40 movies for photographers

[cz23]

Not to open that can of worms again, but "street photography" needs a little flaneur sensibility, IMO. Of course, I agree about labels and the problems they cause. Not only in photography.

John

 

[vitaly66]

Funny Face (1957), Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.

The darkroom dance sequence is unique and a lot of fun, one of my favorite dance sequences in cinema.

And who cannot enjoy Audrey Hepburn at the peak of her youthful beauty!

 

[Big Ursus]

Great thread!

gb hill, thanks for "The life of W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult". It's lovely! John Berger's appearance in it is a marvelous surprise.

Also, another thumb's up for "Everybody Street," which I found on Youtube a while ago.

 

[cz23]

I'm re-watching "Schindler's List" now. It's not about a photographer or photography, but, wow!, what gorgeous compositions, lighting, and black and white. So beautiful to look at and so horrifying to contemplate.

John

 

[filmtwit]

Unbearable Lightness of Being - The Julliette Binoche character is a photographer who ends up documenting part of the Soviet invasion during the Prague Spring

 

[jkcampbell]

The Photographer (2000)

The Photographer (2000)

The Photographer (2000)
A Photographer has a single evening to find ten magical photographs or else he stands to lose everything that is important to him.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240802/

Pecker is still my favorite!

 

[mad mike]

"Funny Face (1957), Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.

The darkroom dance sequence is unique and a lot of fun, one of my favorite dance sequences in cinema.

And who cannot enjoy Audrey Hepburn at the peak of her youthful beauty!
__________________
Vitaly


Valid point, but nobody mentioned her breakthrough film-Roman Holiday- with
Gregory Peck as the photographer

 

[madNbad]

"An Unlikely Weapon, The Eddie Adams Story" great look at the life of a man and his work.

 

[colker]

Lipstick..
A crime thriller which features Francesco Scavullo shooting Margaux Hemingway at the studio in 2 or 3 scenes.
Funny Face. Fred Astaire plays a photographer inspired by Avedon.
Bridges of Madison... Clint Eastwood plays a photographer.

 

[peterm1]

Anything by Yasujiro Ozu could appeal to photographers for lessons on framing and composition. He was a Japanese director who started making films in the silent era and continued until he died in 1963. He created beautiful images and he is known for his exquisite composition which is very photographer like in its style. He made frequent use of the color red in his imagery ..... for no reason other than that it looked good. Also he is known for shooting all of his films with a 50mm lens usually with deep depth of field- no bokeh for Ozu.

A couple of videos on his style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ra0xEQ8yaU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujAldDnOYWQ&t=121s

And some typical Images:

 

[colker]

Anything by Yasujiro Ozu could appeal to photographers for lessons on framing and composition. He was a Japanese director who started making films in the silent era and continued until he died in 1963. He created beautiful images and he is known for his exquisite composition which is very photographer like in its style. He made frequent use of the color red in his imagery ..... for no reason other than that it looked good. Also he is known for shooting all of his films with a 50mm lens usually with deep depth of field- no bokeh for Ozu.

A couple of videos on his style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ra0xEQ8yaU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujAldDnOYWQ&t=121s

And some typical Images:

Ozu is a Giant.

 

[huyvuvn]

The Fall (2006), not related to photography or photographers but it has a bunch of beautiful, fantastic, gorgeous cinematic scene and I learned a lot from this film about composition & color using.

 

[Sega]

There's a recent release on Netflix called Kodachrome with Ed Harris and Jason Sudeikis, it is a bit of a road trip movie but I found it pretty good and have watched it twice now.

 

[madNbad]

I watched Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" last night, most out of curiosity about the cinematography. I had read it was shot in all natural light but apparently some of the scenes were augmented with supplemental lighting. The candlelit scenes were filmed by just the light of the candles. The candles were made of a special mixture and had three wicks to insure they would burn brightly. I was trying to find out more details on the lens he used and found this:http://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-famous-f0-7-lenses/

 

[peterm1]

I watched Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" last night, most out of curiosity about the cinematography. I had read it was shot in all natural light but apparently some of the scenes were augmented with supplemental lighting. The candlelit scenes were filmed by just the light of the candles. The candles were made of a special mixture and had three wicks to insure they would burn brightly. I was trying to find out more details on the lens he used and found this:http://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-famous-f0-7-lenses/

At the bottom of the link you provided is this link which is also interesting to read and to learn from.
http://neiloseman.com/8-ways-barry-lyndon-emulates-paintings/

And another I found when looking further may interest photographers.

https://wolfcrow.com/blog/the-focal-lengths-and-lenses-used-by-great-directors/

 

[helen.HH]

reviving Sara's thread...


Just got turned unto this Movie... Link at bottom
I am a Big 'Dirk Bogarde' fan I was keen to see this One

To Start, the B&W Cinematography is Exquisite, lots of Inky Blacks, Light ever so Beautiful, jaw dropping

Excellent Cast, admittedly the Movie starts off slow but that's ok simply because the B&W 'look' of real film is intoxicating...

and if John Henderson does not mind me quoting him about this film

" It is one of the great British noir movies - and this was the movie that made Dirk a breakout star for his performance. It is the sort of cinematography you would expect from Ealing during this period, as they all received excellent training during the war for making short training and propaganda movies."

Thanks again for your yummy find John!


Link to watch the British Noir Classic: The Blue Lamp
https://archive.org/details/TheBlueLamp1950

 

[russelljtdyer]

Watch the movie, "Civil War" starring Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny as photo journalists. As a photographer, I found it to be very inspirational.

[Minor Spoiler Alert -- but I'm not spoiling any more than the movie trailer]

The movie presents a not too distant future in which the U.S. falls apart with some states forming a separate government and military, revolting against the U.S.

The story follows two photo journalists and two reporters on a journey to Washington D.C. as it's falling to rebels. Their goal is to photograph and interview the then President as he's about to surrender or be captured by rebel troops. They photograph tragic scenes and occurrences they encounter along the way, until they eventually arrive at the White House at a pivotal moment. Again, this plot path is foretold by the trailer and in the first few minutes of the movie.

Besides being an interesting story and the other aspects that make it worth watching, seeing these photo journalists embedded with troops in a war is fascinating. It shows the heroism of the photographers and how they're driven by their passion for getting the shot -- more than any personal concerns, more than money, and even more than for their own safety.

 

[Jonathan R]

I’ve not managed to see it yet, but the film “Tish”, about documentary photographer Tish Murta, has had very complimentary write-ups.

 

[ddutchison2]

If you'd rather see movies where the photography itself is what's inspirational (rather than just the story of a real or fictional image maker), where every frame is a like perfectly composed portrait or landscape, you can look at look at Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and Tarkovsky's Stalker.

 

[Jonathan R]

If you'd rather see movies where the photography itself is what's inspirational (rather than just the story of a real or fictional image maker), where every frame is a like perfectly composed portrait or landscape, you can look at look at Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and Tarkovsky's Stalker.

Following that line of thought, I think the photography in Woody Allen's Manhattan was first class, although in all other respects I really disliked the film.