{"id":143772,"date":"2020-12-30T00:16:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T21:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-color-theory-reading-of-todd-haynes-carol\/"},"modified":"2020-12-30T00:16:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T21:16:22","slug":"a-color-theory-reading-of-todd-haynes-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-color-theory-reading-of-todd-haynes-carol\/","title":{"rendered":"#A Color Theory Reading of Todd Haynes\u2019 \u2018Carol\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#A Color Theory Reading of Todd Haynes\u2019 \u2018Carol\u2019<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8--><em>In our <\/em><strong>Color Code <\/strong>column<em>, Luke Hicks chooses a handful of shots from a favorite film in order to draw out the meaning behind certain colors and how they play into both the scene and the film as a whole. For his fifth entry, he digs into Todd Haynes\u2019 Carol.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>Todd Haynes<\/strong> introduces us to the subdued yet dazzling color palette of his sixth feature in the opening credits. Bold, blocky typeface <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ears in white over a black background. The credit dissolves, and another appears, this time in grey. The grey adopts a touch of green in the next credit, then fades from olive into aqua before the first image appears: a close bird\u2019s-eye-view of a wiry-patterned iron grate with the abyssal darkness of the subway ventilation shaft behind it. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara\u2019s names appear in succession in a rich Tiffany blue as the camera slowly zooms out, the grating acting like wallpaper behind them. Carter Burwell\u2019s ethereal piano score swells, and the translucent blizzard blue title card suddenly fills the screen \u2014\u00a0<strong><em>Carol\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u2014 the grating now like bones in the letters.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s credits change shade four more times, from cornflower to lavender, before the lens tilts up, revealing a nighttime New York City sidewalk buzzing with people. Loosely tracking a man, the camera floats through the street as the credits evolve across pale shades of purple, pink, orange, and yellow and back into cooler territory. The darkness of the street presages the moodiness of the cinematography, and the shadowy greys and tans point to the prominence of dark neutrals as a canvas for mixed palettes to pop, like we see in the glistening blend of warm and cool colors in the night \u2013 the golden effervescent glow of car lights, their silvery lilac reflection in the road, faded red neon hanging over the left side of the street, and blown out turquoise dangling like stars over the right.<\/p>\n<p>The colors of<em> Carol<\/em> harken back to the colors of Ektachrome photojournalism in the early 1950s (e.g. Ruth Orkin, Esther Bubley, Helen Levitt). As cinematographer and longtime Haynes collaborator <strong>Ed Lachman <\/strong><strong><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2015\/film\/awards\/carol-cinematographer-edward-lachman-todd-haynes-far-from-heaven-1201655217\/\">describes<\/a><\/strong>, \u201cIt\u2019s more soiled, muted \u2013 and it\u2019s naturalistic, not an expressionistic look at the world,\u201d like <em>Far From Heaven<\/em>, their other queer \u201850s-set drama. Where the color and tone of that film was crafted to reflect the oppressive artifice of the American Dream through the technicolor beauty of Douglas Sirk, <em>Carol <\/em>is fashioned to \u201cincorporate the subjectivity of the amorous mind,\u201d says Lachman. What does the world look like to someone falling in love for the first time? What does it feel like? How can color communicate the storm of emotion inside Therese Belivet?<\/p>\n<p>That emotion is as complex \u2013 galvanizing, sickening, fearful, magical \u2013 as the subject of lesbian romance (and self-discovery) in 1952 suggests. And that complexity is mirrored in Haynes and Lachman\u2019s approach, which hinges on imagery to accentuate queer alienation, much of the dialogue from Patricia Highsmith\u2019s source novel, <em>The Price of Salt<\/em>, removed in Phyllis Nagy\u2019s adaptation. In the silence and stillness, they use color, like body language and windows, to \u201cconvey what\u2019s hidden on the surface,\u201d which is paramount for a story set at a time when lesbians couldn\u2019t speak plainly about their longing.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-361005\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-green-filter.jpg\" alt=\"Carol Green Filter\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-green-filter.jpg 1898w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-green-filter-768x414.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-green-filter-1536x829.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Haynes uses mixed color temperatures, on marvelous display here, to tell a story about mixed feelings. Warm colors, like peach and candy apple red, pop on the cool palette created by the heavy blue-green filter. Other warms, like mustard and magenta, are complicated by the filter, the former blending in with the cools and the latter blending more with the dark neutrals of the coats. According to Lachman, \u201cearly color film didn\u2019t have the full-color spectrum.\u201d The Ektachrome look they were going for had more pronounced hues of blue, green, yellow. But that doesn\u2019t flatten the cool palette. The same dynamism of color exists, navy and forest green gravitating toward neutrals while pistachio floods the image.<\/p>\n<p>The pistachio shade of green on the wall is a staple of the time, deliberately placed behind Carol here to elicit her cool vitality, self-reliance, and tact \u2013 one made with equal parts reckless abandon (\u201cTell me you know what you\u2019re doing.\u201d \u2013 \u201cI never did.\u201d) and prudence. Green also represents growth and nurturing, which is perhaps why it\u2019s so prominent in the image between the wall, the coat, and the overlaid filter. As Lachman said, the mood of the palette is meant to represent Therese\u2019s emotion, and Carol is a nurturing presence for her, a benchmark of growth, a life-changing encounter. This is one of the kinder shades of green Lachman filters images through, seen best on its own at the edge of the overhanging lights warming the palette. Later, he uses garish green filters to convey anxiety and unwelcome heteroromantic advances. But here, in their first encounter, the saturation is dreamy \u2013 love at first sight.<\/p>\n<p>That spark is seen in the near electricity of the glinting silver bell between them, which is topped in a brighter shade of red than our leads \u2013 red being the color of passion and love \u2013 each wearing a dominant neutral over a color presented elsewhere in the image. Carol\u2019s rich rose hat, top, and lipstick, akin to the pale pink and magenta on the walls, exude an elegance paramount to Carol\u2019s allure and drawn out even more by the sensuous fur coat, whose light color, loud style, and loose fit flaunts Carol\u2019s comfortability with herself and her gayness. Seeing as it would\u2019ve been a normal coat for a straight high society New York woman to wear at the time, it only says as much about Carol in relation to Therese\u2019s tight, pitch-black sweater vest.<\/p>\n<p>In color terms, black is the absence of light, a non-color. Therese often wears black, or darker colors, a visualization of her repressed sexuality that stands in sharp contrast to the consistent reds of Carol\u2019s wardrobe. Here, the black is complimented by the queasy yellow-green of her sweater, which reflects an eagerness and uneasiness toward her queer desires. She wears the same sweater on their road <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>, but, having shed some uncertainty, she sheds the vest, a more open, colorful version of herself.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, the shot sets the stage for the precedence of the complementary red-green color scheme. Red and green work together in countless shades in shots throughout the film, spotlighting the thematic significance of love, pain, and maturation and bolstering the infectious Christmas mood, which is felt in the sparkle of the grain even when the colors are absent. It\u2019s like \u201clooking at a photograph from the past,\u201d as Lachman intended.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-361006\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-therese-warm.jpg\" alt=\"Carol Therese Warm\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-therese-warm.jpg 1898w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-therese-warm-768x414.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-therese-warm-1536x829.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>As is usually the case, there\u2019s a stately sheen to Carol and her things and a dimmer, quieter, concealed look to Therese, reminiscent of the previous shot. However, this one exemplifies how the filmmakers use lighting to heighten contrast in color and tone between the two. The polished, dark oak piano fills a third of the screen, and Therese, in shadow, fills another, creating a warm, sultry V cutout in which Carol lounges. She\u2019s having Therese over for the first time, and she\u2019s in her element \u2013 chatty and loose, bathing in the glow of the lamp while smoking a cigarette.<\/p>\n<p>Therese is still primarily wearing black. Her dress has an emerald-sapphire plaid pattern \u2013 subtly matched by a pair of Carol\u2019s pajamas in a later sequence \u2013 which, in its royal cool tones, signifies an alignment with Carol (in Carolina blue) and a minor blossoming for Therese in showing up to her home in the first place. But the dark lighting and compressed, inward body language reveal that she\u2019s still in hiding, just as Carol\u2019s shine and open, relaxed stance reveal her outness. She is, at least, as out as a suburban elite mother could be in the \u201850s without being ostracized, which would mean the loss of a child for Carol.<\/p>\n<p>The golden frame, lamp stem, flowers, and jewelry underscore Carol\u2019s radiance and highlight her blonde locks, much like the piano points to Therese\u2019s dark natural brunette look, hair color being the most consistent thematic juxtaposition between them. The faint floral green and pink of the beige wallpaper sit delicately behind her, accentuating her charm and her role in Therese\u2019s life as a garden in which to grow into her own. And the red-green of the wrapping paper and Christmas tree give it a holiday feel without clashing with the prominence of the analogous blue-green-yellow color scheme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen things are getting better in their relationship, the colors become gentler and more beautiful with more warmth,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/postperspective.com\/colorist-john-dowdell-talks-about-the-look-of-carol\/\">said <strong>John Dowdell<\/strong><\/a>, the film\u2019s colorist, who\u2019s worked with Haynes numerous times, almost as much as he\u2019s worked with Jim Jarmusch. We see that gentleness and warmth on full display here in their first moment of true privacy. But it\u2019s worth noting the darkness of the image, too. In <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>, the cinematography of <em>Carol <\/em>is surprisingly dark, but the Super 16\u2019s vast depth of field and ever-shimmering grain keep the darks from getting crushed (hence, why we can make out the blue-green in Therese\u2019s dress) and give the film a crystalline quality as irresistible as Carol herself.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-361007\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-abby-diner.jpg\" alt=\"Carol Abby Diner\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-abby-diner.jpg 1898w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-abby-diner-768x414.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-abby-diner-1536x829.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Yellow is a secondary color throughout <em>Carol<\/em> \u2013 an ally for red or green, much like Abby Gerhard (<strong>Sarah Paulson<\/strong>) to Carol and Therese, although \u201caide\u201d might be a better descriptor. Carol\u2019s childhood best friend and ex-lover gives new meaning to the phrase \u201clean on me.\u201d After Carol leaves Therese in the night, Abby appears the next morning in the corner of the room like a guardian angel to take Therese home upon Carol\u2019s request. Therese wakes up confused but im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely realizes what\u2019s going on. Puffy-eyed and miserable, she sits across from Abby in this shot inside a diner on a pit stop on their road trip home.<\/p>\n<p>The use of yellow and neutrals on and around Abby indicates her position in the relationship: a neutral party. However, brown, grey, or black could\u2019ve communicated that well enough. The heavy addition of dandelion and lemon hues expresses warmth in her neutrality. She\u2019s a neutral party in the relationship, but she\u2019s not neutral towards them. On the contrary, she\u2019s a light for the couple, a hope, as yellow suggests \u2013 an eternal outlet for Carol and, in her age, a beacon of sage wisdom for a mourning Therese (\u201cIt changes. Nobody\u2019s fault.\u201d). Like a lighthouse, her presence keeps the two from crashing into the rocks, be those the rocks of a lost daughter or suffocated sexuality.<\/p>\n<p>Abby isn\u2019t mad at Carol for calling in a titan favor. She doesn\u2019t \u201chate\u201d or resent Therese for stealing Carol, as Therese suspects. \u201cYou really think I\u2019ve flown halfway across the country to drive you back East because I hate you and want to see you suffer?\u201d she asks in a caring, concerned tone, subtly reminding Therese that she is her (yellow) taxi. Even the location of the color is deliberate. Notice how her backdrop is the same color as her outfit, and how the gauzy drapes split the screen in half, separating Abby from the other colors. It\u2019s no coincidence that red, green, and blue adorn Therese\u2019s side of the screen just like it\u2019s no accident that the fresh chrome of the bumper sits on Therese\u2019s side, contrasted with the gold (we associate with Carol) in Abby\u2019s jewelry.<\/p>\n<p>Between the golds, yellows, and browns, Abby seems monochromatic, but the prominence of the sky-blue filter over everything, met by the car and sky itself, create a complementary yellow-blue scheme. Sky blue often represents loyalty and trustworthiness, as it does here in Abby, but it also represents gloom, which is why the image is filtered through it \u2013 a saturation of Therese\u2019s emotion. That\u2019s also why it\u2019s stuck to Therese\u2019s side of the screen.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-361008 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/therese-final-shot.jpg\" alt=\"Therese Final Shot carol todd haynes\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/therese-final-shot.jpg 1898w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/therese-final-shot-768x414.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/therese-final-shot-1536x829.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A Rembrandtian portrait of Therese in the seminal embrace of her queerness, this shot takes place moments before the final shot and is the last image we see of her. She\u2019s just bailed on a party to find Carol after an ambiguous, interrupted conversation earlier in the night in which Carol confessed her love and Therese remained silent. Now, we see her walking toward Carol in a dimly lit restaurant. There is a haunting dominion of men behind her, who, in their hazy shadow, reminds us that, in looking for Carol, Therese is braving the dark of both her sexuality and the repudiation of hetero-masculine values of the time.<\/p>\n<p>The chiaroscuro lighting of the image and the proliferation of neutral tones bring out the red in the little lampshades, which exude intensity and passion. Like Therese, they are a singular presence in the room. They lead her to Carol (who is represented by red throughout) like rose petals lead to a lover or runway lights guide a pilot to land. To achieve even greater emotional realism, the camera becomes handheld for the first time in the film, trembling in rhythm with Therese. The film grain adds another visible layer of subtext that reflects her emotional state.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the time, Therese seems shy. But she\u2019s not. She\u2019s understated and disoriented (\u201cI don\u2019t even know what I want to order for lunch\u201d), but that doesn\u2019t imply a lack of confidence. She\u2019s very self-assured, and we see that here in its most breathtaking form. \u201cOnly does the point of view, the subjectivity of the amorous mind, change at the end of the film,\u201d explains Lachman. After spending the duration obscured by the frame (partially visible, pushed to the sides and corners), Therese is centered, the only one in focus, a clear, total vision of her queer self. As she puts it: \u201cI\u2019m wide awake. I\u2019ve never been more awake in my life.\u201d\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/carol-todd-haynes-color-theory\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=carol-todd-haynes-color-theory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#A Color Theory Reading of Todd Haynes\u2019 \u2018Carol\u2019&#8221; In our Color Code column, Luke Hicks chooses a handful of shots from a favorite film in order to draw out the meaning behind certain colors and how they play into both the scene and the film as a whole. For his fifth entry, he digs into&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/carol-therese-overlaid.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[87022,38074,56052,46542,88109],"class_list":["post-143772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-carol","tag-cate-blanchett","tag-color-code","tag-rooney-mara","tag-todd-haynes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}