I'd like to inquire about the use of color in Aeon Flux. While some eps, like Isthmus Crypticus and ED Theory, are just bursting with color, others (Thanatophobia) are practically monochromatic. Is this a result of different artistic visions, or a deliberate attempt to trigger wildly different responses throughout the series? I'd be interested to hear what you (and Peter, natch) think.

-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), August 11, 2000

Answers

I guess I have'nt read more into it than the more obvious interpretation. Color seems to reinforce the theme of each episode, character or scene. Color can be seen as just 1 element that has a significant impact on our perception of the series. It really sets up sub-consious reactions to things that are impotant to the understanding of the story. Instinct plays a big part I believe. For instance bright colors signify life and movement. Dark and austere color represents the reverse. Of course, this is a generalisation. Color is used with other elements as well.

The futurist architecture of Bregna is represented in the industrial shades of formed concrete or metal. The use of the colors although intriniscally linked to the materials they represent also could be seen to represent the force that built it. The austere Bregna landscape devoid of color (and delight) creates the impression that Bregna is a place designed merely for existence and not fun. The ironic twist is that the movement that created this style in real life was formed from a modernist base that, although mis-guided, had an essentially humanist approach.

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), August 12, 2000.

How about the colors Aeon wears? Does anyone prefer the black as opposed to the red or blue? The colors of her outfits set the mood; the red looks pretty, the blue sedate, but the black means business. In the black she's locked down and ready in combat mode.

-- Barb e (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), August 12, 2000.

In The Purge when Aeon tracks Bambara to the Breen food consumption boothes this place is positivley blooming with colour. The green grass, the flowers and trailing plants on the stone columns. You get the feel that Breen citizens look upon this as a privalige and not a subtle means to pacify them while their blood is drained for unknown means. I like to think it is for medical reasons. Trevor maybe a power hungry autocrat but I doubt that even he would let his citizens die for want of a blood transfusion.

-- TK (trivial_keithy@yahoo.com), August 12, 2000.

About Aeon's outfits - do you think there's some kind of signifigance when Aeon is wearing something besides black? Like, does a different color represent a different mood or motive? Note that in 'Last Time for Everything' Aeon is wearing a white dress before she and Trevor get nasty, and a red dress after - cute, huh? And Aeon's also wearing red during her foot fetishist meeting in 'Utopia or Deuteronopia'. What about the blue jumpsuit in 'Chronophasia' - does it signify some new facet of Aeon's personality?

-- Charles Martin (cmmartin@princeton.edu), August 16, 2000.

I have long thought there was significance to the black, the blue's my favorite, I think it signifies a more relaxed mood with the young boy and I loved the white dress 'before', had not noticed the red 'after'. Why on earth MTV didn't sell some of Aeon's outfits in their clothing store is beyond me. Of course putting Aeon on at 3:00 AM might've also signified something, but only unemployed kids in the summer and artists have hours to watch at that time anyway. Ahh the benefit of VCR's.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), August 16, 2000.

I kind of talk about this in the message "Speaking of Chronophasia"(or whatever it was). Again, I just think it's a way to show a different side of her. The red leather gear in "The Purge" wasn't too much of a stretch, so I don't really count it. The blue in Chronophasia was nice, and it was interesting to see her dealing with a "child", or in this case, someone she at least initially percieved to be a child. It sort of showed a different side of her, kinder perhaps, playing with his hair, etc. And yet, it was all still very sexual in a way. She was almost treating him as she would any other man, flirting and such. And in this episode, she acted as typically Aeon as ever. She may not have been wearing leather, but she was still very violent. The blue didn't seem to do anything to calm her.

As far as red and white in "A Last Time for Everything", I notice it's kind of backwards. She's wearing white while screwing with Trevor's mind ("So is this how you like it? Or is this?", "It's good not to be scared, isn't it?") and then she wears red while subdued by love. I would have thought it to be the reverse. Or, red is genuine love, and white is a sort of sarcastic remark on Aeon's part, she's making a joke about how pure she is, or how pure Trevor thinks the "clone" will be in comparison to the original. Note that Aeon probably had the freedom to choose her own dress ("Make yourself presentable"), so this may have been a conscious choice on her part. White is also the color of death in some cultures, I think... hmm.

And as for the red in the first episode foot fetish scene, I think it's just the color of sex. Nothing complicated there. But, is there something in the fact that Trevor chose a blue dress for Aeon? the phrase "devil in a blue dress" comes to mind. Does he favor her in blue? She doesn't seem to like the dress herself.

-- Matthew Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), August 16, 2000.