Good morning, today’s lecture is all about
color, and these are the key concepts that
we
will be talking about; what is color and some
aspects of colors. So, we all know what
colors are, but here we will be looking at
theories is in a very general sort of way.
So, tint
what is the tint? Shade, what is the color
value? Saturated and unsaturated colors. When
did Technicolor begin? What is the symbolism
implicit in color schemes? Do colors have
a spatial temporal value? How do filmmakers
make use of colors in films? How is color
used as a device in the progression of the
narrative? We have been doing; cinema is all
about narrative unless you consider Andy Warhol’s
films. So, we know what cinema is
all about and it is basically a narrative;
there should be a narrative and how filmmakers
make use of colors to tell a story.
I begin with a quote by Maxim Gorky, the renowned
Russian author, the creator of
Mother. And he first watched the movie, the
short film by Lumiere Brothers; it could
have been workers leaving the factory, the
Lumiere factory, we were talking about in
the
other day and he commence on the grayness
of a cinematic world. He says ‘everything
there, the earth, the trees, the people, the
water, and the air is dipped in monotonous
grey.
Grey rays of the sun across the grey sky,
grey eyes in grey faces and the leaves of
the
trees are ashen grey’. And that is how cinema
was in its beginning, at the time when it
is
started; it just developed initially, there
was no color, everything was in shades of
grey.
Colors hold a powerful position among the
elements of the story structure, as we were
just talking about narrative.
It is not like just introducing a splash of
color to make someone look beautiful, it is
not
like that, colors do have a meaning. For example
the British movie, Peeping Tom is
extremely important if you want to understand
how colors are used. Peeping Tom is all
about, filmmaker who is obsessed with the
idea of capturing dying people on camera.
Colors speak a universal language. Do you
need any explanation here? Everyone
understands what is blue, what is grey, what
is black and what is white. In most cultures
white signify? Moaning? A peace, perhaps a
peace. Black on the other hand? Moaning,
also a formal occasion. Red; could mean several
things in several cultures. So, colors
speak a language. Colors contribute towards
the aesthetics of a film; I mean watch
‘Saawariya’ for instance and colors do
have a say, in the aesthetic, determining
the
aesthetics of the film. Colors act to the
mood. Colors often delineate characters; why
do
we say that, colors delineate characters.
A subdued character will wear subdued colors,
not bright fluorescent color whereas someone
who is shown to be extremely bubbly will
always wear something more bright. Generally
in films when it is sober girl she is
usually dressed in shades of pastels; white,
half white and lighter shades, whereas the
more mysterious, the more naughty girl, would
always be dressed in bright shades
especially the bright shades of pink. So,
colors delineate characters, you are supposed
to
understand that we have been told something.
Key theoretician of colors are, we were talking
about realism and Rudolf Arnheim the
other day, David Bodwell and Christen Thompson,
Sergei Eisenstein and Derek Jaman
who is also a filmmaker; Edward The Second,
British filmmaker. So, Rudolf Arnheim
has written an essay 1935 is called ‘Remarks
on Color Film’, and he tells you about his
experience with watching a color film for
the first time and says ‘people of taste
have
considered the colors in color film atrocious,
when colors first began to make their
presence felt, this is atrocious; many have
thought them unnatural’. So, what he is
trying
to actually question, are colors realistic?
Do colors contribute in any way towards
lending a touch of realism to cinema? There
is the question of realism and when
filmmakers want to give the touch of surrealism
then we know what colors they use, so
we are going to discuss that also. So, colors
do have a relationship with the concept of
realism.
This movie let us think of The Wizard of Oz,
we are not in kansas anymore. So, a kansas
is in shades of monochromatic shades of grey
and sepia tone, whereas the moment
Doorthy is out of kansas state; her world
turns into a colorful world, a fantasy world.
So,
colors signify fantasy, an escape.
Invention of Technicolor in the 1930’s.
So, this is the background of colors. Doctor
Herbert and Natalie Klaus invented something
called Three-strip Technicolor and gave
us shades of yellow, orange and blue. And
this was an expensive process; Technicolor
I
mean if you look at some of the old movie
posters, you will find a small by-lined,
colored by Technicolor and you would often
wonder; what does it means color by
Technicolor. That means, that Technicolor
was a patent and these are the primary colors
they used, they employed, it was very expensive
process; and soon gave way to the more
affordable Eastmancolor.
Does anyone know the difference between Technicolor
and Eastmancolor? What
happens to films when they are shot in Technicolor
or and when they are shot in
Eastmancolor?
Eastmancolor is shot in color, whereas Technicolor
is later post production
technique.
I would rather stick to the economics of it
at this point; as you have been already told
Technicolor was an expensive process but it
was more lasting process. So, film shot in
Technicolor are still around, whereas film
shot in Eastmancolor had to be retouched and
redone at some stage. Martin Scorsese, great
film director, he has often funded projects
where colors are restored. We often hear films
are being restored. How, what is being
done to them? It is the color that we talk
about. So, from Technicolor to Eastmancolor,
the transition was to make the process of
cinema, film making cheaper, but was it really;
because we could feel that many films got
destroyed in the process, they did not have
that sense of longevity, so therefore, the
trouble.
The first feature film in Technicolor was
Becky Sharp; a revisiting of which movie,
which novel? Becky Sharp is the memorable
character from? Literature's’ students?
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Becky sharp is
a character. Technicolor was the smoother
and
more subtle shade of Eastmancolor. And we
are often as we just talking about that
Eastmancolor fade away very quickly and in
the long run they lose the relationship
between each other. So, therefore, they need
to restore film shot in Eastmancolor. Any
questions any comments here?
So, terms some basic concepts related to colors,
value; color value is proportion of light
or dark in color, basically when we talk about
white and black and white films. So, tint;
tint is the lighter shade. Suppose, you have
grey as the standard shade, and then the
lighter shade becomes; so when we want it
to be of lighter shades we call it as tint.
But if
you want it to be of darker shade then it
is a shade, shade is darker than the normal
value.
Other two terms that we should define here
with are Saturated and Desaturated.
Desaturated are more muted bleached-out colors.
Saturated colors are unadulterated and
strong. And when filmmakers want to project
a surrealist tendency on screen, they resort
using saturated colors. We are going to see
examples soon. Saturated red, redder then
red, American Beauty. And is there are symbolic
values here? Passion, lust, betrayal,
murder, many emotions, a state of mind. Literature's
students should be familiar with the
concept of expressionism and natural colors.
So, likewise you should, perhaps you can
take down the term expressionism and look
it up; how colors and color scheme was an
important part of expressionism and from which
we get the concept of saturated colors.
So, saturated green and saturated red and
saturated grey, I would advise you to take
a
look at some particular scenes from Natural
Born Killers Oliver Stones’; where green
signifies many things to many people, to some
it may suggests fertility, health, at the
same time it could also mean catastrophic,
envy, poison, puss even. Old Boy is in shades
of green and blues. Watch Old Boy we will
be talking about that film quite frequently
in
this course.
So, effects of color what do, what does color
do to us? When objects needs attention,
filmmakers resort to using three dimensions
of color, to substantiate my point I would
like you to do visit a movie called Insomnia,
Christopher Nolan’s, Al Pacino and Robin
Williams; please watch the scene where a Al
Pacino is on a trail of this killer. He never
finds, but he by mistake he shoots or by mistake
or by intent he shoots his partner dead,
and look at the shades and various dimensions
of the shades. There are various objects
all in the shades of grey, the misty fog,
the snow and the rocks and the pebbles. So,
grey
acts to add a kind of dimension to the objects
around.
In the same scene you also feel the temperature.
You cannot have the tactile sense while
watching the movie, but there are certain
scenes which try to evoke a sense of odor
is
worked in a movie like Perfume; perfume is
a very difficult movie to translate on screen,
if you have read perfume, Patrick Suskind’s
novel, it is all about someone who deals,
specializes in creating different smells and
sense. But it is very difficult to project
that on
screen, you can write novel about it, but
not how to. So, the film succeeds on some
levels
and fails on some other level but that is
different story. So, temperature, evoking
temperature through color, sun shines, snow,
fog etcetera.
Colors lend a touch of poignancy, for example
think Schindler’s List, Steve Spielberg.
There is a tinge of red, and when does that
red happen? A small girl passes by, and then
the same girl latter we realized is killed
during whole of cause period. So, red means
something to the protagonist. The entire scene
is in black and white, the film is in black
and black and white, but the girl; the little
girl and the hero has just fleeting glimpse
of
that little girl in red coat, it is a beautiful
scene, very poignant, so to evoke a sense
of
poignant.
Atmosphere; Old Boy we were just talking about,
stalk shades of blue, green perhaps
red. Creating an atmosphere, there are no
light tones, except at the end when he erases
his memory, remember?
Colors are also used to create symbolism,
for example in a film like Edward
Scissorhands. How many of you familiar with
that? You smile, that means, it means
something to you. Heard of it? Johnny Depp’s
Edward Scissorhands, how many of you
have watched that movie? Edward Scissorhands,
please watch it, make it up point to
watch most of these Tim Burton, Johnny Depp
collaborations and you will find some
new technique, some new device taking place.
This is one of the earliest examples of
their collaboration. And what does Johnny
Depp play in the movie? He is a robot,
created by a crazy isolated scientist in an
isolated tower, almost like a fairy tale,
once
upon a time the movie begins that was; there
was a place like this. So, the robot was
created by a scientist in a castle. And one
day and this beautiful robot as played by
Johnny Depp; is very lovingly constructed
or created by his maker, you know like
turning the Frankenstein legend on its head,
this is the very innocent, very pretty
monster. But what happens tragically, that
as the scientist is giving finishing touches
to
this robot, he has the heart attack and he
died. So, he cannot give proper skin to the
robot
and proper hands because they are scissors
for his hands originally and that remains,
because the scientist could not complete the
job, and he died before doing that. So, you
are left with this robot, who has been given
the right heart but not the right body. So,
the
story after that several things happened and
the robot is brought into the real world from
his world of castles and very gothic world,
very unreal world; he is brought down to a
more real suburban world and then what colors
do we see. All the houses are practically
uniformed, painted in shades of primary colors;
red, yellow, green almost like candies,
excessively bright and it gives you an impression
that something is wrong with this
world. Things cannot be this bright, this
cheerful, and this sunny. So, that is what
the
filmmaker is trying to alert us to that suburban
life, the light which is to conformist
cannot be all that normal and here this world
is contrasted with the world of our robot,
who is always dressed in shades of, always
dressed in the same costume; that is black
leather, giving him that in the rock star,
punks star kind of a feel and also someone
who
is absolutely out of place, a misfit in this
suburban, idealized suburban world. It is
a
beautiful movie, do watch it.
Three kings; Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney,
David o Russell is the director and watch
the film or the way it is shot, is all about
the gulf war; but you look at how he uses
documentary footage, he uses jump cuts, we
have been talk about those elements, quick
cuts, jump cuts and bleached out color schemes.
That kind of schemes we just watched and just
we were discussing in relation to Traffic
by Steven Soderbergh. Colors are sometimes
used to create a painterly effect;
Kurosawa’s dream, Kurosawa was a master
painter, Satyajit Ray was a master painter.
Some of their sets appear as if these are
paintings. M. F. Hussain’s films, if you
watch
Meenakshi for instance, you did watch Meenakshi,
watch Meenakshi and you will feel,
you know it is a line up great paintings there.
Mulholland Drive; two girls and look at the
stalk differences in colors, lets us talk
about.
How do color, we were just talking about colors
delineate characters, what is happening
here?
Red lipstick
Red lipstick, ok fine. Dark eye brows, dark
hair, blond hair two girls; one has blond
hair,
lighter shades of makeup, lighter clothes
and the other girl red and black, dark colors,
dark hair, bright lipstick, bright makeup.
So, visual effect is created to delineate
characters. You can think of any number of
examples. Mulholland Drive is by David
Lynch and another movie by David Lynch is
The Blue Velvet. Again it begins, very
deceptively with shades of bright cheerful
colors. Why? Again American suburbs, the
suburban so called suburban utopia subverted
in so many films, including a very recent
one by Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road, Kate
Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio.
So, suburban is not what it appears or what
it claims to be, it is not utopian idealized
heaven. The reality is something else and
that is what David Lynch tries to tell you.
So,
Blue Velvet begins with bright cheerful sunny
shades and tones of colors, but then it
starts gradually begins to get darker, because
the theme itself is so dark. Watch it for
Dennis Horpers and Isabella Rossellini.
Colors helping as a narrative device; Zhang
Yimou’s which film? Chinese film, Hero.
Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Jet Li and several
major Chinese film stars. It was
released worldwide by Quentin Tarantino in
2002 because he was totally blown away by
the aesthetics of the film. So, Hero uses
a tripartite color scheme. Again it is a story
told
from multiple perspectives; we have been talking
about the concept of multiple
perspectives when we were discussing narratives,
remember? So, Kurosava’s which
movie? Rashomon and Zhang Yumos’ Hero, and
another important story; this is just a
digression, film often telling multiple or
showing multiple perspectives while telling
a
narrative is Vantage Point. Watch Vantage
Point; it is another remarkable film especially
for its story telling. Same event is repeated
several times, repetition is the very key
concept in narratives you should know that.
So, Hero employs red and gold color schemes
for some portions, then blue then white
and pale green dominant. And colors are not
just used here indiscriminately; they denote
something more, what it is; time, passage
of time temporality. So, we were just talking
about special temporal effects of color. So,
in Hero colors are used to suggest time,
passage of time. So, this story was told at
a different point. It was another period and
then something else and then. So, therefore,
the color scheme follows the temporal
scheme. So, shades of pale green and blue
and white, and interestingly the film ends
in
white. And I quote Sergei Eisenstein here
who in his selected works, he says, different
countries have different notions of color;
white is a color of moaning for the Chinese,
so
it is not always symbolic of peace as it would
be in many other cultures, but here in
Chinese culture it is the color of moaning.
And why does Hero ends on a shade of white;
because most of the protagonists died while
fighting for the kingdom. We have been
talking about Traffic 2000 and here colors
are not employed to suggest temporal
difference, but a spatial difference.
So, colors mark different narrative strengths,
indicate a spatial differences. Benicio Del
Toro’s story is set in grainy washed out
yellow, bleached out yellow of Mexico.
However, Traffic basically deals with what?
Drugs, drug trafficking and how drugs
influences families or businesses or politics
even. For the Michael Douglas story and
Michael Douglas and his family; Steven Soderbegh
used a blue palette, steel grey, blue
and for Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dennis Quaid
we get a sun drenched full color, set in
San Diego.
We were talking about surrealism. So, what
is surrealism, let us talk about. The other
day
while discussing realism we talked about magic
realism, surrealism. So, what is
surrealism? A sub-conscious state of mind,
a dreamlike state of mind. Who was the
master surrealist, most well-known? Salvador
Dalí, Dali collaborated with Bunuel in Un
Chien Andalou; the movie which we were discussing
the other day, a hand splicing an
eye ball. So, Salvador Dalí actually collaborated
on that film in creating these very
gloomy, bleary and dreamlike state images.
Taxi Driver, when Robert De Niro is on a killing
rampage when he shoots every possible
villain and pimp in a brothel where Jodie
Foster is kept; by the end he is so pleased
with
himself, he has this delusion about himself
as a kind of a one man army, a hero.
Whereas, Martin Scorsese quite ambiguous about
his state, about his position. He is not
really a hero for Scorsese. He is just a deranged
highly disturbed man. But in his mind he
is a hero. And then you have the shades of
very saturated red, trickling down the wall,
trickling down the Travis Bickel’s own head
and all over the place, pools of red, very
saturated, not really a very realistic red
but saturated red.
Filmmakers also make use; this is another
symbol to lend very, again we are talking
about delineation of characters, so how colors
delineate characters. So, you have a Jim
Carry playing The Riddler in Batman forever,
and of course you have a Heath Ledger
doing his Joker in shades of purple green
and other. So, colors are important, colors
tell
us about the character. Colors may also evoke
nostalgia, and when nostalgia is evoked
we do not have saturated colors, we have soft
muted colors in soft muted glove. So, one
good example is Cinema Paradiso; a wonderful
Italian film. So, everything is tinted with
fond memories for the protagonist. Can you
think of more nostalgic films? Think
nostalgia and you will always have soft muted
colors. Which is that? Anything else?
There is a Jim Carry movie, I do not know
how many of you are aware of that Early
2000 is called, The Majestic; it is all about
the movie theater which he tries to restore
for
someone who mistakes him for his son for his
lost son. And it is also a beautiful movie,
short and very soft and muted colors.
We often talk about black and white films.
So, black and white, I do not know how many
of you still watch black and white films,
but there are occasional black and white films
which you know which gets release once in
a while and people talk about it. So, many
notable examples; Woody Allen’s Manhattan
1979, Scorsese after Taxi Driver and
saturated color resorted to Raging Bull which
won Robert De Niro his first academy
award, no sorry second, first was for God
Father Part two. Steven Spielberg’s Schindler's
List, Tim Burton’s Ed Wood which is a biopic
of a failed filmmaker; it is a very
interesting movie watch it. Jim Jarmusch again
is an expert, is very fond of making black
and white movies, he is indie filmmaker. Dead
man with Johnny Depp, and he has also
made an anthology, a very famous anthology;
Jim Jarmusch, which is it, good, Coffee
and Cigarettes. It has beautiful segments,
particularly with Alfred Molina and Cate
Blanchett. George Clooney’s drama Good night
and Good luck is based on the McCarthy
period and you know, the communist witch hunting
so called; it is set in, set during the
McCarthy period, early 50’s late 40’s
and was released in 2005, a beautiful example
of
black and white movie.
Sin City of course, it is based on a graphic
novel and it is very faithful to the novel;
and
most recent successful example, The Artist,
2011. Would you like to add to this list?
It is
a graphic novel. So, graphic novel is stay
true to their concept, so therefore black
and
white. What effect, can you just take any
movie and forget the films which are based
on
graphic novels, but why do you think we need
to have Raging Bull in black and white?
Too much blood but then there was too much
blood in Taxi Driver also.
Psychological change.
Exactly, so in Taxi Driver the violence is
psychological in Raging Bull it is very
physical. And Scorsese wanted to avoid all
that blood flying around. Instead of showing
red blood, it is better to show blood in stalk
shades of, muted shades of grey and
therefore resorting to black and white. However,
there is a particular segment in Raging
Bull also which is in color. Do you remember
which? No not towards the end, there is a
time when Jake LaMotta. Well, that is just
a glimpse so very minor scheme but I am
talking about a home video that Jake LaMotta
shoots with his family. Would you like to
drink water? So, there is a home video that
he shoots with his family and that is the
only
time Scorsese allows us to watch some color
on screen. Again that is very nostalgic for
Jake LaMotta, who has lost everything; his
money, his fame, his family, his love, all
his
loving ones have left him. So, the only color
in his life was his family which he loses
as
well. So, therefore the use of color, it makes
sense, it is symbolic.
Clooney’s movie on the other hand is the
period film and perhaps, he wanted to give
a
more realistic touch and therefore; you know
after all its talking about those time and
television was in black and white, Ed Murrow
is the key protagonist there. And Ed
Murrow was known for his show Good night and
Good luck, which was a black and
white show, so therefore the necessity to
show that. So, most of scholars of color theory
believed that black and white even in times
of color is used to make films more elegant
and often more dramatic. Directors and cinematographers
are often freed from the reality
of color, color binds people, constraints
them. And certain kinds of theme call for
black
and white. For example, when you have to portray
psychological or moral conflict on
screen as in Schindler’s List, when the
setting is more naturalistic not real but
naturalist
as in Manhattan; and then of course you are
talking about dark graphic novel such as Sin
City, which has occasional flashes of yellow,
am I right, red and yellow. Any comments
you would like to make about color theory?
Color? Any observation?
It is actually a slightly obscure Tobey Maguire’s
a movie called, Pleasantville.
So, what happened in that is they watches
this old TV show which is in black and white,
and somehow through some device which through
they did not really explains, they end
up in the TV show. So, they end up being black
and white themselves; and how they
refuse to that and how towards the end of
the movie, the entire place where pleasantly
turns into colors as well. So there color
plays a role in the story itself, in the plot
itself.
Use of color as a narrative; this is the very
good example, Pleasantville. How many of
you are familiar with Three Kings? Three Kings
is actually a very interesting film, if you
watch it, you will understand that how the
horrors of war are muted, as he uses as David
O. Russell resorts to use those bleached out
muted colors. So, colors do add to the
narrative towards telling a story.
Ma’am in Looper
Looper is the very recent movie, listen to
this.
Main character is Gordon Levitte, he takes
drugs in eye drops. So, first time
when he takes it, everything on the screen
becomes brighter, shows the state of mind.
State of mind, good I am glad you are thinking
along those lines. So, the moment he
starts taking drugs, everything is sunny and
bright, that is the state of mind; surrealism
we are talking about. Now let us discuss a
film like The Dark Knight and The Dark
Knight Rises. Batman begins was often in shades
of, Batman begins?
Brown.
Brown, muted oranges and yellows, earthy browns.
But as the sequel progressed, the
films got more and more darker, did you notice
that? The Dark Knight Rises is also
remarkable because this is the very first
time that you see, Batman during day time.
You
never have day time in Gotham city that is
what the earlier versions have told us. You
watch the Tim Burton version of Batman with
Michael Keaton, and then we also had a
version with Val Kilmer which is the fairly
decent one with Nicole Kidman; batman
forever. So, you never have daytime on screen
in the Batman saga. The Dark Knight is
the first movie to use daytime on screen in
the batman narrative. But that is not to say
that, the theme is not dark; it is, The Dark
Knight as you know the film progresses, it
gets
darker and darker and it ends on a very pessimistic,
very nihilistic note if you remember
where there is a need for hero, but such are
the conditions that you cannot call the real
hero, a hero. You need to create a false hero
to; you know to keep that ray of hope alive
in the people. And it ends on a very dark
note and on very dark colors, if you watch
the
movie you will understand. The last part of
this, you know that this is the final that
is
what Christopher Nolan tells us; no more ‘Batman’
which is sad for the fans but anyway
cannot be added anything more to it. So, how
does that movie and I mean it starts with
Batman closeted. He is beaten up, he is almost
like badly need of help, you see him as he
walks, walking with the help of a walking
stick, all beaten; psychologically, physically,
morally. He does not want to show his face
to the world. Even Bruce Wayne it is not just
a Batman but Bruce Wayne, and he is not the
same old flam point Bruce Wayne any
more.
Very much like Citizen Kane as well, because
he is alone in the house, the way
they talk about him, nobody has seen him for
a while; especially the way, the manner in
which it shown is almost bit like Citizen
Kane, and this shows in Xanadu as well.
A huge castle choking with brickbats and beautiful
things which are assembled in that
castle, so that is the similarity he is drawing,
thus the parallel he draws between Citizen
Kane’s Xanadu and Bruce Wayne’s Castle.
But how does the movie end ‘The Dark
Knight Rises’? On a dark note or on! Positive
yes, because finally he has found peace,
the batman is dead but still Bruce Wayne lives
on. And what is the color scheme there?
It’s bright.
Its bright, it set in Italy where Alfred’s
character, Michael Kane goes to Italy,, and
it is
unspoken bond between them, some kind of a
deal between them, they would not show
any recognition, they would not exhibit any
recognition of each other, but they do
acknowledge each other while sitting at two
different corners of the open restaurant;
it is
not a closeted dark restaurant, but it is
very open air kind of a place. And batman
is with
his lady; cat women. And it’s bright sunny
and glowing, and booth dressed up very
differently the way they used to dress earlier.
So, what does color signify here? A change
in transition; also happy ending. So, it was
good to see a Batman series ending that way
on note of hope. Anything else that you can
think of?
Ma’am, it seems that it is difficult to
do black and white films in Hindi movies.
Why just Hindi, why not talk about Indian
cinema?
It is because, by culturally colors stands
for so much more; like everything has
some significance, like when you said that
is it more difficult to do in color; I mean
noncolor.
But, let us assume we want to make a movie
based on a silent cinema period, 1930s or
early 40s, and would not be wiser or more
prudent to use a black and white colors
scheme. And they can use some smart filmmakers
can use. But usually we like to play it
safe.
‘Mughal-e-azam’ was remade like such a
classic black and white film in,
And did you like it?
It was remade, I think it was in
Yes, yes, it was in 2005; I watched the film
in color, I remember the billboards
screaming at us. But did you watch the movie,
and did you like that colors?
I preferred in Black and white.
You prefer it in black and white, because
of its simplicity and elegance. I think it
made
much more sense when it was in black and white.
I do not know may be they wanted to
reach out to the younger generation; and that
something most of us have noticed that
when it is a black and white movie people
do not like, especially in our country, so
they
are bang on. Culturally, we do have as a nation;
we do have prejudices towards black and
white cinema, especially in times of color.
Why use black and white screen at all when
color is easily available? So, we are used
to watching color on screen, but I do not
think
that internationally this practice prevails
because to my knowledge, I have never seen
a
black and white classic; Citizen Kane goes
color, okay imagine, we do not want to watch
the Citizen Kane in color. It makes perfect
sense in an original avatar, no need to mess
up, mess around with it. So, thus a matter
of personnel taste, but I do feel that classics
once they are made, they should be restored,
but not, they no need to add colors to it.
That is the way they intended to be. Any comments
or observations?
Krzysztof Kieslowski’s three colors trilogy.
Color trilogy that is very important; polish
filmmaker Kieslowski. So, Blue, Red and
White; we will be discussing the film because
that is also, there is thread running through
the film, the trilogy, there is a theme there.
We will be discussing the film soon if we
have the time.
Kieslowski’s ‘A short film about Killling’
in that as the movie progresses, all
the shade, it becomes more and more, the frame
becomes more and more covered with
shades than black.
You know what; European cinema is much more
experimental with their color palette,
and with their innovative uses of color on
screen. There is a movie called Red Balloon,
and it is a very symbolic, very suggestive
movie, full of a deep kind of images. So,
colors
do play a very important role, it is not like
they just have Red Balloon there, it stands
for
something. So, European cinema has some kind
of an ideology, some kind of a method
behind using a particular color scheme.
‘Colors in a narrative are meant to add
the verbal communication in the sense, that
certain shades of feelings and emotions are
incommunicable in words, hence the
employment of colors. Further, colors also
elicit certain emotions or reactions in the
human and also in animals. Think, showing
a red rag; to a bull, so this acts as a psychic
stimulant, therefore the significance of colors.’
So, thank you very much and we meet
tomorrow.
