Practices of Viewing IX: Color (video essay)

In Henri-Georges Clouzot’s fragment L’ENFER from 1964, the main character’s jealousy, escalating to the point of psychosis, is reflected in the fact that his surroundings appear tinted in new and disturbing shades. The whole world is colored by delusion. Clouzot’s experiments points out what is true for all cinema: Color in film is never a natural given but always a construction. Even what looks realistic is not true to nature but a simulation, an effect of tinting and color grading. But then also our own perception of color is nothing fixed, but varies from person to person. Rather than physical fact color is a mental interpretation. The colors that I believe to see are most likely not exactly the same that you will experience. The history of color cinema inspire us. Instead of replicating the norms and stereotypes we thought to be reality, the changing colors of film break away from our hegemonic views. They force us to see differently.