Best Cinematography of EVERY Year

By: Kilgore Trout

…of the sound era at least.

There are a few years where due to wildly different styles and my own indecision, I had to declare a tie.

I realize after the fact that some of the greats like Coutard, Wong Howe, Hall, Miyajima, Menges, Elswit, Delbonnel, Lachman, Alton, and Ondrícek (who I studied under) aren’t listed, such is the trouble with trying to keep it to one. 1975 proved the hardest choice, I come down in favor of Barry Lyndon but how not to mention The Mirror? Anyway, enough ado, the list:

2011: The Tree of Life (Lubezki)

2010: Enter The Void (Debie)
2009: Silent Light (Zabe)
2008: The Fall (Watkinson)
2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Kaminski) & Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford (Deakins)
2006: Children of Men (Lubezki)
2005: The New World (Lubezki)
2004: 2046 (Doyle)
2003: Gerry (Savides)
2002: Russian Ark (Buttner)
2001: The Vertical Ray of The Sun (Lee) *listed in Auteurs database as “At The Height of Summer”
2000: George Washington (Orr)

1999: Snow Falling on Cedars (Richardson)
1998: The Thin Red Line (Toll)
1997: L.A. Confidential (Spinotti)
1996: Fargo (Deakins)
1995: La Haine (Aïm) & Se7en (Khondji)
1994: Rouge (Sobocinski)
1993: Baraka (Fricke)
1992: Europa (Bendtsen, Klosinski, Meurisse)
1991: JFK (Richardson) & The Double Life of Veronique (Idziak)
1990: GoodFellas (Ballhaus)

1989: Do The Right Thing (Dickerson)
1988: Wings of Desire (Alekan)
1987: Yeelen (Ferragut/Humeau)
1986: The Sacrifice (Nykvist)
1985: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Bailey)
1984: Paris, Texas (Muller)
1983: Koyaanisqatsi (Fricke)
1982: Diva (Rousselot)
1981: Blow Out (Zsigmond)
1980: Raging Bull (Chapman)

1979: Apocalypse Now (Storaro)
1978: Days of Heaven (Wexler/Almendros)
1977: The Duellists (Frank Tidy)
1976: Bound for Glory (Wexler)
1975: Barry Lyndon (Alcott)
1974: The Godfather Part II (Willis)
1973: Playtime (Badal/Winding)
1972: Cries and Whispers (Nykvist)
1971: A Clockwork Orange (Alcott)
1970: The Conformist (Storaro)

1969: Medium Cool (Wexler)
1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Unsworth)
1967: Elvira Madigan (Persson) & Persona (Nykvist)
1966: Andrei Rublev (Yusov)
1965: The Fifth Horseman is Fear (Kalis)
1964: I Am Cuba (Urusevsky)
1963: The Leopard (Rotunno)
1962: Lawrence of Arabia (Young)
1961: Last Year at Marienbad (Vierny)
1960: L’Avventura (Scarvada)

1959: Black Orpheus (Bourgoin)
1958: Touch of Evil (Metty)
1957: Ordet (Bendtsen)
1956: The Searchers (Hoch)
1955: Lola Montes (Matras)
1954: Sansho The Bailiff (Miyagawa)
1953: Ugetsu (Miyagawa)
1952: The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (Various)
1951: The River (C. Renoir)
1950: Rashomon (Miyagawa)

1949: The Third Man (Krasker)
1948: The Red Shoes (Cardiff)
1947: Black Narcissus (Cardiff)
1946: Beauty and The Beast (Alekan)
1945: Children of Paradise (Fossard/Hubert)
1944: Ministry of Fear (Sharp)
1943: Day of Wrath (Andersson)
1942: The Magnificent Ambersons (Cortez)
1941: Citizen Kane (Toland)
1940: The Grapes of Wrath (Toland)

1939: The Rules of The Game (Alphen/Bachelet/Lemare/Renoir)
1938: Olympia (Various)
1937: Grand Illusion (Matras)
1936: The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Bachelet)
1935: Bride of Frankenstein (Mescall)
1934: Triumph of The Will (Various)
1933: Ecstacy (Androschin/Stallich)
1932: Vampyr (Maté)
1931: M (Wagner)
1930: Blood of A Poet (Périnal)

1929: The Man With A Movie Camera (Kaufman)
1928: The Passion of Joan of Arc (Maté)
1927: Metropolis (Freund/ Rittau/Ruttmann)

*Edit

I’ve added a short list of the closest runners up who I felt warranted some recognition:

2002: Far From Heaven (Lachman)
2001: The Man Who Wasn’t There (Deakins)
1990: The Sheltering Sky (Storaro)
1985: Ran (Nakai/Saitô/Ueda)
1983: Nostalghia (Lanci)
1979: Manhattan (Willis)
1975: The Mirror (Rerberg)
1973: Last Tango in Paris (Storaro)
1971: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Zsigmond)
1967: In Cold Blood (Hall)
1964: A Woman in The Dunes (Segawa)
1957: Sweet Smell of Success (Wong Howe)
1955: Night of The Hunter (Cortez)
1949: Late Spring (Atsuta)
1938: Alexander Nevsky (Tisse)
1927: Sunrise (Rosher/Struss)