A few days ago, the wonderful YouTube channel Cinefix put out this great list, "10 Best Uses of Color of All Time." It was an awesome list, and a really cool thing to think about, so I thought...why not? Here are MY 10 Best Uses of Color, in no particular order. And if you think differently, tell me what you think, but these are really just personal favorites). The Wizard of Oz (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939)Okay, this is kind of obvious, but what can I say? I think so much of what makes me love The Wizard of Oz is that, not only does it encompass all the colors of the rainbow, but it does its darnedest to make each of them just pop. Behind the camera, Judy Garland's real ruby slippers were actually kind of an ugly maroon, but that's simply the color they had to be so that they could pop as reddest of red through Technicolor. THE WIZARD OF OZ has been played in family homes for so many years that I think people can forget how truly kaleidoscopic it is, so next time, just let yourself get immersed into the rainbow. The Red Balloon (dir. Albert Lamorisse, 1956)If THE WIZARD OF OZ is all about overindulgence in color, then THE RED BALLOON can be seen as sort of its opposite. There are vibrant colors, yes, but they're used sparingly against a muted town and a little boy's grey outfit. The end result is stunning, and when you realize that something as small as a balloon can be filled with wonder, the color trick did its job. Suspiria (dir. Dario Argento, 1977)SUSPIRIA is an absolute joyride of a horror movie-- definitely a Halloween favorite. In the midst of its over-the-top gore and unabashed campiness with the witch subgenre, its visuals and colors are what really make it shine, making what would be just a decent movie into a kind of masterpiece. Argento wanted the color scheme to reflect that of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, giving the film a fairy-tale approach to horror, and its wash of primary colors is hypnotic. I adore it. Cinderella (produced by Walt Disney, 1950)Speaking of Disney Princess movies, I want to discuss CINDERELLA. Where SUSPIRIA and its ancestor SNOW WHITE played with bright, popping colors, CINDERELLA is this absolutely gorgeous experiment with pastel blues and pinks, from the royal castle to Cinderella's dress, even in the interiors of the stepmother's interior. Mary Blair was in charge of this look, as well as the storybook prettiness of ALICE IN WONDERLAND and PETER PAN, but it's never been as downright romantic as that of CINDERELLA. Pierrot le Fou (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)Primary colors are the key in Godard's lovers-on-the-run movie. Ferdinand and Marianne's getaway car is a bright red, there are dashes of yellow, all to accentuate the beautiful infinity of the blue sky and sea. Watching PIERROT LE FOU is to get lost in a sort of heaven. McCabe & Mrs Miller (dir Robert Altman, 1973)McCABE AND MRS MILLER is just about as notable for its beautiful cinematography of nature as it is its interesting character-building, and I think it's my favorite thing about the movie. It takes place over the course of a rainy fall turning into a snowy winter, and you can smell and feel the outside. The movie centers around a town being built bottom-up, in the middle of forested nowhere, and the only real vibrancy is in the nature itself. It looks incredibly earthy-- every character wears dark clothing, and every building is a wood skeleton, so color lies only in nature itself, and it's lovely. Fanny and Alexander (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1981)Painterly is the way I can best describe FANNY AND ALEXANDER, in both its darkest and lightest moments. When we are in the joyous Ekdahl house, especially at Christmas, we get this beautiful myriad of stunning reds and pinks and greens. But when the children are taken away to live with the evil Bishop, the colors are absolutely muted as the magic is gone. This isn't an unusual approach to color in film, but it's done so stunningly in FANNY AND ALEXANDER. Finding Nemo (dir. Andrew Stanton, 2003) Imagine you're Pixar after the release of MONSTERS INC. in 2001. You've made a strong name for yourself, you're totally infallible at this point. You could play it safe, but instead, you dive into the possibilities of animating the biggest setting on Earth, the ocean! And you take every advantage of it. There's a sophistication in the grandeur of Marlin and Nemo's home, with elegant purples and blues. There's dread in the blue and black darkness of the Sharks' hangouts. The pinks of the jellyfish are deceptively gorgeous. There's a fluorescence in the artifice of the fish tank where Nemo is taken, and in the eye-popping P. SHERMAN 42 WALLABY WAY, SYDNEY goggles. These different variations on the same ocean are so lovely and so expertly achieved, it's hard not to get lost in it. Cléo from 5 to 7 (dir. Agnès Varda, 1962)There is color only in the opening of Agnès Varda's masterpiece CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7, but it creates one of the most jarring and heartbreaking effects that cinema has ever dealt me. A young woman, Cléo, is waiting for results of a biopsy, and in the meantime sees a fortune teller. The teller is explaining to her what she sees, until she comes across a card that prompts her to ask: Then, rapidly to an already terrified Cléo: The switch from color to black and white is jarring enough, and paired with the absolute urgency of Cléo's tone and pleading eyes, it makes my heart jump every time. The movie remains in black and white, but the good thing is that there's beauty in it. And Cléo comes to realize that, too. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (dir. Jacques Demy, 1964)Jacques Demy was Agnès Varda's husband, and they were a directing dream team of the French New Wave. But where Varda's work was more restrained and austere, Demy was an unabashed romantic, and THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG is his best example of this. Every frame shimmers with dazzling color, in the wallpaper, the clothing-- you can see this in the current awards favorite, Damien Chazelle's LA LA LAND. The brightness of color and UMBRELLAS' all-sung approach highlights the overwhelming sweetness of the central romance and young love. It's a Valentine put on film, and that's the sweetest kind. Agree? Disagree? Are there any you would have added? Sound off in the comments!
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