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Chromatic Cinema
A History of Screen Color
"This remarkable manuscript opens new vistas on what cinema is, how it works, and what it can mean, with a deep historical perspective and an unobtrusive but effective deployment of film theory. It is bound to be a major intervention in an exciting and growing field of film studies, and a significant contribution to technology studies." Sean Cubitt, author of The Cinema Effect "Drawing on optical theory, art history, and film technology, Richard Misek rejects conventional distinctions between color and black-and-white, arguing instead for a 'chromatic cinema' which sees color everywhere. Original, thought-provoking, and sure to be controversial." Richard Koszarski, Rutgers University "In this important and surprising study of cinema’s most central, seemingly simple, and notorious opposition--black and white versus color--Misek upsets the usual categories for understanding the development of cinema as technology and aesthetic practice. Chromatic Cinema should change the way we understand the so-called evolution of film style as the triumph of realism." Brian Price, Oklahoma State University "The best color history with examples from Hollywood, the European Art Film, Asia and Eastern Europe, Chromatic Cinema moves from the early period to the advent of the digital, by arguing that the use of black and white must be discussed in the context of an ever-changing chromatic image. An indispensable text from the introductory to the advanced level, Richard Misek dialogues with art history and philosophy, with cultural history and economics." Angela Dalle Vacche, Georgia Istitute of Technology
Richard Misek (Author)
9781444332391, Wiley
Hardback, published 9 April 2010
240 pages
23.9 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.522 kg
“Chromatic Cinema provides a much-needed technological history of machines and techniques for producing moving images in color, as well as a cultural history of color films.” (BRIAN R. JACOBSON, Technology and Culture, July 2012) “An invigorating critical intervention into the history, theory and aesthetic analysis of colour in the cinema.” (JENNIFER M. BARKER, Screen, August 2012) “Chromatic Cinema provides a wealth of information and of examples of different approaches to colour in cinema and stimulates enough thoughts and reflections to be a worthy addition to any library on colour in cinema.” (NICOLA MAZZANTI, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, April 2012 "The book touches on most of the important aspects of color cinema-from history to technology to ideology-and serves as an orientation course for a complex subject. It's a gateway read, neither intimidating nor frustrating. For a beginner (like me), it presented a smattering of philosophical ideas, a grounding in the why and how progression of color use, and a primer on the science of color technologies." (MUBI, September 2010)
Chromatic Cinema Color permeates film and its history, but study of its contribution to film has so far been fragmentary. Chromatic Cinema provides the first wide-ranging historical overview of screen color, exploring the changing uses and meanings of color in moving images, from hand painting in early skirt dance films to current trends in digital color manipulation. In this richly illustrated study, Richard Misek offers both a history and a theory of screen color. He argues that cinematic color emerged from, defined itself in response to, and has evolved in symbiosis with black and white. Exploring the technological, cultural, economic, and artistic factors that have defined this evolving symbiosis, Misek provides an in-depth yet accessible account of color’s spread through, and ultimate effacement of, black-and-white cinema.
List of Plates ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Film Color 14 Coloration in Early Cinema, 1895–1927 14 The Rise of Technicolor, 1915–35 25 Chromatic Cold War: Black-and-White and Color in Opposition 29 “Technicolor Is Natural Color”: Color and Realism, 1935–58 35 Chromatic Thaw: Hollywood’s Transition to Color, 1950–67 41 2. Surface Color 50 Color in European Film, 1936–67 50 Chromatic Ambivalence: Art Cinema’s Transition to Color 57 “Painting with Light”: Cinema’s Imaginary Art History 65 Unmotivated Chromatic Hybridity 68 Monochrome Purgatory: Absent Color in the Soviet Bloc, 1966–75 77 3. Absent Color 83 Black-and-White as Technological Relic, 1965–83 83 Black-and-White Flashbacks: Codifying Temporal Rebirth 89 Black-and-White Films, 1967–2007 97 Nostalgia and Pastiche 111 4. Optical Color 117 Cinema’s Newtonian Optics 117 White Light: Hollywood’s Invisible Ideology 122 Darkness Visible: From Natural Light to “Neo-Noir,” 1968–83 132 Cinematography and Color Filtration, 1977–97 139 Case Study: Seeing Red in Psycho 147 5. Digital Color 152 Crossing the Chromatic Wall in Wings of Desire 152 An Archaeology of Digital Intermediate, 1989–2000 155 Digital Color Aesthetics, 2000–9 164 Conclusion: Painting by Numbers? 179 Notes 181 Bibliography 195 Index 210
Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF]
