>> Speaker 1: Somewhere where the lights
meets the lens, where the frame flatters
the location, and the camera moves just
right, an incredible image is born.
These are the top ten
most beautiful movies.
>> Speaker 2: Of all time.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Let's get right in to it.
Starting us off at number ten,
it's Russian Ark.
>> [SOUND]
[MUSIC]
>> Speaker 3: [FOREIGN]
>> Speaker 1: The 96 minute,
single, uncut steady cam shot through
the Russian Hermitage Museum.
Sure it might sound like a gimmick at
first, but the footage speaks for itself.
A jaw-dropping location, and brilliantly
costumed characters fill the screen.
Lit with remarkable mood, and variation,
by cinematographer Tilman Buttner.
All coming together in an unbroken series
of marvelously composed portraits.
Of course, we considered a ton
of other gorgeous films for
this spot because if we're talking Russia,
we can't not mention Andrei Tarkovsky,
especially his eerie mixed film
stock beauty from Stalker.
And if we look around
a little further in Europe,
we love Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy,
Ingmar Bergman's, well, everything, and
definitely Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie.
But they can't quite outdo The Russian
Ark, which is why it kicks off our list.
Now, we can't fill up a whole list of
gorgeous movies without a throwback or
two to the OG of cinema, black and white.
So for our next pick, we're looking
at some of cinema's modern directors,
who decided to throw out the colors, and
get back to their roots with gray-scale.
And for that, we can't think of
a better film then Manhattan.
Woody Allen's 1979 love
letter to New York City.
>> Speaker 4: Chapter one
He adored New York City.
He idolized it all out of proportion.
No, make it he romanticized it,
all out of proportion, yeah.
>> Speaker 1: And that's not to say there
weren't other films that just missed our
list, it was hard not to give a spot
to Raging Bull, or Schindler's List.
But this black and white take on New York
is timeless, thanks to cinematographer
Gordon Willis, who decided to pair
ultra-widescreen with black and
white at Alan's suggestion, because that's
how he remembered New York as a kid.
Woody actually begged for
it not to be released.
Apparently, this was his least
favorite film he'd ever made.
But to our eye it's decadent, timeless,
and full to the brim with stark imagery.
Which is why it made our list.
Of course when it comes to beautiful black
and white, we can't discount the classics,
the works of master cinematographers
at home in their medium.
And for that, we had a lot of choices.
We've already mentioned Bergman's, but
there's The Night of the Hunter, and
in Metropolis, Rules of the Game, Eight
and a Half, especially The Third Man.
But even The Third Man doesn't quite live
up to Orson Welles's other masterpiece,
and our number eight pick, Citizen Kane.
>> Speaker 5: Here's a man that could
have been President, who was as loved and
hated, and
as talked about as any man in our time.
But when it comes to die, he's got
something on his mind called Rosebud.
>> Speaker 1: Citizen Kane is
basically an entire film education
in a two hour package.
The multiple levels of staging, and deep
focused techniques, seemed revolutionary.
But the craziest part, is that this
was Orson Welles's first film ever,
as a director.
He had no idea what he was doing.
He learned everything he knew from
watching classics, and essentially just
borrowed every technique that grabbed
his eye, from every film he saw.
But the result was a tapestry woven of
the best of cinema from around the world.
Free from the limitations of experience,
and
one of the most beautiful films to boot.
Next up, at number seven,
we're turning our eyes to space.
The masters of cinema have always
tended to do something extra special,
when it comes to their
depiction of heavenly bodies.
And while Chivo gave us a breathtaking
look at Earth in Gravity,
and Alwin Küchler captured
the beauty of the sun, in Sunshine,
there's nothing in the universe
quite like 2001: A Space Odyssey.
>> Speaker 6: Open the pod bay doors Hal.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 7: I'm sorry Dave,
I'm afraid I can't do that.
>> Speaker 1: Now some of you might
immediately think of the admittedly
impressive, hypnotic neon,
Star Gate sequence,
when we talk about 2001's visuals.
But there's hardly a single frame
that isn't intricately designed,
immaculately composed, and stunningly lit.
With a tendency towards central framing,
and striking symmetrical compositions,
Stanley Kubrick and Geoffrey Unsworth,
are at their visual best,
whether composing celestial ballets,
or staging space walks.
However, if we are talking about Kubrick,
we have to throw in a brief
honorable mention for Barry Lyndon.
Just look at it.
Every single frame is
a renascence painting.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Of course,
singling out directors when it comes to
gorgeous imagery, is a bit like singling
out jockeys at the Kentucky Derby.
Sure, they're important, but
they're not the ones running the race.
So, if we're talking cinematographers,
we think Vittorio Storaro, is one to know.
This guy's rap sheet could
make up this whole list.
He shot Apocalypse Now,
Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, and
our number six, The Conformist.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 8: [FOREIGN]
>> Speaker 1: Directed by
Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist
conjures up a stunning palette of fascism,
from the hard illumination that bars
the characters behind beams of light.
The compositions that highlight
Marcelo's tragic inability to conform.
It's artfully conceived,
meticulously crafted,
and brutally beautiful, and
definitely worth checking out.
Next up, we wanna honor the extraordinary
imagery of imagination.
And we love looking at Big Fish, and What
Dreams May Come, for painting us a picture
of a mythical story, and telling us the
story of a living painting respectively.
But for our pick, number five can be none
other than Tarsem Singh's, The Fall.
>> Speaker 9: I will search
the four corners of this Earth,
find Governor Odious,
and joyously kill him.
>> Speaker 1: Half 1930's hospital,
half little girl's imagination,
plus a totally random, but still really
pretty slow-motion black and white title
sequence, The Fall is basically the best
ever film making excuse, to just show off.
Shot over four years, in the most
awe inspiring parts of 28 countries.
Cinematographer Colin Watkinson,
filled the screen with so
many gorgeous tableauxs, that there
are literally half second throwaway shots,
that are more beautiful than
the entire oeuvres of lesser DP's
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Now, we've spent plenty
of this list looking at the handsome
cinematography of Americans,
and Europeans, but we've yet
to turn our lens to the Asiatic Region.
We've circled back to it, time and
again, for fight scenes, wardrobes, and
now cinematography.
And if I were a betting voice over man,
I'd bet it was one of
the writer's favorite films.
But for our number four, it's hard
to deny the visual virtuoso of Hero.
>> Speaker 10: [FOREIGN]
>> Speaker 1: Sure,
we could have picked Kurosawa's Ren,
or Wong Kar-wai's, In the Mood for Love,
or Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.
And we definitely could have gone
with Yimou Zhang's other works,
like House of Flying Daggers, or Curse
of the Golden Flower, which is the only
film that didn't make the cut for
being too visually stimulating.
But there's nothing as poetic
in it's simplicity, and
steadfast in it's commitment
to a visual style, as Hero.
By Christopher Doyle, the film tells one
story from three perspectives, an homage
to with each perspective a different
color, and what did the colors mean?
Well they were mostly pretty arbitrary.
Red was Jang's number one pick.
Blue and white to match the lake and
desert, and black to match the temple.
By the time they got to
the final flashback,
green was just about the only color left.
It might not be deep,
but it sure was pretty.
For our number three, we wanna
honor some of the larger than life,
mid century epics, that brought
impressive vistas to the wide screen.
And that could have been the stunning
saturation of technicolor classics,
like Ben-Hur, the Searchers or
the Wizard of Oz.
Hell, if you got an extra moment for
technicolor,
check out radical colors of Suspiria.
One of the last films
to be processed in it.
However, our number three, goes to
an absolute masterpiece of film making.
Shot instead on super panavision 70, a
superlative cinematic look at the desert,
in timeless pinnacle of film art,
Lawrence of Arabia.
>> [MUSIC]
[SOUND]
>> Speaker 1: Directed by David Lean, and
shot by Freddie Young, the imagery
here is absolutely breathtaking.
The wide screen format, perfectly captures
the vast expanse of the empty desert.
Freddie's colors provide and
almost visceral heat, and the 70
millimeter format provides a fittingly
larger than life palette for our hero.
Most famously, Freddie Young,
tasked with capturing a mirage on film,
acquired a whopping 430 millimeter lens,
and
sent the actor far into the distance
to capture this iconic shot.
Now, if there's a director known for
the lyrical beauty of his work,
it has to be Terrence Malek.
And if we're ranking top five
Malek movies based on aesthetics,
prettiest to even prettierest,
our eyes say New World, Vin Badlands,
Days of Heaven, Thin Red Line, and
our number two pick, The Tree of Life.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 11: The man's taught us
there are two ways through life.
The way of nature.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 11: And the way of grace.
>> Speaker 1: Shot by Emmanuel Lubezki,
the set of Tree of Life
was controlled chaos.
They only ever shot in natural light,
would ditch a scene in the middle when
they were distracted by fireflies,
and focused more on finding
emotions than covering scenes.
They had the same rooms built
in three different houses,
facing different directions, so
that they could pick their favorite light.
And then there's the supernova.
Instead of turning a computer,
Malek hired Douglas Trumble,
the master mind behind 2001 Stargate, to
experiment with dye, and paint, and milk,
and chemicals, and fluorescent ink,
and all other sorts of witch craft,
in order to create the magnificently
surreal images seen on screen.
For our number two, made light on it's
narrative in favor of stirring imagery.
Our number one does away
with it completely.
A visual tone poem.
No words, no dialogue, no plot.
Our most beautiful pick is called Samsara.
Like its prequels Baraka, and
Chronos, and their spiritual
ancestors from the Qatsi trilogy,
Samsara is perhaps the purest of cinema.
It is beyond language.
It says it's piece by virtue of emotional,
thematic, and aesthetic association.
But it's also completely gorgeous.
Shot on 70 millimeter film, in almost 100
locations in 25 countries over five years,
the images are majestic,
overwhelming, unbelievable.
There isn't a single frame you
couldn't hang on your wall, and
marvel at for years.
It's a moving museum, a guided meditation,
and a visual revelation.
Which is why it's our pick for
most beautiful film of all time.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: But we [BLEEP] love movies.
We can never just stop at ten.
And, if you've noticed our top ten lists
look more like thinly veiled top 50's, and
we're terrible at making up our minds,
then you're onto us.
And we would've gotten away with it,
if it wasn't for you meddling kids, and
your nosy dog too.
So, as a special treat, and because
there are so many beautiful movies,
and it pain us to leave some out, here's a
mini montage of extra gorgeous movies for
you enjoyment, and our clear consciences.
So what do you think?
Did we leave out one of
your favorite pretty films?
Do you disagree with one of our picks?
Do you have any ideas for
some more top tens?
Let us know in the comments below,
and be sure to subscribe for
more Cinefix movie lists.
>> [MUSIC]
