Unusual Beats and Frames: October 2008

Color was a fundamental instrument in the movie "Pleasantville". Not only was it used to define a character, but was also a demonstration of society, art and cultural movements back from the 1950's through present day.
Pleasantville was an example of the ideal 1950's society. Everything needed to be in a uniform and pleasant manner. There was a certain standard for everything, from how one dressed to how the family structure was maintained. There were certain expectations that stood for every male- to succeed in life and become the breadwinner- and females- to learn as much as possible, only to spend the rest of your life, once married, serving your family from your house. Concerns were localized, and one was unaware of global current events.
In the movie, color was used to emphasize advancements in music, literature, and an openness to dialogue about relationships. It emphasized a change in fashion and a progression of art, and literally showed us examples of Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. As the characters in the movies gained knowledge, they also gained an acceptance and understanding of this art. However, while members of the little town started to veer away from normalcy to appreciate good, those who remained ignorant polarized to something else that is very present in every unstandardized society, anger and violence.
This can be related to the Post Modernist movement's retaliatory actions toward the Modernists. The Modernists had a standard. There was one kind of ideal citizen, lifestyle, nation, capitalism, ideology and future. And as the Modernism rhetoric progressed, more and more people retaliated against the modernism that excluded them. Modernists works made no reference to anything in another's experience, it was only internally related to the artist himself. Post Modernists went as far away from this stance as possible, and created art that did not relate to the artist, but contained an invitation for a viewer to be a part of it. The audience was vital to make the work complete. It involved the artist in the most minor amount in all the art movements of our history.
The movie "Pleasantville" showed the transformation of a society with a non-changeist attitude to a town that, like the Post Modernists, began to explore important philosophical principles. They learned that self expression and imperfection led to a new, exciting sort of beauty. All these realizations were flagged with the use of color contrasted with shades of gray.