I’m glad this got mentioned. I was thinking of it, but couldn’t remember for sure about it.
There’s at least one other film that I’m seeing in my mind’s eye where the air is almost translucent. The lighting and cinematography are big parts of the effect, but there’s even more involved. Unfortunately, I can’t come up with its name. I’m thinking period piece, but can’t narrow it down to which period.
And it’s not the Vermeer thing, although that’s a lot like it. Every scene looks like it was set up and lighted to resemble a famous painting. Even down to the chiaroscuro effect in some Italian Renaissance works. Rembrandt looking, too.
What A Way To Go! starring Shirley MacLaine. Most of the movie is told in the form of flashbacks, each of which is an (homage to)/(parody of) a different film genre. So the visuals are as important as the plot.
Now I want a giant plasma TV jsut for this. There are other visualizers out there for iTunes that are pretty cool (like Eyephedrine & Ultragroovalicious . I think the built-in one is the best though.
Do those other visualizers have the Apple logo in the center like the built in one? If not I will definitely check them out. I like the built in one, but there is something creepy about the way the Apple logo sneaks into the middle of the screen…
Ya wanna movie that hinges on visuals, do ya? Well, then you must check out Koyaanisqatsi. You could say that this movie is entirely dependent on visuals. I could do worse than direct you to a description of this film at imdb.com. As described there, it is a “visual concert of images set to the haunting music of Phillip Glass.”
Ran finally got mentioned, so I’ll just add Kundun (which is probably just as enjoyable with the sound off).
As for using the TV as a moving art picture, I seem to remember that the Punch-Drunk Love Special Edition had a second disk with a series of images from the film put together in an interesting way (which confused me mightily when I accidentally put that disk in first).
One of my favorite movies ever, the Japanese movie Love Letter has as a special feature the movie played with the storyboards instead of the film - all beautiful watercolors painted by the director (Shunji Iwai).
The Dark Crystal, The Matrix trilogy, The Neverending Story, Moulin Rouge, Innerspace, Tron, 77 Million Paintings by Brian Eno, Artmind - The Healing Power of Sacred Art with Alex Grey, Titan A.E., Treasure Planet, Atlantis the Lost Empire, Pirates of the Carribean, The Future is Wild, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Young Sherlock Holmes, Willow, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Aeon Flux, Fantasia, Ultraviolet, any of Bjork’s music video collections
Well, someone already mentioned anything by Ridley Scott:
Legend
Alien
Gladiator
1492 Conquest of Paradise
Kingdom of Heaven
Blade Runner
Black Hawk Down
or his brother Tony:
Top Gun
Days of Thunder
Spy Game
Enemy of the State
or any of the Bruckheimer / Bay films:
Armageddon
The Rock
Pearl Harbor
and of course, any of the Pirates of the Carribean films
Is one of the worst movies ever made. We watched the movie until the end, asked for our money back. Not only did we get our money, the theater manager apologized. “I know, it’s terrible.”
The Spike Lee film, Mo’ Better Blues (one of my all time faves), is great to look at. The music is pretty hot, too. Denzil Washington and Wesley Snipes both peak with this one.
You’re all going to laugh, but I think both the Charlize Theron Aeon Flux and the Milla Jovovich Ultraviolet are visually stunning - a vision of the future I much prefer over Blade Runner and its children. Lovely use of colour in the latter, too.