Expressions of Emotions Through the Colour Blue: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Return

Authors

  • Ioana Simion UNATC ”I.L. Caragiale”, Bucharest, Romania Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37130/z5x4hg14

Keywords:

colour blue, anguish, emotion, cross-cultural study, storytelling, soviet cinematography

Abstract

Russians are a very particular kind in cinematography. The way they express themselves will never resemble the West and it has a lot to do with visual choices. The way our souls perceive their work will always be related to the way our eyes register colours and textures, and those colours will be a second character to the story. There are many studies that believe that colours and emotions are directly linked, yet we need to face the fact that many of these correlations happen due to the hundreds of years of associations between a certain colour and a certain emotion. However uncertain this link may be, what remains a fact is that Russian and former USSR countries give birth to an expressionism of colour in their movies that is undisputable. In fact, in their films in many ways storytelling is so related to colours that sometimes we forget that other methods exist, and we let ourselves completely submerged in their Blue.

Author Biography

  • Ioana Simion, UNATC ”I.L. Caragiale”, Bucharest, Romania

    Ioana Simion is a production designer who currently lives in Brussels, splitting her time between independent projects in interior design and working for the European Commission since 2019. She completed her doctoral studies at "I.L. Caragiale" National University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest, working on the research paper called The Extreme Visual in Subcultural Cinema.

References

Ioannidou, Martha (2006). Colour blue: visualising the eternal. University Studio Press.

Jonauskaite, D., Parraga, C.A., Quiblier, M., Mohr, C. (2020). Feeling blue or seeing red? Similar patterns of emotion associations with colour patches and colour terms. i-Perception, 11(1), Article 2041669520902484.

Pastoureau, Michel (2018). Blue: The History of a Color. Princeton University Press.

Abeel, Erica (2004). Return of the Prodigal Father; Andrey Zvyagintsev Talks About “The Return”, IndieWire [Online]. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/2004/02/return-of-the-prodigal-father-andrey- zvyagintsev-talks-about-the-return-79164/ (Accessed: 14 May 2022)

Hughes, Melissa (2017). The Neuroscience of Color, VariQuest [Online]. Available at: https://info.variquest.com/blog/the-neuroscience-of-color (Accessed: 14 May 2022)

Look, Jennifer (2020). Understanding light and other forms of energy on the move, Science News for Students [Online]. Available at: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/understanding-light-and-other- forms-of-energy-on-the-move (Accessed: 14 May 2022)

Solaris (1972). Directed by Andrei Tarkovski. Russia: MosFilm.

The Return (2003). Directed by Andrei Zviagintsev. Russia: Ren Film.

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Published

2022-06-05

How to Cite

Simion, I. (2022). Expressions of Emotions Through the Colour Blue: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Return. CONCEPT, 24(1), 42-50. https://doi.org/10.37130/z5x4hg14