose between the two, I would go with Sin City. Sin City features better acting, and there's no way around it. In Pleasantville, you'll see a pair of good performances from William H. Macy, Tobey Maguire, and Reese Witherspoon, but the cast for Sin City is still superior in every way.

Plus, I enjoy Sin City's hardcore neo-noir atmosphere, and I'm a sucker for stylized graphic violence, so this is an easy pick for me.

A Dame To Kill For (the sequel) is supposed to hit theaters in 2013. I hope they can stick to the release date this time around, because I can't handle another change.

 

[JWGunslinger]

Does one of these films use colour in a better way in your opinion, and why?
I have to agree with Mitch here, the way that they color changed in Pleasantville flowed better and was at the appropriate times. Meanwhile Sin City did so at times it didn't seem necessary, almost like they were just doing it to show they could.

Should more films adopt the mixing of black & white with colour?
Only when it's appropriate, I hate it when films go out of their way to use black and white but if the situation/story calls for it and they don't overdo it I love the use of black and white. Its one of those things where I love it but I don't want it to be used too much more because if it became an ultra common thing it would lose some appeal.

Your general thoughts about the films and/or techniques.
What I said to the last question sums it up pretty well but I really admire and appreciate good black and white use. I like when it's used in flash back sequences but nothing will ever beat the way they used it in Pleasantville because it was such a huge part of the movie. Seeing the world everyone is living in there without color and then seeing it slowly added and having everyone go from black and white to colored was just awesome, they did more with that than all the dialogue in the entire movie and that is a real sign of an amazing movie.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Pleasantville is a very good film. Although, the pacing did feel a bit tedious at times, but I still enjoyed it.

But if I had to choose between the two, I would go with Sin City. Sin City features better acting, and there's no way around it. In Pleasantville, you'll see a pair of good performances from William H. Macy, Tobey Maguire, and Reese Witherspoon, but the cast for Sin City is still superior in every way.

Plus, I enjoy Sin City's hardcore neo-noir atmosphere, and I'm a sucker for stylized graphic violence, so this is an easy pick for me.

A Dame To Kill For (the sequel) is supposed to hit theaters in 2013. I hope they can stick to the release date this time around, because I can't handle another change.

By and large, I do agree Sin City is slightly better, but I don't know if there's such a big gap in the acting stakes.

The 3 Pleasantville actors you've already mentioned all did well, but Joan Allen and Jeff Daniels for me were the pick of the cast. Joan Allen's performance arc was pretty much spot on; she plays up the eager to please and nurture stereotype of the 50s American housewife at the very start, then plays the 'innocent but curious' role well too in the scene with Reese Witherspoon where she learns about sex. (The tree bursting into colourful flame against the grey backdrop was one of my favourite uses of colour in the entire film.)

Her sexual awakening is the arguably the central factor of the third act, as she then has to conceal her colouring or else have to explain what has changed with her. The scene with her and Jeff Daniels in the diner is the next step in her awakening and begins the final stretch of the film as Daniels' nude portrait of her has the town in an uproar. Using Dave Brubeck's Take Five was a terrific touch too; the musical number itself is named after it's odd time signature and thus went against conventional Western music timings, just as the characters in the film are challenging conventions too.

Frank Miller adaptations such as Sin City, The Spirit and 300 were sold moreso on their look than the acting talent, though I don't say that as a slight against the actors in the respective films. Of the 3, Sin City does have the better cast, but there are occasions where the actors don't seem to be putting much into the role and delivery is quite flat (primarily thinking of Michael Madsen in Sin City, though, granted, he is a minor character.) Perhaps it is due to the dialogue seeming quite cut and pasted from the source material, but its one of those things that has stuck with me.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Ugh, you just had to post THAT scene from Pleasantville! As far as highlighting examples of high quality acting, it's hard to top that clip, but I'll try:

[YOUTUBE]9BOOv6NNnP0[/YOUTUBE]

Benicio del Toro really nailed the sleazy abusive ex-boyfriend/dirty cop character. Sin City is loaded with some genuinely evil antagonists, and Del Toro is one of the more cold-hearted bad guys in this film. Plus, Brittany Murphy is very convincing, as the broken and helpless girlfriend. And Clive Owen brings life to the quiet, but deadly psychopath, who will do anything to protect Shellie (Murphy).

You also can't forget Devon Aoki and Elijah Wood. Both characters don't speak a word, but they were able to express their violent killing machine personas with facial expressions and body language, and they still provided a pair of very good performances.

I still give the nod to Sin City on the acting side of things, but yeah, I probably got carried away with the superior stuff. Also, I do agree with you criticism of the dialogue. But Bruce Willis is surprisingly good here, and Sin City is one of those rare films that features an above average performance from Jessica Alba.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Ugh, you just had to post THAT scene from Pleasantville!

Haha! Apologies my dude, I almost didn't as I wasn't sure if her simulated *********ion counted as pornography. Would have much preferred to have used the clip from the diner but alas I couldn't track it down!

As far as highlighting examples of high quality acting, it's hard to top that clip, but I'll try:

[YOUTUBE]9BOOv6NNnP0[/YOUTUBE]

Benicio del Toro really nailed the sleazy abusive ex-boyfriend/dirty cop character. Sin City is loaded with some genuinely evil antagonists, and Del Toro is one of the more cold-hearted bad guys in this film. Plus, Brittany Murphy is very convincing, as the broken and helpless girlfriend. And Clive Owen brings life to the quiet, but deadly psychopath, who will do anything to protect Shellie (Murphy).

You also can't forget Devon Aoki and Elijah Wood. Both characters don't speak a word, but they were able to express their violent killing machine personas with facial expressions and body language, and they still provided a pair of very good performances.

I still give the nod to Sin City on the acting side of things, but yeah, I probably got carried away with the superior stuff. Also, I do agree with you criticism of the dialogue. But Bruce Willis is surprisingly good here, and Sin City is one of those rare films that features an above average performance from Jessica Alba.

Those 2 did a fine job and really breathed life into the dark vicious humour that Frank Miller had created. Del Toro's performance reminded me somewhat of his work in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as he seems to relish playing characters that are just over the edge of sanity.

Nick Stahl doesn't need to do much to make me dislike him (see any post about T3) but his turn as the yellow bastard was a great performance considering he was facing off against Willis' Hartigan. Both characters are men on a mission with different intentions in mind for the girl caught in the middle, and yellow bastard (cba looking up his proper name) has such drive behind his menace that when Hartigan finally gets him, it feels very rewarding.