ART AND DESIGN

COLOR AND FORM ARE THE TRUTH

Showing is more powerful than telling

By Bella Park

A Beautifully Rendered Hotel

If we ask people for the definition of "meaning," most people would say that it comes from words. Or from another perspective, all meaning comes from language, whether written or spoken. But that notion of meaning is limited and tends to discount visual communication, which is central to movies, photography, and video. And in fact, one could argue that visual communication, how we see things, is much more powerful and expressive as both a language and its ability to express ideas. After all, something as monumental and basic as Stonehenge has meaning. Prehistoric artists placed those giant stones in a way that gave focus and logic to every caveperson who saw them.

At the base and core of visual communication are two qualities: color and form. You can think of them as the operating platform of the visual. The way film directors, advertisers, and video artists manipulate these two elements tells a great deal about the depth of their ideas. Instead of judging them by what they say or what can be said about their work, we should be judging them by how they manipulate and use color and form. That’s because that’s where the real ideas come from.

Look at him, that's all you need to know

A good example of this is Wes Anderson’s 2014 movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel. It’s about a young immigrant boy, Zero, who gains employment at Budapest’s fanciest hotel right before the outbreak of world war two. There is no doubt that Anderson excels at verbal wit. The movie is filled with puns, sharp one-liners, and quick banter, but his real genius lies in how he manipulates color and form and is a demonstration of how his most powerful ideas come from these non-verbal elements.

One of the most pressing issues of the film is Zero’s status as an immigrant. There is a scene in the movie where his mentor Monsieur Gustav insults him and asks why he’s here and he says, “Well, not only is my entire family dead, my entire village is dead.” It’s a nice comeback and a nice demonstration of Anderson’s sharp writing. But the deeper sense of Zero’s status doesn’t come from what’s said, it comes from what we see.

It couldn't be clearer: form and color

After Zero helps Gustav escape from prison, he and Zero are talking in the dark. Anderson places Zero in a circle light against the darkness—the scene takes place at night. Because of the intensity of the contrast we focus carefully on what is said. The first shot of their conversation shows both of them in the frame. Gustav is looking down at Zero from a position of authority (cultural, age, and experience). His gestures are aggressive and demanding. In contrast, Zero stands ramrod straight with his fists clenched. He is focused where Gustav is full of extraneous gestures and emotions.

In the next shot, we only see Zero, who is perfectly framed in the center of the light. He does not shrink before Gustave and his posture and eyes are calm, but we can feel in the way he holds his body that he is suppressing strong, strong emotions. We don’t need Zero to tell us of his situation, we can feel it in the way that he holds his body.

Everything is in order

The next shot is an interesting one and we can see how much Anderson cares about small details. In contrast to the first shot of the scene, Gustave's hand gestures change after hearing Zero's story. His bent posture is more gentle and understanding and the way he bends his neck to his side is no longer the sign of authority. In a beautiful moment, he reaches out to touch Zero and you don’t need dialogue to understand the humanity of it.

In the last shot of the scene, they are looking at each other from the same position and here Anderson reimagines Gustav’s initial aggression into something like love: the frame is dark with a faint light shining behind it. The faces of the characters glow and for a moment it seems as if the night is shining. This is Anderson showing us the power of color and form.

©Bella Park and the CCA Arts Review.