“The color is so superbly descriptive in the film, and even the color of someone’s eyes gives you so much information,” said Zamparloukos. “But I often find that when I make films with Ken, we try to remove information about the audience and show them what we they want to see “.
Their new film, “Belfast”, about a young Irish boy growing up in the turbulent 1960s, does not completely avoid color: It is bound by two color montages of modern Belfast and every time our young protagonist, Buddy, goes in the movies, the movies he watches come to life in vivid colors.
But for the most part, whether Buddy charms a girl at school or tries to understand the conflict between his parents (Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balf), “Belfast” is cast in sparkling silver.
“In this case, I think we are using the power of black and white, which is not to tell you what a person or place looks like but how it feels,” Zambarloukos said. “It has a transcendental quality to be of the past and the present. “It’s realistic, but it also has a certain magical feel.”
Zambarloukos gritted his teeth during the filming of Branagh’s “Death on the Nile” which was delayed for a long time (expected in February), which opens with a 10-minute sequence in black and white. But now that he has shot all these close-ups of Belfast without color, he admits it will be difficult to return to red, yellow and blue.
“If I saw the same portrait of a person in color and black and white, most of the time, I would say more about this person than in black and white,” said Zamparloukos. “It does not create anything that does not exist, but what exists is so enhanced!”
