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Many years ago when I saw CONFORMIST , one hand held camerawork never fade away from my heart , or in SHELTERING SKY when John Malkovich is dead and Debra Winger came out alone , camera follow him in a reflection of the sun in the water . This shot is very magic . Do you have any shot in your mind which you think is the best .......thank

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We had this discussion before, last year I think. It may be under "greatest shots" or something.

 

For me, it's the image of the StarChild at the end of "2001" or the Mothership rising over the mountain in "Close Encounters" (all effects shots, oddly enough.) I love the opening of "Excalibur". Many images from "The Godfather, Part 2". "The Conformist", yes, like the moving pattern of blinds on her dress, the leaves blowing past the lens as he helps his mother into her car...

 

The documentary "Visions of Light" is sort of an orgy of great images like that.

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We had this discussion before, last year I think.  It may be under "greatest shots" or something.

 

For me, it's the image of the StarChild at the end of "2001" or the Mothership rising over the mountain in "Close Encounters" (all effects shots, oddly enough.)  I love the opening of "Excalibur". Many images from "The Godfather, Part 2".  "The Conformist", yes, like the moving pattern of blinds on her dress, the leaves blowing past the lens as he helps his mother into her car...

 

The documentary "Visions of Light" is sort of an orgy of great images like that.

 

Chuck Workman's "Pieces of Silver" or "Precious Images" also bring all those memorable moments together in one place:

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0941457/

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179624/

 

Mr. Workman has put together many of the montages used on recent Academy Award shows.

 

Some of my favorite memorable scenes:

 

Slim Pickens riding the H-bomb in "Dr. Strangelove..."

 

Opening flag scene of "Patton"

 

"Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from "Oklahoma".

 

Odessa steps from "Potemkin"

 

"Singing in the Rain" number

 

Long lens mirage "Entry of Ali" scene from LOA

 

"Citizen Kane" - where to begin? :-)

 

Plague of Locusts in "Days of Heaven"

 

D-Day Beach landing in "Saving Private Ryan"

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"Citizen Kane" - where to begin?  :-)

 

Plague of Locusts in "Days of Heaven"

 

D-Day Beach landing in "Saving Private Ryan"

 

I completely agree with these two.

 

Some of andrew lesnie's stuff comes to mind in the lord of the rings.

 

Ie, looking into the marshes filled with corpses. When the elves do that sychronised swing at the orcs at the start of the felowship. My favourite in LOTR is when you see the orcs retreating from helms deep and the trees in the forest start movingto take out the running orcs.

 

Clockwork orange when droogs start hiting the homeless guy in silohette.

 

Alot of the stuff in Shindlers list.

 

running through the maze in the shining.

 

Excuse the spelling i woke up about 5 minutes ago.

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Odessa Steps from Battleship Potemkin, travelling shots at Isengard LOTRFellowship, Lake shots in Knife in the Water, closing shots in Nights of Cabiria

Lots of goodies in Forrest Gump, Okay, here's a sappy one but hey, I'm a girl: when Maria and Capt. Von Trapp look into each other's eyes after dancing from Sound of Music. There was one with I think Maureen O'Hara and I can't for the life of me remember the title. She's overlooking the sea as she stands at the front of the ship.

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Two shots from Tarkovsky's "Nostalghia:" Obviously, the 10 minute dolly across the empty pool, and, even more obviously, the last shot. No dialogue, the only effects are "in-camera," the shots are technically pretty simple, but they sum up the entire movie better - they tell you more - than any dialogue or critical exegis ever could.

 

From "Underground:" The island breaking away into the Danube, and/or the burning wheel-chair in the bombed out village.

 

John Wayne's exit in "The Searchers."

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                                                                          Do you have any shot in your mind which you think is the best .......thank

 

The opening shot of "Gladiator" where the camera is following Russell Crowe's hand as it skims the tops of the wheat in a vast wheatfield, then later when they first go to battle, all shot blue, as the camera follows the German Shephard into the battle. That blew me away the first time I saw it.

 

There's a shot from "In Cold Blood" where the detective is interrogating Robert Blake in the kitchen of the people he's murdered and the light coming through the window and the rain on the glass makes it look like tears coming down his cheeks. I think they talked about that in "Visions of Light".

 

In "The Third Man" when Harry Limes cat gets out of Anna Schmidt's apartment right after hissing at Joseph Cotten and Anna says, "oh, that cat only likes Harry", We see the cat down on the street and it walks up to a pair of shoes in a darkened doorway, there is a noise and someone in an apartment up above opens a drape and the light reveals-for the first time- that it's Harry in the darkened doorway. One of the great entrances in cinema history.

 

The paper lantern shot in "Days of Heaven".

 

Nearly all of the film, "Amelie"! Dare to go green! The way they shot the vegetable market on the Parisian street corner and matted it so the stand really pops out of the screen against the grey of the surrounding neighborhood. The same team also did beautiful work in "A very Long Engagement" but particularly the crane shot where Manech is hanging Matilde off the light house. Awesome.

 

From "Empire of the Sun", near the end when Christian Bale is searching through the crowd for his parents and they are searching for him, when their eyes finally meet, that was a real spine-tingler. In a similar vein, near the end of "Reds", Diane Keaton is expecting Warren Beatty to be getting off the train but nearly everyone is already off and she thinks he's not there, then she turns around and sees him. Tingly.

 

From "Dr. Zhivago", when we first learn that Pasha has become Strelnikov, there's a fabulous helicopter shot that sweeps up to the back of the speeding train to show Pasha, standing out the back of the train looking back over his past as the train speeds into his future, which ends Part I of the film. F***ing brilliant.

 

The interior scenes of the Huron battle lodge in "Black Robe". What a setting! The sense of dread was so thich you could've cut it with a knife. And they did.

 

Tim

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I guess I'm the only one but I thought "Hannibal" was great - the shot at the very beginning where the birds come together to form Anthony Hopkin's face, and the continued theme of the birds throughout the movie.

 

Also I love style of "Evil Dead 2." Come to think of it, i guess it's the directing style I like and not the cinematography style.

 

"Once Upon a Time in the West," the last fight between Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. The last fight in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" as well. I like these until I see them copied by somebody. Then it's like, "bro, get your own last fight scene."

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How did I forget "Once Upon A Time in the West:" The shot that starts on the empty train platform, follows Claudia Cardinale into the station, and then cranes up over the roof of the station to reveal the Platonic ideal of the mythical western town. Also great is Henry Fonda's entrance in flashback, as well as just about every other moment in that film.

 

Also from "The Third Man:" Harry's fingers futiley pushing through the sewer grate, and the last shot of that movie, where Alida Valli refuses the ride from Joseph Cotton.

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Jacob's Ladder: The shot of the shortened wheel along the hellish hospital floor becaus it was the most perfect way to capture everything going on at that moment. Also the shot of jacob in the tub simply because it was simple and, again, caputred the moment beautifully and perfectly.

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One more that deserves mention. It's an homage, really, to the shot from the graduate where Ben walks into Mr's Robinsons bedroom and she's is taking off her stocking and her leg frames Ben in the doorway.

 

It's from, "Kingpins" right after Woody Harrelson finished servicing his landlady. He is seated on the floor next to the toilet and the shot is framed by the landlady's vericose-veiny leg as she hikes up her support hose.

 

When that shot came on screen, I blew a mouth-ful of popcorn all over the guy in front of me.

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After about a year of going to this site daily, my first post ...

 

- Virtually every shot in "Barry Lyndon." And not just the lighting and ridiculously shallow depth of field (which we all know about) but the pacing of the many zooms and dolly moves are perfect, throughout. Possibly the best being the shot of Redmond Barry walking up to the Cotessa on the balcony, and going in for the kiss.

 

- The opening shots of landscapes in "Cries and Whispers." You just know Nykvist and Bergman were dedicated enough to wait as long as they needed to capture the natural light just perfectly.

 

- The opening shots of Manhattan in "Manhattan." Is there any sequence that visually captures that romanticism of New York so beautifully?

 

- Wide angle slow motion dolly of David Byrne in his big suit in "Stop Making Sense"

 

- In "Blow Out," the shot that stays in perfect focus on just the tip of the microphone as Travolta moves it to pick up the sound of the car crash.

 

- For lighting, can't beat Storarro's work in "Apocolypse Now." I mean, come on ...

 

Ok, could go on, but I'll stop now.

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Here's a new one for you:

Sunrise (1927) directed by F.W. Murnau and shot by Karl Struss ASC and Charles Rosher ASC.

 

There's a shot early in the film when the man (the characters are only given these ambiguous titles and are not named, but its part of the film's genius) is walking through a marsh to meet his secret lover the city woman. The camera follows him as he moves through the foliage, hops a fence, and eventually the camera moves away from him to find the city woman waiting impatiently for his arrival. It's a long shot done with a dolly track placed on the ceiling of the stage. Pretty impressive stuff considering it's only 1927!

 

The film is a must see for every cinematographer. Fox has restored it and put it on DVD. In the past the only way you could get it was by buying three other Fox Studio Classics and send away for your free copy of Sunrise. I'm not sure why, maybe they ran out of copies, but sadly it is no longer available. (Heck, not even Netflix has it.) It's a shame because the film is marvelous. They did an excellent job on the restoration. And they even tapped John Bailey ASC to give an insightful commentary.

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where do I start?

 

"Amelie" - Crane shot going over Amelie at the waterfall, ending above the water as she throws rocks right at the camera. (Delbonnel)

 

"Manchurian Candidate" (1962) - 360 dolly around room, changing from women at flower meeting to communist brianwashing facilites. brilliant!!!!! (Lionel Lindon)

 

"City of God" - I'll let you pick. (Cesar Charlone)

 

"Punch Drunk Love" - Steadicam shot leading Sandler and Watson out of the restaurant, with the HMI's on the top of the truck. (Elswit)

 

"Lawrence of Arabia" - Either the shot where Omar Sharif comes up on the horizen, poppin out of the dust, or when Lawrence leads the attack on the city by the bay, LS tracking with the entire army, rushing into the city and taking over. ( F.A. Young)

 

These are some of my personal favorites. There are much much more, but if I spent all day by this computer my girlfriend would kill me. Take care, keep shooting.

 

Cameron

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"Amelie" - Crane shot going over Amelie at the waterfall, ending above the water as she throws rocks right at the camera. (Delbonnel)

 

 

There are so many beautiful shots in Amelie...or at least a lot of beautiful lighting

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The crane shots from Spielbergs "in the THE TERMINAL" where breath taking and powerfull also the romantic dinner scene with Tom Hanks and Cathrine Zeta Jones with the cool blue and pasty colors in the background and warm golden tones on the actors looked beautifull.

 

If you havnt seen "THE TERMINAL" you really should, it has amazing cinematography. Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski can come up with some amazing stuff.

 

 

what do you guys think

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Caleb Deschanel is amazing. I loved the opening shot in The Passion where he had this steadicam on a crane that came sweeping down into The Garden. When the operator hit the ground he started walking and following Jesus (Jim Caviezel). It was wonderfully lit as well, Jim looked very human but at the same time, God was looking down on him with shafts of light.

Anna and the King. I don't even know where to start with that movie. Amazing work.

 

John Toll did quite the work in the Last Samurai when the Samurai's and the Imperial army met in the woods for the first time. Very good use of fog and lighting.

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