ASC Cinematographers Celebrate 100th Anniversary With List Of Best Shot Films Of All Time [tr]

Deadline Hollywood ^ | January 8, 2019 | Pete Hammond

[C19fan]

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), an elite organization of cinematographers at the top of their field, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding today. What better way to honor that milestone than to create a list of 100 milestone films known for the art and craft of cinematography in the 20th century, and they call it the Best Shot Films Of All Time.

[mware]

So where is, She worn a yellow ribbon?

[Bob434]

that was an awesome beautiful movie-

[Bob434]

What? No Fifth Element? Lol

[SgtHooper]

Clockwork Orange - Although I’ve watched this movie, it is gutter trash compared to the rest of these listed. Once of the first shocker movies.

[KC Burke]

In 1961 we saw The Hustler with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. It was a magnificent movie, surprisingly shot in black and white instead of color, it was nominated for Best Cinematography (B & W) and won.

I read the list of 100 looking for it specifically and when I did not see it there I was disappointed.

[mykroar]

ping

[PIF]

Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago (1965), was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt ...

He’s not a muslim, but still an Lebanese - Arab - Egyptian.

[dfwgator]

Sharif was great in "Top Secret!"

"You dropped your phony dog poo!"
"What phony dog poo?"

[cymbeline]

“Have digital effects and cameras killed cinematography?”

Don’t think so. Today’s cinematography toolbox has more in it but proper use of the tools will always result in art.

More important than the technical tools is the composition of the shots so a story is beautifully told.

Note that we enjoy our music on devices with two inch speakers. Sound quality not great but the music comes through.

Go to Wikipedia —> Digital Cinema.

[HeadOn]

They did kinda look like E.T., didn’t they?

[IronJack]

I guess that’s subjective. I’ve never noticed any outstanding compositional elements in Coen films. I’ll have to look more closely.

[rlmorel]

Yes...and a very different type of character for John Wayne, too!

[sparklite2]

So many of Citizen Kane’s innovations were copied into motion pictures following it, that its breakthroughs don’t seem at all unusual watching the movie today.

For example, movie sets of the day didn’t have ceilings, but CK included camera angles shot low pointing upward such that ceilings had to be built.

Also, the ubiquitous practice today of starting audio from scene 2 before scene 1 has been cut away from. Critics at the time found that confusing and irritating.

[Wayne07]

I'd argue hat today filmmakers shoot digital with less regard to lighting and color because they can tweak it all digitally. It is why you so often get the terrible blue color grading that makes movies all look the same. In the old analog days you actually had to pay more attention to that stuff on set, and ended up with higher quality results. I'm sure there are other factors, but the lack of recent movies in the list is notable.

Teal and Orange - Hollywood, Please Stop the Madness

[cymbeline]

“because they can tweak it all digitally”

I wonder, though, whether a poorly lit or exposed scene can be made good digitally. I’m thinking film. You can underexpose a recording but no amount of correcting will make it as good as a properly exposed recording. Why? Because the full range of the recording media wasn’t used in the original. Less information from the subject was recorded.

[dead]

Miller’s Crossing and The Hudsucker Proxy come to mind as beautifully shot to me.

[central_va]

ASC says this is the first time a list like this has been compiled, at least by a group of pros who should know what they are talking about. The list culminates in a Top 10 (the other 90 are unranked). The Top 10 Best Shot Films Of All Time are:

Lawrence of Arabia (1962), shot by Freddie Young, BSC (Dir. David Lean)
Blade Runner (1982), shot by Jordan Cronenweth, ASC (Dir. Ridley Scott)
Apocalypse Now (1979), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Citizen Kane (1941), shot by Gregg Toland, ASC (Dir. Orson Wells)
The Godfather (1972), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Raging Bull (1980), shot by Michael Chapman, ASC (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
The Conformist (1970), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
Days of Heaven (1978), shot by Néstor Almendros, ASC (Dir. Terrence Malick)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), shot by Geoffrey Unsworth, BSC with additional photography by John Alcott, BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
The French Connection (1971), shot by Owen Roizman, ASC (Dir. William Friedkin)

[central_va]

I would have thought Doctor Zhivago made the list.

[dead]

Brazil is probably my favorite movie ever, so it's nice to see it on this list. So many amazing shots.

[central_va]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was spectacular both visually and music score wise.