5. American Beauty (1994)
DreamworksAmerican Beauty is the film that defined single colour frames as an artistic medium within a film. The image of a beautiful woman lying naked in a bed of rose petals is iconic and virtually universal by this point. Director Sam Mendes takes us by the hand through a difficult subject matter and makes it brim with dark humour and wit, allowing comfort and voyeuristic interest in an intimate setting to arrive subtly. With Mena Suvari and Kevin Spacey heading up a fantastic cast, this film uses colour in an extremely unique way - that has often been imitated and has never been successfully replicated. The cinematographer Conrad L. Hall is an extremely well lauded figure in Hollywood directly because of his choice and mastery of colour in films like American Beauty. With great reviews and a spot as an audience favourite, American Beauty is definitely a film worth watching again for it's use of colour.