February: Movies that Look Like Cake and Passion
An appreciation post for the bold use of pink and red in film
I’ve always had a personal affinity for pink and pastel color palettes. In movies (and maybe even in life), this most likely started with my first viewing of Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola’s magnum opus, in my humble opinion) - seen fresh into film school surrounded by guys in class and male teachers teaching male filmmakers.
If cake was a movie, it would be Marie Antoinette. In addition to emphasizing the historical connotations between “cake” and the infamous Queen of France, the cinematography (by Lance Acord) underscores an ever-present feeling of superfluousness and decadence. Annoyingly enough, these would come to be the types of words often used to describe the film disparagingly in reviews of Marie Antoinette (more so at the time, as it seems to have become more appreciated now). What most self-proclaimed film buffs and critics didn’t seem to realize was that the unapologetically frivolous style was the point: what most missed, though, was the story being told underneath about a girlhood misunderstood1.
Ironic.
Watching the heavily feminine and frilly film for the very first time, I remember being in joyful awe, as I am when I rewatch it still to this day. Seeing the unrelenting images of pinks, pastel yellows and blues, creams and lighting like fluffy icing, I remember thinking that I didn’t know movies could even look like this.
Thankfully, there are more pink, pastel and colorful films out there than Marie Antoinette. In honor of “girly colors month” (February), I wanted to curate an aesthetic collection of pink and red scenes from various movies.
I watched Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel for the first time recently and am kicking myself for waiting over 10 years to do so - the pastels permeating every shot of this movie are right up my alley. I’m not sure any other filmmaker has as much fun - consistently - with color palettes as Wes Anderson does with all his movies. His color choices and aesthetic are undeniable: if you were shown a collection of still shots from a variety of unreleased movies, you’d be able to pick his out of a lineup, easy.
As for the color red, few films have captured passion so stunningly in all aspects of the filmmaking process as Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love. Red is not simply a “motif” here or a mere symbol - it’s an emotion infused into every moment, something both seen and unseen all at once.
I enjoyed researching the images for these films and sometimes being able to find out why they used red or pink so prominently. I learned, for instance, that Spike Lee used warm ambers, reds and oranges throughout Do the Right Thing so that the audience could really see and feel the heat of this hot summer day in Brooklyn.
In Spike Jonze’s Her, I noticed the pastel neutrals of the background as the main character navigates isolation in an increasingly isolated, tech-obsessed world are then punctuated by vibrant red as he finds “love” with an AI operating system. Even the color red is (usually) itself isolated - worn on the shirt of the main character or shown on the computer screen he’s interacting with.
The films in this list do not adhere to any one genre. This is simply an appreciation post for boldly monochrome and fun colors cinematography. And with that, here are my picks:
The Pinks:
Author’s note: Finding movies where pink was the dominant color were much harder to find… if anyone has any extra suggestions, leave them in the comments!
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Barbie (2023)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Closer (2004)
The Reds:
Broken Embraces (2009)
Her (2013)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Ex Machina (2014)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Hero (2002)
Amelie (2001)
Suspiria (2018)
Yes, I’m aware Marie Antoinette is not historically accurate and again, I don’t think that was the point of it.