re: .

i don't think the comp to silent films is a good one (that compares more to foreign films imo). What has always made foreign films a challenge for me, is, i read slow, so if i miss a word or sentence, it's just distracting, plus it is hard to concentrate on the visual and read at the bottom of the scene. With silent films, the piano music is distracting and the acting tends to be overly dramatic, but it is often much faster, limitations of the tech at the time.

B&W vs Color is just aesthetics. Some of if is people don't like older movies, but i can't imagine Schindler's List in color, that would take away the power frankly, especially of some key scenes.