Movies with great cinematography

[furbs]

I'm not thinking Academy Award-winning; more like movies that have a unique artistic vision that one of us rangefinder aficionados might appreciate. I rarely watch films but would love a few to wrap my photographer's mind around.

Two personal favorites are Badlands and Au Hasard Balthazar. An early shot in Badlands has perfect use of camera flare to set a small-town, early morning scene, and the shot of a young Martin Sheen letting a red balloon loose into a big, blue sky is so simple yet says so much.

The black and white tones in Au Hasard Balthazar seem to glow, and I love how the story is told through tight, close-focused shots. A shot of the donkey Balthazar wearing a garland of flowers is especially memorable, and of course the final scene with the flock of sheep.

It's great when the way a movie's shot complements the rest of the film and sticks with you long after it's over. What are your favorites?

 

[Contarama]

Blow Up and Star Wars. Hey you asked. 🙂

 

[robklurfield]

Last Year at Marienbad ... Touch of Evil ...

 

[mdarnton]

Many, many of the American films from the 30s and 40s are so beautifully done that you could stop the projector at any point and stop on a perfect still photo.

 

[Haigh]

Too many to mention but some I liked are Antonioni's L'Eclisse and La Notte and I see "Last Year at Marienbad" has already been mentioned. I agree with mdarnton that many American films of 30's and 40's are gloriously filmed.

 

[furbs]

Too many to mention but some I liked are Antonioni's L'Eclisse and La Notte and I see "Last Year at Marienbad" has already been mentioned. I agree with mdarnton that many American films of 30's and 40's are gloriously filmed.

The only Antonioni film I've seen is The Passenger, so thanks for reminding me of him. Last Year at Marienbad and Touch of Evil also look fantastic. The only one I've seen of all these is Star Wars 😛

 

[cplkao]

Last Year at Marienbad is a great film, one of my many favourites.

Days of Heaven, one of Malick's best earlier work. is shot mostly at magic hour by 2 DoPs, also one of the cinematography treats.

Kieslowski's film usually have beautiful poetic visuals, The Double Life of Veronique is a good example.

Films by greek auteur Theo Angelopoulos is famous for his long takes and tracking shots, check out Eternity and a Day and Landscape in the Mist.

Films shot by Roger Deakins are usually visually stunning, check out "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford", story/pacing/structure is not as good, but some of the shots are the most beautiful I had seen in recent year, namely the train robbing scene and some of the timelapse.

Films shot by Emmanuel Lubezki are also very high quality, Tree of Life and Children of Men are two great example.

For more recent films, check out films by Paolo Sorrentino, The Consequence of Love and The Great Beauty has great cinematography in them.

Renoir, directed by Gilles Bourdos, shot by Pingbing Mark Lee is also beautifully shot, but suffers the same problem as Assassination of Jessy James, poor story/editing.

There is a good documentary on the subject worth checking out if interested in the craft, its called Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography

 

[RWaldron]

Troll Hunter. Seriously.

 

[ferider]

It's great when the way a movie's shot complements the rest of the film and sticks with you long after it's over. What are your favorites?

Only my three favorites (there are so many):

1. Paris Texas
2. Hero
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Roland.

 

[MichaelW]

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)
The French Connection (William Friedkin) great use of available light
The Conformist (Bertolucci)
Pierrot Le Fou (Jean Luc Godard)

these are all films you could watch with the volume muted and just look at the cinematography. All interesting in different ways.

 

[benmacphoto]

2001: A Space Odyssey, may be my favorite for cinematography.
There Will Be Blood, another film that is high on my list.

And from the trailer, Gravity, seems like cinematic eye candy.

 

[tunalegs]

The Third Man, Days of Heaven, Lost in Translation.

 

[Dirk]

Blade Runner, one of the best ever.

 

[peterm1]

OK I am focussing mainly on cinematography here.

If you are into foreign movies, two of my great favourites are "Ran" by Akira Kurosawa and "Twilight Samurai" by Yôji Yamada.

Ran of course is famous as a Japanese rendition of Shakespeare's King Lear. The most famous and beautiful bit of cinematography in the film is the long castle attack scene in the middle half of the movie. Almost poetic in how it's depicted. Beautiful moreso than violent although there is plenty of that as well. Its shot almost as a dream sequence - and very effective it is too in conveying this feeling.

Twilight Samurai is a sleeper not known to any but the most dedicated film buffs like myself. Yes its a Samurai movie but not a flashing swords / ninja and heroics style movie.

Some one has described it as being as if Jane Austen had written a samurai flick as first and foremost its a love story.

And a beautifully told love story, too. In terms of cinematography Yamada made the film almost as if its a film version of an old Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print. He spends a huge amount of time dwelling on the tiny details of family and village life in 1860s and the movie is extremely immersive as a result (but SLOW so those who want lots of action best steer away).

It effectively depicts Japan just as the feudal era was passing away and Japan began modernising. Superb, wonderful, lovely, lyrical, romantic it also has at the very end of the movie one of the most realistic sword fights I have ever seen depicted on film.

This is probably one of my 10 best movies of all time and is shot with great skill, sensitivity and attention to detail. Wonderful! You can turn off the sound and just watch the movie or turn off the subtitles and just listen to the Japanese language as you watch and still get something from this movie it is shot so nicely. It has a lovely soundtrack, too.

If you like early rangefinder glass a film I can heartily recommend is "The Good German". Shot just a few years ago in film noire style and starring George Clooney, TGG was filmed very carefully using prewar uncoated lenses to convey exactly what these noire movies looked like "back in the day".

I love the look of this film. "Goodnight and Good Luck" is another more or less in this style. As of course is "The Third Man" which is a real as opposed to a pseudo noire film made just after WW2 in Vienna - which still bore the scars of war as shown very effectively in the film.

 

[Robin3mj]

September Sessions
Shelter

 

[Srono]

Girl on the bride - french b/w movie.

www.rottentomatoes.com/mobile/m/girl_on_the_bridge/

 

[Al Patterson]

Blade Runner, one of the best ever.

Blade Runner and Barry Lyndon....

Oh, and Citizen Kane

 

[JSU]

Manhattan, Easy Rider, The Shining, Psycho, Battleship Potemkin, Amelie, Barry Lyndon, (Paris, Texas), Days of Heaven, Stagecoach (1939),

there are more but this is what comes to mind right now.

Others come to mind for great computer effects and other computer generated imagery, and as much as I like Blade Runner, I feel too much of it is computer generated, and not actual cinematography.

 

[zauhar]

Two old movies I saw again recently with beautiful b&w photography -

On the waterfront

Seven days in may

 

[taemo]

Lost in Translation.

yes, this also gets my vote. my favourite movie of all time.