Coolest Films ( Visually )
 

What are some of your picks on the coolest films, stylistically / visually?

I haven't been exposed to that wider, more abstract aspect, so all I can offer is relatively mainstream, for the more sophisticated among us ;D

I guess I'd say:

• Fight Club - well, all of Fincher's films, but I think it was most suited here.
  
• Drowning By Numbers - Greenaway is a no brainer, however this is the only film of his that I have scene. Still, some astonishing scenes - particularly those on the beach.
  
• The Double Life of Veronique - sure, it's a little pretentious, but there were still some breathtaking images. I like the way that he didn't overly exagerrate colours - the images were a lot softer, more like a water colour

Any others? And feel free to disagree about whatever I've said ^_^

1. Brotherhood of the Wolf
2. The Matrix
3. Fight Club
4. O brother, Where art thou?
5. Dr. Zhivago

I always gotten a big headache after trying to make a list of my favorite shot films. I'm tak'in a cop-out. My list is going to be an alterantive one, giving credit to 10 films that don't get mentioned all the time for the cinematography. there's millions more thou

in no particular order

Heaven's Gate (Vilmos Zsigmond)

John Ford's The Fugitive (1947) (Gabriel Figueroa)

Hamlet (Branagh) (Alex Thomson)

Catch-22 (David Watkin)

I think I'm allowed at least one cheat cause I'm doing Color & B & W with the same cinematographer Oswald (Ossie) Morris The Spy Who Came In From The Cold & Moby Dick.

Rebel Without a Cause (Ernest Haller)

The Evil Eye (Mario Bava)

Zardoz (Geoffrey Unsworth)

Days of Wine and Roses (Phillip H. Lathrop)

New York, New York (Laszlo Kovacs)

I agree with all of these, for sure, although it's been awhile since I've seen Dr. Z. A couple more:

- Citizen Kane
- All three of Baz Luhrmann's films (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!)
- Shrek (animated films do count, right?)
- The Cell (the visuals were the only thing this movie had going)
- Natural Born Killers
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (strange, strange flick, but looked incredible)

As you can see, I go more for the showy than the subtle, Philistine that I am. :)

Moulin Rouge
Snatch
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
Run Lola Run
Lawrence of Arabia
Eyes Wide Shut
Requiem for a Dream
A Clockwork Orange
Panic Room
American Beauty
Schindler's List
Pulp Fiction
La Femme Nikita
Romeo + Juliet
Gosford Park
The Castle of Cagliostro
North By Northwest
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Airplane Glue
Saving Private Ryan
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

And no doubt many others that I haven't seen (Amelie, which I believe I'm seeing this weekend) or, for the time being, have forgotten.

Johnny To's The Mission - Check out the use of wide ange lenses in this film, it's absolutely great!

Bringing out the Dead.

While hailing Amelies visuals, don't forget where Jueret started, check out Delicatessan and City of the Lost Children.

El Miriachi :laugh:

Seeing Citizen Kane listed here made me think of making one list of the coolest looking movies, and one list of the coolest looking movies FOR THEIR TIME.

Coolest Looking
10. Spider-Man
9. Forrest Gump
8. Planet of the Apes (2001) - Bad to average movie, but visually, I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
7. Star Wars: Episode II - The Attack of the Clones
6. X-Men
5. Jurassic Park
4. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
3. The Matrix
2. The Cell
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Coolest Looking for Its Time
10. Gone with the Wind
9. Blade Runner
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Return of the Jedi
5. King Kong
4. The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Wizard of Oz
2. Jurassic Park
1. Star Wars

I'm going to nominate all of Terry Gilliam's films here, I really like his style.

All mine have been listed so I'll just nod and agree with most of the movies listed. :D

:yup:

American Beauty was very visually stimulating...first time I ever saw a film like that.

The part when he's at the game, watching the girl and everything disappears but her...excellent.

I would strongly disagree with this list it's made up of movie that heavy CGI in them that take up more than 50 % of the movie. If I was going to do a list of movies in the last 5 years or so not one of these would make my list. To each his own thou.

To Name A Few

Eyes Wide Shut
The Man Who Wasn't There (Roger Deakens)
Schindler's List & Saving Private Ryan (Janusz Kaminski)
The Thin Red Line (John Toll)
Lost Highway (Peter Deming)
Hard Eight - Boogie Night - Magnoila (Robert Elswit)

I also didn't find American Beauty to be greatly shot it was defaintly intresting and would be somewhere in my list nearing the bottom. Conrad L Hall has done tons of other more deserving films that should have won awards before this one.

You so cra-zay! No one, who saw this movie, will ever forget Lester fantasizing about his "dream girl" floating above him with the rose petals...that was breathtaking the first time I saw it.
You're in denial if you discredit this film on it's visual merits. :yup:

I would have to agree with you on Eyes Wide Shut and The Man Who Wasn't There...if it weren't for the artistic value of both of those films, keeping me awake, I would have been snoozing after the first hour. ;D

I completely dig the yellowish hue throughout most of O Brother, Where Art Thou?. As for this little mini-debate that seems to have formed: CGI should not disqualify a film. Visual "coolness" is completely subjective...if someone thinks a flick looks cool, regardless of what was used to make it look that way, well, it's their opinion.

I agree--look at Gigolo Joe's original post:

A whole lotta stuff falls under this question.

Anywho.
I can't believe I forgot Requiem for a Dream! And all of PT Anderson's stuff! And Terry Gilliam--Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing! And O Brother! Argh!

Just in case it isn't clear--I'm adding all these to my list! :yup:

I said it woudl still make the list. just nowhere near the top that's all.
Films he shot that I consider to as good or better
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Jennifer 8 (1992), Marathon Man (1976), Harper (1966), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Hell in the Pacific (1968) (as Conrad Hall), In Cold Blood (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967) etc etc.....

All right, I guess I looked the question wrongly. I would agree but still don't consider them to be in the same realm as the ones I mentioned plus tons of others. but like I said to each his own.

I was also merely stating the ovasion fact that all of his movies that he choose to pick were movies that heavy used CGI to create a visual world. Where for me that's not as great of an achievment as say Eyes Wide Shut or American Beauty were they use lighning to create tension build tention create moods Dark, light, Heavy, Somber and tons of other things threw the cinematography.

American Beauty WAS Beautiful, and it almost made my list. And ditto on Eyes Wide Shut; the visual appeal of that film is just about the only thing I really like about it. It felt like a mystery, but there really wasn't a mystery, so basically, it was mostly about a guy crashing a party and walking around a lot. :rolleyes:

Eyes Wide Shut was amazing in the sense that Kubrick managed to create this dream like quality surrounding the entire film, without overly manipulating the environment.

I mean, it wasn't pushed to the point of being surreal

Here's some more:

City of Lost Children
Amelie (come on! This is the best "eye candy" movie ever!)
Memento

The City of Lost Children
is wild
that's the best word for the photography and the film
very cool sadie

Wild. Yeah...

Howabout, Titus? :eek: Anyone see it?