class extra credit blog

Colors play an essential role in Jane Campion’s “The Piano�. They tell a story all of their own. By paying attention to the use of color alone, you could grasp a feel for the movie’s plot without ever turning on the sound. Colors hint at the moods and feeling of the characters and also provide subtle hints at the deeper meaning of the film. By studying how a particular director uses color throughout the film, you will eventually gain a deeper understanding of material. You will observe and decode messages that other viewers will miss. Gaining knowledge of the use of color will allow you to see new angles and meanings in films you may have seen a dozen times. Different colors often mean different things to different directors. Directors will often have varying interpretation and views on the meaning of each color and thus where each color belongs in the film.

In general, it is never as easy as black and white when it comes to finding the colors in modern movies. The overall color of a room or setting is usually your best hint at decoding a film’s use of color. Most of the time, however, the director won’t give you that easy of hint. The majority of a film’s use of color as imagery comes from key objects in each individual scene. Jane Campion shades in colors in some of The Piano’s most important items. Jane does a terrific job at using each color of the film. I will now give you my opinion on the use and meaning of some of those most important colors.
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Green is used for the luscious landscape and wild vegetation of New Zealand. Throughout “The Piano�, green posses some kind of dark beauty throughout the movie. Whenever we see bright, vivid shades of green in the film, the overall feeling is brighter than in most other parts of the film.

Black is used in dresses, the dead trees around the Husband’s house, and the piano keys that Ada has to work for to get the piano back. I cannot be certain what the black signifies, but I believe it means change. When Ada gets a new marriage, she and her daughter are both wearing black (Ada is wearing a black dress under the white wedding dress). The black trees are around their house represent a new life. The black piano keys are, in my mind, each a change in Ada’s feeling, her feeling for Baines and herself.

Red is shown whenever there are moments of intense passion or emotion. The bed Ada and Baines have sex in has a red sheets; although this is perhaps a turning point of the film, it is not as emotion filled as the confrontation Ada has with her husband. The blood that comes out of Ada’s finger is red. The most dramatic moment in the film, when Ada’s husband cuts her finger off, uses a very bright red that splashes on the daughter, so it’s very noticeable. I would argue that it is the most red that appears in the film, the strength of the color representing the emotion of the moment.

The whit in this film might be the easiest to figure out. Whenever a character is shown wearing white, it represents their innocence and purity. The wedding dress Ada wears is white (as most are), but I believe that the dress is a fake symbol of purity for Ada. Ada tears off the wedding dress, as if she’s rejecting what it represents: purity. Ada is not a pure woman; she cheats on her husband, I think this is why Jane Campion has her tear off the dress. Jane is making a statement about the character of Ada. White is shown most commonly on the daughter. The daughter wears different white garments and white wings. The daughter is shown to be the stereotypical, pure and innocent little girl and her outfits represent this.

Blue is the most common color in this film. The lighting is blue, as well as the clothes Blue represents sorrow and is in most of the film because the film has a depressing overtone to it. The blue tint on the screen only goes away when there is something on a lighter note that’s happening. There is blue in the beginning when Ada and her daughter move, there is blue when Ada gets married, blue when Ada’s husband hurts her and blue at the end when Ada is pulled into the ocean. The blue finally disappears in the end once Ada begins her new life with Baines.