Luminous Landscape Forum
Site & Board Matters => About This Site => Topic started by: DarkPenguin on December 12, 2005, 01:04:04 pm
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Apocalypse Now! is pretty high on my list.
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Agreed, DarkPenguin - that was a very visually powerful movie.
The two most obvious ones, to me, weren't on the list:
Jean Cocteau's 1946 "La Belle et Le Bete", his retelling of the "Beauty and the Beast" story in black & white, with atmospheric lighting in a nightmarish/fantastical castle - for B&W photogs only.
Koyanisqatsi, especially the slow aerial shots of the American Southwest.
Lisa
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Interestingly enough Apocalypse Now's cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, also did the cinematography for The Conformist and The Last Emporer. Both from Stott's list.
The man is a genius.
Manhatten is another that would make my list.
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For beautiful Rocky Mountain winter scenes, it's difficult to beat The Claim.
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I've seen "The Third Man" a couple of times, and loved it. I believe the recurring music is performed by a harpsichord, but whatever instrument it is, really adds to the visual pace of parts of the movie.
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OT but, I believe that instrument is a zither, a many-stringed guitar-like instrument. Robbie Robertson plays one in The Last Waltz.
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The Black Stallion. Every shot and camera angle is so carefully composed.
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How can you mention Baraka without reference to the Daddy of such movies - the fantastic Koyaanisqatsi (and the other two movies in the trilogy Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi)? Koyaanisqatsi directed by Gdfrey Reggio and filmed by Ron Fricke with amazing music by Philip Glass is the original in this genre. Without Koyaanisqatsi, Baraka would never have happened. Also Baraka comes across to me as a random collection of unrelated images whereas Koy... has a flow and a consistancy that makes it stand head and shoulders above anything else of its type. The Qatsi trilogy is also touring still with Philip Glass's ensemble providing a "Live" soundtrack. I would implore everybody to see Koy... its a life-changing experience for many.
Regs, Nigels.
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The Third Man...
Watched it again Sunday night. Awesome film!
Taken from http://www.filmsite.org/thir.html. (http://www.filmsite.org/thir.html.)..
"The director knew that the film's musical score could not be reflective of the traditional Old Vienna - waltz music by Strauss. Instead, it would be provided by a solo instrument -- a zither. The jaunty but haunting musical score by Viennese composer/performer Anton Karas lingers long after the film's viewing with its twangy, mermerizing, lamenting, disconcerting (and sometimes irritating) hurdy-gurdy tones. In fact, Karas' musical instrument was a leading film character and advertised as such: "He'll have you in a dither with his zither (a laptop string instrument)." The insistent, chilling music sets a mood of polarized dislocations in the world (e.g., war and play, men and children) and in the corrupted city's 'no-man's-land' environment (with its bombed out, war-torn ruins, dark and slick streets, cemeteries and sewers criss-crossing beneath the sectored zones)."
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Thanks, guys. In 5 yrs, I'll probably forget and think it was a harpsichord again.
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While I can't say that I've seen many, or any of his list, I'd thought I would throw in "Out of Africa." While I've seen many movies that were beautiful to watch over the years, "Out of Africa" is the first and only where I have come away actually talking about how the cinematogphrapher had taken time with scenes that were just plain gorgeous! And served only to show how beautiful that wonderful expanse of nothing but nature can be. I was also fortunate enough to see that movie on the BIG screen, what an experience! Maybe someday . . .
Just my idle thoughts, maybe $.02 worth.
Bill in WV
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One of my favourite movies with regards to landscape, photography and artistry:
"Rivers And Tides" (http://www.riversandtides.com) - Andy Goldsworthy, Working With Time (2001, Germany)
The movie was a winner of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle.
The books by Andy Goldsworthy are also very inspiring!
Cheers,
Andrew
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I loved the photography in both Amelie and House of flying daggers.
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I loved the photography in both Amelie and House of flying daggers.
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I'd agree with both of these, but I think that Ying xiong (Hero in the US) is probably the most visually stunning movie that I've seen. Beautiful, rich use of colour, fantastic cinematography.