Pastel on Polaroid

The Use Of The Colour Pink in Cinema

Ross Hunter

Pink is possibly one of the most diverse colours in a director’s palette. Conventional yet subversive, alluring yet nauseating, authentic yet fabricated. Pink promises us innocence, fun and playfulness but can be easily manipulated into hiding a more sinister intention. With an overwhelming link to traditional ideals of femininity, skilled creative teams can either use the colour as an intended shorthand for the obvious or play with this trope, drawing an audience closer to the director’s true intent. Pink comfortably occupies both our natural world and our synthetic one; whether decorating our screens with perfumed natural flora or illuminating brooding mystique in a neon flooded dystopia, the colour fills the world with a believable, relatable chromatic pathway into the cinematic world.