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Here’s a bunch… and more.
The Top 10:
Vertigo
L’Atalante
Ugetsu Monogatari
Tokyo Monogatari
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Citizen Kane (not only incredible cinematography but some outstandigly beautiful scenes)
The Leopard (beautiful in its pacing. The ending sequence is breathtaking)
Au Hasard Balthasar (serene and heartbreaking)
The Red Shoes (a dream)
Pather Panchali
The Rest:
Black Narcissus
Ordet
Walkabout
8 1/2
The Magnificent Ambersons
La Regle de Jeu
Children of Paradise
Le Jour se Leve
Raging Bull
The Seven Samurai
Vivre sa Vie
Sherlock Jr.
The Searchers
Ran
Blade Runner
La Grande Illusion
Une Partie de Campagne (a short film by Renoir)
Voyage in Italy
Manhattan
The Last Picture Show
Do the Right Thing
Stalker
The Conformist (gorgeous to look at. Wonderful closing sequemce)
Barry Lyndon (each frame is a painting)
Sunrise
Shane
Henry V
Gertrud
Eloge De L’Amour
Earth
Lawrence of Arabia
American Beauty
The Spirit of the Beehives
Chungking Express
La Strada
Night of the Hunter
Letter From and Unknown Woman
It Happened One Night
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Mirror
Jules et Jim
Inherit the Wind
The Godfather 2 (beautiful in that dark way)
Sansho Dayu
Meshes of the Afternoon
Apocalypse Now
Breathless
Persona
L’Avventura
Andrei Rublev
Le Mepris
Kore-eda’s Maborosi would be up there for me, as would Angelopoulos’ Landscape in the Mist.
Most of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s work is just gorgeous (particularly The Puppetmaster, and Three Times).
Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters, everything from the set design of Eiko to Paul Schrader’s directing make this film beautiful. The use of three different types of stories told simultaneously, his surreal novels, his dark past, and his final day, make the message of Yukio Mishima’s life bold and also makes everything about him capture you as a viewer.
‘Last Year at Marienbad’ is visual poetry…
So is ‘In the Mood for Love’
henry geldzahler by andy warhol
Le grand bleu
Ahh… I love looking over at a post on the front page and seeing “created 6 months ago”.
Two movies I’ve recently watched are both incredibly beautiful:
Wild Strawberries
Brago’s journey through curmudgeonliness, regret, and catharsis is absolutely gorgeous in an internal sense, while particular shots are immensely beautiful (e.g., the tracking shot looking up at his face as he walks against a background of out-of-focus tree-tops).
Stalker
Especially during the sepia-toned sequences, Tarkovsky fills the frame with a texture so rich it’s almost unfathomable—as if the eye could wander over each frame forever without getting bored. Again, this visual pulchritude is underscored by the harmony of the narrative: coming to terms with the human condition; accepting that struggle and happiness are one and the same. Beautiful.
Margot at the Wedding
The Last Emperor
lost in translation!
I would have to say:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
Atonement,
Hemingway as a Young Man,
A Farewell to Arms,
Pride and Prejudice,
Donnie Darko,
Un Conte De Noel,
Red Balloon,
The Fountain,
Just about anything by focus features
Not really a top ten list, just a few off the top of my head.
Barry Lyndon
Days of Heaven
Cries and Whispers
L’Avventura
The Red Shoes
The Dreamers
Sunshine
Do The Right Thing
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Amadeus
I’m going with Black Narcissus, Barry Lyndon and The Last Emperor. That’s the colour chart. For black and white: La Belle et le Bete, The Hustler, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Long Voyage Home and Rashomon.
— Sans Soleil
— The Mirror
— Chungking Express
— Yi Yi
— Late Spring
Malick dominates this list.
Also The Fountain, In The Mood, Baraka, Spirited Away, Barry Lyndon.
Most of the films I consider truly beautiful (in terms of cinematography, soundtrack, music, overall cinematic style, or even a beautiful Theme) have been named above.
However, one film that has not been listed (unless I scanned past it) on this Forum is the only one to my knowledge that was actually ADVERTISED and MARKETED as “the most beautiful film ever made.” Cineastes who were sentient in 1967 probably remember that publicity blitz for Elvira Madigan. And the film DOES have beautiful cinematography, performers, locations, and music (Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21).
But the hype as “the most beautiful film ever made” always stuck with me. Here’s the beginning of Roger Ebert’s original review:
By Roger Ebert / December 22, 1967
“Somewhere in these pages today there is doubtless an advertisement describing Elvira Madigan as the most beautiful film ever made. That has been the New York critical line, expressed in turn by the New York Times, Newsweek and the New Yorker. I think it does an injustice to Bo Widerberg’s great film.
The Double Life of Veronique, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Amelie… can you tell I’m a sucker for French Film?
OH The Fall was stunning too.
I also thought Frida (Julie Taymor) was aesthetically pleasing.
I recently rewatched “Days of Heaven” and I gotta say it’s absolutely incredible.
I’d also say “Assassination of Jesse James” an “Eternal Sunshine” (mostly for the incredible mise-en-scene that Gondry uses). Others like, 3:10 to Yuma, Volver or The Insider also come to mind.
Dersu Uzala, Kagemusha and Ran—Black Narcissus and Gone to Earth—The Thin Red Line and The extended cut of The New World—Punch Drunk Love—Foolish Wives and the Wedding March—Lost in Translation and Marie Antoniette—The Wild Bunch and Ride the High Country—The Emerald Forest and Excalibur—Borzage’s silent The River and Seventh Heaven—Senso, Ludwig, and The Leopard—The Spider’s Stratagem and The Emperor—Come Next Spring—The Savage Innocents, Bigger than Life, Johnny Guitar, and Wind Across the Everglades—Barry Lyndon and 2001 A Space Oydssey—Nostalghia and The Sacrifice—True Grit and Peter Ibbetson—The Green Room and Mississippi Mermaid—The Tree of Wooden Clogs—The Searchers and Sergeant Rutledge—Pierrot le Fou and Histoires du cinema 7 parts—Russian Ark—The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Color of Pomegranates—French Can Can and The Golden Coach—Chinatown and The Tenant—Nightwatching and Prospero’s Books—Gate of Hell—Empress Yang Kwei Fei and The Tales of the Taira Clan—Horse Thief—An Optical Poem—Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love—Vertigo and Rear Window—Que Viva Mexico and Ivan The Terrible Part III unf in color—Out 1: Noli me tangere>
Punch-Drunk Love
2001: A Space Odyssey
Brand Upon the Brain (in moments, with Isabella Rossellini’s voice)
Gummo
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sans Soliel
The Fountain
There Will Be Blood
Trouble Every Day
Spirited Away
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The most beautiful films, I would call
NOSTALGHIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE, Dang Nhat Minh, Vietnam
THE RIVER, Jean Renoir, India /USA
EARLY SUMMER, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan
Dersu Uzala, Akira Kurosawa, Japan
Its, a WONDERFUL LIFE, Frank Capra, USA
Waggonmaster, John Ford, USA
HOME FROM THE SEA (JOJYYO), Yoji Yamada, Japan
THE PUPPETMASTER, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Taiwan
BARRY LYNDON, Stanley Kubrick, England
THE NEW WORLD and DAYS OF HEAVEN, by Terrence Malick, USA
KATCHENJHUNGHA, Satyajit Ray, India etc
Days of Heaven
The New World
The Thin Red Line
Zabriskie Point
L’Avventura
Twentynine Palms
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Fountain
Big Fish
Stalker
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Reflecting Skin
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
The Neverending Story
The Fall
The Double Life of Veronique
The Conformist
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Shotgun Stories
Dandelion
Lost in Translation
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sunshine
Wall-E
Solaris (Tarkovsky) and Out of Sight (Soderbergh)
kagemusha, the trial, up, the red balloon. the opening sequence of taxi driver is gorgeous to say the least. benjamin button is a very good looking film as well, even if it’s not very good.
There are many, but off the top of my head I’d say “A River Runs Through It” – so beautifully shot, one can almost feel the heat of summer in Montana in the fields and along the rivers, as if winter never visited the place. It really captured the poetry and beauty of nature, and even the poetic, beautiful nature of some individuals in certain things they do, and in the way they are. Easily Redford’s best film, at least to me.
Even the narration (from that most excellent novella by Norman Maclean) is beautiful in this film:
Older Norman: [narrating] My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things – trout as well as eternal salvation – came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy.
Amen to that.
Old post:
“Punch-Drunk Love
2001: A Space Odyssey
Brand Upon the Brain (in moments, with Isabella Rossellini’s voice)
Gummo
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sans Soliel
The Fountain
There Will Be Blood
Trouble Every Day
Spirited Away
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”
adding
The Double Life of Veronique which I had forgotten and
The Thin Red Line which I managed not to see until just recently
Barry Lyndon
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
Munich
The Fountain
2001
In The Bedroom
The Double Live of Veronique
to name a few …
oh yeah …
Youth Without Youth
Lost In Translation
The Illusionist
Andre
don’t think anyone has mentioned american beauty anywhere yet. also a movie I saw ages ago called I am dina. also love everything already mentioned that I’ve seen.