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

The examples discussed so far help to illustrate how Meet Me in St. Louis relies on color to do a certain amount of work in laying out information and punctuating narrative developments. But as in the production numbers, color is also called on to provide momentary stylistic flourishes throughout the film. Hue can be pushed forward for the purpose of simply drawing attention to the fact of color. A final area for this overview to consider, then, is the methods the film uses to foreground color as an element of film style.

In the classical Hollywood style, establishing shots and transitions are traditionally open to spectacular display and stylistic embellishment. In Minnelli's production, these moments offer occasions to remind the viewer of color's contribution to the image. This is another point where the film embellishes a fairly common Technicolor tactic. The most obvious examples involve the four seasonal transitions that demarcate the film's major episodes. Each section of the film begins with a black and white still of the Smith house surrounded by colorful filigree illustrations of seasonal motifs. Minnelli explained that he intended these illustrations, resembling turn-of-the-century greeting cards, to help set the film's nostalgic tone (131). But beyond this, they present a device for highlighting the power and presence of color. For example, the art-card for "Summer" features a band of pale yellow on a beige background with white daisies and red roses accenting the upper corner of the frame. Some green accents, and gold gilt around the photo of the house, complete the palette [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. The camera dollies forward until the monochrome image entirely dominates the frame. Then color bursts onto the screen, and the frozen image begins to move [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. The red and white striped awnings and rust colored roof of the Smith house contrast with the light blue sky. A beer wagon with a green and yellow canopy moves leftward across the frame, only to be passed by a bright red automobile. As the camera cranes toward the house, extras passing along the sidewalk offer more pink, green, and blue accents. The image is organized as a parade of color, demonstrating Technicolor's then unique capacity for simultaneously rendering sharply defined reds, yellows and blues.(7)

At regular intervals in the film, Minnelli's removal and reintroduction of hue renews our recognition of color as a mark of difference from standard monochrome filmmaking. Similarly, he organizes transitions between scenes to generate momentary surges of color. In the final moments of Esther's rendition of "The Boy Next Door," for instance, she releases a translucent white curtain from the window frame where she sings. The veil of white falls before her face, lowering the saturation of an already very soft, predominantly blue and white composition. From this muted image, the film dissolves to a shot of the intense red vat of catsup in the kitchen. The juxtaposition of shots briefly reduces and then reveals color, reasserting it as the focus of attention.