What movies do you find visually striking? For whatever definition of "visually striking" you care to use (because, on my list, some are really gorgeous, and some are just...striking, but not gorgeous).
Almost anything technicolor.
Most film noir.
Almost anything by Lubitsch.
Anything by Powell & Pressburger.
In terms of more modern films:
Anything filmed by Roger Deakins, but especially
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
and
Skyfall.
Jeunet & Caro's first two feature films and Jeunet's
Amélie.
Stylized action with interesting framing.
John Wick
immediately comes to mind, but
Atomic Blonde
was even more striking on that score. Jeremy Saulnier's films
Blue Ruin
and
Green Room
are the most beautiful grim films you'll ever see. Also, Coralie Fargeat's
Revenge.
Other films from the last few years that I'd recommend on cinematography and visuals alone include
Annihilation; The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; Blade Runner 2049; Cold War; Columbus; The Florida Project; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night; The Handmaiden; The Hateful Eight; Ida; Les Innocentes; Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter; Lady Macbeth; The Light Between Oceans; The Love Witch; Mad Max: Fury Road; Mudbound; Paddington 2
(for the pop-up book animation alone but overall a gorgeous film);
Phantom Thread; Roma; Sunset Song.
Some of these are striking. Most are gorgeous. Mostly I like pretty, pretty pictures, but if the films themselves don't match up I find they don't stick with me. So there are very few films on this list I didn't like overall.
ETA:
Yes, Vonnie, anything by Zhang Yimou!
Powell and Pressburger! YES YES.
Black Narcissus
and
Red Shoes
are probably the most striking, but really all of their films look so amazing. GOSH I LOVE THEM *gibbers in excitement*
Yes, Vonnie, anything by Zhang Yimou!
Did you have the chance to catch his latest,
Shadow?
I don't think the story is that memorable (blah blah court intrigue, interspersed with badass visually inventive martial art-fu) but it's one of the most extraordinary-looking films I've ever seen. There are colours, yes, but everything is deliberately set up in shades of grey so that every frame looks like a Chinese ink painting. Trailer: [link]
Powell and Pressburger! YES YES. Black Narcissus and Red Shes are probably the most striking, but really all of their films look so amazing. GOSH I LOVE THEM *gibbers in excitement*
Right? I was so very excited when I saw the Criterion Channel add a Powell and Pressburger collection to their line-up that I immediately began to wonder which I should watch first! And then I had to remind myself that I owned most of them and could actually WATCH THEM AT ANY TIME.
What movies do you find visually striking?
Pacific Rim and Sleepy Hollow come to my mind.
A few older movies:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zhivago
The Fall of Atlanta scenes in Gone With the Wind
The opening scene of The Sound of Music
Crimson Peak
The Cell
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Age of Innocence
Sin City
The Artist
Down With Love
I know there are more, but I'm not caffeinated enough yet. ( knew I forgot an obvious one.)
relatively satisfying as these things go.
I was dissappointed by The Kitchen. It felt very over-worked - weird cuts all over the place, TERRIBLE sound editing, bizarre jumps in the plot that felt like they just forgot to tell some parts? Also, and this might be spoilery,
I wanted everything to be harder. The three leads talked CONSTANTLY about their struggles and how difficult it was to be a woman in this environment, but in general, it looked like they mostly got everything they wanted just by asking for it? The money-counting montage happens like fifteen minutes in! They keep almost having consequences but then it winds up working out! It was shot like a gritty dark gangster movie but written with sitcom-level stakes.
