Visually, the movie is about the chaotic clutter of city life, the reality of urbanism which was denied in the sixties, and reviled in the seventies. If Travis Bickle wishes for a rain to wash away the slime, our heroine Roberta wants to dive headfirst into a slimy flea market. Which she does, on more than one occasion.

What we have here is an origin myth of New Wave. Hipsters in the Susan world don't desperately seek vintage. It's ubiquitous, there for the taking, as is the entire Lower East Side. Jimi Hendrix's old jacket will miraculously fit a petite woman, and it'll be dirt cheap. The city's for sale and it's a bargain, perhaps because the bourgeoisie haven't realized they miss revival theaters and vaudeville yet.

We can surmise the production designers were faced with a harsh choice: Make Susan's world a sepia, pastoral urbanism (like The Sting, or make it a gaudy mess (Cyndi Lauper). The designers chose a third way: they either leave an undersaturated mishmosh of color, or carefully compose each location's scheme to match the mood and the characters. Roberta's escape from the 'burbs is downright expressionist. Could've happened to a hausfrau in Weimar Berlin, with Marlene in lieu of Madonna. (see Woody's later Shadows and Fog) The yellow and black of this van complement Susan's hair and collar, the white skeletons match the gaunt hipster Jim.

Even when the colors are meant to clash chaotically, the saturation is held to a minimum. Gary's taupe looks strikingly bright against this mishmash of purples and oranges, like a banana in an bowl of fruity pebbles:

Dez's apartment shows a trademark of Woody Allen's typical set designs: a giant film poster as apartment decoration. Note how it complements the red and yellow in Roberta's outfit, and how the other woman (Dez's previous girlfriend) complements its white backdrop and characters.

Given the vaudeville theme of Roberta's adventures in the city, it would probably be productive to compare Susan with Blue Velvet, scary clown to Susan's affable magician. In Velvet, urban hipsterism is reconcieved as a violent depravity lurking below the surface of suburbanism, although Lynch does so with a smirk. In Susan that same hipsterism is more affectionately rendered as piles of interesting junk. A Woody Allen apartment is seldom without well worn bookshelves in the background. In Susan, the books have been replaced with albums and clothes, but the premise is the same: Uncluttered house, uncluttered mind, and that's not necessarily a good thiing.