BLACK AND WHITE LIKE DAY AND NIGHT (SCHWARZ UND WEISS WEI TAGE UND NACHTE)

Germany, 1978, 103 minutes, Colour.
Bruno Ganz, Gina von Weitershausen.
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

Black and White Like Day and Night is an interesting character study, especially because it uses world championship chess as its plot but also as a symbol for the drive to success, its being an obsession, and finally, destructive. Bruno Ganz who appeared in The Marquis of O and The American Friend, in excellent as Tomas Rosenmund the chess champion who cannot abide defeat and who eventually is destroyed by his obsessions. The supporting cast is also excellent. Taking an unusual subject, the film actually shows great insight into human obsessions.

Directed Wolfgang Petersen went on to make the Oscar winning Das Boot and then moved to Hollywood for two decades or more of action spectacles from Enemy Mine to Troy and Poseidon. His best Hollywood film is In the Line of Fire.

1. The significance of the title - its reference to chess, its introduction of themes of life, madness and sanity, good and evil?

2. The German qualities of the production, presentation and style?

3. How interesting was the use of chess for plot, symbol, theme? Chess as a game, as making art of logic as Koruga said? A participator game, spectator? The way this was highlighted continually through the tournaments? The status of chess? As a world game, world masters? The capacities of the mind, the brain? How is it used as a symbol of human achievement - of the mind, of art, of skill?

4. The tone of the prologue and its introduction of chess, of Thomas Rosenmund? his playing the game, his being ill after the defeat and his attacking of his opponent during the competition? A sign of what was to come?

5. Thomas and his not playing chess, his personal life and marriage to Marie - and the strengths and weaknesses of their love? his computer work? his decision to computerise chess? Koruga and his playing the computer, his winning and his reaction? The hurt to Thomas and his reaction? A sign of the paranoia that was to grow?

6. How well did the film sketch in his personal life, the scenes with Marie? Her presence during the tournaments, their lovemaking and yet his criticism that she had given sympathy too late, his suspicions of her that she was poisoning him, his finally getting her to write the letter to God?

7. The Interview with the chess coach, his personality and the background of his success and yet his lack of nerve? His testing of Thomas, his explanation of what was required to be World Master? The story of the opponent who was dishevelled and with the dirty fingernails and yet who won? how did Thomas use this story later?

8. How well did the film make the transition to Thomas' success, years of winning tournaments? The build-up to the encounter with Koruga? The travelling, the city and its beauty, the theatre? The umpire, television, audience? The credibility of the nervous strain and tension for the chess players? The public's response to chess-playing and championships? The audience reaction? The comments by the TV commentator later about the effects for the human brain especially in such a venture as playing sixty games blindfold? Audience response to this status of chess?

9. Thomas and his reaction to Koruga, his being upset and changing the situations for the playing of the games - and Koruga's bowing to this? The number of draw games? Marie's arrival and his playing tennis, the lovemaking, his seeming to recover? The vodka evening and the clash? The challenging of Koruga and asking him questions about chess as an art, winning and losing? his winning and yet the growth of the paranoia?

10. How well did the film build up the final games and the long pauses before Koruga conceded defeat? The repercussions for Thomas, his coach?

11. The cycle of the high society life and wealth? Thomas and his enjoying Marie's presence and her liking it for his sake? The plans for future tournaments and world travel? The amount of money involved? Koruga’s sudden arrival and the change for Thomas?

12. How well did the film build up his paranoia, the alarms in the house, the poisoned meals etc.?

13. The acceptance of the challenge with Koruga, his being late, the passing of the hour and the realisation that he had planted the bomb?

14. The transition to the asylum, his plastic chess game, the visit of Marie and the letter to God? The finale and his complete madness? How sad was this degeneration into madness? Why?

15. How important was the film in its character studies of Thomas, Koruga, the coach?

16. Themes of success and winning, what it is to be a champion, what is required of a human being and what it takes, obsession, the possibility of being destroyed by success, man wanting to be God?