Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes

by Charles Bramesco

Overview

“What’s so wonderful about Bramesco’s book, outside of a visually splendid layout that embraces the first word of that title with detailed color breakdowns of each palette, is how much it enhances the critical language of the average viewer.” —Brian Tallerico, Editor of RogerEbert.com

Taking you on from the earliest feature films to today, Colors of Film introduces 50 iconic movies and explains the pivotal role that color played in their success.

The use of color is an essential part of film. It has the power to evoke powerful emotions, provide subtle psychological symbolism and act as a narrative device.

Wes Anderson’s pastels and muted tones are aesthetically pleasing, but his careful use of color also acts as a shorthand for interpreting emotion. Moonlight(2016, dir. Barry Jenkins) cinematographer (James Laxton) and colorist (Alex Bickel) spent 100 hours fine-tuning the saturation and hues of the footage so that the use of color evolved in line with the growth of the protagonist through the film. And let’s not forget Schindler’s List (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg), in which a bold flash of red against an otherwise black-and-white film is used as a powerful symbol of life, survival and death.

In Colors of Film, film critic Charles Bramesco introduces an element of cinema that is often overlooked, yet has been used in extraordinary ways. Using infographic color palettes, and stills from the movies, this is a lively and fresh approach to film for cinema-goers and color lovers alike.

He also explores in fascinating detail how the development of technologies have shaped the course of modern cinema, from how the feud between Kodak and Fujifilm shaped the color palettes of the 20th Century's greatest filmakers, to how the advent of computer technology is creating a digital wonderland for modern directors in which anything is possible.

​Filled with sparkling insights and fascinating accounts from the history of cinema, Colors of Film is an indispensable guide to one of the most important visual elements in the medium of film.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780711279384
Publisher:	Frances Lincoln
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	56,512
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Charles Bramesco is a film and television critic living in Brooklyn. In addition to the Guardian, his work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Little White Lies, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Forbes, Nylon, Vulture, Frieze, The A.V. Club, Indiewire, The Dissolve, Vox, and Pitchfork. He is the author of Vampire Movies (Little White Lies for William Collins, 2019).

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 OVER THE RAINBOW
Post-facto Colorization
A Trip to the Moon, Méliès
Intolerance, Griffith
The Wizard of Oz, Fleming
Fantasia, Disney
Black Narcissus, Powell & Pressburger
The River, Renoir
Singin’ in the Rain, Donen & Kelly
All That Heaven Allows, Sirk
The Searchers, Ford
Vertigo, Hitchcock
Lawrence of Arabia, Lean
2 UNBOUND IMAGINATIONS
Kodak and Fujifilm
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Demy
Red Desert, Antonioni
Color Me Blood Red, Lewis
2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick
Cries and Whispers, Bergman
Touki Bouki, Mambéty
Bobby, Kapoor
Don’t Look Now, Roeg
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Fassbinder
Jeanne Dielman …, Akerman
God Told Me To, Cohen
Suspiria, Argento
Ran, Kurosawa
3 MAKING A STATEMENT
Color Theory
Blue Velvet, Lynch
Dick Tracy, Beatty
Blue, Jarman
Schindler’s List, Spielberg
Three Colors trilogy, Kieślowski
Chungking Express, Wong
Seven, Fincher
Belly, Williams
Peppermint Candy, Lee
The Virgin Suicides, Coppola
But I’m a Cheerleader, Babbit
Songs from the Second Floor, Andersson
Traffic, Soderbergh
Amélie, Jeunet
Spirited Away, Miyazaki
4 DIGITAL WONDERLANDS
The Color TV
The Aviator, Scorsese
Saw II, Bousman
Speed Racer, Wachowski & Wachowski
Enter the Void, Noé
Amer, Cattet & Forzani
Tron: Legacy, Kosinski
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson
Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller
La La Land, Chazelle
Black Panther, Coogler
Lovers Rock, McQueen
Further Reading
Picture Credits & Acknowledgments
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

You’ll never take color for granted again after perusing Charles Bramesco’s Colors of Film, which explores the palettes used in 50 iconic films through four eras of cinema. This book provides a fascinating object lesson in how visual information wields power.”—Bookpage

"Beautifully unique...Bramesco’s writing is enthusiastic and wise; his book is a genuine delight."—The Film Stage

"​Filled with sparkling insights and fascinating accounts from the history of cinema, Colors of Film is an indispensable guide to one of the most important visual elements in the medium of film."

—BookTrib

"Both a trenchant work of critical analysis and a dazzling coffee table book, Colors of Film winds its way through film history, stopping to note each time a use of color was innovated. Douglas Sirk, Jacques Demy, and Dario Argento all get their due, but there are also chapters on Tron: Legacy and, perhaps most startlingly, Saw II. Colors of Film invites you to gaze at the view and, in doing so, shows you a new, beautiful film canon."—Uproxx

From the Publisher