The Grant Budapest Hotel

Color is often the most memorable aspect of a movie: Think of La La Land’s bright Crayola shades, Steven Soderbergh saturating the screen with Traffic’s individual primary colors, or the moment when Dorothy walks into the wonderland of Oz. Film directors often work with their art directors and cinematographers to craft specific palettes for their own particular productions. But which are the most successful?


Gizmodo’s Casey Chan enthusiastically reports on CineFix’s new video that ranks what it considers to be the 10 best uses of color in film. And the selections may not be what you expect: None of the films above are mentioned, for example. CineFix gets specific about types of colors: not individual shades, but they way they are used. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, for example, owns the “soft colors” category, while Hitchcock’s Vertigo is best at “complimentary” shades. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s edgy Sin City wins the slot for “selective saturation.” It’s a fun trip around the color wheel for cinephiles. Take a look below:

[Note: Gizmodo, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision Communications.]