Cinema in RED
RED is a powerful color.
From passion, love, and lust to risk, danger, and madness--
Red is the color of intensity.
Explore the ways in which filmmakers have used this color to enhance the narrative and emotions of their films.
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Directed by Wong Kar-Wai
Cinematography by Christopher Doyle & Mark Lee Ping-Bing
"It is a restless moment. She has kept her head lowered... to give him a chance to come closer. But he could not, for lack of courage. She turns and walks away."
In the Mood for Love, set in 1960s Hong Kong, features the tragic characters Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen as they learn that their spouses are having an affair with each other. Swept with loneliness, the two find themselves dancing a careful waltz with each other as friends. As much as they are engulfed by the color red, the color of love and desire, they are surrounded by frames within frames, almost never clearly framed. This serves a reminder of the ever-surveilling conservative society around them stealing glances at them, and perhaps the lack of clarity of a burning possibility that may only exist in imagination and memory.
BETWEEN
WARMTH, LOVE, PASSION, DESIRE, LUST...
Her (2013)
The protagonist Theodore is often clothed in a warm red, matching his love interest, the operating system Samantha. According to production designer K.K. Barrett, the red is there because, “It seemed to fit Theo’s temperament—his passion, compassion, loneliness, and hopefulness. Red was the perfect thing to use in the movie and we did it every which way we could.”
Under the Skin (2013)
The woman dons red lipstick and a red shirt for an alluring appearance in the drab landscapes of Scotland. Red lights flood the nightclub where she looks for prey. Luring in a lustful man, there is a red, blinding display of light and viscera suggesting the altogether alien technology of annihilation. However, later, a blood-stained red rose gifted to her makes her question humanity.
The Matrix (1999)
The iconic red of the "red pill" that Neo takes to know the truth about the Matrix represents risk and danger. Later, in a training program, a beautiful woman in a red dress appears as a focus of attention for Neo until she is revealed as an enemy in disguise.
Good Time (2017)
A red dye pack drenches Connie and his disabled brother Nick as they make their way across the neon city lights of New York City in a bank robbery gone wrong. Connie himself often wears red throughout the film, manipulating various criminal schemes in efforts of getting the money to bail his brother out of jail. Red captures the energy of Connie as an agent of love, perhaps a narcissistic love, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
The Shining (1980)
The red in the color palette of the Overlook Hotel gives way to a vision of a violent river of blood rushing through the elevator as Jack loses his sanity. Left, see Jack, in a red jacket, and the ghostly bartender in the bizarrely red bathroom of the Gold Room, discussing how Jack might "correct" his family in a unnerving scene.
AND
RISK, DANGER, VIOLENCE, AGGRESSION...
Perfect Blue (1997)
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Cinematography by Hisao Shirai
"There is no way illusions can come to life."
Despite the title, the main color that dominates Perfect Blue is red. Following Mima--an idol singer pursuing her newly fledged acting career-- Perfect Blue uses red to evoke mania, fear, and violence as she is stalked by a fanatic and the boundaries of reality begin to break down.
This website only scratches the surface of the color red in cinema. Red has even more complex meanings, including revolution and various cultural meanings such as the Chinese meaning for joy and good luck. For this much to say about even just one color, imagine the possibilities with the entire color spectrum.