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 candle lights etc. can set the mood for a scene to convey joyful moments, as cinematographic elements in an overall positive context.
Orange as Happiness and Fun – Upbeat Mood
Vivacious Orange in Legally Blonde
In Legally Blonde (Luketic, 2001) even the orange prison uniform is fun. Although Elle exclaims the often quoted ‘You look so orange!’ as if it was a fashion critique, the film scene is presented as an opportunity, where even prison orange means making connections (albeit via glass walls), and, seen through Elle’s perspective, a chance to seek justice. Orange and the other vivid bohemian colours of the ‘blonde universe’ will eventually aid Elle become triumphant in a drab, unimaginative and mean world where bright and bold colours – pinks, reds and oranges – are looked down on, recalling Batchelor’s Chromophobia. Like Warhol, one of Elle’s greatest successes is visually presented through vibrant colour palettes, her ‘signature failure to keep colour in line’ (Batchelor, p61). And, yes, Elle Woods dons a bubbly orange dress in the ‘Bend and Snap’ scene.
Happy Orange in Little Princess
In Little Princess (Cuaron, 1995), the protagonist, Sara’s and Becky’s dreadful drab attic is miraculously turned into an orange Indian story setting, a bright sunny paradise for fun and magic. More about orange recalling childhood memories, happy longings on Little Princess in Orange as Childhood Perspective.
Seriously Fun Orange in Moonrise Kingdom
In Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012) the filmmaker presents us a peculiar mixture of orange. Although the quirky aesthetics of the orange costume and setting may seem to support the idea of fun / excitement offered by adventure and exploration in childhood, the protagonist’s Suzy Bishop’s face does not express fun. Not necessarily because it is not fun, but fun is serious, bordering loneliness and isolation. Orange in Wes Anderson’s plays on the common notion of orange colour seen as fun, but the overall mise-en-scène and the narrative complicate seeing orange as pure fun. Eventually orange hues go against the grains, while retaining the fun quirkiness of the cinematography. To explore more about the complex combination of story and style in Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom we suggest watching the video essay made by Lessons from the Screenplay.
