Looking at landscape art, especially when painted by one of the masters, many have undoubtedly pondered: what would it be like to live there? Shapes and attention to detail are, of course, important in a painting. However, it is color that attracts the eye and inspires the heart. Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright, spoke well of it when he noted that “Simple color, uncontaminated by meaning and not tied to a defined form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. (qtd in “color”)”. Vincent Ward had a similar understanding of this impact when he directed the 1998 film What Dreams May Come. Watching this film it is easy to imagine being inside a living painting. The use of color to emphasize the emotional state of a character or event is common in films; however, director Ward goes even further in using color to represent the characters themselves. Red is the shade chosen to indicate Annie and similarly blue is used for Chris. Both, as will be shown, are correct in calling these people fictitious. However, it is the deep use of purple in this film that is the real focal point. When you mix red and blue paint, you will find that, after being mixed, they cannot be separated. Likewise, this applies to the life and love that these characters build and share. Purple represents the many ways Chris and Annie blend and unite. Annie is, by nature, an energetic, passionate and sometimes unstable person. Happy or sad, he extends the same amount of himself into every emotion, action and choice. Throughout the world, red is “[r]ecognized as stimulating, [and]…inherently exciting (qtd. in “Red”)”. Additionally, red symbolizes danger and is used quite often to indicate potentially harmful or unsafe… the center of the card… to truly understand the hidden meanings and nuances, one must recognize the importance of these colors. Purple, in any shade, cannot exist without red and blue. That said, purple plays the main role in representing Chris and Annie's intricately combined life, death, and afterlife. Works cited "Color". Proverbia.net. np, 2009. Web. 6 November 2010. Smith, Kate. Sensational colour. 2010. November 6, 2010. All about color BlueSmith, Kate. Sensational colour. 2010. November 6, 2010. All about color RedSmith, Kate. Sensational colour. 2010. November 6, 2010. All about the color purple: what dreams can come. dir. Vincent Ward. perfect Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Annabella Sciorra. DVD. Entertainment filmed by Polygram, 1998.