Melancholy can be sweet, as when you are alone at twilight. But it can also be deeply sad, the result of a tragic solitude. And that is the story of our film.
The tragic solitude of the residents of Oran after being locked in to their town in The Plague written by Albert Camus (1947) is that sort of melancholy, portrayed well by the author and felt by the reader. My daughter said the author was a philosopher and she has a minor in philosophy. If you haven't read it, try it, it's a Tony Esolen kind of literature. ;)
Looking forward to watching this. I have never even heard of it! And I love your points about black and white movies—I have often thought that it takes some level of experience watching black and white movies in order to really appreciate the film as a work of art. Many of my own peers (and I am 60 these days) have little to no experience watching old black and white movies and their taste suffers for it.
Yes, I sensed the same sort of reluctance in myself, until I started watching a lot of them on purpose, and then I saw that it was a great artistic medium in its own right. I can't imagine, for example, the old Twilight Zone shows in color. It would be a distraction, and it would weaken the force of the art; see for instance the noir episode, "The Four of Us Are Dying."
The tragic solitude of the residents of Oran after being locked in to their town in The Plague written by Albert Camus (1947) is that sort of melancholy, portrayed well by the author and felt by the reader. My daughter said the author was a philosopher and she has a minor in philosophy. If you haven't read it, try it, it's a Tony Esolen kind of literature. ;)
Looking forward to watching this. I have never even heard of it! And I love your points about black and white movies—I have often thought that it takes some level of experience watching black and white movies in order to really appreciate the film as a work of art. Many of my own peers (and I am 60 these days) have little to no experience watching old black and white movies and their taste suffers for it.
Yes, I sensed the same sort of reluctance in myself, until I started watching a lot of them on purpose, and then I saw that it was a great artistic medium in its own right. I can't imagine, for example, the old Twilight Zone shows in color. It would be a distraction, and it would weaken the force of the art; see for instance the noir episode, "The Four of Us Are Dying."