Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes

by Charles Bramesco

Taking you on from the earliest feature films to today, Colors of Film introduces 50 iconic movies and explains the pivotal role that color played in their success.

The use of color is an essential part of film. It has the power to evoke powerful emotions , provide subtle psychological symbolism and act as a narrative device .

Wes Anderson’s pastels and muted tones are aesthetically pleasing, but his careful use of color also acts as a shorthand for interpreting emotion. Moonlight (2016, dir. Barry Jenkins) cinematographer (James Laxton) and colorist (Alex Bickel) spent 100 hours fine-tuning the saturation and hues of the footage so that the use of color evolved in line with the growth of the protagonist through the film. And let’s not forget Schindler’s List (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg), in which a bold flash of red against an otherwise black-and-white film is used as a powerful symbol of life, survival and death.

In Colors of Film, film critic Charles Bramesco introduces an element of cinema that is often overlooked, yet has been used in extraordinary ways . Using infographic color palettes, and stills from the movies, this is a lively and fresh approach to film for cinema-goers and color lovers alike.

He also explores in fascinating detail how the development of t echnologies have shaped the course of modern cinema , from how the feud between Kodak and Fujifilm shaped the color palettes of the 20th Century's greatest filmakers, to how the advent of computer technology is creating a digital wonderland for modern directors in which anything is possible.

​ Filled with sparkling insights and fascinating accounts from the history of cinema,  Colors of Film is an indispensable guide to one of the most important visual elements in the medium of film.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Media Tie In, Pop Culture, History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 14, 2023

About the author

Charles Bramesco is an author whose writing has been published in Vanity Fair, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Verve, New York Magazine, and others.
He is also a well known for TV and movie critic.

Reviews

[romana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was super excited to read this and ended up being completely disappointed.

Out of 50 movies, there are only 4 directed by women which is just... 🤷🏼‍♀️ I don't know how about you, author, but I'm pretty sure there are more than 4 movies that could have been used but I guess that's too much research to do, then.

But like... don't get me wrong, I love some of the movies that were mentioned. And that's that. I love the movies and the book didn't do them any justice. The first paragraph of almost every example starts with a description of the movie that is mostly just pointless. We can find that on google, you know. The text after that is pretty short and I personally would have liked for it to be longer, instead of numerous pages with pictures. Let's not forget about how superficial it is, too.

In some other review I've read that they would recommend this book to a cinephile. Nope. Cinephiles would be disappointed as hell.

Thanks to the NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not for a casual reader or movie goer. The book describes movie shots and discusses the use of color. The history of color techniques and use in cinematography is included. As is the debate of colorizing older films. If you’re a budding cinematography this book is for you. But for me, while I understood the ideas presented many of the examples were lost on me. Of the roughly 50 films discussed I’ve seen seventeen and heard of another eight. Half of the book are films I’ve never seen or heard about. It is an informative book but for a niche reader. Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group -White Lion for the temporary ARC in exchange for a review.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes readers through the history of color in cinema. It overviews different types of film and the colors that you get from them. It then focus on 49 films from around the world and dating back through cinematic history focusing on the color choices of the directors. Of the 49 films with sections I have seen 10 and have heard of another 10, the remaining 29 were movies I did not know existed. This book is one that I would only recommend for a true cinefile.

[Grant Chlystun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I really like reading about film but this didn’t quite do it for me. I didn’t know a ton about how film worked and its development but I felt I had to work through a lot of fluff to get to the good stuff. Glad that Umbrellas of Cherbourg is in here though!

[a ☕︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

bramesco doesn’t allow enough room for his writing; each of those 50 palettes mentioned in the title is approximately one page of text accompanied by two/three movie stills. these capsule write-ups should have been extended to allow for more analysis (half is a film summary). and the curation of movies here is surface-level...some of your usual suspects: the wizard of oz, black narcissus, the umbrellas of cherbourg, suspiria, chungking express, the virgin suicides, &c., &c. some i would have included: belle de jour, gabbeh, sakuran, any kiarostami flick. i would replace bramesco’s choice of ali: fear eats the soul with fassbinder’s lola instead (this one is so easy, seriously). no pedro almodóvar movies? no orfeu negro? honestly, i know i’m being picky, but this book is neither comprehensive nor focused. good for a coffee table, maybe...

[LX · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review!

5 stars!

I'm a huge movie fan!! HUGE. But mostly I adore photography as I am a photographer, but one thing I love more is cinematography. I love watching movies and seeing certain scenes that I adore. Usually this is because of how they are framed, certain filming techniques, but also colour.

I really enjoyed this. It was informative about each movie it featured, in both about the movie and director, and how colour was used. I was so happy to see Vertigo!!!!! The use of colour and lighting techniques used in that movie are amazing and to see it featured and the use of colours used with Judy in the scene in the motel mentioned was great!

There's a great wide selection of movies featured that all have a wide scale of colours. The pictures of the movies along with their colour scales/codes included really make this a great read if movies/colours/cinematography is something you enjoy! :)

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a very visual person and love films, so this book is real eye candy for me. I received an ARC from the publisher in PDF format, I just wish I had a hardback copy. The book is a history of the different color palettes used in color films, every film from the Wizard of Oz to the Grand Budapest Hotel. The last film I watched, The Pale Blue Eye, also relied on a strong color palette of blue, black and white which made for striking cinematography. Color certainly does effect the impact of storytelling.

[Anastasia Terendii (livie's version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy watching movies, but moreover, I love exploring cinematography in films, so this one was a must-read for me. It's a really beautiful book that explores the role of colors in 50 different movies. The only drawback for me is that I wish there were more than just 50 films.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Peter Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Step one - flick through the contents page, is Speed Racer in there?

OK, it passed that test.

Colors Of Film is a book which is specifically about how colour (I will use the UK spelling) works in cinema. It can be oversaturated, or undersaturated, and colours can be omitted or over-used. One of the most famous (which is in here) is Spielberg's girl in the red coat in the otherwise black and white Schindler's List - which Bramesco allows Spielberg space to explain quite how simplistic it was as symbolism. Otherwise there is a mixture of great films which we might not consider the colour in (Jeanne Dilman being a prescient pick here being celebrated for its drabness) and those which make a virtue of it (The Three Colours Trilogy - The Wizard Of Oz). Each film gets a page of text and then a page, or three, of photos with the key colours blocked out and given their RGB numbers and hexadecimal number. He does early on cop to issues with colour fading, being changed by restoration: the first film in the book is a Spanish handpainted version of A Trip To The Moon.

All this said it is something of a coffee table book with a diploma. There are brief essays on colour theory, and a few bits on Fujifilm, Technicolor and digital colouring, but you can dive deeper into all of those topics elsewhere (possibly not as well illustrated),. The fifty films on offer also do skew very Hollywood, and English language (though interestingly eclectic in places, But I'm A Cheerleader and Lover's Rock turn up so its not just the canon). Its an interesting take on an often overlooked topic, and whilst I think I personally might have liked a deeper dive, it's a terrific introduction and stimulator of conversation.

[Pa_tr0_clus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read via NetGalley

This book is filled to the brim with gorgeous and passionate descriptions of colour and style used in a wide selection of films. The language and imagery used is so visual and rich, perfectly complimenting the stills from films and accompanying hexadecimal codes. Never have I been more excited by the writing style of a textbook, purely because it is so well written and the author is very clearly extremely knowledgeable about film in general, not just colour in film.

The collection of films displayed was great and relatively multicultural, and the prefaces at the beginning of each section were interesting as well. I think that some of the language or concepts would require a not insignificant level of prior film theory knowledge (as a third year film student I know I wouldn’t have been familiar with a lot of the terminology or films without having studied them for the past few years), but the text not being very broadly accessible isn’t to its detriment.

Also, personally I appreciated the acknowledgement of television, using Star Trek as an example, and the differences in technology used affecting the use of colour. There was also a great selection of further reading listed at the end.

[Amy Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative, aesthetically pleasing, and visual book exploring the role of colour in 50 iconic movies, and a really interesting history of film and the evolving technologies. This would be the perfect book to have around the house as a physical copy - it’s very beautiful, so pleasing to look at, and you can pick it up and read a bit then come back to it whenever you want. It was so nice to see some of my all-time favourite movies here, and the information about each of the films made me interested in some that I haven’t seen yet but now need to watch them!

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC

[Emily Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

colour theory, bite-sized film analysis etc i was very happy!!! very niche films in certain places but i LOVE the quirkiness and seeing how they contribute to the foundations of movies in the mainstream canon 😘😘 wished it was a bit more rigorous though but this is mostly because of the format which is 1-2 pages for each film (kinda touch and go sometimes)

[Becks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous look at how color impacts the movies we watch in a myriad of different ways, Fascinating, enjoyable and a feast for the eyes.

[Kamilė | cobwebshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

"color is the perfect hiding place for significance, most powerful when left unstated."

during the first year of my master's studies, i took a class called "cinema media". its final assignment was to write an essay about a film of our choice, from our preferred cinematic angle, whether it was sound, montage, camera use, or anything else. i chose to write about the use of colour in tarsem singh's "the fall", one of my favourite films, and it ended up being, in my own opinion, one of the best academic works i've written.

sadly, "the fall" did not make the cut as one of the fifty films in this book, but it would be hard to swap one entry for another. bramesco truly covers the full range of cinema – from the early monochrome pieces to the modern cgi spectacle. and while the majority of the selection is good old hollywood, we get to appreciate approaches to editing and colour use from senegal, india, and japan, among others.

it's not just directors that take all the laurels here either, much love is given to editors, cinematographers, and costume designers, the way their work enhance the scenes and give life to the world within the screen.

this is certainly not a dry, academic book. bramesco can be cheeky and keeps an approachable tone as he discusses the technological developments of cameras and the use of colour. and even though i feel slight sadness about my favourite missing from the list, i'm sure i would've turned to "colors of film" as a reference for my academic work back then.

initially received a copy thanks to netgalley and white lion publishing.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colors of Film by Charles Bramesco looks at 50 iconic films through the lens of color palettes, the ways in which combinations of colors can be used for so many functions.

This isn't simply about the use of a color, or of bright colors, but a look at how using certain colors in unison, or even contrast, can help convey emotion and even, at times, move the narrative along. In looking at the history of film we also see how the technological advances helped pave the way for some of the uses of more, and more varied, color.

To a passive reader it might look like just a bunch of overviews. Some even will misstate their issues through falsehoods, no, every entry does not open with a one paragraph overview of plot. Let's stay somewhere close to reality here. Most of the entries start with how colors will be used to help tell the story, so some story is mentioned. So is a contextualization of the technology of the period and even other trends important to the time. We then move into more detail about how color(s) is used to help tell the story and/or convey the emotional environment of the film. Not just the use of blues, for example, but how blues in conjunction with other colors bring the viewer along on the journey.

Unless you just want to know how to use bright colors, this book will serve as an inspiration and catalyst for work you may do. If you simply want more ways into the films you love, this book will help you to notice the subtle uses of color in filmmaking beyond the ones that are obvious.

There is a shortage of female directors included, which is disappointing, but to focus only on that is to ignore the important contributions of directors of photography, colorists, even scene and costume directors who are mentioned and credited with making the color choices. Blinders work both ways, and unfortunately some people prefer to pose rather than reflect and analyze. Yes, there is a lack here in one area, one that should have been considered by the author. But to pretend that is the bottom-line determining factor is simplistic at best and posturing at worst.

I would recommend this to both casual fans and those with a love of film who like to find more ways to appreciate movies. Apparently I didn't take enough film classes nor teach enough courses that used film, or even used film enough in my own research to qualify as a cinephile since one all-knowing reviewer claims cinephiles would be disappointed. So whatever I do qualify as, we are not uniformly disappointed in this book. It does not break new ground or make me gasp in astonishment, but it does offer perspective that helps to round out an open-minded person's view of filmmaking and film viewing.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. Charles Bramesco’s Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes explores the tones, hues, shades, and tints that have made some of cinema’s most color-conscious films as visually unforgettable as any of their other defining elements.

By drawing on concepts like color theory and color psychology, Bramesco probes films on a deeper sensory level, arguing that color can carry as much narrative and emotional weight as any plot point or performance. Take, for instance, his analysis of Peter O’Toole’s piercing blue eyes in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia—their brilliance underscores the protagonist’s alienation amid the arid dunes. Or consider how the shade of blood, light versus dark, can shift the entire mood of a horror film, a point Bramesco illustrates through Herschell Gordon Lewis’s 1965 splatter flick Color Me Blood Red. These are the sorts of insights that pulled me in, even though this isn’t usually my cup of tea.

Beyond those two examples, Bramesco traverses a diverse cinematic spectrum, with no allegiance to genre, country, or director. From Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz (1939), celebrated for its bold plunge into Technicolor, to Akira Kurosawa’s final epic masterpiece Ran (1985), drenched in commanding primary colors, to Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993), where a single red coat disrupts a world drained of color—this book weaves a global, cross-genre portrait of what Bramesco sees as the cinematographic power of color.

If you're going to pick it up, I recommend the physical copy over the digital. The layout leans more art book than pure prose—ample, color-drenched spreads that earn their space. Also, it’s shorter than you might expect. Not in a bad way, but given how image-heavy it is, I wouldn’t have minded another hundred pages. Just something to weigh if you’re on the fence about buying it. For me, this was a thoughtful Christmas gift from my cousin, a teacher and artist herself, whose tastes overlapped with mine just enough to nail this pick. If you're a fan of film, visual analysis, or just beautiful books that can double as conversation pieces, it’s well worth a look.

[Tsuruko Chiriko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco is a frustratingly superficial and unfocused attempt to examine the role of color in cinema. Instead of offering a meaningful exploration, Bramesco falls back on trite, surface-level observations that barely scratch the surface of his chosen films. Each color palette is treated with an almost arbitrary connection to a film, resulting in a collection of disconnected and half-baked thoughts rather than a cohesive narrative. The book’s shallow treatment of color seems more like an afterthought than a deep dive, as if Bramesco skimmed the surface and assumed that’s all there was to say.

The prose itself is equally disappointing—bland, uninspired, and rarely engaging. Rather than providing insightful analysis, Bramesco’s writing often devolves into vague, uninformed commentary that lacks any real depth or intellectual rigor. For a book that promises to explore the visual and emotional power of color, the language is frustratingly unoriginal, barely elevating the material beyond a standard coffee table book. The writing feels rushed, occasionally dipping into cliché and offering little in terms of sharp critical engagement with the films or their use of color.

Moreover, the book’s structure is a mess. The attempt to link films to 50 arbitrary color palettes feels forced and unstructured, resulting in a jarring reading experience that meanders without any real purpose. There’s no clear progression or thematic through-line, and each chapter feels like an isolated fragment with no connection to the previous one. The entire book feels like a missed opportunity—at best, a superficial scrapbook of pretty colors; at worst, a lazily assembled collection of disconnected thoughts that offer little value to the reader looking for a serious exploration of color in film.

[Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colors in Film offers a really nice introduction to the artistic value of - you guessed it - color in film. Through a selection of 50 films from various eras and genres, the author demonstrates how color can be used to develop characters, convey emotion, and advance plot. Each film has a short dedicated article, accompanied by 1 to 3 stills for visual reference.
Now, I feel like I should mention that I have a university degree in film, with a specialty in film analysis and cinema history, so this book’s subject is right up my alley. That said, I think that anyone who has an interest in film as an art form, color theory, or photography would most likely enjoy this book, as well. The approach is not too technical to alienate the curious, but a casual movie viewer might find the subject too specialised to be of interest.
The author’s enthusiasm is felt throughout the text, which I love as a reader. The book has a nice introduction and is thoughtfully designed throughout. I especially appreciated the inclusion of the RGB color codes for a truly accurate ID.
That said, I really wish there had been more stills included for each film. I feel like a single still is just not enough to show how color is used throughout a film. The chosen films, while varied, don’t stray far from the usual “film studies” selection, so if you’re a student or a serious film buff, don’t expect many “deep cuts”.
But all in all, I think this is a great overview of the subject and would make a nice coffee table book or gift. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend to anyone interested in this particular topic.

**I received an advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own.

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

~~5 Stars~~ 5th January 2023

The perfect gift for any film buff or colour theory fans.

This book took us through a beautiful journey of colour within cinematic history, featuring 50 movies which use colour as a subtle story telling device.
The book is split into 4 parts, with each part having its own introduction or explanation of the history of that time. This gave us much more insight to take forward while reading about the films, we learn about the different cameras, their qualities, and the technology that made a huge difference to what we see.
Each film is given a basic analysis of their use of colour and is paired with a beautiful screenshot/// of the film. We can learn about the Director’s decision to use colour, why it might have been important to the story, what impact it had, what impact other films had, the general culture around that time, and much more.

My personal favourite film mentioned, Spirited Away (Miyazaki), has a scene where we learn that the main character is “wreathed in an arresting shot by a bushel of cherry blossom in a blush of pink, their soothing petals a sign that she’d turning over a new leaf.” This gives the whole scene an entirely different meaning for me, it made me rewatch the entire film just to see it!
I believe that the best part of this book is that it gives the films a new reason to watch, to see the way in which colour impacts our viewing.

Thank you NetGalley UK, Quarto Publishing Group and Charles Bramesco for this arc in exchange for an honest review

[AnnieM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge lover of film and this book is another one to add to my collection. By emphasizing the use of various color patterns it gives me a new way to look at the films I am watching. The author shares numerous examples of films (mostly films I have heard of or seen before) and hones in on how the use of color evokes a mood, elicits emotions and feelings in the viewer and signals a deeper underlying meaning. There are some of my favorite films here such as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and "Amelie" as well as films like "But I'm a Cheerleader" and "Small Axe - Lover's Rock." The author also features "Blue" by Derek Jarman - made while he was dying of AIDS and was going blind. This book gives a great and concise journey through the history of film technology through the digital age and the trade-offs inherent in this (from light saturation through a lens opening to color made up of pixels). This book has beautiful writing and photos as well as the colors and exact numbers of the colors throughout the book. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group/White Lion for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Dustin Britt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Bramesco's cinematic encyclopedic brain is in full throttle mode in Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes, this sizable collection of film essays -- accompanied by screenshots broken down by color. He delves into the history of color cinematography in all its Technicolor and Eastmancolor glory.

In 50 chronological profiles, he recounts the painstaking hand-tinting process used to make Méliès A Trip to the Moon soar in 1902. He zooms into the costume color-coding in Kurosawa's Ran. He explains the bleach bypass that gives Fincher's Se7en its drab, lifeless vibe. And he looks at the stark day/night contrast that George Miller presents in Max Max: Fury Road.


The casual moviegoer will come for the stunning visual breakdown of hues, but the true cineaste will stay for the smart, behind-the-scenes details about the ebbs and flows of cinema technology. It's hard to talk about cinematography in print form, but Bramesco gives it a distinct vividness as only he can.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco is a beautiful study on the use of color in cinematography and how progress and advances in technology changed and shaped the cinema today. It takes us on a journey from 1902 with A Trip to The Moon all the way to the contemporary 2010s and 2020s with La La Land, Black Panther and Lovers Rock.

When I first saw the cover, the ever so gorgeous Grand Budapest Hotel in all its pink glory, I knew I needed to read this book. I am not a true cinema buff by any means but I can appreciate the important clues that colors and hues can provide to guide us through the experience of cinema. I loved seeing some of my favorites such as Amelie and Spirited Away in this book.

This beautiful book would be great for cinematography fans and color theorists. It would also make a great addition to a coffee table collection.

Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group, for providing me with an advanced copy of the eBook ahead of its publishing day of 3/14/2023. My review is voluntary and was not influenced in any way.

[Rose Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully produced book which I enjoyed reading for its insight into the creative process of the various directors, producers and cinematographers who created the films presented here. Each film featured is illustrated with color stills. Unfortunately for me, I did not care for the author's take in most of his essays-- his tone varied from overblown & patronizing, to outright snark. Of course, films reach us all in different ways. Who is a director, or cinematographer, or indeed any artist, to say what his or her work means? Once their creations are out of their hands & out in the world, they become the property of anyone who sees and hears them. This is worth a look, I spent an enjoyable evening with it.

One of the films he discusses is "The Wizard of Oz" -- and I have to wonder how he got things so wrong when he discusses the plot & Dorothy's character: in the first sentence, he describes her as "Bored farm girl Dorothy." Then he goes on to say "the dreary dullness of her surroundings compels her to retreat into fantasy, a dream sequence where a twister sends her tumbling into the merry old land of Oz." Dude, have you even seen this film? That's not what happens!

Here's another essay, this time about "The Searchers" where John Wayne's character is described as "a broken, hateful, obsolete old man." The gorgeous Monument Valley locations are described as "the Great Plains." Huh? The author also states that Ethan Edwards (Wayne's character) is searching for a "kidnapped daughter" (it's actually his niece) and makes no mention of the girl's foster brother Martin Pauley, who searches with Ethan. Again, has the author even seen this movie?

Anyway. It was an interesting book to look at.

[Christina Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes” by Charles Bramesco is a gorgeous exploration of the use of colour in film, both from the perspective of technique and for its dramatic and emotional qualities. Spanning more than a hundred years, from Méliès’ 1902 film, “A Trip to the Moon” to Steve McQueen’s 2020 film, “Lovers Rock”, Bramesco presents fifty iconic films and their colour palettes. Each film is presented in a one-page analysis of the colours used, the particular evocation of emotion or theme intended by the director, and includes a commentary on the techniques employed to achieve the desired colours. As much a book about the films themselves as a history of colour technique in film spanning the days of laborious hand-tinting, the use of layered films and Technicolor, Kodachrome and Fuji film, down to the modern advent of digital technologies. A discussion about the possibilities and limitations of each medium was well-integrated into the synopses and descriptions. Featuring films from across genres and from different countries, the author presents a balanced curation of films organised into four periods. Vibrant pages depicting iconic scenes accompanied by their colour palettes makes this an intriguing coffee table book for film enthusiasts and lay people alike.

[Kaeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book that details in-depth the history of how color films came to be and how the technology surrounding it has evolved throughout cinema's history, this is a great book for you.

If you, like me, expected a book of 50 color palettes from films throughout history to focus on symbolic or unique representations of color in films, this is not the book for you. This book focuses less on vibrant, unique, color choices, where palettes would be visually appealing to examine, and more on the technical history of the ability to include color in films. I had hoped for a book that would spark inspiration for new ways to use color, and unfortunately, this book didn't satisfy that desire. As an ebook, all of the text is tiny and in two columns which makes it really hard to read.

[Olivier Lanouette · Rating 4 out of 5]

C’était très bon! Ça se lit très très vite, mais c’est une bonne chose parce que je crois qui s’il se mettait à y avoir trop de films différents ou de texte ça perdrait son énergie. Certes, j’aurais aimé peut-être un petit 50 pages de plus, mais je comprend que 50 films ça fait un beau chiffre rond. Malgré tout, j’ai adoré lire par rapport à des films que j’ai vu, des films que je n’ai pas vu mais que je souhaite le faire et des films que je n’avais jamais entendu parlé avant! J’ai aimé comment ça parlait du rôle des couleurs dans les films selon leurs histoires, thèmes et personnages, au lieu de simplement parler des couleurs à face value. Bref, c’était très bon et très le fun à lire et j’ai adoré réfléchir à certains de mes films préférés d’un angle très précis, c’était très intéressant.

[Sapphyria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colors of Film is a remarkable coffee table book. As a lover of photograph and movies, I found Colors of Film to be a wonderful book filled with historical information on the use of color in cinema. While filled with interesting history, color, and information for the casual reader, this book may be better suited for the professional photographer, cinematographer, and/or movie buff.

I was enraptured by the film stills and color pallets presented throughout Colors of Film. Each film includes an infographic color pallet, including RGB color numbers, and some historical data. As I read through the pages, I could feel how passionate Charles Bramesco is on this subject. His passion made these movie stills leap off the pages.

I was provided a copy of this book to read.

[Katie Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently took an online class focusing on colour palettes in movies. This made me look at movies in a totally different way. Having done this class it was then great to explore and dive into ‘Colors of Film.’ It’s a very detailed and thorough look at the topic with plenty of great images throughout. The only drawback of this book for me personally is that quite a few of the films I was not very familiar with. I think if I could have related to the films and been familiar with the plots already, it would have helped me understand the colour palette choices. On the other hand, I have been introduced to a range of movies I was not aware of and that I can seek out to watch with the author’s notes in mind.

[Anthony Galindo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptions of the color palates depicted in the book are all very thorough and well written, but the material chosen for the pages makes it very hard to appreciate and understand. The most noticeable muting of colors comes from the hardcover of the book. The frame the cover displays is a still from The Grand Budapest Hotel. The cover is vibrant, poppy, and attention grabbing meanwhile on pages 184-185 the image is grossly flat. It winds up invalidating the point of the entire book which is to cherish the spectacles that colors provide film. Again, the written material by Bramesco is informative (albeit a tad slight) and engaging. A suggestion for future printings of the book would to add glossy, almost textbook-like pages, to really show the impact of the selected colors.

[IrenesBookReviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but it was still interesting. If you are into cinema history, you will enjoy the writing part of the book. I thought it was well presented and easy to understand. The pictures showed what the words were explaining. From my point of view though, it was a bit too technical which didn't make it a real joy to read. However, this book would be good for a classroom setting or a person who is into the technology of cinema.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion for the temporary digital ARC that I read and gave my honest opinion of.