There are lots of shots in films that I really love and make the film for me.
I've had cause to revisit this film today and really really love this scene, think it is very clever and I have the DVD which shows you how it was made.
So share your bit of cinematography.

The Rules of Attraction split screen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzv_B-f0t9o)

I love the first ten minuets of the Constant Gardener, an awesome piece of cinematography. I am not a western fan but I also love Sergio Leone's “For a Few Dollars More”, for me it is about as perfect as it can get.

For me it's the deleted scene from Kubricks Eyes Wide Shut, it's almost pornographic but I love the light, the set and the effect of the music, there's no speech, there's no need for speech and despite the sex it's just gorgeous.

There are lots of shots in films that I really love and make the film for me.
I've had cause to revisit this film today and really really love this scene, think it is very clever and I have the DVD which shows you how it was made.
So share your bit of cinematography.

The Rules of Attraction split screen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzv_B-f0t9o)

That was clever, I haven't seen the film and didn't expect that to happen.

One that had me rewinding to double check recently was the long, seemingly one take spaceship scene in the early part of Serenity.

Bamboo forest fight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQw5s2oiqk0&feature=related) and Farewell scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjFQKLtIzGA&feature=related) from 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'.

Almost every frame of "the french connection" could be printed up as a perfectly composed photograph. The scenes of Antonius Block playing Death at chess in "The Seventh Seal" are another pleasure, as is the 30 minute scene in "Rififi" where the jewel thieves execute their audacious (for 1955) theft, without a word of dialogue or a note of music. Riveting.

But the crown goes to Nic Roeg for Walkabout

I like that edna, haven't seen that film.

I like the scene in Papillion where he has the dream/nightmare when he is in isolation, there is a long outdoor corridor and someone is upside down and the voiceover says 'you're dead'...makes me shudder thinking about it. In fact the whole of that film is shot really well.

This remains one of my favourite ever scenes in the movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEUGF3NGbPg

It is such a simple scene with hardly any camera trickery (unlike the later installments), but it says everything about the movie you are watching; a familiar sight - a sunset made fantastical.

Mod man and Kathy - Rules of Attraction is one of my favourite films. It's another Brett Easton Ellis creation so if you liked American Psycho, it's worth watching with the benefit of Roger Avary involvement as well. There are some truly amazing scenes. One involving snow took my breath away...


Anyway here's another one. Cameras panning always impresses me.
Donnie Darko and Tears for Fears (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJPa0bvWnM)

Anyway here's another one. Cameras panning always impresses me.
Donnie Darko and Tears for Fears (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJPa0bvWnM)

I was impressed when i saw Donnie, and considering he was writer director at 26? That's just depressing :P

The whole film is a gem for me but i have a little nagging voice the Rabbit? anyone seen Sexy Beast? made in the previous year? Check the dream sequence in the desert and look for the Rabbit. ;)

It must be late, I'll dig some films out tomorrow and post on the thread.

One of my favourite scenes (for cinematography) is the capsizing of the passenger liner scene in Poseidon Adventure

the editing is soo sharp

A recent one but definitely a scene thats a worthy mention.

Atonement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB8tVQ_pWFA&feature=related)

A classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWYe-Ef3u5M

Goodfellas club scene

Anyway here's another one. Cameras panning always impresses me.
Donnie Darko and Tears for Fears (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJPa0bvWnM)

I've always liked that scene too.

The dream sequence in Spellbound (created by Dali)

Full of psycho-babble but I love Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck together

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzMF4EuVUi4

I love this scene from Buffalo 66:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9060994581203752459

Off the top of my head, the opening scenes to Saving Private Ryan on the D-Day beaches. Handheld cameras make the experience very real. Not many films make me cry but the opening 23mins of that film did, and still do.

I've always liked that scene too.

The dream sequence in Spellbound (created by Dali)

Full of psycho-babble but I love Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck together

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzMF4EuVUi4

Thanks for that. That's really interesting and I enjoyed reading the story behind it.
On a dream perspective, I think anyone who has not seen the whole of this amazing film will have seen this on Disney Time. I showed it to my class recently to do with some dream work and they were transfixed!
The Sorceror's apprentice from Fantasia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD8HDta7Z_4)

I love the look of Sin City.

Mean Streets' scene with Keitel drunk off his face - fixed camera focussed on his face throughout http://youtube.com/watch?v=sCHJAEuSyVo is a use of camera technique that I always enjoy. Emulated well in the 'lost at cards' moments of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels http://youtube.com/watch?v=tyASsU1Wg4Y (and also to comic effect on Mitchell & Webb for the Digby Chicken Caesar drunk moments http://youtube.com/watch?v=QACSo5xk3dE)

I'm also a fan of the use of the Dolly Zoom (or Vertigo Zoom), the technique popularised by Spielberg in Jaws whereby the scene around the actor/actors pulls back to a different perspective, but with the key focus remaining the same. A compilation of examples can be found http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y48R6-iIYHs

A lot of scenes where I love the cinematograhy also involve very powerful soundtrack work.

Here are some of my favourites....

The scene in Goodfellas where Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci) thinks he's going to become a 'made man' and walks in to a room to the extended coda of Eric Clapton's 'Layla', only to realise that he's actually going to be executed. He says soemthing like 'Oh No' and then bang. The music had been used in other parts of the film associated with this character dishing out violence. Excellent.

The 'crucifixion by fire' scene in 'Platoon', where Sergeant Elias is shot to death, to Barber's Adagio for Strings.

The 'Change of Seasons' scene in 'Notting Hill' where the camera pans through the market place, covering a year of time passing shown by the effects of the weather on the maket stalls. It's a great, continuous sequence to Bill Withers' 'Ain't no sunshine'.

Russian Ark

It's been just over 5 years since i saw this, It's one continuous Steady Cam shot! Technically it's breathtaking.

Tagline
2,000 Actors. 300 Years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. 1 Single Continuous Shot.

A well known critic wrote

"Apart from anything else, this is one of the best-sustained ideas I have ever seen on the screen....The effect of the unbroken flow of images (experimented with in the past by directors like Hitchcock and Max Ophuls) is uncanny. If cinema is sometimes dreamlike, then every edit is an awakening. Russian Ark spins a daydream made of centuries."

Mean Streets' scene with Keitel drunk off his face - fixed camera focussed on his face throughout http://youtube.com/watch?v=sCHJAEuSyVo is a use of camera technique that I always enjoy. Emulated well in the 'lost at cards' moments of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels http://youtube.com/watch?v=tyASsU1Wg4Y (and also to comic effect on Mitchell & Webb for the Digby Chicken Caesar drunk moments http://youtube.com/watch?v=QACSo5xk3dE)

I'm also a fan of the use of the Dolly Zoom (or Vertigo Zoom), the technique popularised by Spielberg in Jaws whereby the scene around the actor/actors pulls back to a different perspective, but with the key focus remaining the same. A compilation of examples can be found http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y48R6-iIYHs

Yeah Dolly zoom always looks really good. There is a really good example of that in Cape Fear (the remake) onto Jessica Lange if i remember rightly... and in Thriller just Michael joins in the zombie dance. :hihi:(8:27) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8)
God I remember paying £1.50 to get that out of the video shop! On several occasions!

I'm a big fan of the apartment shoot-out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlbSDqa5DtU) from 'Leon'. Beautifully shot with an ever increasing sense of malice, interspersed with moments of tragicomedy. I fully agree with Joe P as well, soundtrack plays such a part in creating memorable scenes.

Also the scene in 'Alien' where Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) is looking for the cat is a favourite.

I can't find a clip anywhere on t'internet, but the opening sequence of 28 Days Later showing Cillian Murphy wandering the deserted streets of london is a very haunting piece of cinema.

I wondered how on earth they managed to film it at first, but found out that it was filmed at about 4.30am in mid-summer and they got permission to close off certain roads to do it. I can't remember what the soundtrack that goes with it is, but it is altogether a very powerful piece of cinematography.

If you'll forgive me bringing the tone down a bit, I have always had a soft spot for the opening titles of 'Working Girl': helicopter shot circling the Statue of Liberty, slowly pulling out and then flying away and down to catch the Staten Island Ferry, dropping down to match its speed and come alongside, passing the passenger deck, and then an almost invisible wipe to a speed-matched track along the deck, finally coming to rest at a bench occupied by the main characters. Very smooth piece of work, I thought IMHO!

I'm always a big fan of lighting and use of colour in films. 2046 is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6WarMpaEig

I think someone added the song but you get the idea, the music is more like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq0HCQheT6U&feature=related

Another favourite scene in a film is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-DjluKLY14&feature=related

the lighting is stunning.

I love Buffalo 66 and Spellbound as has already been mentioned. Buffalo 66 is beautiful, every image fits perfectly into the film, even Christina Ricci's hair matches her outfit and is the perfect antithesis to Vincent Gallo. Eveything looks perfect.

If you'll forgive me bringing the tone down a bit, I have always had a soft spot for the opening titles of 'Working Girl': helicopter shot circling the Statue of Liberty, slowly pulling out and then flying away and down to catch the Staten Island Ferry, dropping down to match its speed and come alongside, passing the passenger deck, and then an almost invisible wipe to a speed-matched track along the deck, finally coming to rest at a bench occupied by the main characters. Very smooth piece of work, I thought IMHO!

Ooh that's another film i'd forgotten about and quite like!

Serenity - the 'introduction to the crew' shot which begins from outside the ship looking into the cockpit, then follows Mal through the craft as he feeds info to those onboard. One of the best ways to introduce the gang in a short time, and even those who knew nothing about the show (Firefly) can straight away identify the personalities of all the crew.


In fact......(skitters off to watch it before bedtime whilst pondering where the word skitters just came from...never used that one before)

In terms of cinematography I'm kind of predictable- the only 2 DVDs I have ever bought for myself were Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi (I have a number of DVDs, but the rest were bought for me).

For those who haven't seen Koyaanisqatsi, it's a scriptless film directed by Godfrey Reggio with a soundtrack by Philip Glass. Most of it is done in time-lapse photography and I find the imagery hypnotic and rich.

This remains one of my favourite ever scenes in the movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEUGF3NGbPg

It is such a simple scene with hardly any camera trickery (unlike the later installments), but it says everything about the movie you are watching; a familiar sight - a sunset made fantastical.

Haha, I'm glad I looked through first... I saw this topic, had a think about it and was on the verge of posting the exact same thing.

For me it has to be anything from either Sin City or 300. Both were master peices from beggining to end. You can watch both films as a series of pictures you dont even have to pay attention to the story line (although i love them too)