The single greatest SHOT ever...?

[Peter Majtan]

My favorites - part 1 - The Fountain:

There we many more in this movie... One of the movies that impacted me (especially visually) in the last decade...

Peter

 

[Tom Lowe]

The Fountain was a great masterpiece, and is in my top 3 for this decade, along with The New World and In The Mood for Love (2000 US release).

 

[Michel Hafner]

"The Fountain", on Blu Ray -> bliss.

 

[Tom Lowe]

"The Fountain", on Blu Ray -> bliss.

yep.

 

[Peter Majtan]

Call me silly - but You can add to this The Cell... I don't like J-Lo in general, but this movie was great. Original concept & stunning visuals...

And of course Baraka!

 

[Ed Watkins]

Call me silly - but You can add to this The Cell... I don't like J-Lo in general, but this movie was great. Original concept & stunning visuals...

And of course Baraka!

I agree on "The Cell", a much underrated movie (shame they chose J-Lo).
I loved the way "The fountain" looked, but I couldn't stand the film itself. Which was a shame.

However, I find that music has a huge influence on the apparent beauty of a shot. I love the style and imagery in "Requiem for a Dream" but I watched it with the film score muted the other day and the emotional connection to the images was gone.

 

[Casey Green]

Several scenes from "What Dreams May Come" come to mind at the moment.

 

[Cameron Preyde]

The opening shot from the documentary Manufactured Landscapes. tracking down a production line in a chinese factory for like 5 minutes straight. Makes you realize just how much we consume.

 

[Joe G.]

There's too many great shots to count. Even crap movies have some great shots. I don't believe in a "greatest" shot, only people's opinions.

For a much longer than 10 sec. shot, the opening of The Player works for me.

 

[Emanuel A.]

It's not under the 10 seconds mark, just one of my favorite ones. And one of the most important shots (also sequence) ever made. Jack Nicholson (man in the bed) is only a part of it. Actually, he doesn't move so much (or even at all, almost from the beginning till the end of the shot).

It's not (still) photography, it is as simple as a motion picture -- you need to watch the movie. Yes, under the director's POV too. A genius called Michelangelo Antonioni.

The Passenger

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073580/

 

[Roberto B]

one of the greatest ones yup..

 

[Tom Lowe]

Probably my favorite dolly move ever.

 

[Roberto B]

in the passenger..

to each camera's move there's an advance..

 

[Roberto B]

but there..

other than fancy colors?

 

[Tom Lowe]

there is nothing special about that dolly move, other than how it fits into the story and enhances the scene.

 

[Roberto B]

there is nothing special about that dolly move, other than how it fits into the story and enhances the scene.

right.. as happens in many other stories.

 

[pango]

I mean, which single shot is the greatest in cinema history? I'm talking about a shot that lasts no longer than ten seconds.

What an american concept! There are single shots that you remember, shots that touch you. Why do you need "the greatest"? I recently saw again "Citizen Kane" on DVD, the cover mentioned it to be "the greatest movie of all times". I enjoyed the movie, especially the use of contrast, light and shadow, but the superlative is just not at place.

The world is to complex to be broken down to a single dimension to make things comparable. The one thing that is comparable is ... money. The "most expensive", the "greatest box office income", the "most sold dvd", all that does make sense. And this proves at the same time that the superlative is finally a capitalist concept ... bringing forward things like "the greatest financial crisis since 1929"
:devil:

 

[Craig Ryan]

In Tom's (and American? ) defense...I'd say the purpose of the thread was not to argue which shot is the absolute, universally accepted greatest shot of all time, but rather to see a collection of some of the most evocative/memorable shots from film history that have stuck or inspired. Of course, this is always going to be a subjective reasoning, so I think most would agree it's mutually agreed that there is no single greatest shot ever.

With that in mind...

 

[Jason Ing]

right.. as happens in many other stories.

I've seen tons of movies that a dolly move did absolutely nothing to contribute to the story. It was more like, "We rented the damn thing, let's use it."

 

[Tom Lowe]

yeah. often times I will find myself staring at a setup thinking, "could this shot really benefit from a dolly in... or a crane move.... or a jib up...." to me, i often try to remind myself not to do moves just for the sake of doing them.

that example from Return of the Jedi....it's not that the move itself is anything special. it's the power it brings to that scene, IMO, as that creepy religioso chanting music plays in the background and all three movies of the trilogy are coming to a dramatic, violent climax. just something about that dolly move has always appealed to me.