Colour discussion with Milena: YELLOW

Yellow is a very misleading colour. It can be assumed that most people would associate yellow with feelings of joy, but what a lot of people don’t realise is that it is also very aggressive and portrays obsessive behaviour. Like all colours it relies on the right tone and saturation to convey what is intended. There is a reason why highly saturated yellows are used for caution signs, it is visually hostile and appears to come towards you. However, the more a yellow is lightened the more elegant it becomes. Pastel yellows are used to convey innocence; and golden and late afternoon yellows are when memories and dreams are visually born.

In Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Mia Farrow transforms their apartment from dark and gloomy to open, happy and innocent. In the scene where she wakes up covered in scratches the red appears more gruesome because it is contrasted with the naive yellow room. If you then examine The Caveman’s Valentine (not a great film but is a perfect example of effective colour use) you will see the use of a saturated neurotic yellow. When we are inside Romulus’s head the colours create a sense of visual schizophrenia, you see bright yellow, which is obsessive and warm orange-amber, which is comforting. The brilliant use of these two colours together portrays an obsessive mind that has the emotional protection of feeling safe.

I found this week's research particularly interesting because I never perceived it as a colour that can represent dark emotions. However, when I looked into it further it made perfect sense! Have a look at films like The Talented Mr. Ripley and pay close attention to the use of yellow.