Anyone inspired to photograph after watching a movie

B & W Films

B & W Films

I love old B & W films, and often find them inspirational.

We recently bought a set of Humphry Bogart DVD's and have been enjoying them. I love some of the photography in 'Casablanca' and 'The Maltese Falcon'. Dark and moody, or foggy, along with the facial close ups.

Also some of the old Audry Hepburns, especially 'Wait Until Dark'. In 'Funny Face', Fred Astaire plays a fashion photographer based on Richard Avedon. He uses a Rolliflex, sometimes like an amature. :cool:
 
I've always enjoyed the visuals of Kubrick (the Shining and Dr. Strangelove), Leone (the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upone a Time in the West), and Ridley Scott all have place in my book. Individual movies with a visual style that I like include, Lost in Translation, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, The Big Leobowski, Fargo, Punchdrunk Love, and a bunch of others that have already been mentioned in this string.

Jonathan
 
andersju said:
"Vozvrashcheniye", a.k.a. "The Return" - stunning cinematography by Mikhail Krichman, who also took the beautiful still photos used in the movie.. definitely one of the best movies I've seen the past few years. http://imdb.com/title/tt0376968/
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Agreed, this is a superb film.

Two other films come to mind. First, "City of God", which is a great film in its own right and features amazing colors. It also stars Seu Jorge as an aspiring photojournalist -- with some crazy Brazilian (?) rangefinder (?).

Second, the film "All The President's Men", besides being excellent (and topical), uses dioptric lenses to have both fore- and background in focus simultaneously. I first saw the movie years ago and didn't notice, but having become interested in photography since, it really threw me when I saw it again recently. For more, see here.
 
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I have heard a mess of people getting all sorts of inspired after watching Kubrick's Barry Lyndon ... with dreams of the Zeiss f0.7
 
Films that inspired me to photograph...

"City of God" and "Pecker" for obvious reasons.

The scenes involving coffee (every scene) in Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" inspired me to take more candid and street photos.
 
Films that inspired me to slow down a bit, look closer at myself, care less for acceleration into the rat race and to care more for photography in some way :

I don't remember movies too well

1. American Beauty.
2. Speak, Memory is a book : written in images. My own life gained a bit of narration after reading this book.
3. Lolita. book, of course.
4. Pnin. If you know this book, you know alot about me.
5. Sideways - inspired me to pay more attention to the mundane.

I could go on and probably find better examples.
 
"In the mood for love" and "2046", both by Wong Kar Wai, are visually inspiring: photography full of bokeh, great 1960's era clothes, lots of smoking, rainy streets.
 
Off the top of my head, I remember being inspired by Jojo Whilden's work for the movie 'High Art'. Have a look for it...stars a very slim Ally Sheedy

~hibbs
 
I like it when they do flashbacks in the likes of CSI or Without a Trace that they don't use B&W to denote flashback any more, they use cross processing. Just like many of my own photos.
 
I have to agree with the Wong Kar Wai/ Christopher Doyle movies. "In the Mood for Love" and "2046" were already mentioned, but "Chungking Express" and "Fallen Angels" are great too. All of them are visually stunning.

In a similar, yet darker vein, is David Lynch.
 
I watched Kandahar a few years ago; absolutely beautiful film, both the light and the photography even on TV, that must be spectacular in a cinema
 
Matthew said:
The director of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement is Jean Pierre Jeunet. The Cinematographer for both was Bruno Delbonnel. I assume you're talking about how they got the peculiar color palette in both of them. It's a mixture of the production design (lighting with paint), lighting (painting with light) and a whole bunch of digital color correction. American Cinematographer magazine has had very in-depth articles on both if you want to read more.

For me I get inspired to go out after seeing anything Christopher Doyle has shot, especially his work with Wong Kar Wai (Happy Together, Fallen Angels, Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love). The same goes for Rodriego Prieto's work on Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Beautiful stuff.
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Couldn't agree more - unfortunately I'm trying to shoot only B&W these days for economic reasons. Seeing Doyle's and Prieto's work though just makes me want to reach for bags of gorgeous colour film...

Edit: Spent last weekend going through my father-in-law's old Super-8 movies. That also really made me want to buy up any remaining Kodakrome. The look is just fantastic.
 
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