Week 7: Color | Paterson

I’m a movie fanatic, so of course I’m choosing to talk about color as it appears in two seemingly different, but actually really similar films. Posting the trailers is the easiest way to do so, so I found the best versions that I could on YouTube.

The first movie I’m going to talk about is the Claymation (animated) film by Tim Burton, Corpse Bride. Obviously from the title it is evident that this film significantly revolves around death (as do most, if not all, of Burton’s films). Tim Burton is famous for his interpretations of death in all of his films, and his use of color to convey these interpretations is very important. Corpse Bride is a film made primarily of blues, grays and browns. While it is very monochromatic in the blue/gray used, Burton utilizes the complementary colors [to blues] of different shades of oranges and reds to indicate Victor’s fiancé’s (Victoria) family. Burton uses blue to convey the drone of Victor’s life and the only warm colors appear in Victoria’s household (even though her parents are crazy). Burton subtly uses color to differentiate between the two households, especially in this trailer.

Although not evident in the trailer, the colors in the film change as the plot continues. Ironically, the colors in the land of the dead are brighter in most areas than the colors in the real world. For example, green is used in the skeleton dance scene, which is ironic because green is generally the color of life (plants). Burton often does this to convey the monotony of real life (just like the fantasy in many of his other films use interesting patterns like black and white spirals). The Corpse Bride trailer does not focus on this change, but it perfectly captures the difference between the two households according to the color of their homes and clothing.

The second movie I chose is one that did not get enough credit. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is a film that took an interesting turn when the actor who played a main character [Heath Ledger] passed away suddenly. I know many people have not seen this film, so a short recap is that a Buddha-like guy makes a deal with the devil and will eventually owes him his daughter if a bet isn’t won. He has an imaginarium that tempts people and if the person avoids temptation Dr. Parnassus wins and if they give in to temptation, the devil wins. Because of the contrast of the two characters Dr. Parnassus and the Devil, Terry Gilliam (director, writer) had ample opportunity to play with color schemes, and in my opinion he did so perfectly.

The trailer begins with the real world and it is very dark and gloomy; however, as soon as the imaginarium makes its first appearance (around 0:39), color is all that appears on screen. This color represents the infinite possibilities of the imaginarium. Gilliam boldly used the entire color wheel to bring this impossible place to a reality that we’ll never know. The imaginarium is meant to appear whimsical through its unbelievable colors and it is meant to detract the viewer from the dull reality to the amazingly colorful existential fantasy.