Top 50 most visually beautiful movies ever made.
Movies with the most beautiful cinematography, art-direction and over-all use of colors and camera composition.
Personal preference, in some kind of order.
Honorable mentions:
I Killed My Mother The Treasure of Sierra Madre The 400 Blows Blue Velvet Red Shoes Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Fantasia 12 Years a Slave Naked Lunch Inside Llewyn Davis After Hours La Notte Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior Blade Runner Blade Runner 2049 Mommy It Follows Persepolis Manhattan The Revenant Double Life of Veronique Holy Motors The Witch The Killing of a Sacred Deer Dunkirk Run Lola Run Raising Cain Shadows in Paradise Chinese Roulette Blood Simple Body Double Dressed To Kill 964 Pinocchio The Searchers My Darling Clementine Carmen All That Jazz Mildred Pierce Betty Blue Do the Right Thing Port of Shadows Passion
Personal preference, in some kind of order.
Honorable mentions:
I Killed My Mother The Treasure of Sierra Madre The 400 Blows Blue Velvet Red Shoes Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Fantasia 12 Years a Slave Naked Lunch Inside Llewyn Davis After Hours La Notte Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior Blade Runner Blade Runner 2049 Mommy It Follows Persepolis Manhattan The Revenant Double Life of Veronique Holy Motors The Witch The Killing of a Sacred Deer Dunkirk Run Lola Run Raising Cain Shadows in Paradise Chinese Roulette Blood Simple Body Double Dressed To Kill 964 Pinocchio The Searchers My Darling Clementine Carmen All That Jazz Mildred Pierce Betty Blue Do the Right Thing Port of Shadows Passion
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- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsRichard GereBrooke AdamsSam ShepardA hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.If you could describe this movie with one word, it would be: beautiful.
Malick's landscapes are as epic as those of John Ford's, yet they are tinged with dream-like haziness. A lot of wide shots, but also some energetic, hand-held camera as well.
Most of the film is shot during the "magic hour", where the sunlight is dim, but present with wonderful, warm colors.
I know it's cliche to put this as you number 1, but the people who say that this is the most beautiful movie ever made, are not wrong. - DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsMargarita TerekhovaFilipp YankovskiyIgnat DaniltsevA dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.Tarkovsky was one of the most visually talented directors of all time. Not only in his framing, movement and use of color but also how he used time to create a mood and completely hypnotize an audience. Tarkovsky creates a nostalgic feel with the use of long shots and experimental montage.
The Mirror is one of the greatest films ever crafted. It's hypnotic, raw, elegant and, most importantly for this list, absolutely stunning. - DirectorTerrence MalickStarsMartin SheenSissy SpacekWarren OatesAn impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town, and her older greaser boyfriend, embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.Would be number 1, but here and there you can see some of that low budget stuff. Still mind-blowingly beautiful, the desert hasn't looked so haunting since Lawrence of Arabia. There are so many great shots, first one comes to mind is a shot of Kit (Martin Sheen) in the desert with his shotgun and it's not night, but the sun is coming down and you can see the moon behind him.
Malick showed that you can make a movie with excellent cinematography, with a low-budget. - DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJack NicholsonFaye DunawayJohn HustonA private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.Chinatown constantly subverts your expectations of a noir film in it's story, in it's characters and in it's cinematography. Rather than being shot in a super contrasty black and white style, it's in color and there are hardly any shots of looming shadows in a dark alleyway or really heavy use of expressionistic lightning in general. It's more natural, the Californian sun is bright and hot, giving the film almost a sweaty look at times.
I could write about Chinatown a lot, it's my favorite movie afterall, but I probably shouldn't. Chinatown's natural cinematography works because it's simple. It's not flashy, rather it highlights the exceptional costume and production design, and sometimes that's what cinematography is there to do. Also, the work Stanley Cortez did (mostly the orange grove scenes) are really beautiful. - DirectorAleksey GermanStarsYuriy TsuriloNina RuslanovaJüri Järvet Jr.Late winter 1953. The lives of nearly half the planet are in Stalin's hands.German mostly uses wide-angle lenses and crams every frame with so much information and detail it's tempting to constantly pause the film to explore each one of them. His shots, while often hectic and chaotic, go on effortlessly, full of energy. His camera isn't a silent, passive observer, rather it's an active element in the world of the story.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsJean-Louis TrintignantStefania SandrelliGastone MoschinA weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.One of the greatest films ever made. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is out of this world. Bertolucci's and Storaro's collaboration on The Last Tango in Paris is also spectacular and probably just as good.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsMargit CarstensenHanna SchygullaKatrin SchaakeA troubled fashion designer strikes up a romance with a much younger woman.This masterpiece by the German new wave director Rainer Werner Fassbinder could have easily had the look of a cheap student film or simply a recording of a stage play, but Michael Ballhaus' camera work keeps re-inventing the room, at times showing it as a claustrophobic nightmare and at other times as a vast, empty and a lonely place.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsLars RudolphPeter FitzHanna SchygullaA naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.This film lasts 145 minutes and contains only 39 shots, which won't surprise anyone who knows who Bela Tarr is. His long takes are legendary for their complexity and elegant movement, shot in beautifully contrast black and white. Tarr's slow cinema won't be for everyone, but if you're curious, this is the place to start. After this, your next stop should be his infamous 7 hour masterpiece Satantango.
- DirectorCharles LaughtonStarsRobert MitchumShelley WintersLillian GishA self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsRyan O'NealMarisa BerensonPatrick MageeAn Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAlejandro JodorowskyHoracio SalinasZamira SaundersIn a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.Christopher Doyle and Wong Kar Wai are up there as one of the greatest director-cinematographer collaboration ever, next to Fassbinder and Ballhaus and Bergman and Nykvist. Doyle's use of color and movement works beautifully with Wong's sense of pace, all of their films have a melancholic, dreamy quality. ITMFL is possibly their most polished piece, visually at least, but their earlier efforts, like Fallen Angels and Days of Being Wild are brilliant as well.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsSergey DreydenMariya KuznetsovaLeonid MozgovoyA 19th century French aristocrat, notorious for his scathing memoirs about life in Russia, travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and encounters historical figures from the last 200+ years.Noted for being the first feature length film shot in one continuous take, Alexander Sokurov's 2002 masterpiece is gorgeously haunting. A technical marvel yes, but also an emotionally affecting visual journey as well.
- DirectorPaul SchraderStarsKen OgataMasayuki ShionoyaHiroshi MikamiA fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.One of the most original bio-pics ever made. How Schrader switches from highly stylized visual style, to more natural, is wonderful to look at.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinVirginia CherrillFlorence LeeWith the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJonathan PryceKim GreistRobert De NiroA bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsJenny AgutterDavid GulpililLuc RoegTwo city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKinuyo TanakaTsukie MatsuuraIchirô SugaiFollows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society.Before the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr, it was Kenji Mizoguchi who was the master of the long take. The action in his films is shot with wide lenses and from a distance, with the camera moving with the actors, preferring movement over cutting.
Though it's not true, it often feels like every single scene is one-shot. That combined with wonderful lightning gives Mizoguchi's films a unique sense of rhythm. - DirectorWim WendersStarsHarry Dean StantonNastassja KinskiDean StockwellTravis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsJean GabinDanielle DarrieuxSimone SimonThree separate stories about the same thing: le plaisir (pleasure).The camera movements in this film are so gorgeous, especially the first brothel scene. You can see how influential this was.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJoaquin PhoenixPhilip Seymour HoffmanAmy AdamsA Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by the Cause and its charismatic leader.
- DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsNobuko OtowaJitsuko YoshimuraKei SatôTwo women kill samurai and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.