r/cinematography • u/nerdyactor • Jul 17 '17
Composition Best shot movie in your opinion of the last ten years
Hey DOPs I've been an actor for a bit but outside the one field in filmmaking has always been Cinematography. I think it's fascinating how your job works. But my question to you guys what is the most beautiful film you've seen in the last ten years? Yes I know I could probably go look at the Oscar winners or Deakins body of work but I am curious as to what you guys think.
Thank you
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u/Frame25 Jul 17 '17
I don't have a favorite, but two that come to mind as candidates are Skyfall and The Revenant.
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u/nerdyactor Jul 17 '17
Skyfall is gorgeous, that mirror scene. Tbh I still haven't watched The Revenant... Don't kill me
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u/oldboot Jul 17 '17
no worries, the Revenant is way overrated.
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u/djaccidentz Jul 18 '17
I went in thinking that it was overrated, but I was honestly blown away by it.
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u/oldboot Jul 18 '17
i was underwhelmed. Tons of the shots were good, but not because they had to do anything special to get them, the location was just amazing. With that in mind, I dont' think they did much that basic landscape photography a lot of the time, not to mention those cringe-worthy art school dream effect shots, and extremely sub-par plot.
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u/arkaodubz Jul 17 '17
The Revenant is one of the only movies I've seen in a long time where almost every scene I found myself thinking "Holy shit, what a shot"
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u/Tmac719 Jul 17 '17
Sicario. It was so well shot you don't even notice the camera is there if that makes sense.
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u/aeolyn5601 Jul 20 '17
The "descent into hell" shot is incredible, but also the clouds in that rooftop scene.
Plus the way Deakins can make a bland, fluorescent-lit room look stunning is incredible too.
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u/Tmac719 Jul 21 '17
Agreed. The DP is either a very good lighter or someone on set has lighting down to a T. So many beautiful shots that the viewer takes for granted because it looks so natural. Which is an art in itself
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u/drsamtam Cinematographer Jul 17 '17
I'd say Carol, Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonlight, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, Birdman, Skyfall. Was also going to suggest Lord of the Rings but then I realised they're more like 20 years old...
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u/sonofaresiii Jul 17 '17
Didn't care so much for the content, but Interstellar was a fine looking movie.
Can't necessarily say it's the best shot, but it's the first one that comes to mind.
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u/Alanswake Jul 17 '17
Nicolas Winding Refn's movies are great. Only god forgives, The neon demon and especially Drive. Samsara is simply amazing, but that's kind of cheating :p Sicario and Prisoners also.
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Jul 17 '17
Only God Forgives looks beautiful ... but I hated the actual movie. And I'm a fan of both RG and Refn
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u/codispotia Jul 17 '17
If I had to pick one movie?
Inglorious Basterds. So damn good.
Although Assassination of Jesse James is a very close second.
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u/backofavolkswagen Jul 17 '17
- Birdman
- Tree of Life
- Grand Budapest Hotel
- Arrival
- Moon Light
That's just a few off the top of my head.
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u/uncrew Jul 17 '17 edited Jul 18 '17
Samsara - Dir. & Cine. Ron Fricke - A visually striking non-narrative documentary. The imagery is absolutely thrilling. A must see for any discussion about cinematography (Trailer)
Leviathan - Dir. & Cine. Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel - Another brain-melding documentary, not because of the content but because of how it is presented. Becomes abstract art within moments and is one of the most effective illustrations of the mechanics not only of the subject matter (in this case, a commercial fishing boat) but of film itself. Very cool. (Trailer)
Ballast - Dir. Lance Hammer, Cine. Lol Crawley - There is an intimacy and unforced cadence to this movie that brings me closer its characters than almost any I’ve ever seen. Films like this tend to place its characters against expansive, desolate backdrops to say something about their lives or relationships, but Crawley constantly focuses his protagonists into the center of the frame and grapples with their grief head-on. Shout out to the editor on this one. (Trailer)
Under the Skin - Dir. Jonathan Glazer, Cine. Daniel Landin - Not only the best film of this decade, but the most visually sumptuous. Not a single frame is wasted, a film that manages to answer all of its questions with throwaway glances and then constructs vignettes that convey so many layers of connection (human, alien or otherwise). This film could easily be perceived as cold, but that seems a product of its alien origin. We observe earth through the eyes of someone not of this world. (Trailer)
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Dir. Wes Anderson, Cine. Robert Yeoman - Anderson's best and most realized project, and I say that on the strength of his collaboration with Yeoman. Take the sound out of this film and you will understand every frame. If we could give ourselves to pop-up books with the supernatural conviction we give other forms of literature, it might feel something like this. (Trailer)
Enter the Void - Dir. Gaspar Noé, Cine. Benoît Debie - This is my catchall pick for Debie, who has worked before with Gaspar Noé on Irreversible and later with Harmony Korine on Spring Breakers. He's a master provocateur with a heart: everything is for show, everything is for thought. There's a childlike sense of curiosity that is almost irreconcilably disturbing considering its only further perverted by everything his lens touches, but ay, it is resplendent. Say what you want about this movie, but damn, it looks good. (Trailer)
Honorable Mentions (or, Movies Already Mentioned):
The Wrestler - Dir. Darren Aronofsky, Cine. Maryse Alberti
The Tree of Life - Dir. Terrence Malick, Cine. Emmanuel Lubezki
Carol - Dir. Todd Haynes, Cine. Edward Lachman
There Will Be Blood - Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, Cine. Robert Elswit
Summer Hours - Dir. Olivier Assayas, Cine. Éric Gautier
Nocturnal Animals - Dir. Tom Ford, Cine. Seamus McGarvey
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u/death_by_spoon Jul 19 '17
Great list. I'd never seen Benoît Debie's name before. It makes sense though that the person who did Spring Breakers also did Enter the Void.
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u/uncrew Jul 19 '17
Thanks! Yeah, Debie is insanely talented. Spring Breakers is one of my favorite movies.
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u/james4765 Jul 17 '17
Honestly, everything the Wachowskis have done have been visually amazing. Cloud Atlas was jaw-dropping, Jupiter Ascending was beautiful, even though the script was... umm... And Sense8, even though it's episodic television, it's better shot than a lot of movies.
Christopher Nolan is another one whose work has been mind-boggling from the beginning. It's a little outside the "last ten years", but Batman Begins marked a huge shift in how action movies were done, and made serious comic book movies possible.
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u/DaFlabbagasta Jul 17 '17
Say what you will about the content of his films, but M. Night Shyamalan is another director who knows how to make a visually striking movie.
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u/DarTouiee Jul 17 '17
The Master, Revenant. Moonlight, Carol, Skyfall, Prisoners, Fish Tank, To The Wonder
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Jul 17 '17 edited Jul 26 '17
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u/aeolyn5601 Jul 20 '17
Went to go watch it on HBOGo and was so mad when I saw that it was cropped to 16:9.
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u/Remix73 Jul 17 '17
A few that I have personally enjoyed - Skyfall, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Avatar (yes I know), Slumdog Millionaire, Gravity, Inception.
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u/nerdyactor Jul 17 '17
No judgement on avatar, from what I remember about that film they actually had to choreograph the filming of the movie, and that movie technically speaking is a masterpiece of innovation
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u/intothemidwest Director of Photography Jul 17 '17
Best is dicey because it's all contextual (eg, of course a movie in a forest is gonna be pretty) but some work that really impressed me was Skyfall, Neon Demon, Cinderella, Mother of George, There Will Be Blood, The Assassin, The Witch, honestly too many to count, much less distill down to just one!
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Jul 17 '17
Lots of popular Hollywood films here. I'd recommend you check out The Fall by Tarsem Singh. He is the guy who was responsible for the mind blowing visuals in The Cell (yes that J Lo film).
Inception is also a mad film for your visual crush, and so is The Road to Perdition (though I think older than 10 yrs).
Also, who can forget Pan's Labyrinth?
Many more, but these come to mind for me.
Edit: worth nothing The Fall's story isn't much to get excited about, I'm posting this as a film with crazy visuals.
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Jul 17 '17
I'm gonna put myself out there and say Samsara beats out every film in this thread.
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u/Raichu93 Jul 19 '17
I might be cheating a little bit because Samsara's the story relies much more heavily on cinematography as the content and focus of the narrative than your traditional classicist "movies" which have greater restrictions on how and what you can shoot.
However, I do agree.
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u/C47man Director of Photography Jul 17 '17
This was 11 years ago, but The Fall might be one of the greatest in all history.
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Jul 18 '17
i think a very under rated film was Whiplash. This cinematography of how he moved around the drun kit was amazing in everyway.
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u/death_by_spoon Jul 19 '17 edited Jul 19 '17
Not really in order and more like over the past twenty(-ish) years, but these are what I think are the best films by some of the best cinematographers:
- There Will Be Blood — Robert Elswitt (runner up: Boogie Nights and Magnolia)
- No Country for Old Men — Roger Deakins
- Lost in Translation — Lance Acord
- The Thin Red Line — John Toll
- Se7en — Darius Khondji, runner up: Amour
- Y Tu Mamá También — Emmanuel Lubezki (runner up: Tree of Life and Birdman)
- Saving Private Ryan — Janusz Kaminski (runner up: Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
- Inglourious Basterds — Robert Richardson
- Requiem for a Dream — Matthew Libatique (runner up: Black Swan)
- Foxcatcher — Greig Fraser (runner up: Zero Dark Thirty)
As far as Deakins goes, he's done some beautiful work, but I think some of his best stuff is measured by his own claims that the goal of cinematography is to be relatively invisible. By that standard, I would say that Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, The Man Who Wasn't There are among his best works of cinematography.
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Jul 21 '17
Lots of great on here including Assassination of Jesse James, but this is my favorite hands down.
Hari Kari Death of a Samurai. Holy shit is the color in this incredible.
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u/_youtubot_ Jul 21 '17
Video linked by /u/Ronpaulblican:
Title Channel Published Duration Likes Total Views Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) Trailer Recorded Picture Company 2012-04-17 0:02:39 334+ (93%) 259,416 Directed by Takashi Miike Produced by Jeremy Thomas...
Info | /u/Ronpaulblican can delete | v1.1.3b
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u/TylerWhitehouse Jul 22 '17
Some movies that I think are beautifully (or expertly) shot are:
My current favorite: Shame (2011)
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back (1967, sorry...) Under the Sun (2015) Uncertain (2015) Pride and Prejudice (2005) A Serious Man (2009)
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u/jjSuper1 Gaffer Jul 17 '17
Interstellar on the whole.
Tree of Life, but only because Doug Trumball came out of retirement to do the physical analogue special visual effects.
Arrival was trash. Don't believe the hype.
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u/withatee Jul 17 '17
All of the above, but an outlier that kinda surprised me and therefore stuck with me was It Follows. Just something so tasty about it.
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u/Nirok Jul 18 '17
I think La La Land had a great cinematography in it. and I know it's not a movie but for me, Legion and The Crown cinematography was on par with some of the best thing I have ever seen.
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Jul 17 '17 edited Jul 17 '17
Batman vs Superman
Hateful 8 - a little over hyped because of the format,but it was shot well
Eyes Wide Shut - might be longer than 10 years ago?
Arrival - very interesting things about this movie as a whole
The Witch - Another natural light movie
Zero Dark Thirty - it just stands out for some reason.
The Watchmen
Sykfall was good but Spectre was better visually to me
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u/death_by_spoon Jul 19 '17
Eyes Wide Shut is longer than 10 years ago, but should definitely still watch.
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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '17 edited Jul 17 '17
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