Love Quote by Sam Mendes

Nostalgia can be a respectable alibi, but Mendes is really talking about power: who gets to decide what looks “modern,” and which kinds of craft get priced out of the mainstream. By framing it as “perceived wisdom,” he points the finger at an industry narrative that often masquerades as audience truth. Studios, exhibitors, streamers, even marketing departments treat black-and-white as a commercial handicap, a signal for “art film,” homework, or awards bait. Mendes politely calls it a “great shame,” but the bite is in the euphemism: shame for the audience that’s been trained away from it, and for an industry that confuses risk management with cultural insight.

The second clause turns wistful, almost sheepish: “I’d love to make” one. That’s not a casual preference; it’s a director admitting a constraint. Mendes is powerful enough to say it aloud, yet not so unconstrained that he can simply will it into existence without the right package, budget, and timing. The sentence stages the tension between taste and market reality in miniature.

Context matters: Mendes came up in theatre and has built a film career on classical control and formal bravura. Black-and-white is a natural extension of that sensibility, a way to strip away the easy seductions of color and force attention onto light, texture, performance, and composition. He’s also quietly lobbying: reminding gatekeepers that “people don’t go” might be less a fact than a self-fulfilling prophecy, waiting for a filmmaker with enough clout to break it.