Most perfectly composed shot in movie history

[1976]

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

the answer is none. none more stuff.

maybe not, but Orson Welles sure gave it a shot here:



resized by admin. don't post big ass caps thank you very much.

[1976]

not the best, but some of my personal favs:

Last Temptation Of Christ



North By Northwest





you think PTA studied this shot before filming Punch Drunk Love?



The Elephant Man



A Clockwork Orange



Buffalo 66

[Mesh]

Give me a bulleted list of all the things you see in it.  I've always had a tough time making everything out.  Is a blown-up version of that frame a possibility?

[1976]

I replaced the file with a blown up version for you.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I'm going to go ahead and say that scene in Taxi Driver where he points his finger to his temple like a gun and goes "pchew pchew pchew."

That was a damn cool scene.  I got confused on the question though, so to balance it with a good cinematography shot...

Labyrinth, when those stones are lined up to look like a face...I forget exactly what was happening, but that was pretty sweet-o.

[Alethia]

the classic shot in the graduate where mrs. robinson puts on her stockings..............

[Sleuth]

REQUEST:  I really like this one moment from Meeting People Is Easy around minute 75 or 76, The Tourist is being performed and Thom waves to the crowd.  There's a light in te background and for a moment it looks like he's holding it

[Mesh]

Thanks for that ample resize.

Here we go, and please do check my work:

1.  Kane, in mid-frame lies dying or already dead on a slab of what looks to be crushed velvet.

2.  Beyond him, light streams through one of Xanadu's many portals, casting the opening in stark outline.  The silhouette is decidedly churchlike, is it not, and sorta places Kane in a kind of readymade tomb.

3.  At lower-left is the snow-globe sized mini-log cabin, which we'll come to see as a talisman for Kane, a reminder of his long lost happy childhood in wintry Colorado.  The glass globe that surrounded it has shattered, spilling its water and false snow contents onto the floor.  (Or has it not shattered yet?  I can't exactly recall the sequence of shots just before and after this.)

4.  At lower-right, Kane's nurse is reflected by a broken shard of the globe's glass as she enters the room, having heard the sound of the glass shattering.  She's about to become the only witness (?) to Kane's last word:  "Rosebud."

What have I neglected, if anything?

[Pubrick]

What have I neglected, if anything?

what's with the doorway the nurse is walking through? there seems to be more than one. there's the doorframe, and there's that cavernous jagged outline with notable shadow, and even a drop of light beyond the door.. it adds at least 3 more dimensions to what's already a deep reflection within a richly textured frame.

and is that a little bit of lens flare on and above where kane's head would lie, as his soul escapes that very moment? this film is truly magnificent.

[filmcritic]

There's no way to list every single great shot, but there are some that stick out in my mind.

Literally almost every single shot in "Hard Eight" is perfectly composed and beautifully done.

I love the ballroom shots in "The Shining" with Jack sitting at the bar (with or without the dozens of ghosts). I love the music in the ballrooms scenes too. I made the soundtrack of the film for myself. In fact, every Stanley Kubrick film has great shots like that.

The last 5 minutes of "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise on top of the building and jumping off are some of the most brilliant shots ever filmed.

The opening shots of "Blue Velvet" and the camera zooming in on the ear is spectacular. Also David Lynch's other masterpiece, "Mulholland Drive", has many great shots as well.

The dream that Lester has with rose peddles falling in "American Beauty".

The last shot in Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" and "The Last Temptation of Christ".

Anderson's shots in "Magnolia" during Jason Robard's monolouge with the camera going over all the characters in the movie is chilling.

The final shots in "In the Bedroom" with the camera looking over the quiet town early in the morning.

The scene in "The World According to Garp" with Garp upstairs in his room at night listening to the next door neighbor's saxophone while opening and closing the blinds to his window. As he opens and closes them, he looks back on his life and sees certain scenes of his life each time.

The plane crash/strawberry sequence at the end of "Fearless" is thrilling and sad.

The last shot in "Apocalyspe Now" is one of the most haunting ever filmed. Great last line too.

Whoa, I'm tired!

[Mesh]

what's with the doorway the nurse is walking through? there seems to be more than one. there's the doorframe, and there's that cavernous jagged outline with notable shadow, and even a drop of light beyond the door.. it adds at least 3 more dimensions to what's already a deep reflection within a richly textured frame.

Citizen Kane is all about those very layers of 3D space.  The opening montage of barriers and fences that lead up to Xanadu; the differing levels of spoken dialouge and character size that can be mapped onto different deep focus shots; and (and I think this is the most applicable to the deep doorway in this particular shot) the infinite mirror shot of Kane as he leaves his room, old and withered (which I think happens just before the shot in question, chronologically speaking).

I did notice one other detail:  what looks to be chainlink fence just beyond the window above Kane.  Yet another layer of barrier between Kane, Xanadu, and the outside world.

and is that a little bit of lens flare on and above where kane's head would lie, as his soul escapes that very moment? this film is truly magnificent.

Well, to be a stickler, I'd guess that it's not really a lense flare exactly, but a little ball of light that the globe has reflected.  Doesn't change the fact that it totally haloes and obscures Kane's face, though.  Your idea that it's Kane's soul/ghost/aura as it escapes him still makes a ton of sense.  (edit: Now, looking again, I just don't know.  Does the shard of glass extend that far up?  Is the globe even broken yet?  Man, somebody help me out with a shot sequence, here.  Any way you slice it, this shot, like the plot of the film, like the film itself, like Kane's life, like "Rosebud", like Kane's collection of treasure, even, is one big puzzle [like Susan's puzzles...hah! It never ends].....Fascinating film and simply the best ever.)

[picolas]

you think PTA studied this shot before filming Punch Drunk Love?

i doubt it.. those shots are awful purdy and i'm a fan of them, but they can be found all over the place.

[Redlum]

[Gamblour.]

[picolas]

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