What style is this, and what other films can you recommend?

Cafe Society
1

I’m having trouble finding a good way to explain this, so let me apologize now and ask you to bear with me.

Can someone help me figure out what style these things are in?

[ul]
[li]The “non-fantasy” part of this trailer for Sucker Punch (driving up to the hospital especially)[/li]
[li]The dream sequences/flashbacks in Depp’s version of Sleepy Hollow[/li]
[li]NiN’s “Perfect Drug” video[/li]
[li]The ballroom dancing scene in the Backstreet Boys “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” video (starting around 3:50)[/li]
[li]To a lesser extent Edward Scissorhands, and hints of it in parts of Val Kilmer era Batman movies and Sin City. Perhaps parts of Beetlejuice too, but I haven’t seen it in a couple of decades[/li]
[li]But not Pan’s Labyrinth or Alice in Wonderland. What I’m trying to get at isn’t merely fantasy elements. There’s something about the angles of how the SP trailer and NiN videos above are filmed that are also important to what I’m trying to qualify here[/ul][/li]
My brain insists on labeling this as stylized/sureal gothicism, but I have a feeling that this isn’t quite right. Does anyone have a better name for this style of film?

And more importantly, does anyone besides Tim Burton make movies that are similar?

I’m excited to see Sucker Punch because of the visuals, and I’d love to see other things like this too.

2

I watched the link you had for Sucker Punch and the NIN video. I’m also familiar with the look in Tim Burton films you are talking about. I think you are right to think gothic is part of what they are gong for. Definitely heavily stylized as well. It looks like they are filming with an extremely wide angled lens and then digitally boosting the ratio of blue in the image so it seems almost monochromatic.

I don’t know if there is a specific term to describe this visual style but I think something like Post-Modern Gothic Surrealism might work if you are looking to coin a phrase.

3

You mean like City of Lost Children?

There’s also the teal and orange filter that is all the rage right now.

4

I know that the angles are wide, but does that also account for the sense that the image is being shot up from the bottom (like the camera crew is crouched down low and pointing the camera upwards to capture the scene) too? It’s a neat effect at any rate.

Another, but non-gothic, example of this angle is during the hospital scene in the season nine episode of The X-Files called “Dæmonicus,” when they walk across a checkerboard floor.

GuanoLad, I haven’t seen City of Lost Children, but my sense from the trailers is that it might be a bit like what I mean.

5

Are you talling about surrealism?

6

That was a fascinating blog entry - thank you very much for sharing…

7

More on annoying Hollywood trends, including color filters in this Cracked.com article.

8

Missed my edit window (of course).

To the OP: have you seen π (Pi)? Lots of weird camera angles, kind of to accentuate the state of mind of the protagonist.

Also, try some films by Jodorowsky. He’s weird and wonderful. Most people hate it, but one of my favorite movies is Sante Sangre. Lots of unusual camera angles, gorgeous wide shots, inexplicable imagery, etc.

9

Ah, nineties goth video clip style. Who doesn’t love that? Let me think… watch Sin City (good movie), The Spirit (Awful awful nonsense), give a look to Zack Snyder flicks and… ummm… why not Silent Hill?

10

Oh, my! How I still marvel at old Technicolor films.

Super.

Bring it back.

Now!