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Color at the center: Minnelli's Technicolor style in 'Meet Me in St. Louis.' - Style in Cinema - filmmaker Vincente Minnelli
Style, Fall, 1998 by Scott Higgins
Once again, Minnelli relies on color design to provide emphasis. Just as Tootie and Agnes exit the frame at the left midground, Esther appears at the top of the steps, passing behind Rose [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 10 OMITTED]. The staging is timed to allow the pink accents to clear out of the composition at the very moment that a new accent is introduced, helping secure attention for Esther's arrival. Moreover, Esther's costume presents both the most pronounced contrast and coordination with the surrounding mise-en-scene. Her soft light-blue (plume) blouse introduces the only source of cool blue in the frame. The new hue forms something of a split complementary relationship with the gold tones of Rose's dress and the red carpet and curtain accents. A standard color wheel places red and gold on either side of blue's direct opposite, orange. This arrangement permits a high degree of color contrast without resorting to the hard juxtaposition of complementary (opposing) hues that Technicolor design tended to avoid. Indeed, this harmony might explain why Rose's outfit is gold, when orange would have formed a tighter harmony with Tootie and Agnes's pinks a few moments earlier.
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At the same time, Minnelli uses Esther's deep crimson skirt to provide a very near match in hue with the curtains at rear right. Unlike the more minute point of coordination between Rose's dress and the vase of flowers, Esther's skirt precisely aligns with the most pronounced source of warm color in the frame. The red accent that had initially served to mark out the background as an important zone of action is now activated as a means of highlighting the star. Further, the relatively low value of these crimson elements contrasts with the high value of Esther's blouse, the brightest spot in the background now that Agnes and Tootie have exited. This play of coordination and contrast in hue and value turns Esther's introduction into a graphic event. Underscoring her arrival without cutting or altering the properties of the frame, Minnelli deftly uses the assets of color in place of more conventional devices for guiding attention.
As the family comes together, Minnelli once again makes color design more complex and assertive. After Esther and Rose have exited the frame, the image cuts to a view of the dining room [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 11 OMITTED]. This returns elements such as the rose wallpaper and the orange streamers that had been featured before the family celebration was interrupted. As Rose and Esther enter the scene to serve themselves cake, the complex play of contrast and coordination is again exercised. The key hues are gold, blue, red, and pink, with Esther's blouse still generating the point of maximum contrast. Harmonizing with Esther's blue and Agnes' pink accents, the green-gold of Rose's outfit now helps to bridge the warm and cool tones. But the relationships between set dressing and costume seem even more important to unifying the palette. A blue and white fruit bowl piled with apples and bananas in the center of the table ties the composition together by consolidating the major hues into a single prop. A yellow accent in the painting on the rear wall echoes Rose's dress, while another set of drapes hanging beside the living room entrance matches Esther's skirt. When the camera pans to follow Esther to a seat in the living room, the basic color combination of pink, red, and blue is maintained [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 12 OMITTED]. To one side of the chair stands Tootie in her pink robe, while a red table lamp provides an accent on the other side. The return of more forceful color and the coordination of costume and decor seems to underline the family's unity. Thus Minnelli orchestrates hue as a counterpart to the scene's dramatic trajectory.
