On Wednesday I watched both Catch Me If You Can and The Quiet American, both of which I really enjoyed. The combination made me think about the quality of lighting: there’s something about the light in Catch that seems very 60s - it’s slightly yellow saturated is my guess? Was the light really different back then, or is it that our memories yellow just like photos? Or do our memories yellow because photos yellow? And Quiet American has the familiar (to me) oversaturated colours of the tropics - it’s easy to see how that oversaturated quality of the daytime sun wearies people, makes them retreat into indolence. Or is it just that I’m personally struck by ennui and inertia in a tropical locale that I associate the colours with inertia? Questions, questions. Chris Doyle did the cinematography for Quiet American and was brilliant, as always - there’s a nice languid feel to the work, more like his work in In the Mood for Love or Liberty Heights (one of my favourite ’little’ movies) than Chungking Express.
Catch Me If You Can and The Quiet American
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