Just continuing on that point, the biggest issue with deep focus isn't inherent "beauty" so much as it is one's ability to parse a more complex frame. (It's also laziness: it's so much harder to light for deep focus as you need to be more precise on top of the far-increased light levels--not only is it like painting a faberge egg rather than finger painting, but you're also forced to use larger, inelegant brushes (fewer soft lights, bigger fixtures in general).)
Most of the best B&W deep focus films are 4X3 and shot on sound stages (Citizen Kane, Magnificent Ambersons, Best Years of Our Lives) and the examples from Antonioni here rely heavily on leading lines and a a limited or B&W palette. In such cases we have decreased and more easily-controlled visual information. The Kurosawa shots are all telephoto and showcase borderline planometric staging. We may also note that minidv cinematography and deep focus photography in general is more conducive to telephoto work than traditional 35mm not just because zooming gives you a little bit of shallow focus, but also because you "select" what you show with more than just focal length; both focal length and depth of focus select a limited portion of the frame for the viewer and the absence of one cue often requires more of the other.
That really great shot from Last Crusade uses high contrast, leading lines (there's a "V" or a "swoop" centering on the Joneses if you trace between the characters' eyes) and backlighting on a nearly colorless palette (excepting skintone, which should pop out) to be easily readable. The shot from New World likewise relies on a limited palette: brown and green, near complements, and a horizon line near eye level.
I've been really fascinated by how summer blockbusters have recently adopted extremely limited palettes. The deep, saturated photography in the Transformers films and most of Michael Bay's most recent movies are basically just blue and orange (skin tone), with set design and lighting selected carefully to emphasize only those colors. "Grittier" movies (the overrated new Batman films, the Bourne films, Terminator 4) are simply becoming incredibly desaturated to support fast edits and shakicam camerawork. To some extent I prefer Bay's approach to Nolan's, heresy though that may be.
