Noha Sweid
In the lens of cinema, where the raw reality of life is captured, the issue of violence against women has emerged as both an aesthetic challenge and a profound message carried by global cinema. The camera mirrors women’s pain, captures their scars, and transforms their silence into a resounding voice.
The chromatic spectrum stretching from purple to orange is not merely a visual motif on the screen. It serves as a visual code pulsating with complex emotions of wounds, strength, and suppressed hope. Orange, being a derivative of purple, extends as a visual and intellectual pathway through realms of suffering and liberation. Purple harbors memories of repressed wounds, encapsulating harsh experiences that transcend color to touch the core of humanity. Meanwhile, orange, signifying renewed hope, subtly glimmers within purple, embodying a duality oscillating between agony and resilience. Through this projection, colors become narrative tools, compelling viewers to experience the interplay of pain and resistance, as women’s presence in cinema transforms into a silent yet impactful force.
Purple, with its enigmatic blend of serene blue and fiery red, surpasses its role as a mere aesthetic element to become a symbol of women’s bitter realities and their resilience in facing pain. Filmmakers seem intent on awakening humanity’s weary memory to acknowledge women’s enduring suffering. Cinema, with boldness and sensitivity, approaches this hue to weave through it stories that encapsulate the human tragedy of women confronting oppression. Rather than adopting direct discourse, the camera subtly plays with the transition from purple to orange, intensifying depictions of violence and unraveling its intricate effects on women. It truthfully reflects the stark contradiction between the apparent vulnerability of victims and the concealed strength beneath their fractured façades.
Exploring the symbolism of these two colors in cinema, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple (1985) stands out as a cinematic masterpiece that embodies the transformation of scars of pain into pathways for inner liberation. The film illustrates how violence reshapes identity, empowering women to emerge stronger, bearing witness to their healing and triumph over imposed constraints.
The film revolves around two primary axes: the brutality of male dominance and its repercussions, contrasted with women’s journey towards self-awareness and survival. At the heart of this journey lies Celie, the central character symbolizing suffering and defiance. From a childhood marked by familial and sexual violence, she navigates her way toward discovering her identity, aided by supportive relationships, such as those with her sister Nettie and her lover Shug.
Purple emerges in the opening scene with a wide shot of Celie and Nettie strolling through fields of purple flowers. This scene imbues the screen with serene and enchanting beauty, serving as a backdrop to the painful experiences that begin to haunt her, from childhood abuse by her father to a forced, oppressive marriage. These visuals create a narrative landscape reflecting Celie’s turmoil, oscillating between her innocence and traumas.
Spielberg masterfully captures Celie’s downcast gaze, conveying her reluctant acceptance of a harsh reality. From an early age, she learns submission to hidden violence under the guise of absent security. This quiet moment serves as a visual concentration of the paradox marking Celie’s life. The purple flowers dominating the scene symbolize the tension between the innocence Celie has yet to grasp and the pain that looms near.
As the protagonist, portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg, Celie does not merely represent the tormented woman but transforms through these early moments into a figure of resistance and change. The orange streaks extending from the sunlight become symbols of major shifts in her life—from deep suffering to healing and overcoming oppression.
Throughout the film, the interplay between purple and its orange spectrum frames the harshness of life and the concealed beauty of the world. These colors reflect the pain of Celie and other women who endure discrimination and violence. Scenes of nature with purple flowers at sunrise hint at the possibility of survival and self-reconciliation, as if nature alone offers women a space to breathe freedom.
Orange introduces another layer to the film, contrasting Celie’s suppression with her attempts to endure. It adopts a deeper symbolic dimension, reflecting the silent spirit of resistance within her. Spielberg utilizes it in the backgrounds and lighting to connect Celie with the unseen part of herself, nurturing a courage that breaks barriers.
In one poignant scene, Shug helps Celie rediscover her lost smile. This moment marks a turning point in Celie’s life, symbolizing her reconciliation with her body, her smile, and herself. Orange reflects the strength of human connections that rescue the protagonist from her loneliness. It envelops her as a warm shadow, reviving her sense of life and tranquility, serving as a lifeline linking pain and solace, defeat and recovery.
Purple symbolizes the pain and patriarchal dominance imposed on Celie, portraying forced silence and the deep oppression shrouding her life. Its significance extends beyond the fields or garments, reflecting the lived experience itself. Purple signifies Celie’s suppressed life, bowed under the weight of racial and gendered traditions. Like purple flowers trampled underfoot, Celie lives in a world that stifles her blossoming, silences her voice, and forces her to submit to exploitative control.
Spielberg transforms purple into a symbol of healing, marking the liberation achieved through confronting this painful past. The Color Purple provides a space for Black women to see themselves on screen, where this hue becomes a visual testament to their profound experiences and resilience. Each purple scene invites reflection on shared pain and the potential for transformation, expressing the realities of Black feminist experience and how acknowledgment of it becomes a means of emancipation.
Purple is the cornerstone of the film’s expressive cinematic language, bridging classic and contemporary perspectives with a high degree of symbolism. Spielberg’s deliberate use of color elevates the emotional resonance of the film, creating a poetic and experimental cinematic style that raises questions about identity, race, and gender. Purple, as a cinematic gem, transcends technical mastery to deliver a visceral impact.
In a striking scene where Celie dons Shug’s clothing, a blend of fantasy and lyricism emerges, resembling a celebratory ritual of her psychological and physical liberation. Orange finds its way into Quincy Jones’ musical score, giving voice to Celie’s muted emotions. This color resonates with hope and healing, amplifying the suppressed spirit of the protagonist. It is more than a background hue; it is the pulse of the film that breaks the silence.
Allen Daviau’s cinematography adds a unique visual dimension, merging scenes of nature with character emotions, as if Spielberg is saying, “Purple and its orange spectrum,” as beauty left in nature, symbolize human pain and magnificence.
In portraying Sofia’s character, purple becomes a psychological shadow reflecting the conflict between Black identity and dominant white surroundings. During Sofia’s arrest, purple embodies the physical and psychological struggles against systemic racism, symbolizing both the wounds of racial violence and the internal strength to resist. In this context, purple becomes a mirror of the truth of struggles for dignity, despite the violence inflicted.
Spielberg reshapes purple into a dual symbol through deep visual interplay, representing oppression while subtly incorporating orange as a renewed beam of the resilience of Black women. Together, these hues create an experience that penetrates the surface to confront the systemic violence ingrained in society.
Purple, the color that tinted the smoke of the New York textile mills where women worked under harsh conditions, has become a cinematic symbol encompassing all forms of systemic violence against women. It transforms into a lens reflecting various shades of suffering, bearing witness to suppressed stories and buried struggles under oppression’s weight. Orange, chosen by the United Nations as a symbol of a brighter future free of violence against women, stands alongside purple, signifying hope intertwined with a relentless pursuit of dignity.
