"Colors of Film" by Charles Bramesco is a fascinating and insightful book that explores the role of color in cinema. The author's writing style is engaging and informative, making for a captivating read. The book offers a deep dive into the history and evolution of color in film, and provides a unique and thought-provoking perspective on this often-overlooked aspect of filmmaking. If you're a film buff or just interested in the art of cinema, "Colors of Film" is an excellent choice. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an insightful and informative read on the role of color in cinema.

Fantastic exploration into the colours in film and the history of the use of colour in film. I really enjoyed the brief introduction to each film and the use of colour behind them paired with a large visual and colour chart. An interesting and educational read for any film fanatic!

Love love loved the pictures with the color palettes! The book was beautifully made and had so much interesting info. Some of the sections were a bit dry and hard to read but the colors and film info get me reading!

I wish I had this book during my studies as this was such a helpful and interesting read! Not only does the author go into depth and detail about the films which shook the technicolour world but he also gives the exact shade number of the main colours in certain scenes. Excellent if you’re trying to study a specific directors colour palette like Wes Anderson.

I am a very visual person and love films, so this book is real eye candy for me. I received an ARC from the publisher in PDF format, I just wish I had a hardback copy. The book is a history of the different color palettes used in color films, every film from the Wizard of Oz to the Grand Budapest Hotel. The last film I watched, The Pale Blue Eye, also relied on a strong color palette of blue, black and white which made for striking cinematography. Color certainly does effect the impact of storytelling.

This book is full of great movies and important cinema history. It gets so much right in terms of film and shot selection, history and technical information. I wanted to love this book, but the voice it's written in felt really odd to me. It couldn't seem to decide whether it wanted to address a general audience or a narrow subsection of cinephiles, coming off as patronizing at times, and overly technical at others. Regardless, it's a great coffee table book filled with great film recommendations.

Colors of Film is an amazing book...if you're incredibly familiar with cinema. This is not a book for the casual movie goer, but more for students of film. It is rich with history and details about many films, both popular and obscure.

I loved the pages that showed movie stills and the colors used, but I feel like something was missing. Possibly if more attention had been given to the graphics? If the colors had been explained with the photos, rather than in long winded sections that had little to do with color.

An informative, aesthetically pleasing, and visual book exploring the role of colour in 50 iconic movies, and a really interesting history of film and the evolving technologies. This would be the perfect book to have around the house as a physical copy - it’s very beautiful, so pleasing to look at, and you can pick it up and read a bit then come back to it whenever you want. It was so nice to see some of my all-time favourite movies here, and the information about each of the films made me interested in some that I haven’t seen yet but now need to watch them!

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC

Thank you so much NetGalley and Quatro Publishing for access to this beautiful arc!

I absolutely loved this book. I'm not much of a movie person, but I am an artist and books like these just make my heart so happy, and are so inspiring to have around! This is the perfect coffee table book, whether you're a film buff, an art student, or just like interesting things around.

Colors of Film by Charles Bramesco covers, you guessed it, the color palettes of fifty films and how the use of color has shifted and changed over time. I found this to be a really interested read, as it went over several movies I love and a good number of films I've only heard of but never seen.

This would be a great coffee table book, as it's lovely to look at (even just on my iPad), and I think it'd be an easy one to pick up, read a selection from, and then return later. I definitely learned some interesting film tidbits from this and enjoyed the accompanying images.

Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco is a beautiful study on the use of color in cinematography and how progress and advances in technology changed and shaped the cinema today. It takes us on a journey from 1902 with A Trip to The Moon all the way to the contemporary 2010s and 2020s with La La Land, Black Panther and Lovers Rock.

When I first saw the cover, the ever so gorgeous Grand Budapest Hotel in all its pink glory, I knew I needed to read this book. I am not a true cinema buff by any means but I can appreciate the important clues that colors and hues can provide to guide us through the experience of cinema. I loved seeing some of my favorites such as Amelie and Spirited Away in this book.

This beautiful book would be great for cinematography fans and color theorists. It would also make a great addition to a coffee table collection.

Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group, for providing me with an advanced copy of the eBook ahead of its publishing day of 3/14/2023. My review is voluntary and was not influenced in any way.

A beautiful book and a very interesting read for cinephiles and color theorists alike! I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting all of the iconic films profiled and learning about the intentionality behind the color palettes chosen. I will likely see films in a whole new light from this point on!

Bramesco’s “Colors of Film” is a happy marriage between a focused Film Studies textbook and that perfect coffee table book you find at your favorite local bookstore that somehow matches everything in your living room. Strongly organized and deeply researched, “Colors of Film” gives educated cinephiles and casual movie-goers alike a crash course in something we often overlook as an aspect of film: color. While I found the selection of films dissected to be a bit Hollywood-centric (a bias the author himself admits to in the introduction), there is no denying the importance of the cinematic moments he chose to include. The visuals of “Colors of Film” are visceral and stunning - they simultaneously make you want to keep your copy in pristine condition & to rip the pages out to hang them above your bed as art. As someone with a degree in Film and Media who was read hundreds of accounts of the “history of cinema”, Bramesco offers a fresh & focused perspective on the subject - I really appreciated each chapters contextualization and the organization of the 50 films into tight categories. While some of the writing may prove a tad too academic and tech-heavy for casual viewers, the visuals alone make this book worth it. If Bramesco’s goal was, as he states in the introduction, “to spark curiosity in something that even lifelong movie-watchers can take for granted,” then he certainly succeeded - call me curious!

Lovely! My only ask would be to read this physically and have it for reference in my space. Admittedly reading this on my ipad was a bit messy as the pages wouldn't format in favour to the content.

If you ever wanted an introduction to color theory in film (or impress #FilmTwitter tweeps) — this is a great start.

Bringing an international whirlwind of traditional (and not-so-traditional) cinema to life, this colorful coffee table-ish book is more than just a pretty face, as the prose is just as insightful & entertaining as a Scorsese production (a fun chapter to boot). Spanning much of the 20th century film & into the digital 21st, each page is a lesson onto itself. While not as in depth as an academic production (which would be an acquired taste for a niche audience — this publication is certainly for an ‘everyday cinephile’), this might just turn an ‘everyday cinephile’ into something more.

Would also look pretty (smart) on a bookshelf!

This was a really interesting read! I'm starting to get back into movies and I've been watching a lot more of them so it was pretty neat to read this. Loved all the pics as well :)

This book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but it was still interesting. If you are into cinema history, you will enjoy the writing part of the book. I thought it was well presented and easy to understand. The pictures showed what the words were explaining. From my point of view though, it was a bit too technical which didn't make it a real joy to read. However, this book would be good for a classroom setting or a person who is into the technology of cinema.

yes, the rumours are true — i am a milf (man, i love films).

no, but in all seriousness — this book was absolutely fantastic. there was something so genuinely fascinating about glimpsing at the history of cinema through colour and the way it has been used not only in an aesthetic way, but also as a source of political & social commentary, i practically read it all in one sitting. i couldn’t help but smile whenever one of my favourite films popped up (shoutout to la la land & schindler’s list especially), and although i do think there’s more to colour theory than what is displayed here, i really do think it’s a lovely introduction for those into film & willing to learn a little more on the subject. lovely stuff! <3

Thank you for the opportunity however since this ARC is only available in the NetGalley shelf app without option to adjust the font it's incredibly tedious to read on a phone/kindle so I will not be reading it.

Colors in Film offers a really nice introduction to the artistic value of - you guessed it - color in film. Through a selection of 50 films from various eras and genres, the author demonstrates how color can be used to develop characters, convey emotion, and advance plot. Each film has a short dedicated article, accompanied by 1 to 3 stills for visual reference.
Now, I feel like I should mention that I have a university degree in film, with a specialty in film analysis and cinema history, so this book’s subject is right up my alley. That said, I think that anyone who has an interest in film as an art form, color theory, or photography would most likely enjoy this book, as well. The approach is not too technical to alienate the curious, but a casual movie viewer might find the subject too specialised to be of interest.
The author’s enthusiasm is felt throughout the text, which I love as a reader. The book has a nice introduction and is thoughtfully designed throughout. I especially appreciated the inclusion of the RGB color codes for a truly accurate ID.
That said, I really wish there had been more stills included for each film. I feel like a single still is just not enough to show how color is used throughout a film. The chosen films, while varied, don’t stray far from the usual “film studies” selection, so if you’re a student or a serious film buff, don’t expect many “deep cuts”.
But all in all, I think this is a great overview of the subject and would make a nice coffee table book or gift. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend to anyone interested in this particular topic.