Bladerunner (and 2049) has a special place in my heart. There are so many classics that stretched film photography. Lawrence of Arabia. Alien. The Cell. Night of the Hunter. Dunkirk. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just to name a few. What movies are your favorites that aren’t as known?
Conan the Barbarian - it was a perfect fusion of imagery and music (not much dialogue in that movie for obvious reasons). Any of you people who want to laugh at this, I dare you to watch the first few minutes of the movie as we watch Conan’s childhood into his enslavement.
The Fall is an absolute treat for the eyes. So many beautiful locations, and the fade between the creepy priest’s face and a landscape shot that has the same features is incredible.
The Revenant has gotta be my favorite of all time. Shot with natural light in one of my favorite locations in the world. The meteor scene is probably the best scene cinematography wise. But you can pause the movie at any point and it’s going to be a beautiful frame.
Night of the Hunter and Barry Lyndon come to mind. I’m willing to say most any Kubrick film has at least a few indelible shots. Oh and Kwaidan left quite an impression when I first saw it.
When you say Night Of The Hunter, my mind immediately jumps to The Sweet Smell Of Success, which came out a year or two later, with Charlton Heston Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. One film is in the country, the other in Manhattan, but the visual style is similar and just as striking.
Sure did, in fact I owned it on DVD.
First and foremost, that film’s a Frankenheimer. I loved Manchurian Candidate, enjoyed French Connection 2 (that breathtaking final shot of the film elevated it for me), and read that Seconds was his unsung masterpiece at the time it came out.
I really liked Seconds, but it’s such a dark story, I never watched it again. Like with Requiem For A Dream, some films are masterpieces but also not really rewatchable.
Then I believe Seconds was the first big Hollywood release that showed full frontal nudity, in black and white, in 1966! The tone of that scene is fascinating, Frankenheimer was truly in uncharted post-Hayes Code waters there.
Sicario is just great filmmaking all around. The plot and visuals are fantastic. Honestly though the sequel is pretty mid. I wasn’t impressed; it just felt like a cash grab more than a fully fleshed out sequel.
I’m not a sophisticated cinephile, so maybe this isn’t what you’re talking about, but Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (2013) just blows me away visually. The writing and plot aren’t anything to shout about, but the movie is just so beautiful and even the opening credits are creative, unusual, and visually engaging. The scoring is phenomenal too.
You just made me realise that the only movies where Ben Stiller is acting which I really enjoyed were ones which he also directed. He’s a solid director, Walter Mitty, Cable Guy, Tropic Thunder, and to a lesser extend Zoolander have quite good cinematography. He seems to also lessen the excessiveness in his acting which I don’t like.
Thanks! Yeah I love everything about Bringing Out The Dead but the cinematography really stands out. If I remember right, Scorsese had seen Robert Richardson's work on Snow Falling On Cedars and asked him to bring that same luminous quality. Which is an achievement because very different subject/setting, but it works.
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