Colour is one of the few remaining uncharted territories of film studies, and its centrality to the construction and reception of film narratives has only recently been recognised. After a century of widespread critical and theoretical neglect, colour is now poised to become a prime focus within film studies at all levels, and this book will constitute a key voice within this debate. In a series of wide-ranging critical essays, marked by authoritative and innovative perspectives, the volume explores the shifting technologies, theories, and practices of colour in cinema, highlighting the intricate relationship between technological, philosophical, and artistic concerns, and making a compelling case for colour as a dominant and complex signifier in filmic discourse. The essays are divided into three main sections exploring the historical and technical dimensions of colour, the aesthetics of colour, and the significance of colour in relation to broader issues of race, gender, and identity, and are interdisciplinary and transnational in their focus. They provide the reader with a clear understanding of the significance of colour, exploring new pathways and identifying discoveries still to be made.

Contents: Wendy Everett: Mapping Colour: An Introduction to the Theories and Practices of Colour - Joshua Yumibe: Silent Cinema Colour Aesthetics - Raphaëlle Costa-de-Beauregard: From Screen to Flesh: The Language of Colour in The Belly of an Architect - Isabelle Vanderschelden: Digital Painting: Colour Treatment in the Cinema of Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Andrea Rinke: Sonnenallee - Rock'n' Roll and Passport Control: How an East German Comedy Colours the Past - Wendy Everett: Colour as Space and Time: Alternative Visions in European Film - Laure Brost: On Seeing Red: The Figurative Movement of Film Colour - Ben McCann: 'Bliss in Blueness': Colour Strategies in the Films of Michael Mann - Richard Misek: 'Last of the Kodak': Andrei Tarkovsky's Struggle with Colour - Hilaria Loyo: Blinding Blondes: Whiteness, Femininity, and Stardom - Liz Watkins: The (Dis)Articulation of Colour: Cinematography, Femininity, and Desire in Jane Campion's In the Cut.