The Process of Meaning-Making in Cinema: An Analysis of Color Symbolism in Dune

Abstract

This study is a qualitative research that examines the function of color in cinema not merely as a “visual element,” but as an aesthetic and meaning-making device, through Denis Villeneuve’s films Dune: Çöl Gezegeni (Dune: Part One, 2021) and Dune: Bölüm İki (Dune: Part Two, 2024). The subject of the study is the role of color symbolism in the production of narrative, emotion, and ideology. In this respect, the study emphasizes that color in film does not solely support realism, but also enriches meaning through cultural and political connotations, thereby gaining significance. The aim of the research is to reveal which values, power relations, and living conditions are represented by the color palettes (tone, contrast, light) employed in the worlds of the three power centers: Fremen/Arrakis, Atreides/Caladan, and Harkonnen/Giedi Prime. As a method, Roland Barthes’s semiotic model of denotation and connotation has been adopted. Selected scenes (desert landscapes, imperial vehicles, community gatherings, urban and interior designs, military ceremonies) were described at the scene and shot level and analyzed for their symbolic meanings.The findings indicate that the yellow–gold–brown desert tones of Arrakis symbolize drought, survival, the sacredness of melange (spice), and the Fremen’s harmony with nature; that the green–blue tones and warm natural light of Atreides/Caladan represent justice, balance, environmental ethics, and the harmony between technology and nature; and that the black–gray tones with sharp white contrasts of Harkonnen/Giedi Prime signify oppression, mechanization, totalitarian order, and the erasure of individuality. Color/light contrasts (e.g., gray metal–golden sand, black masses–limited white light, metallic surfaces–forest green) do not merely establish aesthetic compositions, but also make visible ideological dimensions such as the legitimacy of power, colonialism, environmental ethics, and collective identity.