Wolfcrow's 100 Films to See for Cinematography
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Great films all filmmakers and cinematographers must see for cinematography. By wolfcrow.
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Criteria for grading a film on cinematography
Most people, even filmmakers who should know better, have the erroneous notion that cinematography is all about pretty pictures.
Not true.
Cinematography has multiple disciplines. I’m looking for mastery over all disciplines. Truly great cinematography is also pioneering, and advances the art and craft of filmmaking. Here’s my definition of cinematography.
Here are the four disciplines I’ve considered:
1 Film lighting artistry
Film lighting decides how everything looks. To get a perfect score in this category the film must have pioneering lighting.
What if there’s no artificial lighting? In that case I consider natural lighting, practicals and exposure.
2 Camera angles artistry
Composition is important in photography. In cinematography, composition is the art of framing multiple shots that need to be combined as a coherent whole. Most times these shots are from different angles. Sometimes it’s just a fixed angle, and sometimes there’s motion, too.
Finding the right angle is hard. Finding it consistently over an entire film is genius. A perfect score in this category signifies the film broke new ground in composition, camera angles and blocking.
3 Camera movement artistry
When you add camera movement, things get really tricky. To paraphrase Orson Welles in gender neutral terms, that’s what separates the greats from the pretenders. To get a perfect score a film must either advance the art and craft of camera motion. In other words, every frame a painting, even when it moves.
What if there’s no camera movement?
The score reflects camera angles artistry. After all, restraint is much the hallmark of art as abandon. However, when deciding between two movies of other equally great cinematography disciplines, the one that utilized camera movement gets the advantage, because it’s that much harder.
4 Color design artistry
A great part of cinematography is production design. Attention paid to the color palette pays off with a more coherent world and mood. Why must it not be rewarded? To get a perfect score here the colors must have advanced the art of cinematography.
Movies shot on film get the benefit here, because most things had to be done on set. Color timing wasn’t as precise as the color grading tools we have today.
What if there’s no color?
A significant portion of great cinematography is in black and white. One can approach this from two perspectives. Either one assumes that filming in color is tougher, because the added element of color makes everything harder. On the other hand you can assume that black and white has its own language, and it must be treated on par with color.
I decided to go with a compromise you might not agree with, but works for me. I averaged the scores of the other three categories and that’s what black and white films get under the color category. Strangely, it doesn’t lead to unexpected results. A more direct comparison is impossible anyway.
What happens when there’s a tie?
I value film over digital. I value the year the film was made, and otherwise I value camera movement above other departments because it just makes all the other cinematography disciplines that much harder to perfect as well. When you move the camera, lighting becomes more complicated, camera angles become harder to pull off, and color needs to be perfect.
I value color second, film lighting third, and camera angles fourth. Don’t get me wrong. Camera angles artistry is critically important, and is the foundation of cinematography. However, it is also the one with convention to guide you. It’s a safety net that other disciplines don’t have.
Pssst, want to check out the Wolfcrow's 100 Films to See for Cinematography list in our new look?
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1 new
Citizen Kane
1941, in 39 top lists Check -
2 new
Barry Lyndon
1975, in 24 top lists Check -
3 new
Rashômon
1950 — a.k.a. Rashomon, in 34 top lists Check -
4 new
Shichinin no samurai
1954 — a.k.a. Seven Samurai, in 36 top lists Check -
5 new
The Birth of a Nation
1915, in 21 top lists Check -
6 new
Stagecoach
1939, in 21 top lists Check -
7 new
Touch of Evil
1958, in 30 top lists Check -
8 new
Stalker
1979, in 22 top lists Check -
9 new
Blade Runner
1982, in 36 top lists Check -
10 new
Saving Private Ryan
1998, in 28 top lists Check -
11 new
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927 — a.k.a. Sunrise, in 36 top lists Check -
12 new
Hell's Angels
1930, in 2 top lists Check -
13 new
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
1931 — a.k.a. M, in 35 top lists Check -
14 new
The Grapes of Wrath
1940, in 24 top lists Check -
15 new
The Night of the Hunter
1955, in 34 top lists Check -
16 new
Sanma no aji
1962 — a.k.a. An Autumn Afternoon, in 9 top lists Check -
17 new
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968, in 45 top lists Check -
18 new
The Godfather
1972, in 42 top lists Check -
19 new
Raging Bull
1980, in 34 top lists Check -
20 new
Black Hawk Down
2001, in 5 top lists Check -
21 new
Munich
2005, in 4 top lists Check -
22 new
Tron
2010 — a.k.a. TRON: Legacy, in 2 top lists Check -
23 new
The Godfather Part II
1974, in 32 top lists Check -
24 new
Chinatown
1974, in 31 top lists Check -
25 new
Network
1976, in 14 top lists Check -
26 new
Days of Heaven
1978, in 19 top lists Check -
27 new
Apocalypse Now
1979, in 37 top lists Check -
28 new
Raiders of the Lost Ark
1981 — a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 29 top lists Check -
29 new
The Last Emperor
1987, in 15 top lists Check -
30 new
Batman Returns
1992, in 8 top lists Check -
31 new
The Thin Red Line
1998, in 14 top lists Check -
32 new
The Matrix
1999, in 30 top lists Check -
33 new
Fa yeung nin wah
2000 — a.k.a. In the Mood for Love, in 30 top lists Check -
34 new
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
2001 — a.k.a. Amélie, in 27 top lists Check -
35 new
Salinui chueok
2003 — a.k.a. Memories of Murder, in 17 top lists Check -
36 new
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2014, in 8 top lists Check -
37 new
Chelovek s kino-apparatom
1929 — a.k.a. Man with a Movie Camera, in 24 top lists Check -
38 new
La règle du jeu
1939 — a.k.a. The Rules of the Game, in 24 top lists Check -
39 new
Tôkyô monogatari
1953 — a.k.a. Tokyo Story, in 27 top lists Check -
40 new
12 Angry Men
1957, in 30 top lists Check -
41 new
Psycho
1960, in 39 top lists Check -
42 new
Leave Her to Heaven
1945, in 12 top lists Check -
43 new
Black Narcissus
1947, in 15 top lists Check -
44 new
Le mépris
1963 — a.k.a. Contempt, in 17 top lists Check -
45 new
C'era una volta il West
1968 — a.k.a. Once Upon a Time in the West, in 28 top lists Check -
46 new
Sayat Nova
1969 — a.k.a. The Color of Pomegranates, in 12 top lists Check -
47 new
Il conformista
1970 — a.k.a. The Conformist, in 20 top lists Check -
48 new
Bound for Glory
1976, in 3 top lists Check -
49 new
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977, in 23 top lists Check -
50 new
Fanny och Alexander
1982 — a.k.a. Fanny and Alexander, in 25 top lists Check
Last updated on Sep 8, 2022; source