Orange in Films

Red, orange and yellow brighten the world around us in a variety of hues. In films they can convey different meanings, which might be a guessing game, depending on placement and use of colour in a given frame/shot. ‘Red, orange and yellow are called the warm or advancing colors. They …

In the plethora of reds and greens that make up Amelie’s colour palette, orange is worthy of special consideration. No part of the film is left untouched. It may, then, seem counterintuitive to look upon orange as the exemption to the film’s digital colourisation. There is a scholarly agreement that colour …

‘A Little Princess’ is coated in colour and during the film it progresses. Focusing on orange colour and details, from the beginning of the film, orange tones and details are seen when Sara is telling her fairytales, as well as the decoration in the room in India. Sara’s father gives …

One of the most striking colours in Bong Joon-ho’s award winning film Parasite (2019) is orange. The film presents a world where extreme poverty and extreme wealth maintain a ruinous symbiotic relationship: where the poor transform into parasites to survive, and the rich act as heartless parasites, leeching off each …

In our first part of this essay, orange distinguished Amelie’s perspective and gradually seeped into the mise-en-scene. By colouring emotions of comfort and belonging with orange, we could relate to Amelie’s fantastical world. A children’s classic attesting to the power of imagination, the film version of A Little Princess employs orange in a, …

The consensus that every person sees colour differently is a fitting resolution to the ‘problem’ of Jeunet’s preferred aesthetic in Amelie (2001). Allan Cameron makes a distinction that is all too easily forgotten. Colour can be a light source, deliberately applied or symbolic (2021), yet we regard them interchangeably. Just …

Orange shades are associated with negative effects mostly, but not necessarily, when orange is related to chemicals. Anxiety, depression, insanity, in general, negative mental states can be associated with the characters surrounded by a context featuring toxic orange components. In visual storytelling orange shades emanating harmful, poisonous atmosphere may feature …

Orange may not be the most analysed film colour by researchers or critics, at least compared to the immense literature on red, black or blue, but it definitely belongs to the most featured colours of the cinematographic palette. Without trying to be too exhaustive, here are some of the suggested …

In order to describe the various hues of the colour orange used in visual storytelling (to set the tone and mood of a film even before any dialogues are said), there are several vocabularies that may come in handy when taking a dive into translating colours into human words. Still …

Orange shades are often associated with positive emotions, happiness, lightness, probably recalling often tactile experiences that feel pleasant, tasty, refreshing or pampering, like warm sun rays, healthy juicy fruits and vibrant spices, or tea lights in a romantic setting. In visual storytelling orange shades of such fruits, sun rays, flickering …