What are your favorite shots in a movie?

[JTN 2,160]

[karelm 2,915]

Ok, this one is hard to explain.  I deeply loved this sequence from Heat.  I remember seeing it in a theater vividly when you're completely engrossed in the film.  The whole time, Deniro is pulled from a life of crime and leaving it behind.  In this scene, very late in the film, he finally meets someone who he connects with personally and is pulling him away from crime.  They are leaving crime for a happier life.  You see the dilemma in his mind. He realizes who he is.  He is a criminal.  I just love this scene and how it was scored by Elliot Goldenthal.  One of the best crime dramas I've ever seen.  What I think makes this film so good (aside from the score) is that Pacino, who has the same obsessive desires, is just as broken, but as a broken hero, willing to sacrifice his life, his love, his family, everything, for his obsession.  These two desperately lonely characters only truly understand each other...their enemy.    

 

 

Then this scene without a word.

 

The music beautifully swells to Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo obsession level.  

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JTN 2,160]

“The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose.“

– Match Point (d.:  Woody Allen)

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

Maleficio.

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

Getting a definite Twin Peaks vibe.

FIRE WALK WITH ME?

 

To this day, Killer Bob is still the scariest thing I've seen, on TV.

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

25 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Getting a definite Twin Peaks vibe.

FIRE WALK WITH ME?

 

Yes. I started my rewatch with the film this time.

 

 

[JTN 2,160]

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

Here is Denis Villeneuve's contribution to this thread:

 

[Glóin the Dark 1,229]

I know I’m shallow but, still, I can’t believe he left out the motorway shot(s).

 

And no mention of Incendies!

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

 

 

Disappointing that I can find hardly any stills from this on the net. Slocombe's cinematography is stunning.

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[A24 4,362]

On 29/03/2024 at 9:52 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

 

 

Disappointing that I can find hardly any stills from this on the net. Slocombe's cinematography is stunning.

 

Do you believe directors have no say in how something should be filmed? 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

4 hours ago, A24 said:

Do you believe directors have no say in how something should be filmed? 

 

Sometimes directors have no idea how to create a shot, what they want, or how it's achieved.

Apparently when it came to shooting THE ELEPHANT MAN, Lynch "didn't know one end of the camera from the other".

In the case of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, to say that Dougie Slocombe's cinematography is "stunning", takes nothing away from Jewison's direction.

By the way; Dougie Slocombe's cinematography is stunning 

 

[A24 4,362]

34 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Sometimes directors have no idea how to create a shot, what they want, or how it's achieved.

Apparently when it came to shooting THE ELEPHANT MAN, Lynch "didn't know one end of the camera from the other".

In the case of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, to say that Dougie Slocombe's cinematography is "stunning", takes nothing away from Jewison's direction.

By the way; Dougie Slocombe's cinematography is stunning 

 

 

So the DOP of The Elephant Man was basically telling the whole story while Lynch's only job was to guide the actors? Interesting! 

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

5 hours ago, A24 said:

Do you believe directors have no say in how something should be filmed? 

 

Of course I don't. For a long time, I used to think the director is directly responsible for everything, and the "camera" people (the whole discipline is simply called "camera" in German, which I'm sure misled not just me) just handle the cameras. If anything, I try to compensate now by focusing more on the cinematographers. But certainly directors like Leone and De Palma have a strong influence on this, maybe more than their cinematographers. On the other hand, Villeneuve seems to put a lot of focus on it as well, and yet his Deakins films look distinctly different from the ones he did with other cinematographers.

 

In the case of JCSS, that second shot above reminds me of Indy digging up the ark. Whether that was originally Slocombe's doing, or him looking back on his earlier work for Raiders, or Spielberg telling him to repeat what he did for Jewison, I don't know. I haven't seen much else by Jewison, I think, but The Cincinnati Kid is also very classy looking, and that was shot by Philip H. Lathrop, who I'm mostly unfamiliar with. So much of it may well have been Jewison's own doing, but even then it was "Slocombe's cinematography" insofar as he was the one realising it, or at the very least being credited for it.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

So the DOP of The Elephant Man...

... Freddie Francis...

 

1 hour ago, A24 said:

... was basically telling the whole story while Lynch's only job was to guide the actors? Interesting! 

 

Of course not, Alex.

I only said something that I had read at the time, hence the quotation marks 

It's well documented that some DPs have been let go because they clashed with the director (Gil Taylor; Haskell Wexler; Dick Bush), or had to leave due to illness (Jordan Cronenweth),  but one cannot underestimate the great talent that a decent DP brings to a film.

 

 

 

 

54 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

The Cincinnati Kid is also very classy looking, and that was shot by Philip H. Lathrop, who I'm mostly unfamiliar with.

 

Check out Lathrop's Oscar nominated cinematography for both THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, and EARTHQUAKE. The latter has a very distinct color palette.

[Chen G. 3,990]

22 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Haskell Wexler;

 

Well, that guy was also a director, so...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Well, that guy was also a director, so...

 

Yeah, but he got fired from ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

[Chen G. 3,990]

1 minute ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Yeah, but he got fired from ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

 

Sure, I'm just saying if you're a DP who also directs, you're sure to be very opinionated on directorial issues, and depending on the director and the project that can get you into trouble...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

2 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Sure, I'm just saying if you're a DP who also directs, you're sure to be very opinionated on directorial issues, and depending on the director and the project that can get you into trouble...

 

... like Peter Hyams and 2010.

Apparently, the suits said that it was too dark.

Peter Andrews, on the other hand, always lights impeccably 

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and at least a dozen more that didn't come up in my Google search.

[Loert 2,519]

Recently rewatched 2001, this is definitely my favourite shot/moment:

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]

Watching it just now, I was surprised how much Alien owns to ASO that I'd never noticed before. No wonder the score was butchered and replaced with existing music.

[A24 4,362]

10 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Watching it just now, I was surprised how much Alien owns to ASO that I'd never noticed before. No wonder the score was butchered and replaced with existing music.

 

That's why I call Alien the dark side of 2001: ASO.

[JTN 2,160]

[Chen G. 3,990]

As if the film wasn't already, to abuse a Tolkien quote, "too full with the kind of Celtic beauty that maddened Anglo-Saxons in a large dose", it literally ends with a sword in the stone...

 

Surely one of the greatest endings of any film, or any work of art. You feel like you're walking on air for the rest of the day afterwards.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

4 hours ago, JTN said:

 

What film is this?

[Faleel 5,400]

25 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

What film is this?

Courageous Muscular Organ

[Edmilson 7,527]

26 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

What film is this?

Tommy Wiseau's The Room 

[Bayesian 1,366]

4 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

What film is this?

I do believe that's the last shot in Braveheart. If I'm right, I'll give credit to the power of strong imagery to form a memory; I haven't watched that movie in maybe 20 years.

 

Speaking of powerful imagery, here's  my latest candidate:

 

 

There is so much going on this shot and I'm going to guess that Gerwig and her team knew exactly what they were going after. This moment occurs at the climax of repeated five-note buildup to the musical sunrise bursting forth over the mountaintop in Also sprach zarathustra -- or, if you prefer, Ken's epiphany. And what does he see at this moment? Bill Clinton in an affable but nonetheless power-projecting pose (in front of Old Glory no less) in the top left corner, where our eye is likely to be drawn first. And that pose stays in place as our eye scans right to see the Marlboro Man (or essence thereof) and down to spot Bush 41 and Reagan, becoming finally the lasting memory of this epiphanic moment.

 

Why Clinton? Why indeed does the montage of masculine images that follows this moment end on a trio of pics of a younger Stallone wearing furs? There's probably a college paper in there waiting to written about how in order to sell the imagery of masculinity in today's world without sparking a social media firestorm Gerwig chose to reference the most recent available era when toxic masculinity (and wearing fur) was more acceptable, which also happens to be an era for which many people today are super nostalgic.

 

Or maybe it's just a movie and I'm way overthinking it.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

Thanks, guys.

I saw BRAVEHEART once, yonks ago, and I have no plans to watch it again.

I know that where I live that's sacrilege, given that the film is almost a national monument up here, but I found very little in it to interest me.

[JTN 2,160]

HIDALGO - Director: Joe Johnston.

[Chen G. 3,990]

13 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Thanks, guys.

I saw BRAVEHEART once, yonks ago, and I have no plans to watch it again.

I know that where I live that's sacrilege, given that the film is almost a national monument up here, but I found very little in it to interest me.

I’m going to abuse a Paderewski quote but it’s “the greatest accomplishment of any artist in any form of human endeavour whatsoever.”

 

Not telling you to go give it another spin right this instant, but...yeah. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

I'm not going to watch it right now, as I have to be up early in the morning, but I'll consider it.

[JTN 2,160]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

I’m going to abuse a Paderewski quote but it’s “the greatest accomplishment of any artist in any form of human endeavour whatsoever.”

 

Not telling you to go give it another spin right this instant, but...yeah. 

I’m not Scottish, but this film makes me want to be”

 

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!”

 

“In the Year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland - starving and outnumbered - charged the fields of Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets; they fought like Scotsmen, and

Spoiler

won their freedom.”

 

[Chen G. 3,990]

I’ve always thought of it as a monument to the power of human conviction. Wallace believes he can take down the English, and his belief is so unshakeable, that it ends up becoming reality against all odds.

 

It mirrors nicely - especially since the director is starring the film - the conviction it must have taken to get it made.

[JTN 2,160]

14 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

I’ve always thought of it as a monument to the power of human conviction. Wallace believes he can take down the English, and his belief is so unshakeable, that it ends up becoming reality against all odds.

And it's really a beautiful tragic love story. Wallace just wanted to be a farmer, and have a family with Murron, the love of his life. Imagine how different history would've turned out had his wish been granted. 

[Chen G. 3,990]

I always saw it as running a little deeper: that Wallace had this really terrible, traumatic, tragic upbringing, and the memory of Murron was the only good thing that he was clinging to, his only chance at a simple, happy life.

[JTN 2,160]

Indeed.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,640]

Look. This is Mel Gibson, guys; it's not Kurosawa.

[JTN 2,160]

And Mel Gibson is a GREAT director.

 

The Man Without a Face, Braveheart, Apocalypto - all amazing films.

[Chen G. 3,990]

44 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Look. This is Mel Gibson, guys; it's not Kurosawa.

 

Oh, I disagree. By far the strongest suit of the film is the way its directed. Its so sure-handed, both in the patience with which it moves along, the effortlessness of these big setpieces, the delicacy with which the dramatic beats are done, and the way stretches of five-ten minutes at a time are told purely visually.

 

I mean, look at this: 

 

 

Its such a simple setup: one long wideshot tracking the father from the house to the horse and back, then a pair of over-shoulders. But the fact that we hold on the wider shot for relatively long and then cut to the closer shot right on the father's reaction really makes his line land very powerfully, and yet its all done so simply.

 

And then, this scene:

 

So, the entire conversation between Wallace and The Bruce is delivered in shot-reaction shot. It gets a little tighter when Wallace implores the Bruce more earnestly, but till now its very standard coverage. But then just before the climax of the scene, we cut to a two-shot, which both makes the big closeup of their hand-shake (its significant that the most dramatic beat in the scene is the tightest shot in the scene) starker AND reminds us of the nobles in the background of it all, who are very much on The Bruce's mind as he's about to make the decision.

 

Again, they're not flashy camera moves. Its all done very simply, and its all the better for it. Takes real balls to direct like that. You'd never guess this man only directed one movie prior to this.

[JTN 2,160]

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

You'd never guess this man only directed one movie prior to this.

Which (THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE) is also a gem, one that Gibson should've deserved at least a Best Actor Oscar nom for. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,239]