1999
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Lighting and Color
What is the film about? Kubrick seems involved in two kinds of films – those that are strictly narrative and those that are more eclectic, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut, his last film.
Films in general are means of communication and what we are looking at here is “How are the messages sent?”. Specifically for this film we are concentrating on the lighting and the color schemes.
After seeing the film, we need to ask “What is the film about?” and then “How do we know that from the different aspects of the film – dialog, lighting, photography etc. The narration is often pivotal, but also often is not clearly what the film is about. It moves the plot along, but the theme may be deeper than that.
Good films should have an interesting “message” or “point of view” and then should be consistent in how the message is sent. You may find many many aspects of the film all pointing to the same ideas.
Kubrick is well known for his photography and use of music, both of which are important in this film too. His composition in the frame is often spectacular and it has been said that in films like Barry Lyndon, any frame from the film could be mounted and hung on a wall. However we are concentrating here on the lighting and the color schemes which are impacted by the lighting.
So – what is the film about? Does it say anything?
What can we say about the lighting of the film?
Is the film consistent in its use of lighting? This doesn’t mean is it always the same, but is there information coded into the lighting? Do different lighting schemes occur in the film and how do they affect the meaning of the film?
Windows often peculiarly lit with blue light.
Christmas tree lighting
Street lights and reflections of lights in the street.
Color schemes: What colors predominate?
Red
Green
Blue
Are they found in combinations? Red and green?
Red and blue?
Are colors significant? What do you associate with red? Green? Blue?
Red: stop, blood, anger “see red”, emotion, passion
Green: go, envy (green eyed monster)
Blue: loyalty
Red and green Christmas; (why is it Christmas) ?
street lights
Two women at party one in soft red one in soft green
Pool table – red felt, green lights
Traffic lights in street red and green
Buildings are red brick with green awnings.
Colors at secret society meeting
Black and white vs. color sequences: Fantasy with naval officer.
Music: Did a bad bad thing. Music during ritual of secret society
Name is Nick Nightingale (singer pianist)
Is Kubrick more interested in questions and seeing relationships between things than actual answers?
Story involves a doctor whose discovery his wife may have been interested in cheating on him, leads to a series of questionings about his own loyalty and faithfulness.
Password is Fidelio (Beethoven opera about a woman’s faithfulness to her husband – word has stem meaning faithful in it)
What does secret society have to say about fantasy, secrets, deceptions and what is and is not real.
Does the film look at the relationship between these things as well as envy/loyalty; sex/life/death. Many associations with sexuality and death (Mandy has sex and overdoses; father dies and woman becomes sexual with Dr.; woman going to have sex with Dr. is HIV positive; sexual orgy leads to deaths