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Colorization: Not a Black-and-White Issue
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12452 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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7 / 1987 |
2,050 Words |
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Debra Wishik
Debra Wishik writes frequently for New York newspapers. |
Colorization has touched of a fierce debate in Hollywood this past year, culminating in a congressional proposal to halt the controversial practice of adding color to black-and-white movies. Following a hearing on Capital Hill at which Woody Allen, Milos Forman, Sydney Pollack, Ginger Rogers, and others testified about the artistically destructive nature of this process, Rep. Richard Gephardt introduced a Film Integrity Act of 1987 to protect old films.
The congressman said, "Classic feature films are a vital part of America's living heritage. They've become one of the most potent voices through which one generation speaks to the next." Sydney Pollack, the Academy Award winning director of Out of Africa, said the proposed legislation "is a great step forward, granting motion pictures the status as fine arts that they deserve."
Director-writer-actor Woody Allen stated, "Whether it's just a bunch of movies or an old Honeymooners or I Love Lucy, you don't want a society where they have a free license to change an artist's work."
Last fall, the Regency, a revival house on Manhattan's Upper West Side, featured The Maltese Falcon. The marquee advertised it as "the original black-and-white version." Why did the theatre feel the need to add this tag to a film classic? That same week, a colorized version of the film aired on WTBS. The manager of the Regency, Morton Tankus, said the marquee description was in support of John Huston, the film's director. After the television airing, the elderly director held a press conference to express his outrage over the colorized version. Huston said he was unable to watch more than a few minutes of the
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