not mentioned yet…
Last of the Mohicans
Lolita (1997 version)
The Devil’s Backbone
Amadeus
All have very nice cinematography.
I think Altman often looks great visually, you always hear about the rambling plots and the overlapping dialogue and the crazy characters (love them or hate them), but I also love how his films look, especially Nashville, MASH, Short Cuts, and the otherwise lackluster Kansas City. I don’t love them so much because they’re beautiful, exactly, but everything is so intentional you can geek out on the composition of it all.
The OP said no black and white, but just in case anyone else opened this thread looking for ideas who doesn’t mind black and white, and er … subtitles, L’Avventura is a visual classic. So Italian! So mod! You’ll want to lick your screen.
I want to second CalMeacham’s suggestion of The Road to Perdition. I think I watched it again with the sound off, I was so impressed.
Somebody else beat me to Dark City, but if your new screen has a high contrast ratio (I’m thinking 1500:1 or better), there are some amazingly shot black and white classics (I know you said you didn’t want them in the OP, but tough), especially ones that have been given the Criterion treatment.
I long to watch my copy of The Third Man on such a screen. All that darkness, all that sharp relief, all so very noir!
Plenty of Bergman, Fellini, and (especially) Kurosawa have come out on Criterion discs. Just soak in the atmosphere.
Oh, you said Plasma, not LCD. 10000:1 is pretty much the standard contrast for plasma. From my experience, some monitors don’t really perform to that level, at least not without some coaxing, but you’re doing yourself a disservice not taking advantage of one of the major benefits of a plasma, as opposed to an LCD (where contrast will range anywhere between about 450:1 to about 7000:1 at the highest end): Crisp differentiation in grays.
If you are going to stick to your guns on color, then sci-fi really is the way to go for visually appealing movies. Check out the Dune and Children of Dune miniseries that were made for Sci-fi Channel. And say what you want about their stories, Star Wars One through Three really do look cool.
For all of its flaws, The Time Machine of a few years ago was visually very impressive.
And I was going to mention What Dreams may Come, before seeing it in the OP.
People talk about how HD is going to bring out all the flaws in porno stars. Milla Jovovich has no flaws and will look GREAT on HD in that Ace bandage outfit!
Already mentioned: Brazil, 2001, Moulin Rouge.
Not already mentioned: City of Lost Children, Close Encounters.
Girl With a Pearl Earring with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johannsen…if you like Vermeer. They didn’t do such a great job translating the plot to film, but the lighting and the cinematography are stunning.
The Phantom of the Opera was a great visual picture. It didn’t make up for the fact that the lead couldn’t sing worth a lick, but impressive to look at nonetheless.
I was blown away by the visual impact of Casshern, in fact I feel like I missed a lot of the story because my brain shut down most of my other senses to free-up more bandwidth for visual input.
I can’t find a non-flash site showing pictures, but a google image search will bring up some of the eye candy.
The movie is dystopian-themed mixture of Metropolis, Blade Runner, X-Men and a few others I might be forgetting about. I was shocked and amazed to learn, after watching, that
…it was among the first feature-length live action films to be shot on a digital backlot, with the actors performing in front of a greenscreen and all but the simplest stage elements added digitally after the fact. (from Wiki)
That wasn’t a plot spoiler, it’s a production detail that I think might have made watching a little less fun if I had known beforehand.
TCM recently showed, for the very first time, the 1944 Gene Kelly/Rita Hayworth musical Cover Girl. And because this was a big-budget Hollywood film, the colors are COLORS, with every outfit, backdrop, and little touch bursting with bright color.
After seeing that on my plasma screen I’d strongly recommend seeking out other true Technicolor movies.
To the modern eye the over-saturated colors that the Technicolor process creates gives the frame a slightly artificial look like an early hand-tinted print. But they reproduce beautifully and without fading, unlike many of the other older color processes. They’re special in a unique way.
Shouldn’t the standard for this kind of question be Ran? Kurosawa was going blind, so he painted out every scene before hand. Every scene looks like a painting. Sexy.
I’d also suggest, for a BW film you wouldn’t mind banging, check out The Man Who Wasn’t There. It’s lushy.
Little Big Man and Jeremiah Johnson
For nostalgia and scenery… the color is so right too, some kind of je ne ce quois that I cant put my finger on- the brilliant film they used and its “wash” – my youth in smart color.
I think The Big Lebowski is a visually beautiful movie. The Coen Brothers seem to be one of the few modern directors who really think about shot composition in a way that a guy like Sergio Leone did.
Great colors, and materials, and fades, and lights, and “deep” shots, and wide shots. One of the reasons that it’s great is that it’s a beatifully shot movie.
I’ll second that - it happens to be one of my favourite movies, partly because of the stunning cinematography.
I came in just to mention this. I saw a review somewhere, or perhaps it was even a comment here, that we should accept some movies as hinging on visuals, rather than plot, just as we can appreciate paintings as much as we do novels. People who didn’t like the movie most likely had problems with the plot, which is admittedly a bit awkward. But this movie is truly about creepy, disturbing, and downright scary images, and it works perfectly on that level.
I think this movie is outstanding all around. Watch it even if you don’t have a huge plasma screen.
Peter Greenaway studied oil painting before he turned to cinema. His movies are often more interesting for the visuals than for the stories.
The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover.
Drowning by Numbers.
Prospero’s Books.
Pre-World War I war movies.
Zulu and Zulu Dawn —British redcoats vs Zulus in warpaint.
Gettysburg and Glory —Johnny Reb vs Billy Yank.
The Battle of Autsterlitz
War and Peace – the Hollywood version with Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn.
War and Peace – the 9-hour Russian version
Actually, thats pretty much the reason I started this thread. I have my TV on a wall mount, at a level roughly where a painting might hang, so I got to thinking about using the tv as a sort of moving painting when I have guests over. I’m throwing a party on saturday and my idea was to have the iTunes visualizer running for the first half of the party and then later running a movie with no sound, but one with particularly excellent visuals. We’ll see how it works out.
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I am kind of at the mercy of netflix here, and their library is not comprehensive so I won’t be able to check them all out, but I will see most of them. And yes I WILL check out the b&ws eventually I promise!
By far the most visually stunning film ever in my opinion is Barry Lyndon. It will take your breath away with its photography, scene selection and scenery.
Speaking of Ireland (and Barry Lyndon is located in Ireland), The Quiet Man is a delightful visual montage. It is John Ford’s love letter to Ireland. Wonderful visuals.
Speaking of John Ford, take any of the westerns he shot in Monument Valley (most with Wayne). Those are visually wonderful too.
A remake of a Ford (and Wayne) classic, Stagecoach visually was better than the original. But the visual aspects actually stole the show from the actors and plot. You lost them admiring that which they were in.
For black and white, non Ford, yeah, The Third Man.