Why do so many movies look less colourful these days?

Posted On December 12, 2024December 12, 2024

There was once a time when filmmakers didn’t hesitate to use the brightest colours possible to make their movies look richly saturated in the many shades and tones the world offers. The golden age of Hollywood was full of breathtakingly beautiful movies featuring vivid contrasting colours that gleamed with possibility and magic, as seen in movies like The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain. These days, however, flat and lifeless colour palettes are increasingly dominating Hollywood. Gone are the days of Technicolor and even movies shot on film, with many mainstream movies now looking rather lacklustre. But why?

There are a variety of reasons for the decline in brightly-coloured movies emerging in the current cinematic climate, although that’s not to say that there are none left. You only have to look at the work of Gaspar Noé, particularly Enter the Void, Wes Anderson’s filmography, Anna Biller’s colourful fantasy worlds Viva and The Love Witch, and the artificial dreamland of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie to see a selection of recent movies concerned with strikingly good visuals, all soaked in bright hues that lure the viewer in. There are others, of course – we can hardly say that there are no visually impressive and colourful movies being made anymore – but very few actually replicate the heights of Technicolor that made cinema such a spectacle in the golden era.

The Technicolor process is no longer used because it is an incredibly expensive and time-consuming ordeal, and while the results are worth it, we now have technology that is much quicker, reliable, and efficient. When the first Technicolor feature film, Becky Sharpe, was released in 1935, it signalled a new era for cinema, which had largely been in black and white until this point. The intoxicating colours replicated through the three-strip Technicolor process breathed a whole new world of possibilities into cinema, and soon, it was used by many filmmakers for several decades.

Brightly coloured films didn’t disappear despite the decline in Technicolor and the golden era, however. The 1960s and 1970s were full of colour, and there are countless movies from across continents that arrived during this period which attest to this. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (and various other Jacques Demy titles), The Color of Pomegranates, The Holy Mountain, One Sings, The Other Doesn’t, and Suspiria are all great examples of movies that use colour to their advantage. Filmmakers often used Eastmancolor, which was much cheaper than Technicolor, although it didn’t have the lasting power, eventually fading over time.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that digital cameras were used to film movies, and as technology developed, filmmakers could colour-grade everything with minute precision. As the market has continued to become oversaturated with movies, there has been more demand for films to be churned out, leaving little time for error. Thus, digital filming saves money and time, especially if something needs to be reshot, which is why it has become the dominant choice of filming method within modern cinema. The downside, however, is that there is significantly less contrast compared to filmstock, meaning these films can often look flatter and less colourful.

This has led to many boring-looking movies that all blend into one, with common trends emerging among genres. Lots of action films feature an overwhelming amount of grey, with little saturation given to the character’s surroundings, while there are hardly any dramas or rom-coms being released these days which feature particularly memorable visuals.

Even Wicked, the new musical epic starring Ariana Grande, looks considerably less impressive than The Wizard of Oz – the movie that inspired it. While it is colourful, everything looks slightly washed out and strikingly less captivating compared to the Technicolor greatness of Oz. It was shot digitally, following the trend championed by one of cinema’s most controversial forces: Marvel. The company churns out highly anticipated movies every year, but an overwhelming number of them are just visually uninteresting. It’s ironic, considering how bright comic books are, but so many Marvel movies are dull and lacking in life.

This is perhaps a testament to their lack of originality; after all, these films follow a formula and need to be made fast. There isn’t enough time for Marvel to make these films look like The Red Shoes or The Wizard of Oz, and besides, it seems unlikely that fans are after that. As stated by Martin Scorsese, Marvel movies are like theme parks – they’re fast food movies – predictable, easy to consume, and not very good. Why would Marvel waste time trying to give their movies a more artistic look? That’s not their intended purpose. Additionally, using a more ‘normal’ colour palette makes the superheroes feel more real and relatable, which is what viewers want.

There is more cynicism within cinema these days, and movies with as much enthusiasm and brightness as many of Hollywood’s old Technicolor movies – no matter the subject matter of the film – are hard to find. These old, vividly coloured movies signalled an exciting progression for artistic expression. Cinema was transforming into a dominant mode of communication, harnessing the power to shape attitudes and cultures. Now, we’ve reached a point of oversaturation where everything has already been done; the novelty of Technicolor has worn off.

Things have changed, and the past few decades have seen cinema slip into a period of crisis, where the capitalistic needs of studios have meant that big-budget films aren’t given the time to be shot and edited in the same way they used to be. Technology, capitalism, the changing needs of the consumer, and an oversaturation of the film market has resulted in a lack of colour and vivacity on our screens, and it’s time there was a change.

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