Gary Ross

Gary Ross opens Pleasantville in 1998 and in full colour, then drops two teenagers into the reruns of a black and white fifties series of that name. Family values govern the town and nothing is allowed to disturb its smooth surface. The film plays on the longing for the good days of the fifties and then turns that backward pull neatly against itself, as the present the teenagers carry in begins splashing colour across a monochrome palette. It is an invention that belongs to cinema, and what it demonstrates is that time standing still is not a good thing. Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games and Free State of Jones came after.