Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s upcoming third film, is generating as much frenzied excitement among fans as the film’s vibrant hues. Barbie is portrayed by Margot Robbie, and Ken is played by Ryan Gosling. While much of the plot’s specifics are yet unknown, it appears that we’ll encounter Barbie as she enters the outside world. But, we are unsure of what she will do there, similar to Ken when he requests a sleepover at Barbie’s house.
The aesthetics of the little glimpses we’ve gotten inside the Barbie universe are one of their most intriguing aspects. The design team has heavily gone towards the highly saturated colours, particularly hot pink, that we anticipate from a Barbie product. A distinct and all-encompassing sense of location can be created by sticking with such a vibrant colour scheme. There’s no question that we’ve left the real world behind, much like how The Wizard of Oz went from black and white to colour.
While movies with more conventional looks might make it simple to minimise the significance of colour, when a film takes daring decisions, it becomes obvious. These are 13 more vibrant films to see before Barbie is released.
Amélie (2001)
In the endearing film Amélie, Audrey Tautou plays a protected woman who connects and helps others around her in her own special manner. It is renowned for its visually arresting aesthetic, which includes distinctive framing and powerful, enduring colour use. Red is one of the primary hues that recurs frequently in this film, which could serve as a metaphor for Amélie’s need for connection. Red is constantly present in Amélie’s surroundings, her food, and her attire, just like Amélie’s willingness to accept love is.
Coraline (2009)
A chillingly gorgeous stop-motion animated film is Coraline. Dakota Fanning, who plays the title character, as well as Keith David and Dawn French make up its voice cast. Coraline discovers herself in a different reality where some elements of her everyday life are glorified while others are worse than she initially suspected. Coraline employs vibrant colours to entice viewers into the more vivid realm of young children’s imagination, much like The Florida Project did. This is especially important in this case because Coraline deviates more from reality than some of the other films on our list, which makes it more difficult for viewers to suspend disbelief.
Danse Serpentine (1897)
Danse Serpentine, a film from the very beginning of cinema, was made by the illustrious Lumière brothers. In it, modern dance pioneer and lesbian icon Loie Fuller performs mesmerising serpentine and angelic dances. The frames were each hand painted in order to incorporate colour in this short film, which was created in the 1800s. This method created a stunning watercolor-like aesthetic that is very dissimilar from how modern movies are produced nowadays. Both Fuller and the Lumières produced classic works of art that continue to influence artists today, such as Taylor Swift.
Enter the Void (2009)
Oscar, the main character in Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void, is portrayed by Nathaniel Brown. He was a heroin dealer who was assassinated in Tokyo as a result of his best friend’s treachery. Now, as he observes the effects of his demise, he wanders the city in the hope of rebirth. The movie’s two main themes—drug use and the afterlife—are in line with the vivid and kaleidoscopic use of colour here. Just like Oscar is made to feel by his death, it gives off an otherworldly impression that pulls the audience away from reality.
Her (2013)
The principal character of Theodore in Spike Jonze’s film Her, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is set in the not-too-distant future. A sophisticated artificial intelligence operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, captures his heart. This movie’s colouring is significant because it features an intriguing blend of pastel colours that somehow manage to be highly saturated. In order to place the action in the future without having to conceive too many advancements in technology and culture, this gives the movie a peculiar aesthetic. We can detect that its appearance is a little wrong, but not enough that we can’t place it in its own universe.
In the Mood for Love (2000)
One of Wong Kar-most Wai’s well-known films, In the Mood for Love is renowned for its vivid colour scheme. It centres on two neighbours who get along because they both think their partners are cheating, as portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung. They develop a close relationship, but they resolve to keep it platonic otherwise they would be no different from their cheating husbands. The intensity of the colours that we see could signify anything from the depth of the characters’ sentiments to the new universe that they have created for one another.
La La Land (2016)
La La Land is a colourful drama about a couple desperate to succeed in Los Angeles, starring Barbie’s own Ryan Gosling as Sebastian and Emma Stone as Mia. Color is everywhere in this film, from Mia’s iconic yellow dress from the movie poster to the stunning golden hour sunset in the background. The use of colour here has received a lot of attention. For instance, Zosha Millman theorises that red denotes reality while yellow denotes a change in the narrative and blue denotes creativity and control.
Moonlight (2016)
The coming-of-age story Moonlight follows a man from childhood through adolescence and adulthood. Alex R. Hibbard, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes as Chiron at these various ages give heartbreaking performances. The statement that gives the film its title, “In moonlight, Black guys look blue,” demonstrates the importance of colour in a film where the most moving scenes take place at night. Even in its evening sequences, the screen is bathed in vibrant blues and purples, frequently reflecting Chiron’s melancholy and vulnerability.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Moulin Rouge! is fantastically larger than life in the style of Baz Luhrmann. It features Nicole Kidman as the nightclub courtesan Satine and Ewan McGregor as Christian, a penniless poet. Anybody who has seen a Luhrmann film is aware that there is no room for nuance; everything, even colour, must be turned up to eleven. He frequently contrasts crimson and blue in Moulin Rouge!, representing smouldering passion and icy loneliness, respectively. It’s not the most sophisticated colour coding, but it works and fits the Luhrmann aesthetic.
The Florida Project (2017)
The Florida Project switches a European fantasy hotel for a dilapidated American motel while maintaining a similar pastel colour scheme. Six-year-old Moonee and her mother reside at the in question motel, and the show follows their lives there. Both the pleasures of her young, imaginative mind and the difficulties of the poverty in which she lives are evident. With a focus on soft, warm hues that pull you into Moonee’s world, it is an extraordinarily moving and sympathetic depiction of childhood. We can see how Moonee’s sense of wonder as a youngster, which is frequently curtailed by her surroundings, by including these notable hues but keeping their intensity slightly muted.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Pastel colours are a trademark of Wes Anderson’s, perhaps never more so than in The Grand Budapest Hotel. The plot is told by an older hotel concierge named Ralph Fiennes as he recounts events from his earlier days, when he and a lobby boy named Tony Revolori were responsible for the theft of a well-known Renaissance picture. This film is well-known for its pastel pink hues, which contrast with Barbie’s vibrant pink, and for the distinctive costumes worn by its characters. The Grand Budapest Hotel showcases Anderson’s visual direction at its best, which accounts for a significant portion of its popularity.
The Green Knight (2021)
The Green Knight is a wonderfully filmed Arthurian tale with a distinct, almost gothic style that was adapted from a tale from the early 1500s. Dev Patel plays Gawain in the story, who travels across the nation in search of the elusive green knight and may meet his end. As you could infer from the title, colours are important in this scene and are consequently enhanced and saturated. The Green Knight’s themes centre on the cyclical nature of life and the planet, with green standing in for nature’s indomitable force that slowly but surely subdues everything.
The Neon Demon (2016)
The Neon Devil portrays Elle Fanning as a young model trying to get into the business. Her peers are unhappy with her career’s rapid advancement and will do whatever to claim any “it factor” she may possess for themselves. The artistic composition of the entire film, which reflects the photographic industry it portrays. The cinematographer, Natasha Braier, describes the film as a minimalist retelling of the narrative of Narcissus, with the colour blue serving as the best metaphor for those symbolic moments in an interview with The Guardian.
