Die Farbe

The black and white German movie "Die Farbe (The Color)" from 2010 is made after the short story "The Color Out of Space" from 1927 by Howard Phillips Lovecraft and it is one of the best adaptations of this author. The story itself has an interesting premise, but it doesn't leave a particularly strong impression as almost nothing is happening. However, in terms of the story, I did not even have high expectations, because I read Lovecraft's original and there is also an emphasis almost solely on the atmosphere. Excellent black and white cinematography, directing, and peculiarly striking sound quite well convey Lovecraft's dark atmosphere from the very beginning. The idea to adapt this story in black and white is a very effective solution, because in the color film it is impossible to show nonexistent color, and virtually any color inserted in the movie after an hour of building colorless environment can be perceived as "the color out of space." I recommend that you watch the movie in complete silence, preferably with the headphones, because the sound is convincingly the most powerful element of this movie. Sounds that logically should be in the background, like ticking of the clock, the wind, the drumming of the rain on the window, creaking floorboards underfoot and the like, here are clearly highlighted and cause discomfort to the viewer, who may not even realize what disturbs him. I only realized it when I put the headphones, after twenty minutes of the movie. In my case, the strongest effect has been achieved by the omnipresent buzzing of insects, which varies from the background noise to the feeling that some pterodactyl just passed through my brain, and without which the film would be significantly less eerie. This film contains elements of science fiction, horror, drama, and mystery, but none of these genres describe it properly. I think it would be best to describe it only as a quality adaptation of Lovecraft, because in the literature he is also a genre for itself.

8/10

H. P. Lovecraft's tales and novels have been adapted into pedestrian motion pictures. I have liked very few of them, especially «Re-Animator», for its exacerbated irreverence in 1985 and the iconoclastic direction by Stuart Gordon, who was taking his first step in cinema; and two fine low-budget but stylish productions by the H. P. Lovecraft Historic Society, «The Call of Cthulhu» and «The Whisperer in Darkness»

Lovecraft's adaptations often fail, not only because the writers and directors are mediocre, but because, to find a narrative line in stories like, say, "The Shadow over Innsmouth," you have to overlook pages and pages of descriptions of buildings, bell towers, sidewalks and docks, of ugly mutants, of tiaras, lineages and tenures, and, in the end, in the inventory of significant incidents you make for your adaptation, much of the author's best is lost. However, I recently found a little gem that is by far the best film that I have ever seen based on a Lovecraftian text: «Die Farbe», based on «The Color Out of Space».

Lovecraft fans have rejected it, maybe because it is not American, possibly because it was made in Germany with German actors and the action relocated to the Swabian-Franconian Forest, or maybe because it was directed by a Vietnamese man raised in Brecht's land and financed through crowd funding. You can even think that they are annoyed because Huan Vu did it so well.

Lovecraft's tale is a story about a color. It can be a symbol, a metaphor, but in any case, this color is unknown on planet Earth. It arrives with a meteorite that falls in a splendid valley near Stuttgart. The meteorite is subject to investigation, but the object - which is getting smaller and smaller - gradually gains in strangeness, manifested in trees that bear enormous and rotten fruits, on the farm of a family whose members are losing their sanity, announcing the impending tragedy. Director Huan Vu decided to make the film in black and white, so that when the color finally manifests itself, it seems new but also strange, terrifying, and devastating.

The tragedy in «Die Farbe» directly affects few persons... First, the family made up of the parents and three boys; then the American young man who comes to the forest looking for his father, a soldier who served in the area during World War II; and finally, a witness to the events, a neighbor of the infected farm, who narrates the film. The resolution suggests that eight people were affected by a color that in the end flew away from Earth... But in the final shots, during the end credits, something larger is hinted at, something that will spread like a pandemic, just like in «Invasion of the Body Snatchers» by Siegel, Kaufman, or Ferrara; or Polanski's «Dance of the Vampires»... "It's all over", repeats one of the characters, but no, that is not so... The devastation will continue.

HP Lovecraft stories are notoriously difficult to transcribe onto film. Most film versions of his stories have been disappointing. However, in this case, the filmmakers have managed very well. It is true that the locale of the story has been transposed to Germany and that a few plot points have been altered. Nevertheless, this film is very faithful to the original and, more importantly, maintains the eerie and paranoiac atmosphere for which Lovecraft was famous.

Although widely acknowledged as one of Lovecraft's best stories, "The Color Out of Space" was not really typical of his work. It contained more elements of science-fiction than most of the author's stories did. Some have speculated that he was attempting to describe the effects of radiation. However, that seems unlikely in light of the fact that the story was written in 1927, when such phenomena were not yet understood.

Some may criticize the fact that the film was shot in black-and-white. however, given the fact that the subject described as nothing more than merely a color, a color that no one has ever seen before, and which no one can describe, there really is not any other way in which the film could have been made.

Those expecting a normal sci-fi horror film may be disappointed with the slow pace and relative lack of "action" and spectacular special effects. However, it should be understood that this is entirely faithful to the manner in which Lovecraft wrote the story. Don't look for any vampires, werewolves or other monsters here. This is an eerily atmospheric story in which the horror creeps up gradually and silently, and is never really fully understood. However, it is well worthwhile staying with this movie because the story will grab you.

THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE is a German film adaptation of the short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Filmed in black and white, the atmosphere is wonderfully bleak and foreboding.

The story follows a man in search of his missing father, who may not get the joyous reunion he hopes for. Along the way, he meets a man in a pub who tells him a ghastly tale about his father and the strange occurrences he witnessed.

Tension and dread build until the final act, when the inescapable truth is revealed.

While this is not an HPLHS production, if you're a Lovecraft fanatic, and you enjoyed the HPLHS versions of THE CALL OF CTHULHU and / or WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, then you'll probably love this!

This one should be on the list of anyone who loves Lovecraft. While this one doesn't have any of the more well known Mythos in it...it's a measured telling of what is actually a Tale of the Unknown more than it is a Horror Story.

The use of Black & White may look cheap, but it fits with the tone and tenor of the era that it was set in. Color TV did not exist then. The CGI may look simple...but the focus of the story is the people and the 'Colour'. Sometimes when the FX is stunning...you only see the FX and not the story. And Good Horror is more than simply good CGI.

The Telling of the story as a mix of English and German with Subtitles was a different experience, but it didn't subtract from the tale, because the story moves slowly enough that the subtitles are there long enough to be read and become pseudo-invisible. Besides, a hallmark of Lovecraft is that most of the stories are a RE-TELLING of past events thru the witness's eyes and memory Again-- this one is a slower, langourous story. Told through the eyes of the German farmboy who grew up when the meteor came down. And I dare say, the film makers polished and filled in some of the blanks of the original short story. There is no scientific explication by any of the characters here, but you will see that what happened was the intersection of the Earthly with the UN-Earthly...and unfortunately and tragically for the people in the valley...the presence of the Unearthly is just simply inimical to earthbound Life.

This one is good for a Late, after midnight viewing on Saturday night.