Films with Great Cinematography

In which we Gush About Cinematography You Like.

Basically that: Regardless of the genre, what films have very stunning cinematography through out?

For the more recent examples, there are obviously ones like Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, Interstellar, etc.

As for the classics, well, there's always the Citizen Kane.

Probably all the major motion pictures by Stanley Kubrick would count.

Other examples?

edited 16th Nov '15 9:01:39 AM by dRoy

While there are many more examples (Citizen Kane, for instance, is interesting to watch even if the only thing you pay attention to is the subtleties of the cinematography – which is pretty much what I did), I always use the same two (fairly recent) examples:

• The Matrix. The cinematography gets almost no attention from anyone when the movie is discussed, but I think it's the most underappreciated aspect of the movie.
• Road to Perdition. This one is pretty much the opposite to The Matrix, in that the movie is mostly forgettable, but that just makes the (Oscar-winning) cinematography stand out that much more.

edited 17th Nov '15 7:55:15 AM by TompaDompa

I more recent example is Crimson Peak. It makes murder incest and decrepit haunted houses absolutely gorgeous to look at.

edited 17th Nov '15 9:30:20 AM by Sisi

Girl with a Pearl Earring. The cinematography was done by Eduardo Serra (who is Portuguese) and got nominated for the Academy Award in said category. He captured (in terms of visual aesthetic, especially when it came to the colour scheme) Vermeer's painting scenes (and Scarlett Johansson) really well.

edited 17th Nov '15 1:49:54 PM by Quag15

For me it would be No Country For Old Men and House Of Flying Daggers. The former is perfectly framed from beginning to end with an incredible work on the sound, the latter is a visual wonder, full of poetry.

Yeah, I hated the movie but No Country certainly had great cinematography.

The French film Amélie was probably the first film that I watched that made me really notice how beautiful a film can look—especially with the use of warm colours.

Should've mentioned that one as well. I learned about its colour set-up and scheme almost 2 years ago in a class.

I have to second Mad Max: Fury Road. I would also like to add a hat-tip to this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See

Elem Klimov and Alexei Rodionov were masters of the cinematic arts, and it's criminal that the film isn't more widely known in the West. It's one of the most accurate depictions of how hideous partisan and anti-partisan warfare can be that's ever been put on celluloid.

Most of M. Night Shyamalan's films have some expert cinematography. Even his lesser regarded projects find extremely unique and beautiful ways to move the camera.

For various reasons:

Dr. Zhivago.

Dances With Wolves.

The Ring.

Dr. Zhivago's good, I'll grant you that.

But it's not as good as Lawrence of Arabia.

Faisal's introduction into the film has been ripped off so many times by so many cinematographers that it's almost become cliché. But it's still the most memorable intro scene in epic cinema.

edited 18th Nov '15 11:03:18 AM by TamH70

We have a TV Tropes page for Come and See.

If one thinks of great cinematography in the popular sense of "gorgeous scenery", then Badlands is pretty awesome, as are all Terrence Malick films.

Ron Howard's Rush is a definite.

Titanic is worth mentioning.

Gravity - probably has the best cinematography in the first 15 minutes.

The Best Offer

Holy Motors

Prometheus

Lost in Translation

I think I'm going to use this thread as a thread to talk about cinematography in general.

I felt that this is an excellent example of (very much unintentional) disaster movie cinematography.

The Revenant is also a good example as well, the natural lighting and the way the camera flows and follows the action smoothly is such a sight to behold.

I second "pretty much all Kubrick films," with particular emphasis on Barry Lyndon. Simply sublime. What they say is true - every frame is like a painting.

Speaking of Kubrick, one of his former D Ps, Larry Smith, collaborated with director Nicolas Winding Refn twice and the end results have been very impressive. Bronson was shot on 16mm film and the grungy look mixed with Kubrickian shots perfectly encapsulates the eponymous man and his, uh, "art." Only God Forgives is a far more polarizing film, but everyone agrees that the surrealistic digital cinematography is excellent.

edited 3rd Feb '16 2:39:16 PM by RBLyndon

Many classic films noirs have very good use of shadows and closed environments. There's a reason why later scholars named them using a visual trait. Double Indemnity helped codify these things (they made an apartment door swing outward, against fire regulations, so that someone's shadow could precede them coming in).

I think I should probably limit this to a few films, so

1. Heart of Glass : The soft light, which is focused on specific areas of the screen combined with sparse motion and "glowing" aura really sell the magical realism and theatrical feeling in this film. Hypnotic, as intended.

2. Marketa Lazarová : A very slow film, but no other manages to capture the medieval feeling. Stark contrasts of black and white, textured backgrounds and again a general feeling of magical realism, although much darker. It must be said the operatic music does play a large part as well.

3. Beau Travail : This film looks like a dream. It's difficult to put my finger on why, but I think it's a sort of synchronicity between the actions of the people on screen and the way it is shot.

4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly : Masterful sequences, and of all the films I've seen I don't think any scene is better shot than the finale.

edited 5th Feb '16 3:56:39 AM by sl1m