Spring Breakers (2012)

Spring Breakers (2012)

Harmony Korine

BRONZE

Spring Breakers is a wicked, teen and fantasized overdose, in a good and cinematic sense. Harmony Korine explores the difficulty of American teenagers in a way I had never seen before, mixing all the narrative possibilities and letting our hearts collapse at the very end of the story. I would like to express my deepest admiration to the director's brave use of color. Fluorescent has never been so intoxicating.

SILVER

I think I lost the count of the shots when we still were at minute fifteen. This was one crazy movie. Cinematographer Benoît Debie never loses the indication of making it seem like a big hangover, like a eternal overdose, like a spiritual confusion. However, there weren't many memorable shots. Bronze went to one drink and drug scene when the style suddenly changes to vintage. Silver went to the longest shot in the entire film, the robbery to the cafe, brilliantly told from the driver's perspective.

GOLD

But the best shot, to me, was this. Spring Breakers is a story about dependence, about troubled girls who need a leader, a figure they find out in Alien, played by James Franco. This shot proves all the big themes in the movie: Lost of identity, leadership and a long journey... Of psychedelic colors!

Rebecca (1940)

Rebecca (1940)

Alfred Hitchcock

BRONZE

Subtle, wicked, haunting, thrilling, scary... That's the way to describe Rebecca, Hitchcock's masterpiece. Oscar winner cinematographer George Barnes creates an eerie atmosphere where the sense of intimidation is palpable. We descend to Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) madness as she becomes convinced that she's replacing a ghost. The thin line between good and evil is disturbed and broken, and we get that from the exquisite black and white images and the composition of elements and gothic style.

SILVER

The story is quiet and builds pure suspense towards the damaged ending. That mansion gave me chills as well as the presence of Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), because everything is there for a reason. That's Golden Hollywood narrative. Hitchcock uses the camera to recreate the death of Rebecca, but most important, he moves it, like nobody else does, to stay with the heroine of the movie. It seems like she's locked in that house, trying to escape, and finally overcomes all the obstacles and succeeds as the new wife.

GOLD

And that personal journey was essential in my choice for best shot. The bronze spot is for the service shot. Look closely. The men in black, the women in white. A clue? The silver spot is for Mrs. Danvers most iconic moment in the entire film, as she seems to be always watching, even behind the curtains. And gold is Mrs. de Winter watching her honeymoon video, extremely upset about what's happening in the house and around her and trying to communicate her feelings to her husband (Laurence Olivier), while her face gets softly lighted up. It's a moment of extreme tension as the character is about to explode. A perfect, cinematic moment.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Wes Anderson

BRONZE

You can find strange my choices for best shots in Fantastic Mr. Fox because the selection is dark and features realistic imagery for an animated feature, given Anderson's tendency and love for bright colors and smart composition. I really liked the movie, it's pretty entertaining and touching, sometimes funny and special in the treatment of the characters relationships. I really wanted to post a shot of Mr. and Mrs. Fox together, but I thought these choices told more to the story. They were more important, adding meaning to the theme and motifs. Anyway, the cinematography work in this movie is exquisite. Tristan Oliver really understands the universe of Wes Anderson and explores Roald Dahl's story with precision and freedom.

 

SILVER

I remembered Chicken Run when I watched this, but only because the characters were animals and their action took place in a farm, amongst other locations. The visuals are simply outstanding. I really wanted to get inside that world and play with the foxes! There were wonderful characters and Anderson presents them and puts them in specific positions, sometimes to make us laugh, sometimes to make us understand their own loneliness because Fantastic Mr. Fox is, above all, a story about loneliness and the meaning of life, even if they're (wild) animals. This decision causes a result of charming experience.

GOLD

The bronze went to a very visual, painting, colorful shot. I chose it because it gives the audience the sense of company for Mr. Fox in his robbing activity. Also, the shining yellow moon gives the characters a place on Earth, on (comedy) misery. The silver was for a devastating moment that Anderson creates with the big shot of the rain falling over Mr. Fox in the climax. He has been silly all the story, as her own wife says, "You never listen to anyone", but in that moment you can feel sorry for him. And the gold was for a comedic relief, Mr. Fox invading the farm, and making the farmer look like a total inept. I think it's the perfect conclusion for this Wes Anderson movie. It keeps its spirit of pathetic characters, great visual composition and the idea of a perfectly imaginary world.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

A Streetcar named Desire (1951)

Elia Kazan

BRONZE

A minute after A Streetcar named Desire ended, I thought that it was an amazing movie with one of the best ensemble casts ever. A tour-de-force. But its strength and freshness also resides in the excellent work by Mr. Elia Kazan and cinematographer Harry Stradling. They move the camera around those disturbed characters, with their lonely lives and their hidden secrets and motifs, in a very seductive way, making them look mysterious, between the lights and the shadows, and emotional, with the multiple close-ups and sometimes poetical and metaphorical images.

 

 

SILVER

Intense, defiant, extraordinary piece of human examination, A Streetcar named Desire lives in an atmosphere that is untamed since the beginning, when Blanche arrives to that dirty, noisy, smokey New Orleans. The sense of nervous breakdown is vivid all the time due to the extreme uses that Kazan makes of the image: Witnessing or Judging. When presenting characters, it's outstanding, but the best shots of the movie are precisely those who don't involve first impressions, but definitional moments in the dramatic arcs of the characters.

GOLD

Bronze was the final scene involving Blanche and the Doctor. Silver was Mitch's meeting Blanche in the middle of the poker game. And gold has to be the showstopping moment, when Stella decides to go down the stairs and forgive Stanley. It's a fearful scene because we've seen so much violence, verbal and physical, that audience should gasp looking at it. Finally, we realize that it's a life of subservience and drudgery, a deep and true reflection on that time women roles. But, most important, the movie is a struggle between appearances and reality. The fantasy, embodied by Blanche, confronts the reality, we mean Stanley, and the result is tragic as it could only be. Put special attention to the cinematography when Blanche moves around the Kowalski house, trying to hide her real age. She hides herself in the shadows. And, sadly, she stays there.

Beau Travail (1999)

Beau Travail (1999)

Claire Denis

 

BRONZE

  I understand that Claire Denis' films are not for everyone. In fact, that's the best thing someone could say about any filmmaker in the world. Denis is very specific, she knows what she has to shoot, and she is not afraid. She often creates her visuals with brilliant metaphors, suggestive ideas and experimental non lineal narrative. Beau Travail is about repressed human feelings. You know, homosexuality.

 

SILVER

 

In the context of such a violent environment, the war is inside the characters. A defiant leader, a possible lover, and the enemy. All of them men. We are here to talk about the beautiful cinematography work by Agnes Godard, but Denis creates an atmosphere not only with images but also with sounds, specially silences. War receives a different treatment here, focusing more on internal troubles. The outside work, that Beau Travail of the title, is perfectly executed, but their insecurities are wild and about to collapse.

 

GOLD

In my opinion, the best shot of Beau Travail is a very hypnotic, strange, evocative one. I didn't expect such originality. There's a scene, at night, where the leader played by the great Denis Lavant, is observing the other men and, exactly, the one he has deep feelings for. With the sound of him smoking the cigarette, and the image of the fire and the smoke, you can not only feel the tension of the character, but getting inside his own skin. It's the perfect climax to a wonderful visual experience. Highly recommended.

Compliance (2012)

  Compliance (2012)

Craig Zobel

 BRONZE

  Here we have a little movie called Compliance, which came out last year and was screened in various film festivals, gaining buzz for Ann Dowd's performance as a fast food restaurant manager. Being what it is, a movie whose empathy and interest relies on the subject, it's perfectly understandable that controversy appeared near the reception. I would say that, yes, it was pretty unbelievable, but those characters were cunningly written and played by a nice group of actors with spontaneous passion.

SILVER

 

The plot is simple, is less important than the characters. We have to wait patiently for the information to come. But watching the film again today I paid attention to the visual storytelling and its strange calm. I say strange calm because there is so much tension in the story, focusing on one day of work, that a baroque composition of visual elements could have damaged the fresh spirit that director Craig Zobel and cinematographer Adam Stone deliver. It's funny how the audience can feel idiotic sometimes, but the characters themselves are idiotic no matter what.

GOLD

The camera walks, dances, moves around those poor teenagers, full of empty dreams and wrong ideas, whose leader is as ignorant as them. My choice for the best shot in Compliance is wild, but it shocked me and felt extreme. The suggestion of the thin body and the presence of the man make the white trash society a creepy place to live. Such minimalism is enough for the audience, because the image comes in a point of the story where you don't want the most frightening thing to happen. It's a moral movie with shots not so empty but hard to handle.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Anthony Minghella

 

BRONZE

Let me start saying what a gorgeous movie The Talented Mr. Ripley is. It's impeccable. Such affirmation may seem exaggerated, but it's a risk I'm going to allow. Visually, it's a experience that drives you through Tom Ripley's lies, and it never loses the rhythm. The tension lives in the shots, in every one of them! The audience will feel intelligent and active watching this, exploring the consequences of the false identity. Special attention to the eyes of the actors, who are all brilliant. I had to choose one single look and it was Dickie Greenleaf's to his lover after she kills herself in the sea. It reveals a deep fear of the character, his eyes illuminate the shot, making it transcend immediately. And we're touched by it. Knocked out, specifically.

SILVER

 

Director Anthony Minghella and cinematographer John Seale capture the intention of Patricia Highsmith's novel. It feels like a game where the identities get to know each other and then they collapse in the fatal and inevitable ending. It's a gift to see such elaborated composition inside the shot, using not only the actors and their position, but also the objects around them, creating incredible metaphors such as the image chosen for Silver Medal. Such complexity is just enigmatic and dark. And that's a cause of celebration for movie enthusiasts. Ripley's obsession with Dickie has amazing shots, all of them swimming in the sea of suspense, and perhaps we see some Hitchcock influence. Well, it definitely fits the storytelling.

GOLD

Instead of going with one of the multiple epic shots that this movie has, I decided to choose this as the best for a simple reason. Being The Talented Mr. Ripley a movie about sexual tension, homoerotic relationships and the need of hiding yourself, this shot is a proof that, in the end, it's just a trivialization of North America's attitude in the 1950s on a foreign country like Italy. The past always returns, as so does with Tom, Dickie, Marge and Meredith. Every major character in the movie has to live with a mistake. They're caught in their web of fear, in their own perversity. They're not free. That's the opposite to the two Italian men in the shot who, even if we're not sure they're gay (One of them has previously flirted with a walking lady) they don't care about anything else. They're busy knotting a tie. We guess this would be Ripley's dream.