Your favorite fiction aesthetics?

[KeyserCorleone]

Whether in movies, books are video games, what would yours be? Is it the childlike but mysterious fantasy of Harry Potter? The old-timeyness of The Great Gatsby? Or the cultish horror of HP Lovecraft?


My mood always changes, but I like dark mysterious otherworldy stories, I find myself drawn to the Vernian / lost world aesthetic often, especially when I'm writing.

[Torgo]

It's high/epic fantasy for me. Nothing beats the aesthetics and atmospherics of their forests, mountains, castles, dungeons, etc. It's an aesthetic I much prefer to interact with in video games like the Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls and Dragon Age series, though, since The Lord of the Rings and the King Arthur legend (if it counts) may be the only written or filmed fiction I love in the genre.

[ScarletLion]

The visual poetry of Tarkovsky

https://64.media.tumblr.com/fe4c03ca113abfabae1b1061318814f0/616df39d5e7b09c6-09/s400x600/1ade7be149d367b7a28ca2548ff089a0194233e6.gif

https://64.media.tumblr.com/22fb29bc1688d62b91353dd1d7e07d28/616df39d5e7b09c6-58/s400x600/18b34be08a05e520c4679a68922e8d1eb9e1929f.gif

https://64.media.tumblr.com/afa2fd1f306e00cb777418f7f38de64b/616df39d5e7b09c6-a1/s400x600/ede6edc9e03e3fd4431bb9d74ac635c5a16d4450.gif

[Mr Minio]

The blue-lit (preferably rainy) nights in Hongkong cinema of the 80s and 90s are my all-time favorite aesthetic. It's really more about the scenography and visual look of films from that era rather than any particular film, but let's be honest, half of the thrillers made in Hongkong at that time had this trademark look.

Web of Deception (1989) is one of my favorites.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/08426e4a5708ab27e51e2cadf91b415e/tumblr_oyxivnSTi61stszgqo1_500.gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/5d2e6ffbdaee985ad810a376cab3f608/tumblr_oyxivnSTi61stszgqo4_500.gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/67ee93a704703ef2ef20a6f28f84ccdb/tumblr_oyxivnSTi61stszgqo5_500.gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/cd2c81f5237b85b417628f3b297948d3/tumblr_oyxivnSTi61stszgqo7_500.gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/2a813d0acf8a323bd331c09446531eca/tumblr_oyxivnSTi61stszgqo9_500.gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/7e1fccc8caa0dbc07e7f1dca63aa41b0/tumblr_oyxivnSTi61stszgqo8_500.gif

So is Chinese Ghost Story (1987).

https://64.media.tumblr.com/51e1b6f4ef5a9218df3e26caee12f234/8680a6db336cc51e-06/s1280x1920/f4e163fec75208ba8ab466f4e56ef3607fc4e19c.gif

And the least known of the three but totally amazing Fatal Obsession (1994)

https://i.imgur.com/lRDa6mH.png
https://i.imgur.com/JvPTzpr.png
https://i.imgur.com/EzHlJMZ.png
https://i.imgur.com/zT3ZVkq.png

Another aesthetic I love to death would be the aesthetics in Keisuke Kinoshita films, particularly the pastoral, idyllic ones.

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955)

https://64.media.tumblr.com/153d402d54537571235695c02abd9920/711b261cc9989e6c-2a/s1280x1920/8fa3fe13bd1e7637122e340b0d47d776927ec14a.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/45475e06902515d328486201d6d627bf/711b261cc9989e6c-93/s1280x1920/d3647f968506bf0c912c540807f20271933136ba.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/d27433a250a2b2d2ef67eb86a5a568c3/e9b37cdc8ca85bd3-ba/s640x960/68bea79e1d2d038a641a7ecbda45ff10f6621029.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c8b812504d5e4b1ca08e3b1f9fc09a6c/e9b37cdc8ca85bd3-27/s640x960/9bef616021e7c6acbe5472b35b6b97269118a16d.jpg

Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)

https://64.media.tumblr.com/d02848a92481014d13c2281f69e8599e/5d604d296542c1a3-98/s2048x3072/b781a142a938f8de1db2a8287bc2a04a76792b3d.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/293cc3292b69b2d0bc3d8cbdc4a5cbd3/5d604d296542c1a3-a0/s2048x3072/e119e40d5b4b080169a1b7a0fc5e9c47db9a5534.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3168dcd491219041c68324392a1f50d4/5d604d296542c1a3-4d/s2048x3072/3f3ecdc8830b03ff9fbf3d4b1ae1910cd5681798.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/335e7e477e34d903b4aa3f5eee21cad3/5d604d296542c1a3-27/s2048x3072/ebbd116218eef2f5574c47f238ef6260ccabdbaf.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/8ab8a02df56d75cedf54741d5db673a2/ac89bf6c4e99988f-86/s1280x1920/044929437b31c6719968436d5db96944bb95558e.png

The Girl I Loved (1946)

https://i.imgur.com/MiuovyW.png
https://i.imgur.com/YbeZcrg.png
https://i.imgur.com/0Z2oGBP.png
https://i.imgur.com/vpSw7cj.png
https://i.imgur.com/bQk7Iyo.png

Last but not least, Yoji Yamada is a beast of aesthetics.

A Distant Cry from Spring (1980)

https://i.imgur.com/L8uBhUh.png
https://i.imgur.com/3WVWnYa.png
https://i.imgur.com/jqvrWjW.png
https://i.imgur.com/0aPgOyC.png
https://i.imgur.com/q30i2pZ.png

The Yellow Handkerchief (1977)

https://64.media.tumblr.com/95925c7f01cad8940ef29ef4c3bee776/121b1d924107d9f0-06/s1280x1920/b16f1eedb5f5338528669c37a2dc4c47105b2b7d.png
https://64.media.tumblr.com/ebbb73f5b50ea3ff85703c282b21adb3/121b1d924107d9f0-09/s1280x1920/360aac5773addf6c043ea2f58d4c7b6f00ece007.png
https://64.media.tumblr.com/cce1508b3ccacd5569e30f226e30135e/121b1d924107d9f0-74/s1280x1920/cb3415c20fa749e71a2506a6fee42ba678eba64c.png
https://64.media.tumblr.com/0f5342b0074a7f82cf4d9981ef1b90ec/121b1d924107d9f0-de/s1280x1920/999f05d8f226cd998d692e4cc6fdd3b1ff55f7ab.png
https://64.media.tumblr.com/184e8d02b7a79d869b36b9c7b1c086b4/121b1d924107d9f0-1e/s1280x1920/cc1ec9c8cc86efe3c4ca8252a773380a3cfdace5.png

My Sons (1991)

https://i.imgur.com/JFpHij7.png
https://i.imgur.com/vmXcFBW.png
https://i.imgur.com/8XbTfFf.png
https://i.imgur.com/SH1SObU.png



Of course, I also love the aesthetics of Bela Tarr, Andrei Tarkovsky, et al but I thought that I should go for the less obvious choices here.

[GulfportDoc]

In film I'm a sucker for classic black & white, most especially noir films-- the chiaroscuro of some of the best: John Alton, Nicholas Musaraca, James Wong Howe, Burnett Guffey, and others.

For novels I like big city police procedurals. Humor is a plus, but not necessary.

I don't like gore, torture, or horror.

[John Dumbear]

I don't like gore, torture, or horror.


Me too, unless it ties into the plot of a film. (thinking The Deer Hunter, Pan's Labyrinth, Schindler's List, etc...)



A film that features the three mentioned, just for the sake of the three mentioned, I abhor.

[GulfportDoc]

Me too, unless it ties into the plot of a film. (thinking The Deer Hunter, Pan's Labyrinth, Schindler's List, etc...)


A film that features the three mentioned, just for the sake of the three mentioned, I abhor.
I agree with you about the use of those elements in an occasional fine picture like Schindler's List. Some of its violence was a little gratuitous but it was absorbable due to its subject matter.

In most films today the gore and violence is meant to satisfy the apparent prurient interest of the younger crowd. PG-13 films do better, but there's still the determination of producers to make R films-- some of which would be better described as NC-17.