Red is key part of the Lynne Ramsey’s film, ‘We need to talk about Kevin’, here colour is not associated with a character in particular, but rather acts as a reminder that the undercurrent of the film is violence. Red in this film is reminiscent of blood.
fig.01
While the red reminds us of the violence that haunts the characters minds, the film often contrasts the red with blues, blue is often present in the lighting of the film.
My previous two reflective posts, about the films ‘Her’ and ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ were also covering how the director has carried one colour through the film, in each instance the colour in question however has been used differently or to mean different things.
In ‘Her’, the single colour on the single man isolated him. In ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’, the blue connected the two main characters, and finally in ‘We need to talk about Kevin’, the colour is used in various places throughout the film and acts as a symbolic undertone to remind an audience of the deeper story.
fig.01: (https://c8ic8.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/mothering-psychopathy-and-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/)
Colour Theory in Moving Image 