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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Top Ten Cinematography Masterpieces?

Tom said:
Oh, yes, sorry about that. I was cutting and pasting.

BTW, while I've got you here David, have you had a chance to see much work from "Mark" Lee Ping Bin?
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Not much other than "In the Mood for Love" -- I mean, looking at his imdb credits, I realized that I've seen his work in "Fong Sai Yuk 2" and "Wing Chun", which are really fun martial arts movies, but I didn't really think about the cinematography.

Have you ever seen "The Bride with White Hair" (1993) shot in anamorphic by Peter Pau? The DVD doesn't do justice to that movie, which is reminiscent of "Excalibur" in terms of its fantasy cinematography.

Some of my favorite Chinese movies for cinematography are "Raise the Red Lantern", "Red Sorghum", "Jou Dou".
 
The Bride with White Hair is also at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. I went ahead and added it to my netflix queue. I really need to up my number of discs with them, because my queue is like a mile long.

Millennium Mambo is slow in pace, but the thing I really love about it is Lee's stark and very artistic use of very basic equipment, locations, and moves. The camera lives on the tripod the whole picture and only comes off once or twice for steadicam-style shots, one of which opens the film -- an iconic shot a beautiful girl walking down a public hallway for like half a mile.

In Millennium, Lee was relying exclusively on his artistic talents and cinematography skills. There were no fancy moves, no great sets, no fancy anything. Just pure talent and instinct. And the results speak for themselves, IMO.

If you have netflix, this is one of the movies available in the new Watch Now section, where you can watch it online instantly. I actually watched your movie Northfork on Watch Now as well. If you've got a nice 20+" monitor, a comfortable chair, and decent sound on your computer, it works out pretty well.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Millennium_Mambo/70002242
 
Now that everyone has the common ones out of the way. What about something more obscure you thought was just wonderfull but just not in the top 10 of all time. For example Dai-bosatsu tôge - (Sword of Doom in the US) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060277/
 
Hey guys what about Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror; (sublime) or Nostalgia even Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies. I also loved Barry Lyndon (some of it was shot not far from my home here in Ireland).
For me however cinematography is as closley linked with the ideas expressed as the actual image in the viewfinder. The composition, framing, mise en scene, script, acting everything combines to make a memorable film. If we only concentrate on the image what we have is a beautyful shot; together we have a beautyful film.
 
"Citizen Kane". . . need I say more? One film to rule them all. . .

Stephen
 
This ones really tricky, Mostly because I have to remember the looks of all those films I've seen and decide on the best ones.
In no specific order.....

- Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
- War of the Worlds (2005)
- Minority Report
- The New World
- Deja Vu
- Saving private Ryan
- Big Fish
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Spy Game
- The Prestige
 
CraigWB said:
This ones really tricky, Mostly because I have to remember the looks of all those films I've seen and decide on the best ones.
In no specific order.....

- Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
- War of the Worlds (2005)
- Minority Report
- The New World
- Deja Vu
- Saving private Ryan
- Big Fish
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Spy Game
- The Prestige
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How old (or better how young) are you? The oldest movie in your list is Saving Private Ryan (1998). :wink:
 
Even worse, he listed Private Ryan and not The Thin Red Line!

jk :)
 
"Andrei Rublev" - Tarkovsky / Cinematography: Vadim Yusov
"Nazarin" - Bunuel / Cinematography: Gabriel Figueroa
"Fanny and Alexander" - Bergman / Cinematography: Sven Nykvist
"The heart of glass" - Herzog / Cinematography: Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein
"The shop on main street" - Klos & Kadar / Cinematography: Vladimir Novotny
"Adrift" a.k.a "Desire called Anada" - Klos & Kadar / Cinematography: Vladimir Novotny
"The virgin spring" - Bergman / Cinematography: Sven Nykvist
"Cul-de-sac" - Polanski / Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
"The last emperor" - Bertolucci / Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro
"The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928!) - Carl Theodor Dreyer / Cinematogaphy: Rudolph Mate

and - as 11th:

"Rashomon" - Kurosawa / Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa

filip
 
agwah said:
251_1171954788.jpg

apocalypse now
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It's amazing how important context is in art.

That shot is totally appropriate for that film, but just imagine if it had been shot on RED and posted as a still for the world to see. There would be riots of "blown highlights" and "poor latitude" across the internet!
 
Häakon said:
It's amazing how important context is in art.

That shot is totally appropriate for that film, but just imagine if it had been shot on RED and posted as a still for the world to see. There would be riots of "blown highlights" and "poor latitude" across the internet!
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Lol, so true!
 
Häakon said:
It's amazing how important context is in art.

That shot is totally appropriate for that film, but just imagine if it had been shot on RED and posted as a still for the world to see. There would be riots of "blown highlights" and "poor latitude" across the internet!
Click to expand...

If that was the quality of the theatrical print I would agree. However. That's a terrrrrrribly compressed god awful transfer that looks like it was captured with a cell phone. Show me a 4k transfer of the IP and then we can talk about quality.

----
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
Schindler's List
Fellowship of the Ring
War of the Worlds
Minority Report
Kingdom of Heaven (or actually any movie with 'Ridley Fluff'. I love the Ridley Fluff. I would say Legend but then I would get shot.)
Citizen Kane (Hate the movie but it looks fantastic)
The 300 *locks door*
Empire of the Sun


Ahh crap.. and I haven't even gotten into any of the films directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Or any of the 70mm 'scope' epics... I suppose that's my top 10 Spielberg directed biased cinematography choices. Chronicles of Riddick has a special place in my heart visually. Rennaisance I think shows what the future holds for what can be done visually. I also feel this unexplainable need to give a submarine movie some sort of recognition which I suppose means Das Boot.
 
for me it's a toss up between Andrei Tarkovski's Stalker and Peter sagals "nutty professor 2: The Klumps". neck in neck really.

It's funny to me how many people love certain photography because the film has got a mountian in the background. I heard a story told by AC's I know who worked with John Toll on braveheart who, when asked about his oscar for legends of the fall, apprently (and wonderfully self-depricatingly) said "Come on, it's montana at sunrise, stick up the camera and roll - you'd want to be a f*cking moron not to pick up an oscar" (quoted verbatim as I heard it for the language police).

My point is this - as a cameraman I'm not terribly impressed by "landscape" movies but rather love work where cameramen have done some lighting - the most influential films visually are often overlooked by the academy because to most people photography=mountians and sunrise silhouettes.

the fact that Blade runner and Se7en (films that hugely influenced the decades that came after them) didn't even get nominated for photography for cinematography oscars says a lot in terms of general understanding of the DP's job.

And "nutty professor 2: The Klumps" was cruelly overlooked at the golden globes too. outrage.
 
Red Beard - Kurosawa
Blue (first part of Three Colors) - Kieslowski
My Life to Live - Godard
City of God - Meirelles
Ju Dou - Zhang
The Last Emperor and The Conformist - Bertolucci
Dolls - Kitano
I Stand Alone - Noe
La Dolce Vita - Fellini
Rififi - Dassin
Wild Strawberries - Bergman
400 Blows - Truffaut

Some of these don't have beautiful photography, but I think they are perfect for their stories.
 
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