The colours in ‘Her’ by Spike Jonze

I finally went to see Her at the cinema last Saturday (I loved it). Much has already been talked about the film and its portrait of human relationships, the vision of this modern future with retro references that Spike Jonze has managed to create. But this movie had to be in Miss at la Playa too.

Spike Jonze collaborated with DS R, an architecture and art studio in New York founded by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio that helped him design this idea of a comfortable and soft future. The studio imagined a future for a movie that wasn’t going to criticize it. A future that didn’t appear so distant, a realistic . They designed a world of “soft curves, handsome fabrics, and appealing lighting and textures”, with high technology that didn’t overwhelm humans, “the kind of world where romance still exists”, as NY Magazine added.

One of the things that I found more inspiring was the color scheme of the film, conceived by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema in collaboration with K.K. Barrett, production designer (now that I know that he also did Lost in Translation, everything fits). Thanks to it, the aesthetic of the film acquires a personality of its own. Instead of the cold representations of the distant future we are used to see (everyone wearing silver neoprene suits, houses decorated in grey and white, technology invading every corner, glass facades, big screens everywhere), in Her they portray a warm-hearted life. “It was not only that we wanted to colors to be warm but we wanted colors to have a specific identity.”, explained Van Hoytema. To achieve this idea, they intuitively decided to eliminate the color blue in order to elevate the richness of the film’s look and give it a unity. You’ll see lots of pink in a pastel palette (the offices of ‘Beautiful Handwritten Letters’, where Theodore works, are just heavenly), salmon tones, brown and beige, shots of purple, yellow…

I compiled a selection of scenes from the movie and organized them to recreate the film’s rainbow of colors.

P.S.: A great performance by Joaquin Phoenix. And Scarlett Johansson is perfect for Samantha’s voice.