The 75 best looking films ever made

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Well, this looks like a good place to make my first post. As this is exactly what I was looking for - great cinematography. A few films on this list I haven't seen, and will look into. Thanks!
Welcome aboard, abstain; happy to have you here!



Well, this looks like a good place to make my first post. As this is exactly what I was looking for - great cinematography. A few films on this list I haven't seen, and will look into. Thanks!
Awesome. And Welcome.



Blade Runner 2049 has to be here



I thought that was earlier, wasn't it?
Lol. That is good. It deserves to be here.



No. 46
'Brazil' (1985)
Director: Terry Gilliam
DoP.: Roger Pratt



Gilliam's Brazil is still seen today as somewhat prophetic but Gilliam himself says it actually reflected his feeling at the time - that the world was going insane with vanity, technology, paranoia and capitalism. The result shows in Brazil, which is a visual treat...... minature model sets, flying angels, huge set design, some great VFX and Roger Pratt's cinematography add up to what is a surreal dystopian masterpiece of 80s cinema.



Let me know what you think of November. Lots of eye candy in it.
Just finished it and tbh it's one I'd need to watch again in order to know how I truly feel about it. Visually it's certainly quite the delight and the longer it went on the more the narrative and humour grew on me .... but, on a first viewing, that definitely wasn't the case in the early stages and I initially thought it was actually going to be somewhat of a disappointment. It's one of those where I can only see my appreciation of it rising in subsequent viewings.

As for the latest entries: love Haxan once the initial segment is out of the way and Brazil is certainly a spectacle. Both very good choices.



Just finished it and tbh it's one I'd need to watch again in order to know how I truly feel about it. Visually it's certainly quite the delight and the longer it went on the more the narrative and humour grew on me me .... but, on a first viewing, that definitely wasn't the case in the early stages and I initially thought it was actually going to be somewhat of a disappointment. It's one of those where I can only see my appreciation of it rising in subsequent viewings.

As for the latest entries: love Haxan once the initial segment is out of the way and Brazil is certainly a spectacle. Both very good choices.
Yeah I think November is a film where (if you're knowledge of Estonian folk fables is as weak as mine, then.......) you just enjoy the ride and don't get caught up in trying to make sense of it all.



No. 45: 'Three Colours Red'
Directed by Krysztof Kieslowski
Dop.: Piotr Sobocinski



It's probably not a surprise to anyone who follows my posts on this forum that Kieslowski would be on this list - and this is the 2nd of his to feature. I could have picked any of a number of his films, but 'red' is probably the most good looking. The beautiful Irene Jacob does the film no harm as she wanders almost lost looking from scene to scene. It's obvious to say but there's alot of red in this film - and the way Piotr Sobocinski captures it and displays it both subtely and unsubtely is brilliant. Is it to be taken as a warning? Maybe, given the film's plot.

The camerawork is also sublime, with all sorts of slow and fast movement going on.

I still maintain that Christopher Nolan 'borrowed' the stairs shot in 'Inception' from 'Three Colours Red' :


The film could have been much higher up the list. A mesmerizing way to end one of the greatest film trilogies in history.



Well, this is probably one of the best looking threads ever made on mofo!

From the 31 films you've posted so far, 16 would also make my '75 best looking films' list:

75. The Grand Budapest Hotel
73. Lost In Translation
70. Kill Bill Vol.1
68. Hero
66. La Haine
63. Once Upon a Time in the West
61. City of God
59. Only God Forgives
58. The Innocents
57. Nosferatu
56. Sunset Blvd
53. The Assassination of Jesse James
52. Raging Bull
51. Thief
48. Blade Runner 2049



A system of cells interlinked
A few more gems added to the list. Brazil has one of the most chilling shots in the history of film:



My wife claims she was haunted by that sequence for days after her first viewing...
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



No. 46
'Brazil' (1985)
Director: Terry Gilliam
DoP.: Roger Pratt



Gilliam's Brazil is still seen today as somewhat prophetic but Gilliam himself says it actually reflected his feeling at the time - that the world was going insane with vanity, technology, paranoia and capitalism. The result shows in Brazil, which is a visual treat...... minature model sets, flying angels, huge set design, some great VFX and Roger Pratt's cinematography add up to what is a surreal dystopian masterpiece of 80s cinema.





I was hoping to see one of Gilliam's pictures listed. I think the mirror of Dr. Parnasus would have been a good one also



To add to any references to Barry Lyndon, and in case these haven't been shared:








No. 44
'The Passenger' (1975)
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
DoP.: Luciano Tovoli



The Passenger is an extraordinary film. One of Antonioni's best. Jack Nicholson stars as a journalist / documentary maker in the African country of Chad who seems a bit lost in life. Some say that this is a pseudo biography from Antonioni as he made a documentary in Africa a few months before The Passenger. Although from the plot it's clear it's a fantasy version.

Luciano Tovoli's beautiful photography really sends the viewer into a dreamy mysterious atmosphere. The scene with the late Maria Schneider is riding in the car is done beautifully ^

In this scene, Jack Nicholson has a flashback. But instead of cutting to the flashback, we see it unfold in real time - which means we are looking at Jack looking at himself. That means he has run around off camera to the front of the building, quickly put on a shirt, and regains his breath and composure to complete his dialogue:


The cable car sequence even has a shot where Nicholson seems to be flying through the air:


Then we come to the famous scene late on. The hotel was reportedly built entirely from scratch at the request of Antonioni just so he could perform the miracle shot.

If you haven't seen the film - don't read on.

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The camera moves from the back of the hotel room towards the iron bars of the window, then inexplicably goes through the bars, out in the courtyard, does a full 90 degree turn and then back in towards the hotel room. It was achieved with a rail across the ceiling of the hotel room that held the camera in position, hinges on the gate meant the bars could be taken apart, and a huge crane that picked up the camera at just the right moment in order that it didn't shake and seem an obvious transition.


Orson Welles had used a similar tactic in Citizen Kane to move through railings, but it wasn't as ambitious as this.

The sheer craftsmanship of this scene is unreal. Antonioni was in a truck with radios and monitors carefully dissecting the scene and issuing commands to frantic assistants as it unfolded. Those assistants then put the iron bars of the window back together via the hinges, off camera, then had to run away to the back of the building before the camera switched around. Presumably the crane had to be positioned carefully and moved so it didn't appear in shot.

The sheer dedication to the craft means this is one of the best looking films ever made.



No. 43
'The Ballad of Narayama' (1958)
Director: Keisuke Kinosh1ta
DoP.: Hiroshi Kusuda



This one is all about production and set design. The decoration by Mototsugu Komaki is absolutely breathtaking. Entire sets collapse while colours simultaneously change. Houses just disappear to be replaced by forests or sunsets. Backdrops transition into an entirely different scene in an instant. It's ridiculous. And it was all done in 1958 manually with no camera trickery!

The full criterion version of the film is in HD on youtube. Watch it while you can:




No. 42
'Gabbeh' (1996)
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
DoP.: Mahmoud Kalari


Makhmalbaf's 'Gabbeh' is the first film in his 'poetic trilogy' and the most beautiful. Gabbeh is a type of Iranian rug, and the film plays out a story as a folk tale within the film itself. It's a really charming way to spend 75 minutes. The colours jump out at you as the magical story unfolds on screen. Lots of blues, pinks and oranges bursting into life

This sequence in particular is unforgettable:


Gabbeh is a fine example of how a film can be strikingly gorgeous on a low budget.



Love 'Rouge', my favourite of the trilogy. Not sure I've ever seen The Passenger, the synopsis sounds familiar but the stills don't so perhaps not. I've definiitely seen The Ballad Of Narayama 'cos I just watched it on YT (thanks for the heads-up) - I agree that visually it's a real treat, part of the reason I love Oriental cinema is the vibrant use of colour. Not seen Gabbeh, not seen any Makhmalbaf come to that - clearly I'm a bad MoFo



Love 'Rouge', my favourite of the trilogy. Not sure I've ever seen The Passenger, the synopsis sounds familiar but the stills don't so perhaps not. I've definiitely seen The Ballad Of Narayama 'cos I just watched it on YT (thanks for the heads-up) - I agree that visually it's a real treat, part of the reason I love Oriental cinema is the vibrant use of colour. Not seen Gabbeh, not seen any Makhmalbaf come to that - clearly I'm a bad MoFo
So glad you watched Narayama. It boggles my mind how much work went into that film.

Makmalbhaf's Poetic trilogy is on BluRay at a great price, depending on where you live:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mohsen-Makh...c=1&th=1&psc=1