Favorite Movies for Cinematography

[David Mullen ASC]

This is a list I compiled a few years ago, more or less off the top of my head, of my favorite movies for cinematography. For some, it may be the look of the whole film while for others, it may be key images they contain. I also want to note that I used the term "favorite" not "best" -- I've never been fond of "best of" lists since they sort of smack of elitism, plus who am I to judge what the "best" is?

FAVORITE CINEMATOGRAPHY BY DECADE

Silent Era:
Broken Blossoms (1919)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
The Last Laugh (1922)
Nosferatu (1922)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Sparrows (1926)
Metropolis (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
Wings (1927)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

1930’s:
All’s Quiet On the Western Front (1930)
Morocco (1930)
Dishonored (1931)
Scarlet Empress (1934)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935)
Garden of Allah (1936)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

1940’s:
Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
Citizen Kane (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Henry V (1944)
Jane Eyre (1944)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Spellbound (1945)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Duel in the Sun (1946)
Great Expectations (1946)
A Matter of Life & Death (1946)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Fugitive (1947)
Out of the Past (1947)
Hamlet (1948)
Oliver Twist (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Third Man (1949)


1950’s:
Rashomon (1950)
An American in Paris (1951)
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Othello (1952)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
Pather Panchali (1955)
Aparajito (1956)
Lust for Life (1956)
Moby Dick (1956)
The Searchers (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
Apur Sansar (1959)
Ben-Hur (1959)

1960’s:
Psycho (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
El Cid (1961)
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Yojimbo (1961)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Cleopatra (1963)
8 1/2 (1963)
Hud (1963)
The Trial (1963)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
I Am Cuba (1964)
Dr. Zhivago (1965)
Help! (1965)
Red Beard (1965)
Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1967)
In Cold Blood (1967)
Hell in the Pacific (1968)
Romeo & Juliet (1968)
2001 (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Wild Bunch (1969)

1970’s:
The Conformist (1970)
Patton (1970)
Ryan’s Daughter (1970)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Devils (1971)
Fiddler On The Roof (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
Klute (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Cabaret (1972)
Cries & Whispers (1972)
Deliverence (1972)
Fat City (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
Last Tango In Paris (1972)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Paper Moon (1973)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
Chinatown (1974)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Lucky Lady (1974)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Sugerland Express (1974)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Day of the Locust (1975)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
All the President’s Men (1976)
Bound For Glory (1976)
Network (1976)
1900 (1976)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976)
Robin & Marion (1976)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Duelists (1977)
Eraserhead (1977)
The Exorcist II (1977)
Jesus of Nazarith (1977)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Interiors (1978)
Superman (1978)
Agatha (1979)
Alien (1979)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Dracula (1979)
Manhattan (1979)
1941 (1979)
Tess (1979)

1980’s:
The Elephant Man (1980)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
The Shining (1980)
Stardust Memories (1980)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
Excalibur (1981)
Pennies From Heaven (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Reds (1981)
True Confessions (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
Das Boot (1982)
E.T. (1982)
One From the Heart (1982)
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
Fanny & Alexander (1983)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Rumblefish (1983)
Wagner (1983)
Yentl (1983)
Amadeus (1984)
Dune (1984)
Greystoke (1984)
The Natural (1984)
1984 (1984)
Brazil (1985)
The Color Purple (1985)
Ladyhawke (1985)
Legend (1985)
Mishima (1985)
Out of Africa (1985)
Ran (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
The Mission (1986)
A Room With A View (1986)
Angel Heart (1987)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
The Last Emperor (1987)
Red Sorghum (1987)
Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)
Baron Munchausen (1988)
Tequila Sunrise (1988)
Tucker (1988)
Born On the Fourth of July (1989)
Fat Man & Little Boy (1989)
Mountains of the Moon (1989)

1990’s:
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Dick Tracy (1990)
Ju Dou (1990)
The Godfather, Part III (1990)
Hamlet (Zefferilli) (1990)
Henry & June (1990)
Memphis Belle (1990)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
The Sheltering Sky (1990)
Barton Fink (1991)
Bugsy (1991)
Delicatessen (1991)
The Doors (1991)
JFK (1991)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Terminator II (1991)
Tous Les Matins Du Monde (1991)
Batman Returns (1992)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Far & Away (1992)
1492 (1992)
Jennifer 8 (1992)
Howard’s End (1992)
Like Water For Chocolate (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Little Buddha (1993)
The Piano (1993)
Remains of the Day (1993)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Wyatt Earp (1994)
Braveheart (1995)
Casino (1995)
City of Lost Children (1995)
Crimson Tide (1995)
Flamenco (1995)
A Little Princess (1995)
Nixon (1995)
Seven (1995)
A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
The English Patient (1996)
Evita (1996)
Fargo (1996)
Michael Collins (1996)
Amistad (1997)
Character (1997)
Kundun (1997)
Titanic (1997)
A Civil Action (1998)
Dark City (1998)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Tango (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Matrix (1999)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Snow Falling On Cedars (1999)

 

[timindecisive]

Hers's a few that you forgot...
The Wizzard Of Oz 30's
Battle Of Britain 60's
Tora! Tora! Tora! 60's
The Thing 80's
The Sound Of Music 60's
Oklahoma! 60's
Dances With Wolves 90's
AND
Gone With The Wind 30's

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I had "Gone With the Wind" on my list...

Like I said, it's a "favorite" list compiled by just thinking of my favorite images in movies, or movies I have rewatched for the cinematography. There will be films I've missed or forgotten about, and some I haven't seen yet.

 

[tomthehun]

Mr. Mullen,

that's a nice list...
which european waves/cinematographers influenced your work most?
any favourite ones?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Some of my earliest and biggest influences have been British cinematographers (Geoffrey Unsworth, Ozzie Morris, David Watkin, John Alcott, Freddie Young, Freddie Francis, Jack Cardiff, etc.) In fact, the first time I learned what a cinematographer was happened when I was 15, after I saw "Superman" and wondered who this Geoffrey Unsworth was that the movie was dedicated to (he had just died during the production of "Tess.")

It was seeing that movie, and seeing "Close Encounters" (Zsigmond) and "2001" (Unsworth / Alcott) the year before that got me interested in filmmaking ("2001" had just premiered on national TV that year.) At the time, I was a big science-fiction nut, having grown up watching Japanese monster movies and "Star Trek" reruns.

By the time I got to college, I became a big fan of Kurosawa films, after seeing the theatrical release of "Kagemusha". Being half-Japanese, I've always had a fascination with that culture.

If you don't count the British, my earliest influences from Europe were mainly these three cinematographers:

Nestor Almendros. The combination of reading his book and seeing his work. I think "The Last Metro" had just come out theatrically. I was fascinated to read that it was shot on Fuji at a time when everyone was shooting Kodak.

Vittorio Storaro. I remember the impact of seeing "Apocalypse Now" and then "Reds" when they came out while I was college. His way of thinking about matching the color and lighting progression with the story progression is still how I approach most of my projects.

Sven Nykvist. Saw a lot of his movies in college.

I also became fascinated with some of the b&w work of Kazuo Miyagawa (Yojimbo, Ugetsu) and Gabriel Figueroa (The Fugitive). Much later I saw the Apu trilogy and loved that cinematography. Also loved Gunnar Fischer's work for Bergman (in fact, I prefer his b&w work for Bergman over Nykvist's b&w work, but that's just because I love theatricalism over realism, and high-contrast b&w lighting.)

And of course, speaking of high-contrast b&w, who can forget "Citizen Kane"... (not that that's European...)

 

[Digigenic]

Whoa, that's a phenomenal list

Here’s a cluttered list of relatively recent movies that have an aesthetic appeal to me.
I can’t possibly list all of the ones I love, but these came to immediate memory.
I didn’t categorize them by decade or list them in any particular order.

Magnolia
Punch Drunk Love
The Royal Tenenbaums
Rushmore
Trainspotting
Baraka…..Ron Fricke / Ron Fricke
Hackers
SLC Punk
La Haine
The Man Who Wasn’t There…..Coen bros. / Roger Deakins
Donnie Darko
Was tun, wenn's brennt?
Being John Malkovich
Spun
Requiem for a Dream
Fear and Loathing Las Vegas
Edward Scissorhands
Legend
Batman
Batman Returns
LOTR
The Hudsucker Proxy
Charlie’s Angle’s Full Throttle
Gangs of New York
Kill Bill I&II
Pulp Fiction
Sexy Beast
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Minority Report
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lost in Translation
Northfork... :wink:


And of course…

Blade Runner
Brazil
Star Wars 3-6
Exorcist
Poltergeist
Christine
Aliens
ET
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Indiana Jones 1-3
Apocalypse Now
Clockwork Orange
2001 Space Odyssey
Full Metal Jacket
Taxi Driver
The Godfather I&II
Citizen Kane
Touch of Evil
Psycho

 

[DerekEastham]

Those lists are really awsome...
So, I suppose I'll put mine down too...
it's more like Digigenic's... no particular order... no categorization... just the movies with an asthetic appeal to me in no particular order.

Garden State
Lost in Translation
Adaptation
American Beauty
American Grafiti
Anna and the King
Batteries Not Included
A Beautiful Mind
Black Hawk Down
Brave Heart
Cast Away
Citizen Kane
Cocoon
Contact
Deep Impact
The Edge
Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas
The Fugitive (Harrison Ford)
The Ghost and the Darkness
The Green Mile
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter andthe Prisoner of Azkaban
Jaws
Jurassic Park
K19
Intolerable Cruelty
K-Pax
Kill Bill (1&2)
The Last Samurai
Lord of the Rings Trillogy
The Majestic
The Matrix Trillogy
The Mothman Prophecies
The Mummy
Ocean's Eleven
Panic Room
The Patriot
Patriot Games
Pearl Harbor
Pulp Fiction
Proof of Life
Requiem for a Dream
Road to Perdition
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Second Hand Lions
Seven Years in Tibet
The Shawshank Redemption
Signs
Silence of the Lambs
Snatch
Star Wars Episodes 5 & 6
That Thinkg You DO
Vanilla Sky
We Were Soldiers
Witness
X-MEN 2
Big Fish
The Ring
Rounders
ThApocalypse Now
Unbreakable
Far and Away
Blue Velvet
Mulholland Drive
The Straight Story
The Man who Wasn't There
The Big Lebowski
Equilebrium
Napolean Dynamite
The Royal Tenenbaums
SLC Punk
Rushmore
Magnolia
Donnie Darko
Edward Scisorhands
Minority Report
A.I.
Blade Runner
Poltergeist
ET
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Indiana Jones 1, 2 & 3
Touch of Evil
Casablanca
The Third Man
Passion of the Christ
Alien
I-Robot
Sleepy Hollow
Little Black Book
You've Got Mail
The Terminal
and... one last one...
HERO

 

[Digigenic]

Ahhh Crap :lol: , now I have to go back and add more to mine... :wink:

Good list though man, you pinned down quite a few films I would have liked to put in mine.
This is a good excercise; it really makes me take a step back and look at where I'm drawing my style from, while exposing other areas of influence I should consider paying more attention to.
8)

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I'm sort of wary of listing anything made in the past four years as I'm still digesting them. I'm always suspicious when a recent movie gets hailed a classic!

Off the top of my head, though, I'd be listing some of Kaminski's work (A.I., Catch Me if You Can, Minority Report, Lost Souls -- which he directed but didn't shoot), more of Roger Deakin's work (especially Man Who Wasn't There), the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Amelie, Heat & The Insider, In the Mood For Love, Fallen Angels, etc.

 

[tomthehun]

ah, one of my favourites from the east...the Kar Wai films. What do you think of 'Hero' (of Doyle's work in it)?
I Haven't heard of his "new" projects recently. He has been shooting a sci-fi for a couple of years, if I'm right.

I'm studying film history as well, so mostly my weekly 'duty' is to watch 8-10 films (classics mainly). Mr. Mullen's list is like a must-see list in our major...unfortunately, some of them are rarities, can't get it here.

I can hardly follow today's movies...I'm sort of full (of images)...
So, some of the films you listed above I haven't even heard of. Sorry.

 

[DerekEastham]

As a child of the 80's and 90's... most of the films I've seen are in that time period... so I tend to list things taht just spoke to me... in this post, they're all from an asthetic point of view...

And now that you mention it... Amile... lol... should have been 2nd or 3rd on my list... as well, Catch Me If You Can should have too...

It's a very difficult task to remember all of the films that appealed to me from this particular point of view...
Especially when I don't own all of the films that I want to... at least... not yet.

This is a great exercise though... I'm totally with you on that Digi... it get's me thinking about movies I haven't seen yet... so that I'll go rent them and watch them with my new paycheck...

Hopefully more get posted soon!

 

[David Mullen ASC]

"Hero" has yet to be released here in the U.S. but the trailer looks great.

 

[DerekEastham]

HERO hasn't been released here yet... looks like it'll get released around the same time as Garden State... August 20th...

However, one of my roommates bought a region free DVD of the film on-line... so we watched it... it's wonderfully amazing & beautiful! WOW!

 

[tomthehun]

Mr Mullen,

what do you think of 'Man with the movie machine' by Dziga Vertov?
as a cinematographer's point of view?

I read some of Eizenstein's films on your list. What do you think about his images? He had the ability to draw sketches...

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I've never seen "Man With a Movie Camera"...

I love Tisse's compositions and lighting in "Potemkin" and "Nevsky." And the Mexico film. Someone once said that the reason Tisse was not more influential was that it was too hard to copy him.

 

[laurent.a]

about vertov's (my point of view) :

He was an editor, working with eisenstein.

He built up a "manifest" , called somehow " glass-film" : the principle was : you make no directing, put the camera here or there and shoot, with no intentions. "Cinéma-vérité". But, as he was experimenting editing technics for telling a story (koulechov...) he actually totatly broke his "dogma" in directing... at the editing.

The film actually begins with a sort of "opera" scene shot in a cinema theater. The music was composed especially for the film, and was played in the theaters it was showed. (it was time of silent films).

You have the seats moving by themselves in rythm... It necessarly was directed. Then you have shots of a projection operator in the booth, loading film in the projector, and starting to project, with parallel edited shots of inside the theater (the seats).

Then the "day" of a woman begins : wakes up... then shots of a scene in a town, then a scene nearby the railway... The scenes afterwards, though they are of esthetical interest are not so diegetically that interesting, since you have knowledge and analysis of what I said before.

There is somehow a surrealistic treatment and dimension that l like precurssing somehow first bunuel's and dali's film, to me.

 

[kenz0r]

I 100% AGREE with your favorites; in the 70's category it's quite clear your a Zsigmond fan! I heard McCabe and Mrs. Miller was shot on an old Mitchell BNC and that the biggest problem he had was not all that technical, but really only parallax! I also find it extremely fascinating at the method he used when he shot deliverance and the method they used in post, if you're familiar with it, if not, what he did was use the (now nonexistant) three-print technicolor technique, to get the most out of the emulsion, and then developed a black and white print seperately, and then SANDWICHED the two together, thats amazing how he thought of that ON TOP OF reinventing the flashing technique. ahhh Zsigmond is by far my favorite(and most imspiring) cinematographer, who's yours?

 

[dvcine]

The Third Man is archetypically excellent, if that's a word. It's also a blatant rip-off of a 1946 East German film called "Murders are Among Us"...Or if not a rip off, one heck of an unmentioned tribute! Not unlike the delightful "Purple Noon", with its wonderful, free-wheeling style of cinematography by Henri Decae. Made in 1960, it has an open, spontaneous quality; its the original 'Talented Mr Ripley', though that never really got much mention in the press either. Great colors, worth a gander, in my opinion. The delightful "Children of Paradise" is also quite an acheivement, esp for a film made under less-than-ideal conditions (Nazi Occupation), the film sparkles, the models blend wonderfully, the sets merge perfectly with the story.

 

[conec]

I love those films that you have never heard that you see by mistake, usually late at night when you know you have to get up early.
The most recent event of this for me was Kurt Vonneguts - Breakfast of champions. Amazing!!
I realise I'm defo into cinematography. Another film I saw by mistake was The Hudstucker Proxy. Cool, whenever I ask people about it they have never heard of it.
Will be happy here

 

[escapingmyshadow]

asc ace

asc ace

what does that mean. You see ace with editing and asc for DoP