Kodak now only make one 35mm B&W negative motion picture film:
| Eastman Double-X Negative Film 5222 | A high speed film with an EI of 200 under tungsten lighting and 250 under daylight. |
| Eastman Plus-X Negative Film 5231 | A low speed film with an EI of 64 under tungsten light and 80 under daylight. (Discontinued April 2010) |
In the motion picture industry it is developed in Kodak D-96. The film is a little thicker than standard 35mm film but not enough to cause problems with running it through still cameras. The reason it is thicker is because it needs to be more robust to run at the speeds required by motion picture cameras. This is an advantage for the stills shooter used to handling thinner more vulnerable film as it withstands breakage and scratching.
But it is the look of Double-X that makes it that little bit special and with users exposing it at and beyond its designed exposure index and in various developers, the images it produces are beautifully rich in tones and clarity.
Motion picture films using the Eastman B&W film stock (5222 & 5231) include: Schindler's List (1993), Memento (2000), Kafka (1991), I'm Not There (2007).
The opening black and white scene of the James Bond film, Casino Royale (2006) was shot on Double-X. The English Cinematographer, Phil Méheux, BSC, talked about the scene, in 2006, for the magazine of the American Society of Cinematographers. YouTube have the opening sequence online, a fuller version and the extended original intoduction with the cricket match scene! This was cut in the finished film. My thanks to Robert Wilson.