




Wes Anderson is a famous film director known for his use of colors, symmetry and other elements in his movies. Wes Anderson’s use of color is very distinct and recognizable as he generally uses well put together color schemes that are visually pleasing. Wes Anderson uses specific color palettes in The Grand Budapest Hotel, to deliver a picturesque and surreal feeling. He implements color techniques like contrast, saturation and harmony in his color schemes. 

Anderson uses contrast which can make certain scenes to make colors more visible, making the scene seem unreal. At 0:08 shown above Anderson is using contrast by having everyone in white clothing, while the background is dark. The lightness of the clothing compared to the darkness of the background are complete opposites of each other. Everything other than the clothing, with the exception of the red curtain is not only dark but it is also dull. The red curtain is vibrant but it is also the center of the image. The red curtain draws attention, which serves the purpose of drawing attention to the focal point or the center to exaggerate the symmetry of the scene. The background seems to all melt together, making the white clothing stand out. While the background is composed of many different colors, they are all bleak. The background even has white on the upper half of the walls, but because the white on the walls is duller it plays into making the white clothing stand out. The contrast in this scene seems unusual, even though all of these colors are common to everyday life, the white of the clothing standing out makes an audience feel the colors are fabricated.

 He also uses contrast at 0:12, here the background is light, with the exception of the trees the building is different shades of light pink as the ground has a slight tinge of pink having the entire background come together as one, making the foreground which is the two men in purple stand out. The purple, while unusual because it is very saturated, is also very dark, making the two men stand out. With the entire background being different shades of pink and the purple standing out so much it gives this very surreal feeling. Contrast is a very effective tool as it can make an audience really focus on a certain object, one can just glance at the image and whatever is being focused on using contrast is immediately seen. 

Anderson also picks very saturated colors, or seemingly abnormal colors and overplays them. When Anderson uses unusual colors, it is obvious that the color choice is very fabricated because it is just something that an audience doesn’t normally see. At 1:31 above Anderson uses a very bright and bubblegum pink. Like the last scene talked about, with the saturated purple, this pink color is so saturated and vibrant that it is obvious to an audience that this place is not real. While the color itself is unique it is also used all over. Everything in the scene, excluding the people and the tank, is this bright bubblegum pink or another hue of pink. The entire building, the windows, the ground and the truck in the front are all pink. The black in this scene, on the people and the signs, contrasts with the pink. While the concept of contrast is used the same in this scene as the first one, the colors are very different. In the first scene the colors were common colors, while in this scene they are the opposite. The black in this scene highlights the pink, breaks it up so that an audience can really see all of the pink being used. Without the black the pink would just fade all together making the usage of the pink insignificant. Color makes people feel a certain way, as this bubblegum pink is so loud and almost bothersome to look at it delivers a clearly fabricated feel. This bright bubblegum pink with the black is just something that is not found in real life

Anderson also uses color harmony, he chooses colors that fit well with each other, which makes a scene seem to perfect for it to be natural. At 1:51 shown above Anderson uses different hues of brown and black. This scene, like the last one with the pink, uses a lot of the exact same color brown. All of the furniture in this scene is the same color. While the repetition of the pink is overtly fake, the repetition of the brown is the same thing. The light brown color is not used as much in this scene as the pink is in the other but, it is very rare to see the exact same color on so many different things. In the background on the bookshelf, the colors do not stand out because it is also brown. These darker browns on the bookshelf are only a few hues away from the light brown, making it seemingly belong in the scene. The women in all black, go well with the hues of brown, even though they are wearing so much black. 

He uses this same concept in 0:19 with a lot of the same colors. While the background is almost completely pink the center with the boy and the man, he uses different hues of browns and blacks. With the contrast of the light background it allows one to focus completely on the center, it’s aesthetically pleasing to look at the color harmony in the middle. The different hues go perfectly together and even though the boy and the man are two completely separate entities, the color harmony makes it seem like they belong together. The brown hues between the boy and the man make them seem like one object. In both scenes, they have hues that go so well together; the colors seem so composed that it is unreal.

Wes Anderson meticulously chooses and places colors in his films to deliver a picturesque and surreal feeling. He uses different color techniques like contrast to make things stand out, saturated colors that are overwhelming, and puts different hues of a color together to create a visually pleasing and perfect feeling. All of these color techniques put together deliver a unique and picturesque film.  People often can recognize one of his movies because the way he uses color is so unique. People often like to look at things that are very visually pleasing, the color schemes are playful and obviously picked out which is why he is a favorite to many.


