The 42nd Best Director of All-Time: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Is Kieslowski the greatest master of color? I just saw Blue. Many other directors with phenomenal use of color in a certain film had a lot of their work in black and white or were concentrated on other things slightly more than color design. I’m talking about Hitchcock (Vertigo being perhaps the number one use of color in film), Kurosawa (Ran), Greenaway (C,T,W & L), Kubrick (2001), Antonioni (Red Desert), and such. However, Kieslowski may be focused on the concept more than any other thing. I will have to see some more of his movies to be sure, but do you think he can be called the best utilizer of the concept?

What is the greatest achievement of color usage in each decade?
1930s: There are essentially only two options for the 30s: The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. As the former is primarily stylistically centered around the technique, it deserves the higher honor. When sound arrived in the late 20s, cinema was too quick to embrace the technology and neglect the possibility of true art. The transition to color was more gradual, and those few directors who chose to utilize the technique did so artfully. The Wizard of Oz represents the epitome of this transformation.
1940s: I have heard tale of the glorious color work by Powell & Pressburger in The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death. Unfortunately, I have only had the time to reach two of their films, Black Narcissus and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Their eerie psychological drama of religious subversion is filmed in superb yet eerie tones.
1950s: Hitchcock’s obsessive, immortalized masterpiece glides into the top spot with no qualms whatsoever. Vertigo brilliantly deploys luscious reds and haunting greens that grow toward the gold standard scene of color usage when green light envelops Judy’s hotel room. The red restaurant, green forest, and bright Golden Gate Bridge loom closely behind.
1960s: Godard’s choice to throw the entirety of Pierrot le Fou into striking primary colors and Antonioni’s precise selections of colored setting items in Red Desert are certainly admirable, but I cannot deny 2001: A Space Odyssey to opportunity to triumph in yet another category. The red demise of HAL stands next to Vertigo’s hotel scene among the greatest uses of a single color in a scene, and the stark, pitch-black monolith looms closely behind. However, Godard’s stylistic explosion may contain the more consistently uniform color brilliance, and thus I regard the 1960s as virtually a tie.
1970s: There is a startling realization to be had about Bergman: he created both one of the greatest works of monochrome cinematography and one of the greatest instances of color design. There may be no other auteurs who completed such a feat. The color film to which I am referring is, of course, Cries and Whispers. Red has a long tradition as one of cinema’s essential hues, and the psychologically tantalizing scarlet rooms of Bergman’s film may be its shining moments.
1980s: I’ve noted on the best films of the 1980s page that this may be the leading decade in terms of cinematic color usage. There are countless options for the top distinction, including The Shining, Blade Runner, Rumble Fish, Ran, Blue Velvet, and Do the Right Thing. I have tremendous difficulty eschewing each of their privileges to gain the honor, but I will ultimately surrender the prize to The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Greenaway reserves the magnificence of each color for a single section of the expressionistic set in his haunting portrait of desire.
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