If you have watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it’s impossible to forget Clementine’s (Kate Winslet) blue hair. Vivid, bright, and kinda messed up, it isn’t any different from the relationship she has with Joel (Jim Carrey), the relationship that is the beating heart of the movie.But try looking beyond the blue hair, or a couple of other blue things in the movie, and you will find something far more ruinous. It’s no coincidence that Clementine refers to the shade of her hair as “blue ruin.”This use of the color blue in the movie is neither an afterthought nor a footnote. Writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry strategically use it to convey meaning. It’s a visual language that paves the way for their relationship from the initial, spontaneous flicker of romance to the eventual emotional breakdown. On the way, it maps out the highs, the lows, and the voids that remain behind.This narrative color palette is there for a reason: to carry the emotional weight of Clementine and Joel’s romance, and the term “blue ruin” is right at the heart of this chromatic strategy.Blue in Color TheoryAs the color theory suggests, blue can have two meanings: on one hand, it represents melancholy, despair, and emotional loneliness; on the other hand, it also signifies peace, clarity, and revival. Blue encompasses loneliness like a chilly, deserted room, but it also invokes freedom and vastness like the sky. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind uses this paradox to portray both the...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday