The Impact of Color, Symbolism & Imagery in Cinematography:

Feature Films vary in presentation, duration, and target audience, yet each film uses elements of color, symbolism, and imagery to tell a story, share ideas, and express feelings. The director decides the composition of those elements. The directors of Roma and Wind River make conscious decisions about the use of color, symbolism, and imagery. The lack or use of these components in another way would change the overall meaning of the stories that were told. The symbolic nature of the elements captured in the cinematography of Wind River is punctuated by the vividness and vibrancy of nature as the backdrop to a dark story can be compared to the black and white cinematography of Roma, where life and death are balanced as we watch Cleo experience this balance and her inner struggle to reconcile and find peace in the experience of life.

Alfonso Cuaron and Taylor Sheridan, directors of Roma and Wind River respectively, draw on historical facts to tell a story. The main difference in the storytelling is the use of color. Cuaron chose to film Roma in black and white memories from his childhood living in Mexico. Sheridan's film, Wind River, is filmed in color with the white snow as the canvas. In his essay, "Non-verbal Symbolism in the Feature Film", Ed Bakony states:

A hypothesis on the expressive dynamics between colour and black and white is made by David Mowat in writing of The Cinema's New Language in April, 1970: "...the present tense is always in colour, the non-present in a modified form of colour."

In comparing these two films we can see that Wind River represents an issue that is present today: the sexual assault and abuse of Native American women and Roma is a recollection of past events that coalesced into an organic telling of a young girl's experience. Mowat continues:

Test it by closing your eyes and reconstructing every colour of the room you are in. If the mind's eye comes short of a complete clour visualization it necessarily modifies colour. Now modification can extend from (say) the restrained tones of Ektachrome as far back as black-and-white. But no futher: without black-and-white (or an equivalent chromatic duality) there can be no image. Black-and-white, therefore--the extreme case of colour modification-stands, I suggest, and is apprehended as the most obvious, most convenient symbol of modified colour. So it effectively depicts the field of the mind's eye.

In other films, we see the use of black-and-white cinematography to depict memories, dreams, and fantasies. This visual clue tells the audience that the images are from the mind of the character whose point of view is being depicted. We don't need verbal or written cues to tell us what is happening, we instinctively know.

If Roma had been filmed in color we may not have understood the historical relevance of that the scenes were derived fromCuaron's youthful memories. If Wind River had been filmed in black-and-white the shocking images of blood on the white snow or the camouflaged figure lying in wait upon the snow would have been muted and less impactful.

In his essay, "Film Imagery, Literary Imagery: Some Distinctions", Brian Gallagher quotes Andre Bazin:

The filmmaker is no longer the competitor of the painter and the playwright, he is, at least, the equal of the novelist.

Film imagery has progressed to the levels of written literature allowing English majors the opportunity to review and analyze film literacy. Gallagher states:

...most of the valuable writing comparing literature and film tends to focus on the similarities between them--more than occasionally because it wishes to use the prestige of literature to legitimize film's claim to serious artistic consideration.

There are significant differences between literature and film. Gallagher suggests that "the film image is both more immediate and more restricted than the literary image." Here he compares film and literature stating:

The filmmaker... has a difficult task... he or she must force these images to yield a definite amount of ideational matter (attitudes, emotions, abstractions, etc.)... Within the realm of words the writer has simple freedom which the filmmaker does not possess: the writer can simply indicate, even explain, what an image means.

Literary imagery is rolled out line after line, whereas the film imagery provides the whole scene. Gallager states: "The film image is typically presented as a whole before its parts are known; the literary image is typically presented in parts before its whole is known."

In Wind River, the opening scene is of a wintery evening scape with a single figure running barefoot. We see the outcome before we see what has led up to that point. In contract, according to Gallagher:

A novelistic rendering of a similarly full scene must work from the opposite direction; through an accretion of details a novel ultimately produces an overall impression of a scene.

Wind River captured a stunningly beautiful landscape that solicited memories of my youth growing up in Indiana with all the snow, horses, livestock, and wildlife. I remember how cold the air was and how wet we would be when we returned home from a day in the snow. The horrors of assault, rape, and death slash and scar against the aesthetically pleasing scenery of this wintery western. The imagery in this film is ripe with symbolism transporting us to internal feelings and ideas. Ed Bakony, in his essay, "Film Imagery, Literary Imagery", borrows the idea from Sir Herbert Read that

symbolism employed by filmmakers can serve as a bridge between feeling and thought, or between aesthetics and cognitions.

In addition to the beautiful scenery that provides a sense of isolation and separation, we are shocked by the stark contrast of blood and remains against the pure white snow. This image reminds me of the phrase: "pure as the driven snow", a representation of innocence blemished by sin. This contrast along with the brightness of the day against the dark environments inside the homes and trailers adds a dimension of meaning discovered upon reflection.

Light and dark often represent good and evil. Or virtue and vice. I think it can also represent humanity or the behaviors of mankind. We tend to show the best of ourselves in the light of day, while we obscure the worst of ourselves in the shadows. Light and white can represent life, renewal, and hope - which can exist even when we are battling inner demons born of loss, agony, and despair. There is so much that is visually displayed for the viewer to contemplate. Bakony suggests:

what we read from and learn through a symbol varies with what we bring to it. All the sensitivity and responsiveness of the individual participates in both the invention and the interpretation of symbols.

We understand the imagery and symbolism to the level of our life's experiences - this is why so many come away from a movie with different ideas and feelings. This imagery and symbolism communicate long before it is completely understood.

During Pete's confession to Cory, he exclaims: "all there is; is snow and silence." For Pete, the snow and silence are unbearable and bring him to despair and eventually his own destruction. Whereas Cory and Martin accept the snow and silence - all that is left for them is the land. They find peace in the solace rather than despair. I feel that this speaks to the nature and condition of man. We either succumb to all that is wrong and tragic in the world, or we rise above and find strength and peace in what has been left behind. Bakony felt that :

symbols in film appear to be thought-impregnated images or details (like movement) that give rise to a complex of associations. These expressive images in film are concrete visuals. You can see them on the screen. By contrast, the expressive "images" in literature are intangible. They exist in the mind's eye.

Cuaron took the mind's eye and moved it to the screen in Roma.

The black and white images of Roma made it possible to see more detail and imagery that would have easily blended in if the film had been in color. The most poignant imagery is the balance of life. Cleo experiences and observes both the sweetness of everyday life and the pain and suffering that results from choices made by self and others. The duration of this story captures the nine months of Cleo's experience; the expectation of new life in the midst of destruction, chaos, and the breakdown of family and society. In the end, she fights for the preservation of life, of those children who have been left in her stewardship. This epiphany helps her reconcile her wish to not have the child that she carried. The images of her lying in surgery with her baby wrapped in white in the background (a visual separation) and the encompassing arms of the family on the beach provide an additional balance and reconciliation.

While watching this film I noted that I didn't need to read the subtitles to understand or follow the storyline. Bakony states:

Symbols are subtle, delicate, sometimes complex, sometimes ephemeral, in a way limitless and frequently elusive.

For this reason, symbolism can be lost in the filming or unexpected symbolism arises. In Roma, I believe that the symbolism and foreshadowing used helped to move us through Cleo's life without needing to understand the language. Bakony further states:

Like the art of film itself, symbols are eclectic. They rise from and reflect the total spectrum of human experience.

Besides the broken cup, there are other images of broken items or destruction: the earthquake that leaves rubble on top of the NICU incubator; the forest fire; the broken window; and the assault on the citizens during the demonstration. We also understand a continued departure, symbolized through the image of the planes flying across the sky and that life moves forward as symbolized through the repeated images of the marching band. As Nelson Goodman points out:

What we read from and learn through a symbol varies with what we bring to it. Not only do we discover the world through our symbols but we understand and reappraise our symbols progressively in the light of our growing experience. Both the dynamics and durability of aesthetic value are natural consequences of its cognitive character.

The symbolic nature of the elements captured in the cinematography of Wind River and the black and white recollections of Roma draw on the viewer's personal experiences and history telling a story, and revealing truths that the audience is ready to understand and comprehend.

References:

Bakony, Ed. "Non-Verbal Symbolism in the Feature Film." Journal of the University Film Association, vol. 26, no. 3, 1974, pp. 34-38.

Cuaron, Alfonso, director. Roma, Netflix, 2018.

Gallagher, Brian. "Film Imagery, Literary Imagery: Some Distinctions." College Literature, vol. 5, no. 3, 1978, pp. 157-173.

Goodman, Nelson, Languages of Art, p. 260

Sheridan, Taylor, director. Wind River. 2017.