Wednesday, March 10, 2010

POLL 72: EXQUISITE CINEMATOGRAPHY

POLL 72: EXQUISITE CINEMATOGRAPHY

My poll 72 is inspired by my conversation with a friend about INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA, which I think is one of the most exquisite films ever made. So I think I should compile a list of films with beautiful cinematography or beautiful images.

I'm not sure if the exquisite images in the following films are mostly the results of the cinematographers, or the directors, or the art direction/production design units, or the lighting technicians.

I LOVE THE EXQUISITE CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THESE FILMS. WHICH ONES DO YOU LIKE?

1.L'AUTRE RIVE (1986, Etant Donnes, France)

2.CHRISTINE (1958, Pierre Gaspard-Huit, France)
director of photography – Christian Matras

3.CLASS TRIP (1998, Claude Miller, France)
DP – Guillaume Schiffman

4.THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES (1968, Sergei Paradjanov, Soviet)
DP – Suren Shakhbazyan

5.LE CRABE-TAMBOUR (1977, Pierre Schoendoerffer, France)
DP – Raoul Coutard
I love the images of the ship in the cold ocean in this film.

6.DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978, Terrence Malick, USA)
DP – Néstor Almendros

7.DECEMBER BRIDE (1991, Thaddeus O'Sullivan, UK)
DP – Bruno de Keyzer

8.FIREFLIES (2005, Chawit Waewsawangwong, Thailand)

9.INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA (1995, Stephen Quay + Timothy Quay, UK)
DP – Nicholas D. Knowland

10.KALYI (1993, Fred Kelemen, Germany)

11.THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992, Terence Davies, UK)
DP – Michael Coulter

12.MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
DP – Lee Ping Bin

13.THE MOON IN THE GUTTER (1983, Jean-Jacques Beineix, France)
DP – Philippe Rousselot

14.MY MINE (ความในใจ) (2009, Woratouch Wattanagune, Thailand)

15.PHANTOM LOVE (2007, Nina Menkes, USA)
DP – Christopher Soos

16.PRISONER (นักโทษ) (2009, Prachaya Lampongchat, Thailand)

17.PROSPERO'S BOOKS (1991, Peter Greenaway, UK)
DP – Sacha Vierny

18.THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (2003, Guy Maddin, UK)
DP – Luc Montpellier

19.A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY (1984, Bertrand Tavernier, France)
DP – Bruno de Keyzer

20.VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS (1970, Jaromil Jires, Czechoslovakia)
DP – Jan Curík

You can cast multiple votes.

--In the Thai book Filmvirus 2, Sonthaya Subyen wrote about some interesting European cinematographers, including:

1.Boris Kaufman
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0442100/

2.Carlo Di Palma
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005688/

3.Dante Spinotti
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005883/

4.Darius Khondji
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0451787/

5.Eduardo Serra
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0785381/

6.Gianni Di Venanzo
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005689/

7.Giuseppe Rotunno
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005850/

8.Henri Alekan

9.Igor Luther

10.Jean-Yves Escoffier
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0260389/

11.Michael Ballhaus
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000841/

12.Néstor Almendros

13.Peter Suschitzky
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005893/

14.Philippe Rousselot

15.Piotr Sobocinski

16.Raoul Coutard

17.Robby Müller
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005810/

18.Rudolph Maté
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005789/

19.Sacha Vierny

20.Slawomir Idziak
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005744/

21.Sven Nykvist
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005815/

22.Thierry Arbogast
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005636/

23.Tonino Delli Colli
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005686/

24.Vittorio Storaro

--If I remember it correctly, Sonthaya likes the cinematography of TO DIE LIKE A MAN (2009, João Pedro Rodrigues), of which the cinematographer is Rui Poças.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0694874/


--This poll only includes films with beautiful images. There are also other films whose cinematography I like very much for other reasons, such as

1.Unshowy quality
Films with William Lubtchansky as director of photography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005779/

2.Mise-en-scene
THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) DP – Michael Ballhaus


3.Extraordinary camera movement

3.1 I AM CUBA (1964, Mikhail Kalatozov) DP – Sergei Urussevsky
3.2 THE PASSENGER (1975, Michaelangelo Antonioni) DP – Luciano Tovoli
3.3 RUSSIAN ARK (2002, Alexander Sokurov) DP – Tilman Büttner
3.4 SHARA (2003, Naomi Kawase) DP – Yutaka Yamasaki
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0694874/


4.Camera angles

4.1 BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL - NEW ORLEANS (2009, Werner Herzog) DP – Peter Zeitlinger
I like the iguana shots in this film.

4.2 LAW OF DESIRE (1987, Pedro Almodóvar) DP – Ángel Luis Fernández
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0273795/
I like the typewriter shot in this film, if I remember it correctly.

2 comments:

celinejulie said...

My own votes are for L'AUTRE RIVE, CLASS TRIP, DAYS OF HEAVEN, DECEMBER BRIDE, FIREFLIES, INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA, KALYI, MY MINE, PROSPERO'S BOOKS, and A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY.

Vespertine said...

i really love the visual in Law of Desire too. The type writer, the room, the church, the times in Spain in that era.

Btw, i just written my blog again, u can visit me there na ja. http://tetecinema.wordpress.com