FYI - for B&W Fans Looking for Inspiration...

bmattock

bmattock

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Last night, my wife and I saw the 1964 movie with Burt Lancaster called "The Train." Amazing B&W sequences - like a great B&W book only the pictures move! Great camera angles - very expressive - love it! Can't believe I never saw it before!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
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Bill, I've found that the most fascinating camera angles and general photography direction come from the 50s and 60s films. In fact, the famous "Boston Strangler" film, with Tony Curtis as the killer, features some cutting edge camera views and split screens never seen before.

Thanks for the tip on this one!
 
Along similar lines, I read an essay by Fred Zimmerman about the making of "High Noon". This was a time when movies - even cheap bad ones - were being made in color, but "High Noon" was shot instead in BW to try to get an unglamorous look to the film that was modeled after Matthew Brady's photographs of the civil war. There is no beautiful sky and clouds, or cactus and sunsets as they used no filters, just straight panchromatic BW film.

The long sequence of the train coming at the camera is interesting in that the black smoke, which photographed so well, was an attempt to tell the director and cameraman, who were sitting on the tracks filming, that the brakes had failed... The people got out of the way barely in time and the camera was destroyed. However the film magazine was intact and that is the footage used in the film.

William
 
Fascinating, William! Well, you should see the images of the trains with smoke pouring out of them on these frames. Really, you could cut into the film reel and come with a winning still frame just about anywhere. With my new 'photographic eyes' I am deeply impressed. You know what I mean?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
In case you want to learn about what the photography directors in the 40s and 50s called "Figueroa skies", google Gabriel Figueroa and learn that this Mexican cameraman was the first to use filters on his camera lenses, and was then able to get beautiful skies and dramatic night shots that made it into great American movies.

BTW, he was a photographer by trade.
 
The photography of the recent movie titled Girl with a pearl earring (or something very close) does deserve the prize it won. It is truly amazing.

Another not-too-old gem i'd like to mention is Leon the Professional , going more towards the direction of extremes instead of the beauty in the one quoted above. It is the best action movie i've ever seen (i don't like action movies! but this one is a rare exception).

Otherwise, i tend to agree with the above views that 30 y ago they payed more attention to this detail. I guess, with all the special audiovisual effects not yet existing, there were simply different priorities.
Just look at the original Dracula movie and one of today's horrors. The difference is amazing. Today the blood and death scenes have ultimate importance in full colour, while in those old scary movies, shadows viewing angles and perspective distortions got the most focus.
 
The Professional is a very disturbing movie - cinematically and morally and in just about every way, including in the "Lolita" way, if you know what I mean.

Mathilda: Leon, I think I'm falling in love with you. It's the first time for me, you know?
Léon: How do you know it's love if you've never been in love before?
Mathilda: 'Cause I feel it.
Léon: Where?
Mathilda: In my stomach. It's all warm. I always had a knot there and now... it's gone.
Léon: Mathilda, I'm glad you don't have a stomach ache any more. I don't think it means anything.
Click to expand...

A great, under-rated movie. But still, it did not hit me as something I could go right out and apply to my photography like The Train did. Really!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
well, i see what you mean. Photographically it did not influence me neither:)
- but it's one of my favourites ever, from every point of view. I've seen it at least 10 times and still can enjoy it.

By the way, "Mathilda" became a very attractive twenty-something... I've seen her in an episode of the star wars.

IMO, she should have stayed with the better movies.
 
First of all thanks for the info Bill !

And I second Pherdi's opinion about Leon, great movie. Natalie Portman sort of repeats her own 'Lolita' character in 'Beautiful Girls' by Ted Demme, and nope, it's NOT what the title may suggest :D. Nice movie, worth watching.

Now come to my mind images from Wings of Desire from Wim Wenders, loved the B&W photography, and if you're a Columbo fan you'll find a GREAT Peter Falk in the character of... Peter Falk.

Oscar
 
Recently I've begun noticing the photography in the movies more and more.
One of the recent movies that I really liked - in every way, but particularly for its photography - was the French movie "Amelie". Some really extraordinary photography there. Reminded me a lot of good Leica shots :) And the movie is really great in every way....

Denis
 
Denis, have to agree about Amelie. Very whimsical film. I could see the gnome pictures becoming akin to our coffee and camera series!

As for B&W films that inspire from a photographic POV, I just watched the first 68 minutes of Akira Kurasawa's "The Seven Samurai" the other day (we've adjourned to watch the other two hours and 12 minutes!). Beautiful feel to the film, great character portraits - both written and shot. Not hard to see why it's been such an inspiration to so many film makers.

Oh, and I saw the Chinese movie "Hero" recently. Incredible film.

I could go on and on, but finally, "Lost in Translation" is a very subtly filmed movie, that had me literally reaching for my camera after watching!

Cheers,
Steve
 
John Frankenheimer is one of my favorite directors. He knew how to shoot a film. And car chase scenes have never been the same since. "Wide angle, and low to the ground" is how he would describe it. Watch Ronin and see how he truly captures the S4 speeding through Paris. He masters every angle in the BMW Films short film Ambush. People who worked with him have said he knew every angle of every shot of every scene on the first day of filming. A legendary film maker and it all started with the movie "Grand Prix" in 1966.
 
Again great films here, I absolutely loved Ronin when I first saw it. Like a lot Amelie as well.

Don't forget the Japanese movie 'Dolls', simply amazing color photography.
 
Hehh, it seems our movie-taste is quite the same over here!:)) Unbelievable!

I am a big admirer of Kurosawa's movies myself, indeed the 7 samurai's has some great scenes, i especially like the one when the samurais are doing their "parade" in front of the customers/villagers...
"Amelie" has some great photography indeed, and i love the colours used in that movie, dunno what exactly they did with them but they are magical, just like the whole movie:)
"Ronin" is also very nice, indeed, and "Dolls"...well, strange and beautiful simultaneously...

Another japanese movie i've enjoyed recently was "zatoichi"; it's amazing the coordination between the images, the motion and the sound(track)...
 
I also liked 'Amelie' - I have even got the soundtrack.
The last movie I saw and really liked was 'Coffee and Cigarettes' by Jim Jarmusch, w/ some great B&w sections in there - loved the meeting of Tom Waits and Iggy Pop...
Any Aki Kaurismäki fans here? His visual style is very old fashioned, and I love his quirky humor. To me, he is to modern films what my FEDs and Zorkis are to modern cameras, kinda... (too keep this camera-related)

Roman
 
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