MovieChat Forums > Chromophobia (2006) Discussion > Question about the title...*Spoilers*

Question about the title...Spoilers

posted 17 years ago by thatsnumberwang
6 replies | jump to latest

Ok, after seeing the film I have to just own up and say I don't get how the title relates. If my Greek isn't too far off, chromophobia would translate as fear of color. I get that on one level, Kristin Scott Thomas' hose/home environment was very stark,...but please, it seems like the characters in this movie suffer from more "color" than any of us will see in a lifetime. Lovechilds with hookers, Scottish hunting lodges, art theft, millionaire lawyers, dying of cancer, heads getting bashed in, ye olde tabloid-political scandals...

If they're trying to equate emotional fulfillment with color...and thus fear of emotional intimacy, then ok. But I don't think anyone in this movie is AFRAID of emotional intimacy...they all very much desire it...so...again you've lost me there.

Thoughts? Ideas?

http://saucybetty.blogspot.com

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] thatsnumberwang 17 years ago

I know there was a piece of art in the film named chromophobia. No offense, I'm sure you were trying to be helpful, but that explanation is meaningless mumbo-jumbo. I guess it's not your fault in the end if the director selected a title whose relation to the film even she cannot clearly elucidate.

In that whole quotation...I see..."blue" has to do with color...and as a stretch, "tapestry" has to do with color...and frankly neither of those have any direct correlation to something that happened in the movie...so I'm not anywhere nearer to understanding what the link is in her mind.

If you want to talk about interlocking lives and class...why don't you call it..."entwined" "warp and weft" "The Net 3.0"...."rungs", whatever...

http://saucybetty.blogspot.com

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] thatsnumberwang 17 years ago

"Fear of color sounds like a good way to describe the lives of these individuals - each of them bound by their class and situation while yearning for something different, brighter, better, more desirable - but too afraid to take what they wanted."

Explain to me where the "fear" of "color" is in that...If that's what we're trying to express...how about "Chromophilia"? THAT seems a much more apt description of both the "takeaway" message you describe AND what happened in the movie...as you say "yearning for something different, brighter or better." But I do have to disagree with you on your final point in the paragraph. Frankly NONE of the characters were too afraid to go after what they wanted. In fact, pursing what they wanted was pretty much the cause of everyone's misery in the film, wouldn't you say?

"A title can be provocative rather than narrative and suggest a theme or a mood."

I never suggested that a movie title should ONLY relate in a narrative fashion. Of course as you say it could draw on theme or mood. That said, I still do not see how "Chromophobia" relates to any theme or mood or narrative or ANYTHING other than the piece of artwork, and KST's character and house as mentioned in my original post.

I can clearly see the relationship between the metaphor of the title "Dante's Inferno" in the example you've given (frankly who couldn't). I'm not demanding that titles be literal. I'm just saying that while metaphors in and of themselves might wildly juxtapose ideas or language they do require an internal structure based in logic...otherwise...how can we communicate through them?

http://saucybetty.blogspot.com

[–] squarepanths 17 years ago

The writer was trying (pathetically) to capture the style of Magnolia and there was certainly enough comparisons made to it in the press. Attempted Success by association. She didn't want to be so obvious in ripping it off as to call it just any other color. So the writer had a fear of color when naming this movie and thus called it chromophobia.

maybe I'm wrong but it makes sense.

OR maybe she just thought it was a suitably pretentious title to match the films pretentious content ans charaters. Or a bid to make it seem more interesting.

[–] pixen_marre 16 years ago

I don't know if this is any help, but there's a scene where Iona and Marcus are at an exhibition and Iona buys a piece (the two blue-coloured "screens"). That piece is titled "Chromophobia" and on the wall next to it is a sign (which is filmed for about a second or two) telling us what the piece is about:

"Chromophobia is a highly contemporary installation - a plasma screen of varied coloured washes that is motivated to change colour in response to random frequencies in its immediate environment. The piece that straddles the divide between 'the screen' and 'the painting', juxtaposes these two genres, suggesting, perhaps, that the era of the brush has indeed ended at the hand of an age that rejects passivity and demands direct participation in the activity which is 'art'. Chromophobia alludes to the fact that with its easy ability to penetrate the environmental core of the viewer, the 'silver screen' has an exaggerated capacity to reach its audience, touching places that the brush can only dream of."

If we replace the word 'art' with 'life' then maybe we could be on to what Martha Fiennes wanted to say with this picture...?
Maybe the film was just about people unable to get actively involved in the lives of their loved ones, or something deep and meaningful like that.
I don't know. I just thought it was a touching piece of 'art' (cinema).