Then I will strongly re-reccommend Children of Heaven, if you haven’t already seen it.
Technically, the movie has no atmosphere, but I can’t imagine any list of atmospheric films being complete without mentioning For All Mankind. Stunning, stunning, visuals, and Eno’s soundtrack is just perfect for the film.
The Moderns is an Alan Rudolph film set in Paris in the 20’s. Shot in Montreal, it has a smoky, bohemian atmosphere, aided by a haunting musical score. Can a film be pretentiously arty & funny at the same time? Apparently, yes.
O Brother Where Art Thou had a definite sepia tone. So many scenes of the Depression South appear copied from WPA photographs–beautiful or ugly. And there was music, too…
Of course, I’ll second Bladerunner. And add a good word for The Fifth Element–set in a jollier, more colorful future. (Surely, comics fans can name the French influences.) Plot, who needs a plot?
As they show in the DVDs “Extras” section, that movie was VERY heavily altered using computer graphics to “wash out” a lot of the color and render it that sepia tone.
I have to admit, I hated it.
Damn, somebody beat me to it. I found this movie very affecting and the atmosphere is the reason for that.
I felt the same way about The Pianist. I felt like I was IN the movie sometimes.
Night of the Hunter, besides having some great performances, carries an almost unique atmosphere. Hard to describe. Dreamlike, but also earthy. The Coen brothers must be fans; there are visual or dialogue references to this movie in Raising Arizona and The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Session 9, although it doesn’t have a great script, is spooky as hell just based on good photography of a great set: a huge, abandoned, derelict 19th century mental hospital.
I’ve always found the fall creepy - it’s not a Halloween thing, but I’ve always felt a weird, vague sense that things… just aren’t right. Maybe it’s the low light in the afternoon, I don’t know. I get an “edgy” feeling that starts in mid September and finally tapers off in late October. It’s hard to explain, but feels VERY real to me.
Donnie Darko somehow nails this mood - the pervasive creeping sense of doom in the autumn.
This particular movie seemed to serve as a trigger for pretentious wankers to drone on about “time travel in the context of 17th century philosophy that you’d really have to be obtuse to miss” (or whatever) :rolleyes: …blah blah blah…But hey, I give it points for atmosphere!
The remake of Cat People – the one with Nastassia Kinski – is lousy with atmosphere. Pre-Katrina New Orleans and a haunting Giorgio Moroder score do the trick. As well as a hauntingly beautiful Nastassia Kinski.
Oh, and I don’t know how I forgot to mention my favorite movie of all time, Round Midnight. There is, simply, no substitute for hiring musicians to play the musicians in a film, and then filming them actually playing the music you are hearing. God, that movie makes me weep for its beauty.
The atmosphere gets pretty thick and and close to unbreathable at times in Das Boot. There’s tension and terror enough, but the main thing is that it’s as claustrophobic a film as I’ve seen. (Driving home in a snowstorm after seeing it, I still wanted to roll down all the windows. :eek: )
Good (and bad too!) to note that my selection hasn’t been mentioned yet.
I would say The Hunted, which did a fantastic job of setting up “the hunt” motif. The movie is eerily quiet during scenes where the two main characters hunt each other down, and creates a sense of tension and atmosphere that made this movie seemingly a lot better than it was. Even Tommy Lee Jones got into the act, selling his “outdoorsman” character by making him calm and cool outside (where he lives and belongs), but really fidgety and tense inside a high rise in the city.
I remember seeing it at the cheap theater in Tucson, AZ, and leaving the theater wondering why I hadn’t heard anything about that movie from anyone. I thought about it a bit more and realized how well the movie had sold itself to me during the showing, making up for a lot of flaws.
The Shining and The Thing. Two cold, claustrophobic horror movies.
I came to second “The Shining”, but there is an atmosphere peculiar to all of Kubrick’s films.
Mine too - big on locations:
Wings of Desire - Berlin, especially the area around the Wall
Time of the Gypsies -Sarajevo (pre-war) and Italy
The Mission - Amazonia
Aguirre, Wrath of God - Amazon
Withnail & I - London & English countryside.
Another couple of bad but very atmospheric movies:
The Others (specially the first half all in the dark)
Blair Witch Project.
Angel Heart,even when there doesn’t appear to be anything going on you’re still on the edge of your seat and cant understand why.
And bizzarrly I think Shaun of the Dead was atmospheric,though that might be because I’m more used to seeing Zombie movies set in the states rather then on home turf.
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow captured the essence and atmosphere of 1930s and 1940s pulp serials perfectly, IMHO.