Movies with great cinematography

[Rob-F]

Some picks for my personal favorites list:

William Mellor for The Diary of Anne Frank

Harry Stradling Sr. for My Fair lady

Harry Stradling Jr. for Little Big Man

James Wong Howe for The Old Man and the Sea

James Wong Howe for Picnic

David Watkin for Out of Africa

Freddie Francis for The French Lieutenant's Woman

Leon Shamroy for South Pacific

Leon Shamroy for The King and I

Lionel Lindon for Around the World in 80 Days

Harry E. Squire for This is Cinerama

Joseph Ruttenberg for Gigi

Dan Mindel for Spy Game

Robby Muller for Paris, Texas

Michael Ballhaus for Postcards From the Edge

Freddie Young for Doctor Zhivago

Freddie Young for Lawrence of Arabia

OK, I'll stop now.

 

[Chris101]

In addition to many already mentioned, I'd add: Zardoz, Stardust, and The Farmer Astronaut.

 

[valdas]

A few more to add to the list:
"Northfork" (by Polish brothers)
Most of Leone's work ("Il buono, il bruto il cativo" is my favorite)
Days of Heaven was already mentioned, but I also liked cinematography very much in "Thin Red Line".
Anybody mentioned "Wings of Desire" of Wim Wenders?

 

[Canyongazer]

"Citizen Kane" Gregg Toland, ASC

"Knife in The Water", early Roman Polanski b&w

 

[__--]

...Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)...

Glad to see this film here. The cinematography is amazing. Scorcese and Coppola loved it. I saw it a few months ago on French television. Apparantly, there is a Brazilian documentary (I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth (Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano) (2004) on the filming, but I haven't seen it.

From the description in Rotten Tomatoes:

...director Mikhail Kalazatov [The Cranes are Flying] turned his cinematographer, Sergei Urusevsky, loose, and the result is a procession of dazzling black-and-white images, shot with a camera that is almost always moving and soaring over the sugar fields, swooping in and out of urban buildings, following characters down narrow streets. Unreleasable to American theaters during the Cold War, I Am Cuba, through the auspices of filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, got a belated U.S. release in 1995 and has proved to be both a time capsule of a fading political movement and a timeless work of cinematic art.

And Ebert wrote:

There is a shot near the beginning of "I Am Cuba" that is one of the most astonishing I have ever seen. Reflect that it was made in 1964, long before the days of lightweight cameras and Steadicams, and the shot is almost impossible to explain.

It begins on a rooftop deck of a luxury hotel in pre-Castro Havana. A beauty pageant is in progress. The camera sinuously winds its way past bathing beauties, and then moves over the edge of the deck and descends vertically, apparently floating, down three or four stories to another deck, this one with a swimming pool. The camera approaches a bar, and then follows a waitress as she delivers a drink to some tourists, after which one of the tourists stands up and walks into the pool - and the camera follows her, so that the shot ends with the camera actually underwater.

As nearly as I can tell, this is all done in one unbroken take. How it was done, I have no idea. It is interesting not only for its technical skill, but also because it betrays a certain interest in la dolce vita that is not entirely in keeping with the movie's revolutionary, agitprop stance.

—Mitch/Paris
Bangkok Hysteria [download link for book project]

 

[DominikDUK]

A touch of Evil Director Orson Welles Director of photography Russel Metty, ASC (Better than the third man imo)

M- Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder Director Fritz Lang Director of photography Fritz Arno Wagner

The Grapes of Wrath: Director John Ford Director of photography Gregg Toland, ASC (FSA photography in moving pictures)

Vargtimmen Director Ingmar Bergmann Director of Photography Sven Nykvist, ASC (Beautiful, deep blacks some weird angles)

La Jetée Director and Camera Chris Marker (the question was RF related la jetee is a series of still frames)

Oliver Twist Director David Lean Director of Photography Guy Green, BSC (Beautiful and atmospheric cinematography)

Branded to Kill Director Seijun Suzuki Director of Photography Kazue Nagatsuka (great framing)

Also a fan of Twilight Samurai (love the pace and feel of the movie)

The Conformist Director Bernardo Bertolucci Director of Photography Vittoria Storaro, AIC, ASC (great cinematography and angles)

The last Emperor Director Bernardo Bertolucci Director of Photography Vittoria Storaro, AIC, ASC (great cinematography Storaro practically wrote the guide to colour use in cinematography)

Dracula's Daughter Director Lamber Hillyer Director of Photography George Robinson, ASC (Glamour cinematography for a Horror Movie love it)

Bram Stoker's Dracula Director Francis Ford Coppola Director of Photography Michael Ballhaus, ASC, BVK (One of the most beautifully shot Horror/Romance Movies nice use of colour)

The Godfather Director Francis Ford Coppola Director of Photography Gordon Willis (There is a reason why Gordon Willis is called the prince of darkness great use of colour to show a period)

Battleship Potemkin Director Sergei Eisenstein Director of Photography Eduard Tisse (Every shot a masterpiece)

Solaris Director Andrei Tarkovsky Director of Photography Vadim Yusov (great feel)

Rosemary's Baby Director Roman Polanski Director of Photography William Fraker, ASC (some of the best framing in cinematographic history)

Visually the most beautiful Hitchcock To catch a thief Director of Photography Robert Burks, ASC

Do the right thing Director Spike Lee Director of Photography: Ernest Dickerson, ASC (Again use of color)

and many many more

 

[kutitta]

Any movie directed by the Turkish photographer and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan but my personal favs are three monkeys & once upon a time in Anatolia. With the former, he won the best director award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival so his movies are available at many dvd rental chains...

 

[telenous]

Glad to see this film here. The cinematography is amazing. Scorcese and Coppola loved it. I saw it a few months ago on French television. Apparantly, there is a Brazilian documentary (I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth (Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano) (2004) on the filming, but I haven't seen it.

From the description in Rotten Tomatoes: And Ebert wrote:

—Mitch/Paris
Bangkok Hysteria [download link for book project]

‘Soy Cuba’ is superb. The propaganda is a tad on the heavy side, even so it doesn’t come close to Kalatozov’s most well-known film ‘The Cranes are Flying’ (once a requirement for your ‘education’ in some places, were you to join the communist party). Also recommended for breathtaking cinematography.

The crane/tracking shot in ‘Soy Cuba’ is only rivaled (maybe) by Welles’ intro in 'Touch of Evil'. Before special effects, long crane shots must had been the cinematographic equivalent of the space race. It was where directors showed their chops. Scorsese definitely used them in his long career, if memory serves there was a pretty obvious homage in 'Gangs of New York'.

 

[johannielscom]

Anything Stanley Kubrick made, most notably The Shining and Barry Lyndon. But also 2010 a Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut.

And Fritz Langs Metropolis of course.

 

[froyd]

Somebody already mentioned Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love, Chinking Express).

But I have not seen references to the Peter Greenaway films that feature Sacha Viery (sp?) as the cinematographer. Breathtaking stuff from the aesthetic point of view.

 

[MIkhail]

--Hero
--Crash
--Melancholia
--Anything from Andrei Tarkovsky

 

[rhl-oregon]

Anything shot by Robby Muller. Not just some of Wim Wenders' best work, but Jim Jarmusch'sDown by Law and Dead Man. Glorious modern black and white.

 

[Krnome]

The Set-Up (1949) Dir. Robert Wise
Paper Moon (1973) Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
A Colt is my Passport (1967) (Japanese Western Filmnoir) Dir. Takashi Nomura
The Searches (1956) Dir. John Ford
The Treasure of The Sierra Madre (1948) Dir. John Huston

Check out films by different cinematographers (my favorite DP's): James Wong Howe, Lucien Ballard, Russel Metty, Joseph Walker, Oswald Morris, Jack Cardiff, Conrad Hall, Gordon Willis and Vilmos Zsigmond.

 

[furbs]

Thanks for all the suggestions. This week I watched Touch of Evil and The Third Man and they were both fantastic. While watching Chinatown today I spotted this camera...a Barnack! Anyone know what model?

 

[jjtelecaster]

The Hustler (starring Paul Newman) a masterpiece in many terms, including photography and the use of B&W.

 

[mfogiel]

Polanski's Chinatown.
Bob Fosse's Cabaret.
Fellini's Casanova, Amarcord, Rome.
Scorsese's Taxi Driver
Coppola's Apocalypse Now

 

[greyelm]

"Soy Cuba" has some spectacular infrared scenes
"Lawrence of Arabia" the scene where Omar Sharif rides out of the desert is wonderful

 

[furbs]

Polanski's Chinatown.

See my post above 😀

 

[L Collins]

The Last Picture Show. As a bonus, you get to see a young Cybill Sheperd naked.

 

[TXForester]

Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams"