The blueness of Heat
I reckon there are only four films I've seen more than once, properly, all the way through, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Lion King, Lord of the Rings and Heat. Breakfast at Tiffany's used to be my favourite film but now I think it's Heat.
One of the things I love about it is the attention to colour. Almost everything in the film is cold steely blue colour. Sure, it's easy enough alter the grading but they've also used blue lights, blue clothes, the sky and the sea. All to add to the subtle blue effect.
It was on telly last night so I tried to take some pictures to prove my point. You can't really see what I mean because the tungsten lighting of my lounge alters the colours. But there are some more pics on Flickr if you're interested.
Collateral is kinda blue too. Mann is the master of the blue (amongst other things).
Posted by: Loïc | Jul 27, 2008 at 08:17
Interestingly, I just watched The Matrix trilogy of films and found they were all very green in colour.
My favourite colour-related film is D.O.A. with Dennis Quaid, where he plays a doctor who's been lethally poisoned. And as he nears death the colour in the film drains to a point near the end where it's almost wholly black-and-white. Great stuff.
Posted by: Blair Millen | Jul 27, 2008 at 17:16
Eyes Wide Shut is blue during the passionate bits and red during the dispassionate bits.
Posted by: John | Jul 27, 2008 at 18:50
But I thought Heat was a magazine?
Posted by: davidthedesigner | Jul 27, 2008 at 21:07
sound and vision 'blue, blue electric blue thats the colour of my room.....'
Posted by: caroline | Jul 27, 2008 at 22:20
Heat: first movie I've ever seen in which someone is a graphic designer and says so.
Posted by: Bruno | Jul 28, 2008 at 08:45
Great movie. Especially from a sound perspective. The gun fight with no backing track is incredibly powerful, it feels so real. It also goes against all the industry sound 'norms' for a Hollywood production. Also, Heat has my favourite continuity error in it. In the same music-less gun fight, a guy gets shot through the back of the head whilst sitting in a car. Moments later it happens to the poor guy again, but from a different angle.
Posted by: Duncan Ogle-Skan | Jul 28, 2008 at 09:46
You can pause any shot in Heat and have a beautiful, clean, clear, perfectly composed photograph right in front of you.
You can do the same thing with Steve McQueen's Bullitt, which is very gray (although curiously, McQueen wears paisley pajamas in it). Every shot is clean and beautifully composted.
Posted by: Valarie | Jul 28, 2008 at 19:46
Ahem. Composed. Not composted. Although I can think of quite a few movies that I would like to see composted.
Posted by: Valarie | Jul 28, 2008 at 21:51
De Niro in his "blue" home, the sea, the gun on the table... tribute to an Alex Colville painting ("Pacific", 1967):
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6343/colville03yj4.jpg
Posted by: Ant | Jul 30, 2008 at 12:38
Wow. Thanks Ant.
Posted by: Ben | Jul 30, 2008 at 16:48
Ever seen the movie Traffic. Nice touch with scenes in the US being in blue and things in Mexico being Orange/Sepia.
Posted by: Tim McGrath | Jul 31, 2008 at 01:35
Yeah, I call it GUN STEEL BLUE. There's something similar to the palette during the Detroit sequences in Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT.
Posted by: Bernard | Aug 28, 2008 at 18:39