We kind of just take it for granted when we gawk at a screen, but there’s a ton of science and craft behind the use of color in film. This Academy Museum exhibition dives into just that, with more than 150 objects—cameras, costumes, props and film posters—from the 1890s to today.
The show’s rainbow-sequence costume gallery—with pieces from Django Unchained, The Shining and the return of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz—is a visual feast of recognizable cinema relics. But the most eye-catching components come in the hands-on Color Arcade, where you can splash digital paint across a screen or press into the stretchy recreation of Oskar Fischinger’s Lumigraph, a trippy illuminated instrument.
“Color in Motion” is broken up into six areas: The exhibition looks at the connection between color, music and movement, like in early dance and animated shorts; decades of color technologies, from Technicolor processes and Disney’s women-led Ink & Paint Department to contemporary digital tools; tinted reels of otherwise-black-and-white silent films; the narrative role of color; and experimental works (the Color Arcade fills that sixth slot).
The show debuts alongside “Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema,” a comparatively smaller exhibition in the museum’s central double-height gallery. On the bottom floor, you can watch a supercut of films in the genre, while upstairs features props and artwork from Blade Runner, The Terminator and Ex Machina, plus a restored costume from Tron.
