Chromatic Cinema: A History of Screen Color

Color permeates film and its history, but study of its contribution to film has so far been fragmentary. Chromatic Cinema provides the first wide-ranging historical overview of screen color, exploring the changing uses and meanings of color in moving images, from hand painting in early skirt dance films to current trends in digital color manipulation.

In this richly illustrated study, Richard Misek offers both a history and a theory of screen color. He argues that cinematic...