Films with great photography (err...video)

[ellisson]

I recently saw Bridge of Spies on back to back nights, so impressive was the cinematography. So many of the scenes would make outstanding stills IMO.
The camera did in fact stop and dwell on poignant scenes, of which there were many. The lighting and compositions were memorable.

I think it was the pace of the film and the holding of dramatic scenes and moments that made me more conscious of the artistry involved in cinematography. Much more than usual, at least for me. I imagine that most skilled cinematographers do some fine photography, too. I also realize that this may be a very obvious notion, but one that I thought worth sharing.

 

[d__b]

We could make this a thread to gather films that we think have great cinematography. Some ideas from me would be:

Classics:

Se7en (and a lot of other David Fincher films)
In The Mood For Love
2046
Hero

More recent stuff:

Slow West
Marshland (La Isla Minima)
The Great Beauty

 

[ellisson]

Some great ones there. It will be interesting to see what our fellow RFFers consider to be examples of great cinematography.

 

[bence8810]

There was a thread on this a while back which I read here on RFF and learned about the Polish movie Ida - black and white with great cinematography!

Ben

 

[Taipei-metro]

It's
Janusz Kamiński, DP (dir of photography) of 'Bridge of Spies', he's been working w Spielberg since 1993's 'Schindler's List', and his next movie, 'The BFG' (2016)...
Watch 'Saving Private Ryan', also photographed by Kaminski, it's masterpiece scene by scene...(won Oscar best cinematography)
In the same year, 'Thin Red Line' dir by Terrence Malick, DP; John Toll, this guy worked w FF Coppola before, and photographed one of my favorite American movie; 'Almost Famous' dir by Cameron Crowe...

 

[Kate-the-Great]

Andrei Tarkovski's "Stalker" is one of my favorites. Takes some patience to watch (very, very slow pacing), but the cinematography by Alexander Knyazhinsky is stunning. Unfortunately, the film is a bit hard to find now and all the copies I know of are not great quality. I would love to see a 1080P remaster of this one.

"Hero", directed by Zhang Yimou and with Christopher Doyle as cinematographer is quite stunning for it's use of color and motion, highly recommended.

I wish I could remember more right off, I've not been watching so many films lately and I've forgotten.

Edit-

Forgot about Blade Runner, some memorable shots in there. And I remember being impressed with Léon: The Professional

 

[Phil_F_NM]

See my list in the thread linked by Srono below.

Phil Forrest

 

[Srono]

There was a thread on this a while back which I read here on RFF and learned about the Polish movie Ida - black and white with great cinematography!

Ben

here we go

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134016

 

[Filzkoeter]

Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Much eyecandy and very unique because it was completly filmed in a 1 point perspective.

I also very much enjoyed Jeunet's movie Amélie

 

[Merlijn53]

All Anton Corbijn movies.
Frank

 

[sc_rufctr]

"The Godfather" would have to be one of the best examples of outstanding cinematography.
There are so many creative techniques and interesting angles.

All these years have passed and it still shines.

 

[emraphoto]

The Rover

Absolutely stunning bit of work.

Ida

Polish film at it's best. Ludz is a powerhouse

 

[Keith]

I saw a Russian film some time ago called 'Burnt By The Sun' .... brilliant stuff.

 

[JoeV]

I did like "Bridge of Spies," although being a camera fondler I couldn't help but notice the severe pincushion distortion on many of the interior shots, which got me to wondering about what kind of lens they were using, and why I haven't noticed this before in other tightly composed film scenes.

~Joe

 

[p.giannakis]

As mentioned already, Ida is a fantastic movie - just by watching the trailer you get a sense of how magnificent the photography in this movies is.

 

[harpofreely]

A show, not a film, but "Breaking Bad," particularly after season 1, is frequently aa beautifully shot as any film I've seen.

 

[honozooloo]

KUBRICK. Space Odyssey and The Shining have more of an influence on how I compose interior shots than anything else. But he's sort of an obvious choice.

Anybody ever heard of Kwaidan? It's a 1964 film directed by Masaki Kobayashi, cinematography by Yoshio Miyajima. Compositionally, it's beautiful! It helps that many of the scenes were shot on elaborately designed soundstages that were decorated in a traditional Kabuki style. The color and composition is amazing. Also, it's a compilation of traditional Japanese ghost stories, so it's perfect for Halloween:

 

[jordan.dickinson]

Kind of a weird choice for me, but I recently watched a pretty interesting horror film called "It Follows". Some pretty great cinematography and directing that makes it really stand out amidst other current horror genre flicks. If you haven't seen it, and like horror type films, this one is worth a shot.

 

[cpc]

Anything shot by Roger Deakins, Emmanuel Lubezki or Christopher Doyle, among others, is bound to look great.

As for cinematographers and stills, here is Lubezki's instagram feed: https://instagram.com/chivexp/?hl=en

Exceptional cinematographers often strive NOT to drive attention to the cinematography of the film since cinematography should be a tool in achieving the director's vision, and not a show off device. Sometimes a bland image serves the story best. And let's not forget that set design is equally important for the end image.

 

[d__b]

Another director/dp/photographer that I really like is Wim Wenders. Anything made by him should be pretty good.