Throwing out story (if you must), what are, in your opinion, the 10 most visually impressive films you have ever seen. Some movies suck, but look so good.
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Thin Red Line
Once Upon A Time In The West
Irreversible
Days of Heaven
Suspiria
In The Mood For Love
Brokeback Mountain
There Will Be Blood
The Last Emperor
These are my 10 and I'm sticking with them. I feel like a jerk for not including any B&W, but what can you do. I was THIS close to knocking off In The Mood For Love and placing Night of the Hunter in it's place, but didn't happen.
boo-urns for not including barry lyndon...
I need to give it a thought to post mine.
this is hard because there is much to choose, I think the way to go is to remember how you felt when you first watched the movies and how that affected your perception.
I know 2001 was a complete knockout from the first time. Kundun was a film that enthralled me when I saw it for the first time on the big screen 12 years ago, I was hypnotized by it. Is not a great film, but just the visuals alone almost make it one.
I felt something quite similar with The Red Shoes, the difference being, that film is actually a GREAT film.
Definitely Days of Heaven and Ran. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a shock to me for many reasons and it still is.
To this day, I consider Shadows and Fog (a Woody Allen film photographed by Carlo di Palma) to be one of the most beautiful black & white films I've ever seen.
In the end I put more thought into this than anticipated, but I think I have a fairly decent list of films which have visually inspired me for whatever reason. There were numerous others I left off of course. So, in no particular order:
American Beauty
Spirited Away
Distant Voices, Still Lives
The Third Man
Weekend
Do The Right Thing
Eraserhead
The Straight Story
The Red Shoes
The Royal Tenenbaums
impressive, so that goes beyond beautiful right?
Titus
aguirre, the wrath of god
Mind Game (everyone check it out!)
last life in the universe
magnolia
black orpheus
sunrise
my favorite films that utilized low-light:
all about lily chou chou
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
tristram shandy: a cock and bull story
I'm out of room, but I also really like The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, Sin City, Elephant (Though I hated the film), and The Assassination of Jesse James.
Non-intuitive, non-ordered:
The Fountain
Citizen Kane
Barton Fink
The Prestige
Dazed and Confused
Blazing Saddles
Apocalypse Now
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Punch-Drunk Love
Children of Men
This entire list could probably be replaced by ten Buñuel films (if Un Chien Andalou weren't the only film of his I've seen).
No top ten list for me, but I'll name a few films that stick with my visual memory. Watched parts of Avatar last night for first time and it's visually stupendous and boring at the same time, but these films have played with imagination:
The Double Life of Veronique
Solaris (Tarkovsky)
M
Mongol
Yeah, these are just visually stunning films. The story may suck or it may rule. Story has no place in this thread.
I really liked the look of Sunshine by Danny Boyle. Story is hilariously bad at the end, but it's such a beautiful looking film.
Playtime for its delightfully rich, large depth-of-field compositions
Trois Couleurs : Bleu for its use of color
Vertigo for its indelible images
...
Apocalypse Now
Body Double
Citizen Kane
George Washington
Koyaanisqatsi
No Country for Old Men
The Shining
Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wings of Desire
Zodiac
yes, apocalypse now was huge for me also. even the first time I saw it, on fullscreen, on tv.
yeah watching it unedited on pbs when I was like twelve was huge for me.
This was pretty difficult:
Antichrist
The Fall
Werckmeister Harmonies
The Conformist
Ivan's Childhood
4
Sunrise
Black Narcissus
8 1/2
Red Beard
Sorry, have to add....
Honorable mentions:
Who Are You, Polly Magoo?
M
The Ascent
Metropolis
.....I really like b&w
Off the top of my head, these are my favorite movies for visuals (as well as being phenomenal movies in their own right):
In The Realm of the Senses
Holy Mountain
The Color of Pomegranates
THX 1138
Ivan The Terrible
Enter The Void
Eyes Wide Shut
Contempt
Titcut Follies
I Am Cuba
oh of course, the color of pomegranates! all of his films are amazing.
My goal was to list my 10 before reading anyone else's lists, lest they more influence it than just what visuals I've always admired. Had I read the thread first, I would've totally posted Tristam Shandy, too.
There's too many to choose from but here's ten of them:
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Barry Lyndon
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Chinatown
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Dogville
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Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
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Monster's, Inc.
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Once upon a time in the west
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Seven
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The Road
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THX-1138
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Tron
^ nyce werk
Awesome post!!
Thanks! :yabbse-smiley:
in an effort to name (more than ten) films that haven't already been named that i love (to look at), and following mogwai's lead:
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the night of the hunter
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mccabe & mrs. miller
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red desert
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le plaisir
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andrei rublev
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she wore a yellow ribbon
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ugetsu
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last year at marienbad
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cries and whispers
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fitzcarraldo
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the new world
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l'atalante
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the spirit of the beehive
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beau travail
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glad someone else has seen distant voices, still lives.
This thread rocks, thanks samsong!
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i'll just mention that one, cos i think it's my favorite. Hunger by Steve McQueen.
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A bout de souffle
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Apocalypse Now
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Barry Lyndon
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Control
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Les amants du Pont-Neuf
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McCabe & Mrs. Miller
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Requiem for a Dream
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Rumble Fish
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The New World
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Punch-Drunk Love
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) - Jaromil Jires
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In no particular order (maybe beside first two films). Possible revisions in the future, since this needs some time to collect.
2001: A Space Odyssey
This is pretty much a grandfather of visual films, not much else to say.
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Mysteries of Lisbon
If I had to pick only a one film with the most impressive visuals, it would be this. I wanted to pause it an every other minute, just to enjoy painting-like quality of frames.
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The Thing
In terms of special effects, it is not only an improvement over older films, but even over modern productions. That combined with a full white turning into a complete darkness, sprinkled with a flare lighting creates a memorable experience.
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Baraka
So many images that got imprinted into my mind, it is all about visuals.
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Ben Hur
I don't like the content of the film, but an extreme widescreen aspect ratio required some unusual tricks to fill the frame: a frame within a frame, lots of details in a background etc. Seeing an chariot race in 2.76:1 ratio is a worthwhile experience.
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Das Boot
Film that provided the most claustrophobic experience for me. I wanted to just go out and see some trees at the end of trip.
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Ran
Very deliberate usage of a color. If you ever wondered why films moved away from black and white, this is the answer.
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Paprika
How many detailed characters can you fit into the frame of animation?
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Enter the Void
Where you find locations like that? Starting from POV shots to VFX sequences like the love hotel, it is technically impressive.
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Stalker
Some of the most poetic scenes in the cinema like the passage of time shown in a shallow water.
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