You know, films that the plot, storyline, and acting just don’t matter, the film looks so good that the other elements are minor players. Of course, the film can have a good plot, storyline, etc, but those elements aren’t the biggest hook of the film. My choices would have to be:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Solaris (the George Clooney version)
1984
Henry and June
Casablanca
What’s yours?
Eyes Wide Shut
The one with Robin Williams in a painted world.
The Cell
Road to Perdition
Ran
Spirited Away
Metropolis (both anime and Fritz Lang’s)
Apocalypse Now
MusicJunkie - I agree with the first there on your list (and I can’t think of the name, either - you mean the one in the toy factory with Joan Cusack, right?). Also Spirited Away and Metropolis (Fritz Lang).
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Walkabout
Delores Clairborne
LOR
Apartment Zero
Android
Haunting of Hill House
“Heat” was good for atmosphere (besides the great character development). The variants of pale blues really resonated with the tone of the entire movie.
Others unmentioned, but ultimately unremembered at the moment…
Se7en
Dark and oppressive throughout.
One Hour Photo has great use of different visual atmospheres to characterize the separate “worlds” of the movie, as well as subtly creepy musical effects.
Nightmare Before Christmas
Dark City (I remember nothing about the plot of this film, just the visuals)
I.K.U. (super cool Japanese cyber-erotica flick…can’t explain it much better than that, but watching it feels like being in a video game)
City of Lost Children
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Babe: Pig In The City
Sunrise (1926)
Metropolis (1927, the height of German deco)
Broken Blossoms (1919, lovely recreation of London’s Limehouse)
Camille (1921, with art nouveau sets by Natasha Rambova)
The one I’m talking about has Robin loosing his son and his wife and then dying and going to heaven in one of his wifes paintings. It’s a melodrama and not very good at that but the visuals are amazing.
What Dreams May Come
The king of atmospheric movies:
Blue Velvet.
Virgin Suicides
Spider
Alien
Delicatessen (another Caro-Jeunet collaboration)
The Fifth Element
Most all Coen brothers films, but specifically:
Miller’s Crossing
Barton Fink
The Reflecting Skin gets my vote. The panoramic shots of the landscape, muted sound, and scarcity of dialogue give it a great dreamlike quality.
Days of Heaven - so beautifu to look at, nothing else matters - exactly
“Dick Tracy” is a pretty bad film, but the design is so wonderfully comicy (henceforth “comicy” shall be known as a word) that you can just watch the film for the way it looks.
“Batman” is similarly beautiful, but that’s just a great film to boost.
That’s “Toys”, which is a visually impressive film as well, but possibly worse than Dick Tracy as far as everything else goes. But let it be known that I’m a big fan of Joan Cusack.
Personally, though, I think the best-looking film ever made is “A nightmare before Christmas”. Wonderful.
LOTR:FOTR. Even though it’s the Best. Movie. Ever., the acting and development are nothing compared to the looks of the movie!
Amelie
Ghost in the Shell
Movies big on looks and short on substance:
Final Fantasy
Titanic
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Episode 3 (C’mon, it’s a given.)