For 'Les Miz' and more, the color red makes a statement
It's a strong color. Costume designers tend to use it sparingly. But sometimes the situation just calls for it.
For most of "Les Misérables," things do not go well for Fantine. Abandoned by
the father of her child, she goes on a long spiral down the economic ladder and
winds up working in a brothel. And although she's always featured with a splash
of color in the film, by the time she's selling her body there's only one color
left for her to wear: red.
"In 'Les Misérables,' one thing [director Tom Hooper] wanted to have was color. Fantine always had to have reds and pinks in her outfit," says costume designer Paco Delgado. "I love to think in terms of color for characters and in moments of the movie. Color really connects with emotions that shape the psyche of the audience."
Color is naturally part of the decision-making process for costume designers, who must consult with production designers and the director to make sure whatever the actor wears in a given scene complements or contrasts with the scenery around them. But beneath that initial decision making, the ultimate color choice carries with it a lot of other meaning, meaning that usually just brushes past the audience the way foreshadowing does in a book. But when the color is red, everything goes out the window. Shown on an actress (or an actor), red makes a statement: This is an important moment, this character needs to come front and center.
Color choice can be a tug of war between a costume designer who knows the power of red and a director who wants to pull it out for great effect — and gratuitous use of the color isn't necessarily the fault of the designer. Notes Landis, "Costume designers don't have the final decision on anything. The decider may have changed from producer to director over the years, but the costume designer has always been just one piece of the visual context of the frame."
"In 'Les Misérables,' one thing [director Tom Hooper] wanted to have was color. Fantine always had to have reds and pinks in her outfit," says costume designer Paco Delgado. "I love to think in terms of color for characters and in moments of the movie. Color really connects with emotions that shape the psyche of the audience."
Color is naturally part of the decision-making process for costume designers, who must consult with production designers and the director to make sure whatever the actor wears in a given scene complements or contrasts with the scenery around them. But beneath that initial decision making, the ultimate color choice carries with it a lot of other meaning, meaning that usually just brushes past the audience the way foreshadowing does in a book. But when the color is red, everything goes out the window. Shown on an actress (or an actor), red makes a statement: This is an important moment, this character needs to come front and center.
"Red's a very attention-drawing color," says "Django
Unchained" costume designer Sharen Davis. "You put a red outfit on the
female lead, and she's usually going to be turning a corner or trying to be very
sexy — it's a pivoting point where they're trying to be bold and
aggressive."
Although Quentin
Tarantino's "Django" itself isn't covered in red (outside of the blood),
splashes do pop up — a burgundy suit, for example. Davis, who earned an Oscar
nomination for her "Dreamgirls" work, notes, however, that when the lead
actresses in that film stepped into a dream sequence, over to the bad side, they
were in red beaded dresses. "It does have a meaning," she says. "But you use it
sparingly."
Sparingly, primarily, because no one wants to jerk
the audience out of the fantasy experience of the story and into the mechanics
of how the strings are being pulled. Some directors don't shy from "on the nose"
use of bold colors — Jacqueline Durran, costume designer for Joe Wright's "Anna
Karenina," earned an Oscar nomination for her work with him on "Atonement"
and recalls, "He specifically wanted Benedict
Cumberbatch's character to wear yellow in that film ['Atonement'], because
it is the color of cowardice."
But for the most part, it's about knowing the right time and place to deploy
the red bomb. "You have to decide: Do you want it spot on?" asks Deborah
Nadoolman Landis, former president of the Costume Designers Guild, now the
director of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design. "Is this costume
going to sabotage the scene? Because if we're looking at the dress, we're not
listening to what the actress is saying."Color choice can be a tug of war between a costume designer who knows the power of red and a director who wants to pull it out for great effect — and gratuitous use of the color isn't necessarily the fault of the designer. Notes Landis, "Costume designers don't have the final decision on anything. The decider may have changed from producer to director over the years, but the costume designer has always been just one piece of the visual context of the frame."
"Certain directors — none that I worked for —
that's their big idea and how they've always envisioned it and they have a crush
on the leading lady and she has to be in red," says Mark Bridges, costume
designer for "The
Master" and "Silver
Linings Playbook."
Fortunately that wasn't an issue in "The Master,"
where red is brought out in subtle, careful spots: The first time Philip
Seymour Hoffman's title character is seen, he's in red patterned pajamas.
"We did that to catch [Joaquin
Phoenix's character] Freddy's attention," Bridges says. "We wanted to compel
his mind."
In the occasional instance in which a director might be more demanding in his
use for that red flag color, "Lincoln's" costume designer JoAnna Johnston
suggests there are ways to get around it, like toning the brightness down. "You
do sometimes hear directors saying, 'I see her in red,' because it's classically
sexy and hot and all of those things, but what's interesting with red is when
you drop the color around a little bit — a bit more orange, a bit more blue —
then it can send out an entirely different signal."
In "Lincoln," the nearly overwhelming need for
earth tones and black suits made red almost impossible, but Johnston found the
right spot: as the character Elizabeth Blair (Julie White)
is bundling her father into a carriage. "I gave her a very strong red shawl,"
she says. "I wanted her to have strength in that scene — she's quite fiery and
strong and a modernist. That's the only time I felt it would be right to use
it."
But for Johnston — who used red to great effect in
highlighting the "clues" in "The
Sixth Sense," prudency with red is warranted in any film; costume designers
shouldn't fear being obvious: "Whether it's a sexy silk dress or a man in a red
cloak, it's got drama,
and people love seeing red. It may be a cliché sometimes, but that's good
too."
No doubt about the power of red to convey drama. BBL
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