Monday, February 17, 2014

Influential Movies for Photographers

wind turbines by Wanderfull1

wind turbines, a photo by Wanderfull1 on Flickr.
Years ago I saw a black & white Max Von Sydow movie called The Seventh Seal. One image of silhouettes dancing on a hill top, known as the dance of death, stuck with me. The image came to mind when I shot these wind turbines near Pincher Creek.

Which comes to mind a list that I've been thinking about creating for a while. A list of movies with photography that I have loved or been influenced by.  You know, scenes where you stop paying attention to the movie and go "oooh."

Links to memorable movie scenes:
  • Symbolism beautifully photographed, Melancholia (Google Images - IMDB - Favorite Image) is an end of the world sci-fi film.  My favorite scene has the main character, who is clinically depressed, walking in her wedding dress, her legs dragged down by tree roots.

  • There are many beautifully photographed scenes in Black Narcissus (Google Images - IMDB - Favorite image), but my favorite would be the nuns praying before an altar.

  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - IMDB - Favorite image : the opening scene where they are ambushed in the cabin
  • Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End - IMDB - Favorite image : miles and a multitude of rock-like crabs lined up in rows on a white sandy plain.

MORE:

     [Added April 4, 2014]



  • The Bang Bang Club is the story of four combat photographers in South Africa during the wars to end Apartheid.  Based on actual photographers and events.  Makes street photography look like a walk in the park.





  • Five Broken Cameras is a documentary about a Palestinian man who videotaped his village's resistance to Israeli occupation.



  • Fur, a kind of tribute to famous photographer Diane Arbus, imagines how Diane became a photographer of society's outsiders.





  • In Aa Dekhen Zara a photographer inherits his grandfather's camera. A camera that predicts the future. While not necessarily photographically inspiring the idea of a camera that shows you what will happen is kind of cool.





  • Fourteen years after being severely disabled in a magical performance gone wrong, a former magician petitions his government to allow him to commit suicide.  Stunning cinematography throughout, but my favorite scene is the magic trick where he appears to slide down a light beam.




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