I'd like to get some discussion going on this article. So please feel free to respond to any of these questions.
Do you agree that the film's use of color is "moving" as well as consciously artificial, as Higgins suggests? Why or why not?
Does Higgins' assessment of the "meaning" of the colors orange and blue (desire and loss) feel accurate? How doe these colors follow the film's seasonal timeline and plot elements?
How does Higgins' description of the first meeting of Cathy and Raymond help define the film's entire color aesthetic?
How does Higgins' discussion of color lighting assist in an understanding of the film's color palette? Do you agree or disagree that Haynes' use of gels is "bizarre" or that it (negatively) affects viewers' emotional connection to the film text?
What other colors play a part in Higgins' discussion of the film's palette?
Hello? Anyone out there?
ReplyDeleteDid my response post? It's not showing up.
ReplyDeleteUgh, well I just tried to make a big post, but it didn't work, so this will be another version of it.
ReplyDelete"Do you agree that the film's use of color is "moving" as well as consciously artificial, as Higgins suggests? Why or why not?"
I think it was in the Bellantoni article that mentioned that Sirk was Brechtian in his approach, meaning that the purpose of the artifice was for the audience to reach their own emotions. As the story progresses, the audience becomes more detached from the actual characters, and instead understand that they are watching some created. With this understanding, they are less wrapped up in the character's lives and more in their own. This is my basic understanding of Brecht. Condensed from my original post.
Anyway, I think this applies to Haynes' work as well. Higgin's wrote that Sirk's use of color coordination became a distancing mechanism. In Far From Heaven, the one color that distanced me above all else was the use of midnight blue. This immediately was known as artificial to me because it looks nothing like any other moonlight I've seen in films before. When this color was used in the film, as Higgins says, the characters are realizing that their love and marriage is artificial. Watching it, I felt taken out of the movie and I believe I was better able to examine the scene because of it. My mind wasn't wrapped around the emotions of the characters, but rather what this meant to the movement of the film, and what will happen next. So I found this to be a good use of the distancing mechanism by Haynes.
The other predominant colors were the autumnal orange and earthy green. These were definitely artificial, but I didn't feel the same as I did with the moonlight. The scenes in which Kathy talks to Raymond were the most moving to me, and there wasn't a conscious recognition of the lighting. This might be for two reasons though; first their scenes were mostly outdoors, so it wasn't the lighting that was fake, it was the background. The lighting outdoors was in fact very natural. Secondly, the saturation of the autumnal colors was definitely heightened, but it didn't feel fake to me because it was something that I know could happen in nature.
I find that I appreciate the colors as an aspect of the filmmaking. I appreciate the time that they took so much time to consciously manipulate the world in such a way that it tells a story even without a script.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think there are times where it takes me too far out of the film and into the classroom, so to speak. Perhaps it was because we were watching with the specific direction to pay attention to the colors, but I do like it when movies simply envelop me in their world, rather than thrusting their true nature upon me.
I do agree with Higgins in that the gel usage is bizarre at times. I think the colors used in the sets and costumes are bright and saturated in a way that seems natural, while the lights are not. I think the lighting is unrealistic in such a degree that is unnecessary. The colors definitely should have still been present, but toned down.
What might be the artistic reasons behind the overly-saturated, unnatural seeming colors of lighting?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the overly-saturated lighting is a bit "bizarre" and over-the-top, however, I find it effective. In Higgins' article in the paragraph he is discussing the lighting, he calls out the bar scenes as the most unnatural for the viewers to observe. Both the gay bar Frank goes to and the club Cathy and Raymond go to are bathed in very high contrasting shades of reds and greens. Higgins says "Both scenes depict transgressive spaces for the characters, places where they venture outside of the suburban trappings of propriety." I feel that by taking in these overly saturated color schemes, though we are aware it is unnatural, it helps us connect not so much to the characters themselves, but the situations the characters are going through. It takes us our of "visual propriety" and puts us in almost an awkward sort of state, while the characters are enduring their own "inappropriate" scenarios. It also helps draw the parallel between Frank and Cathy's "sinful" situations.
ReplyDeleteI feel that there is so much complexity to the film that the colors help us navigate through everything and by using colors for symbolism, parallels, and themes, it makes it more cohesive as a whole. Maybe it's because I'm not much of a film buff (I'm an audio kid), but the fact that the colors are so artificial didn't bother me. I found the association of orange with Raymond most effective as it seemed to follow him everywhere from the art show to the forest on their walk to the flowers Cathy puts in a vase in the house. I find the shade orange for Raymond also very appropriate in that her relationship with him is very brief, much like the orange hues of autumn before the leaves fall.
To quote Higgins again, "the surface is never innocent."
I'm new to this whole blog thing and I've been having some trouble getting this post to work so hopefully this works...
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that Haynes tends to juxtapose orange and blue or orange and green. This is interesting because both blue and green are receding colors of nature against orange which is an advancing color. However when we see these natural colors of nature in indoor locations against the orange it seems a little more unnatural, then they would normally appear to us. Higgins talks in great detail about the orange and blue and green and orange color combinations, one example being when he talks about Cathy seeing Raymond at the art show. Higgins states, “He is framed before an orange and blue light projected onto the wall behind him…he seems to bring luminous orange with him into the cool interior space” (106). So in this scene Raymond is bringing the advancing color into the scene so of course everyone is going to feel as if he is an outsider from the previous shots when there was only the blue receding colors. So this may be an artistic reason behind the overly saturated unnatural orange and blue lighting combination in this scene.
Kathryn Wlodarczyk
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ReplyDeleteAnother way of discussing the blue and orange versus the green and orange color combinations is to determine which realms these colors fall into. Frequently the greens are "natural" and warm shades of olive or forest (seen on Eleanor and Raymond); warm greens and orange impart a warmer feeling and seem to be associated with nature and exterior locations. But there are other shades of green seen with contrasting colors: bright lime green is in many of Frank's scenes (especially the office and the police station); and pale aqua is seen in many of Kathy's scenes, mostly in costume pieces. These cooler greens are most often contrasted with purple or orange-reds.
ReplyDeleteIn my viewing of Far From Heaven, I saw the colors as so bright they seemed to me completely over saturated. I felt like there was both moving because the color helped to move the story along...Just as it says in the article "Haynes uses the same seasonal structure...moving from autumn through later winter/early spring". This palette of autumnal oranges and the palette of blues really helps to move the seasons of the story along. However, I feel that's it's done in such an intense and extreme way (read: over saturation), that it might be artificial, as Higgins said.
ReplyDeleteHiggins' comments in his essay that the autumnal orange motif does a number of things in the movie. It signals reawakening, awareness, and sympathy. While the use of blue, affects color temperature. It seems that overall the color orange in this movie was used to represent love and romance, but the cool blues were really used to lower the temperature and take away from the moment. For instance, when Cathy is in the psychiatrist's office, she is surrounded by blue. But she gazes outside and finds two lovers outside surrounded in the autumnal orange. I believe it's most clear at that moment what the colors blue and orange represent. I don't necessarily think that the orange represents loss per se, because it follows around Raymond. After reading Bellatoni however, I know that orange has multiple different meanings.
The description of when Cathy and Raymond first meet is interesting. As Higgin's points out in his essay "Early on, the color is associated with Cathy's desire for Raymond", and I believe that the viewer, even if they aren't studying color get an idea of how important this moment is because of the over saturation and the music. Cathy is of course sitting on her porch being interviewed, when she sees through all of the orange and green the image of Raymond. In addition, this orange light seems to follow Raymond throughout the film. As Higgin's says "he seems to bring luminous orange with him...".
I have to disagree with Higgin's when he says the use of gels is bizarre, or that it negatively impacts the film in anyway. I feel that the film wouldn't be as powerful, and that in a film like this you need those subtle "color cues" to tie characters to one another and to subtly set the mood, even if you're not watching the movie to examine color usage. I think the only way that the color could possibly negatively affect a film is if it was terribly distracting and was used in a garish way. But in this case, it's not. It's used and it's particularly effective in it's usage, therefore it doesn't negatively effect viewers. In my opinion, the lighting and gels would only serve to connect the character and a viewer even more.
When Cathy and Raymond first meet it is autumn and so orange is the most prevalent color. Higgins talks about Cathy's first time seeing Raymond saying, " Deep in the background, through a pair of French doors an intense orange accent is set against green, the highest point of saturation in the frame, and the object of Cathy's glance" (106). Raymond, wearing the green, pops out against the orange background, becoming the object of desire for Cathy. Because orange surrounds Raymond at first, and later they are usually together outside in the orange autumn surroundings, orange becomes Cathy's color of love. Higgins goes on to say that "Across the film, vibrant orange recurs in scenes that visualize Cathy's romantic desires" (106). When things are ending between Cathy and Raymond, as Higgins also touches on, the season changes to winter, and orange is no longer as present. The cooler blue tones signal detachment - not only with Cathy and Raymond, but also with Cathy and Frank: "...as the film enters winter...Cathy renounces her love for Raymond" (106). The colors are direct insights to what the characters are feeling emotionally throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteThe opening shot of Far From Heaven immediately setup the color palette of the film for me. With the long crane shot the frame was with filled with the saturated color of autumn reds, oranges, greens; that Higgins notes as a reference to an oil painting. What is important to me in films is not necessarily seeing realism but being able to believe the world and characters presented in terms of design and narrative. As long as the motifs don't contradict themselves and stay true to the rules they created the color will work for me. Higgins quotes another article that better explains this: "This is not to claim that Sirk's colour designs, the careful matching of costume and mise-en-scene, the planting of chromatic echoes with and across scenes, were ever read as 'natural' but that the kind of artifice they represent was fairly pervasive and not, in itself ironic or distancing." (P.103)
ReplyDeleteFar From Heaven continued with the saturated motifs throughout the film. Higgins notes: "If any overt colour design seems likely to drive the viewer from emotional connection with the text, it must be Haynes' gelled lighting. Certainly the most bizarre coloured lighting appears in the par of scenes take place in bares" (P.107) For me this scene worked. I was engaged and noticed the connections and symbolism working. The artifice was not distracting for me because I already associated these "bizarre" motifs with the colors of the world.
On a different tangent I think the saturated color palette being unique and self-conscious as Higgins discussed is engaging; and it's important to create dynamic/new images for just the sake of the image. This is a brief excerpt in letter critic Roger Ebert wrote to director Werner Herzog I had read recently that I thought has some relevance to some of the things I discussed:
All of these decisions proceed from your belief that the audience must be able to believe what it sees. Not its “truth,” but its actuality, its ecstatic truth.
You often say this modern world is starving for images.
I might be reading into differently but to me it is important to create bold and interesting images in films. So on a purely aesthetic reasons I thought Far From Heaven was definitely working and engaging.
First off, let me say that I thouroughly enjoyed the cinematography in Far from Heaven. I saw it as a very stylistic homage to previous works that was executed beautifully. The colors were intentionally oversaturated to create classic Hollywood Americana with a hint of sarcasm. It was almost as if they were creating an artificial atmosphere that was supposed to look too good to be true. While watching the film, I was reminded of the film "Blue Velvet" because of the all too perfect town with undertones of scandal and intrigue. I did think that the lighting went a bit over the deep end with the purple gels. I found this sign to bee too obvious for a film of this calibur. Yes, the purple represented the man questioning his sexuality and his inner conflict but I felt it could have been done much more effectively and without seeming overt.
ReplyDeleteI'm still thinking the same way I did when I said this in class last time—I think the over-saturation of color in the film was very much overwhelming. I think when movies use much more subtle forms of color, they're much more effective. In this one, we see such a huge amount of color imagery hitting us that it blows out the senses and makes the entire thing weak. I don't mind that they're artificial or not realistic, I just think there are far too many to perceive them clearly.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I could see that as intentional as a way to make one feel uncomfortable. Everything looks colorful and "pretty" in the old, traditional sense, when in reality, everything's amok. The lighting is very much "bizarre" at points, like Higgins states, and that could indeed be part of the bigger picture here—the fact that they're having their individual, non-understandable issues is portrayed with extremely unusual and off-putting colors (i.e. the bright green seen within the gay bars).
The over saturation of the colors seems to serve two purposes for the film. It makes the more commonplace, outdoor section of the film appear to have a sort of otherworldly quality, in one respect. It feels more like a technicolor film, really, with the colorization of the film bordering on almost cartoonish within the subtle yet sweeping landscapes, especially around the house.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be contrasted by the "Green" scenes that we've discussed in class, as well as the deep blue moonlight. A more naturalistic choice for those scenes would have made it feel a little less "Dick Tracy"but in a way shoving a really dark gel in the Fresnel serves to make the scenes take on an almost theatrical air. I think this serves the more subversive content fairly well since, as theater historians will tell you, theater was going to a place that mainstream 50's film was not capable of traveling. These, also were the more melodramatic scenes, and the more naturally-acted in contrast to the deliberate cardboard-y nature of the dialogue in some of the other scenes. So for me, in addition to invoking specific emotions, the scenes served to provide context.
The very nature of the change for fall to winter is one of loss. It seems to me that orange, especially taken in the context of the season of fall is less about desire, and more about the strangulation and suffocation of these peoples spirit as they are forced to pretend to be what they are not. The same as plants during the fall, they struggle to survive as the climate becomes more and more inhospitable. WInter does signify loss. the plants have finally given up struggling against the inevitable, the have succumb to the nature of the world and the inherent limitations of themselves. One can only pretend to be an evergreen for so long. In winter they succumb to their nature and are nearly killed by it. However at the end of the film they are able to realize themselves for what they are, and are reborn in spring.
ReplyDeleteThe emotional value of the color in this move was very inspiring to me. I thought that the color was intense, and indeed the filters were at times strange, but I don't believe that they ever detracted from the piece. They were overt in their symbolism, but I think that is entirely acceptable for a film like this. The idea of the colors screaming at you while everyone in the film is talking in whispers (metaphorically) is a good one.