Aviator + Color

Finally got hold of the DVD of Scorcese's Aviator last night. I was stunned at the grading in this film. The first 45 mins had a lovely pastel turqouise hue, which i put down to the color of the props in the early scenes. Then it moves to the Coconut Grove and the same colour scheme was repeated there. Finally Howard Hughes plays tennis with Katie Hepburn. Wow! the grass is turquoise.
A bit later Hepburn + Hughes visit her folks in the country and the greens go ballisitc. Gone is the pastel blues and in comes the greenest greens since Errol Flyn's Robin Hood. As things move on the Reds start building up to prominence.
I love this kind of stuff which reminds me of my favourite British filmaker Michael Powell (An early mentor of Marty's and late husband of editor Thelma Schoonmaker). The first time i saw Life and death of Colonel Blimp i was amazed at his use of the colour red. Almost every frame has some red in it.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Krystoff Kielowski's masterful Three Colours Trilogy, which uses the colours of the French Flag in each, but this is more to do with props and lighting i think, or at least he doesn't go as far as changing the colour of the grass.

Scorcese takes this to a new level on this film, with Production Designer Dante Ferretti putting colour coordinated props in every scene, while DP Robert Richardson lights the film with matching gels. But it must be at the grading stage that Scorcese encourages the Colourist to go for it. It's completely over the top, but i loved it more than anything else in the film.

Can Color do this kind of stuff?

Color can absolutely do this kind of stuff, if you know how to do it. It's a lot about the operator, their skill, their artistic ability and their imagination. And the Director letting them go there.