Most perfectly composed shot in movie history

[AK]

my fav  from 2001:



(one of the best open sequences)

 


(love. love. love... my fav from all the PTA movies)

[Redlum]

it's like, HOW MUCH STUFF CAN YOU FIT INTO ONE FRAME?!

the answer is none. none more stuff.

[1976]

Anyone have the falling roses shot from "American Beauty"?

[Dirk]

the answer is none. none more stuff.

What is that quote from again?

[Sigur Rós]

spinal tap?

Sure that's your answer to everything!

[Dirk]

Ah, thanks, droogie  8)

[Just Withnail]

I'm kinda fond of the shot in Seven, when John Doe has struck Mills down, and he looks up, to see nothing but the ultra sharp gun, contrasted against the blur that is John Doe.

And the "angel"-pose, open belly shot in Silence of the Lambs.

Also kinda fond of the shot in "Withnail & I" when Withnail, I and Montague are walking across the hills, seen through a fallen tree.

Anyone care to take some caps?

[Redlum]

[1976]

Apocalypse Now

[Cecil]

[Tiff]

all three of those shots juxtaposed so closely together tell a very gruesom story

[Raikus]

Then one I  really love: The siluettes of Vader and Luke, just about to begin their lightsaber fight in the hellish light of the Carbonchamber in Empire Strikes Back.

Is it to much to ask for caps? Please?

You point me in the direction of an Empire Strikes Back DVD and I'll gladly get you caps.

[Mesh]

A true mise-en-abyme of Spielberg's Jaws, this shot tells the tale visually and in motion.  The dolly/zoom effect is shocking to the audience, even though the shot captures no murder in progress, no imminent threat in and of itself.  Still, this is the moment of the film; Brody's nemesis has appeared and it will be his focus for the rest of the picture.  His wife's body is "behind" him both literally and metaphorically; his obsession is now with the destruction of the shark, beyond the risks of that undertaking.  Secondarily, she's behind him physically: Brody must stand between the shark and his family (and, by extension, the Amity Island family of humans). One final note: the red and white stripes of the building to his right create a flag of sorts, signaling the danger that threatens.

[Mesh]

Kubrick gets such mileage out of relatively static images, and this is no exception.  This ghostly bathroom simply does not belong in the Overlook Hotel—it's too new, too polished, too lavishly appointed in colors that scream in comparison to the rest of the building's tones.  But that's just what makes Grady and Jack's presence in it so right.  They've stepped outside Jack's waking dream for a moment to speak about the dream—what's going on in the past and how the future should proceed.  Just as they discuss the hotel's past, so too does this bathroom echo the hotel itself.  The reds to right and left create a kind of "blood corridor" that recedes into the 3rd dimension of the image; the mirrors mirror the moment in "that room" when Jack sees the thing he's embraced.  This deep red is just what Grady unleashed from his daughters' bodies years ago and what the elevators will later spill.  Finally, Grady's formal attire adds weight to his talk of having "corrected" his daughters; he looks every bit the part in this tidy loo as he instructs Jack to, in so many words, do his part in tidying up the Overlook again.

edit: I realize this is something of a re-post.  I said a few of these things earlier in the thread.  I just wanted to restate them because I decided to do little essays on all the images in this thread I feel capable of making a few interesting (I hope) points about.  More later.

[Mesh]

Another study in visual narrative economy:  Could the One Ring be any bigger or more important?  Not only does it dwarf the dwarf Frodo, it could encircle the preordained King Aragorn, and already challenges the might and stature of the very Misty Mountains it reflects (and seems to reflect on).  Yet, to the too proud Boromir who's about to grasp it for the first time, it seems all too small a thing, even as it dominates the frame for us.  Add to that the links of gold strung through the Ring, and you've got the Fellowship itself symbolized as well in this single frame.  Like his adaptation of LOTR or not, you must give credit where credit is due.  Peter Jackson takes time within the sweep of his drama to give us tiny detail and reveal the biggest of pictures.  More power to him.