📌 Thank you everyone for the support to the channel and make sure to check out MPB if you’re looking into buying, selling or trading any photography or video equipment. Other recent videos on the channel: *Meet One of Britain's Most Influential Photographers* ua-cam.com/video/yA27BtOOkYU/v-deo.html *This Photographer Will Change the Way You Shoot!* ua-cam.com/video/0-trc5ENYpw/v-deo.html
E.g. "In the mood for love", "Three Colors Trilogy", "Satanstango", German expressionism ("Dr. Mabuse", "Metropolis", "M"), "Rumble Fish", "Adnrei Rublev", "Barry Lyndon", and many more.
I highly recommend the works of Satyajit Ray, artistically I feel there is a lot to analyze and learn from his works. He was a film director who came from a background of commercial illustration (long before digital was a thing), and I remember he mentions about being influenced by the photos of Henri-Cartier Bresson in an old interview. He had a very visual storytelling style with great emphasis on composition and brilliant use of lights. He made movies in the vernacular, but there might be translations available.
to add, i think most people should watch the danish movie ‘Godland’. its a movie about a photographer/priests exploration of a remote part of iceland (to not give too much away) BUT unlike movies that have a photographer who takes extremely generic images, the film uses such beautiful and insanely complex compositions that are so immersive, that its almost reminiscent of documentary or still life photos seen in actual books. It’s beautiful, the dialogue is so compelling, the STORY god it’s gut wrenching. A slow burn, but isn’t that what photography is ? it’s not supposed to be fast, it’s about uncovering those nuances and seeing where they go. PLUS the underlying theme and grief the main character and those around him face, the dissonance, is emotionally moving. 1000000/10 recommend, even if you’re just into foreign films
Two movies just watched with my son, who is developing a love for the film-look, colour, lighting and composition have been Casino and True Romance. The colour in each was gorgeous; sumptuous. He turned to me regularly to praise the lighting or mention a colour richness or harmony in many scenes. Then there’s the wide screen environmental-landscapes that would make great prints. Not forgetting some wonderful portrait shots. Brilliant cinema photography.
Wonderful video; it's nice to know I'm not the only person who appreciates "High and Low." Another movie you might want to consider as a photographer is "Nebraska," a 2013 dramedy starring Bruce Dern. It's a B&W film and is narratively really dependent on juxtaposition and lighting. It's wonderful.
Pleasantville is a film photographer should watch. Its composition is very similar to Edward Hopper's or William Eggleston's, and a transition from B+W to color partway through the film really makes for a visual feast.
"The Substance" has a nice camera work, especially the first part, and a lot of winks to Kubrik 😂. The close-ups and weird perspectives are similar to some passages in "Poor things"
I love ALL of this. Thanks for going through this and thinking through it all and bringing a LOT of movies I'd never heard of, so I'm able to check them out. For whatever reason, I think I'll start with High & Low. It grabbed me the most out of all these. Loved the questions you asked along the way.
I used to subscribe to the American Cinematographer magazine in the early 90s before (I thought) it went bust, and would savor over all the images and read about how they achieved certain shots. I was a film student and budding photographer and thought I might go into that as a career. The subscription company, from what I remember, said the magazine wasn’t going to be published anymore and shifted me over to a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. Now, looking back, it seems a fitting representation for what the entertainment industry has become. Less artistic quality and more commercial money-grabbing. Most stuff these days I won’t bother watching if it looks like they didn’t see the need for a cinematographer (or a good writer!). And I think every filmmaker/videographer/photographer should work on making their own Koyaanisqatsi, including the soundtrack to it. It’s a great exercise in “seeing.”
Nice to see Koyaanisqatsi mentioned in this diverse list of films. I will definitely check out Aftersun! If you are taking some suggestions, it be interesting to see your take on anything by Yorgos Lanthimos. Thanks for this comprehensive video!
It was part of a trilogy. I remember seeing it on Channel 4 shortly after it was released, when they were keen on showing anything innovative, unusual and avant garde.
Yes Lanthimos is right up my alley, I have yet to watch his latest movie with Emma Stone but I have really enjoyed the lobster, the favourite, dogtooth etc.. actually I’d love to make a full video on him in a different context! Thanks for watching Sebastian!
10 great choices T :-) I learned most of my photography from looking at cinematography and also the fantastic pictures in the Sunday papers' colour supplements in the 1970s (they were a really great source of well shot images - great to learn from)
I would suggest a couple of FW Murnau's films. Although known for Nosferatu, his earlier The Last Laugh and later City Girl are wonderfully shot, compositionally expressionist as well as a lesson in visual storytelling.
Great selection. I feel we should really be crediting cinematographer Jack Cardiff for Black Narcissus and Red Shoes as the composition and lighting highlighted are very much his work.
Good evening, As always I am enjoying your videos as they are so much more about photography and less about cameras. I’m primarily a news/documentary photographer though I’ve done quite a few weddings and portraits. Very different styles. I’ve been told I cover a wedding as if it were a murder scene and that’s not completely inaccurate. I’m at my best photographing mischief, murder and mayhem. Sports too but that’s basically the same thing. If I may ask, I gather you’re in Europe somewhere. May I ask where? I would enjoy meeting you and having a few drinks while discussing our views on photography as it exists and how it got here. Please keep up your good work.
It’s really good! I recommend other Melville movies, some of his colour movies that I know of are also superb. Claude Chabrol and Henri Georges-Clouzot are other two names I recommend 🤝🏻
Some years ago I watched a very obscure 1963 British film called The Small World of Sammy Lee, the cinematographer being Wolfgang Suschitzky. His best known film is probably Get Carter (the original 1971 version obviously). He was also an excellent street/reportage photographer and that background really shows through in his film work. I've got a book of his photos taken in Charing Cross Road in the 30s, and Sammy Lee, set nearby in the seedy backstreets of Soho, has a very similar aesthetic. He is my favourite example of a stills photographer using their experience, skills and ideas in cinematography.
I agree, there’s something special about those films and especially when you read about how certain shots were made, the solutions the filmmakers had to come up with.
Add to your list Vigot's L'Atlante. As I recall (have seen it only once), every frame, an enviable B&W still shot. From the early 20th C, I think; maybe earlier. Thanks for the VG program, Yours, a B&W film still photographer
Very good reference I would also say his à propos de Nice is also a great example! Personally I tend to quote more Jean Renoir too but that’s mainly personal taste.
Interesting choice of directors you made. Michael Powell's films Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes are masterpieces of filmmaking. The directors of Bob the Gambler and Rocco and His Brothers must have studied a number of American film noir #movies before making their films. The characters try to escape poverty and despair of their lives, but others keep pulling them down. High and Low, the industrialist's family falls victim to a ruthless kidnapper. But the wrong child is taken. Will the industrialist do what's right or be influenced by various outside factions? Akira Kurosawa was an amazing filmmaker. Koyaanisqatsi is a fantastic experimental film showing life on Earth during time lapse photography. I was unaware of Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother. As with his #films 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Volver, Broken Embraces and The Skin I Live In'. 'All About My Mother' follows the melodrama, eccentric humor and #LGBTQ themes Almodóvar often features.The #film #directors talked about here view the world unlike anyone else. Why haven't you directed a #shortfilm of your own? Perhaps it's time you did.
Sunday cinema, it shaped me, whether in my grandparents basement fun-room watching 'home movies', or, less formally lounging on the sofa watching 'movies for a Sunday afternoon', all the oldies in rich technicolor- forming the base layer of my cognitive map.
Thank you for great video again. So, what about the very new movies that probably not many of us saw yet. The Girl with the Needle ua-cam.com/video/Mo8VcGW7qvs/v-deo.html Citizen Saint ua-cam.com/video/mAk64U3BgAI/v-deo.html Fremont ua-cam.com/video/t0XjLYsyIwU/v-deo.html Mother Vera ua-cam.com/video/4qmGq2a8cA8/v-deo.html But of course there are many older movies as well. For example the films on which the Russian (from the USSR) cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky worked. Movies like The Cranes are Flying, I am Cuba. He used a very wide angle lens and black and white film. Of course, it has to be filtered from Soviet propaganda. Not sure if Urusevsky were ever mentioned here. ua-cam.com/video/2rINnJat-5k/v-deo.html
Brilliant selection! But why not mention the directors of photographers, when this is about photography? I only mention Emanuel Lubezki… one of the greatest of all times in film.
some of the movies i think everyone should watch whether someone is photographer or not.... Cold war 2018 The farewell 2019 Crimson tide 1995 john Q 2002 Capernaum 2018 Blade runner 2049 Chunking express 1994 In the mood for love 2000 Dead poet society 1989 La La Land 2016 Conclave 2024 Perfect days 2023 Damnation 1998
Gosh I watched Baraka such a long time ago, I owe it another watch so I can see where you’re coming from, but then again our opinions are subjective at the end of the day 👍🏻
I show "Night of the Hunter" to my B&W students because I think there is no respect for that era. People only thinking of giant ants and other bad sci fi movies.
📌 Thank you everyone for the support to the channel and make sure to check out MPB if you’re looking into buying, selling or trading any photography or video equipment.
Other recent videos on the channel:
*Meet One of Britain's Most Influential Photographers*
ua-cam.com/video/yA27BtOOkYU/v-deo.html
*This Photographer Will Change the Way You Shoot!*
ua-cam.com/video/0-trc5ENYpw/v-deo.html
Kurosawa's layering (foreground, middleground, amd background) as well as blocking and staging in High and Low is an absolute masterclass
Couldn’t agree more.
E.g. "In the mood for love", "Three Colors Trilogy", "Satanstango", German expressionism ("Dr. Mabuse", "Metropolis", "M"), "Rumble Fish", "Adnrei Rublev", "Barry Lyndon", and many more.
I highly recommend the works of Satyajit Ray, artistically I feel there is a lot to analyze and learn from his works. He was a film director who came from a background of commercial illustration (long before digital was a thing), and I remember he mentions about being influenced by the photos of Henri-Cartier Bresson in an old interview. He had a very visual storytelling style with great emphasis on composition and brilliant use of lights. He made movies in the vernacular, but there might be translations available.
Excellent video, thank you!!! Your content is so rewarding, and always worth the time.
Thank you so much!
@ Of course, you deserve it :-)
to add, i think most people should watch the danish movie ‘Godland’. its a movie about a photographer/priests exploration of a remote part of iceland (to not give too much away) BUT unlike movies that have a photographer who takes extremely generic images, the film uses such beautiful and insanely complex compositions that are so immersive, that its almost reminiscent of documentary or still life photos seen in actual books. It’s beautiful, the dialogue is so compelling, the STORY god it’s gut wrenching. A slow burn, but isn’t that what photography is ? it’s not supposed to be fast, it’s about uncovering those nuances and seeing where they go. PLUS the underlying theme and grief the main character and those around him face, the dissonance, is emotionally moving. 1000000/10 recommend, even if you’re just into foreign films
Never heard of it, will look it up and definitely put it on my watchlist it’s right around my alley!
Solid list, I do like that you included some more contemporary movies, after sun was a masterpiece for me. Thanks and happy holidays Hopper!
Thank you maybe I’ll do a list of just contemporary films, best to you!
Two movies just watched with my son, who is developing a love for the film-look, colour, lighting and composition have been Casino and True Romance. The colour in each was gorgeous; sumptuous. He turned to me regularly to praise the lighting or mention a colour richness or harmony in many scenes. Then there’s the wide screen environmental-landscapes that would make great prints. Not forgetting some wonderful portrait shots. Brilliant cinema photography.
WHAT A treasure and thanks for the time and thoughts you put into this. Gonna watch them all.
Thank you for watching!
Wonderful video; it's nice to know I'm not the only person who appreciates "High and Low." Another movie you might want to consider as a photographer is "Nebraska," a 2013 dramedy starring Bruce Dern. It's a B&W film and is narratively really dependent on juxtaposition and lighting. It's wonderful.
Will do! Thanks so much!
So insightful and brilliant as always 👏 👌
Thank you so much!
Pleasantville is a film photographer should watch. Its composition is very similar to Edward Hopper's or William Eggleston's, and a transition from B+W to color partway through the film really makes for a visual feast.
Actually yea you’re right I had forgotten about it!
Great selection, Tatiana ❤
Thank you Wilson!
"The Substance" has a nice camera work, especially the first part, and a lot of winks to Kubrik 😂. The close-ups and weird perspectives are similar to some passages in "Poor things"
Actually yes you’re right, very Kubrick like. I have yet to watch poor things to be fair.
I love ALL of this. Thanks for going through this and thinking through it all and bringing a LOT of movies I'd never heard of, so I'm able to check them out. For whatever reason, I think I'll start with High & Low. It grabbed me the most out of all these. Loved the questions you asked along the way.
Thank you so much Chris! I really appreciate it and I think High and Low it’s a great starting point I must say! Best.
I used to subscribe to the American Cinematographer magazine in the early 90s before (I thought) it went bust, and would savor over all the images and read about how they achieved certain shots. I was a film student and budding photographer and thought I might go into that as a career. The subscription company, from what I remember, said the magazine wasn’t going to be published anymore and shifted me over to a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. Now, looking back, it seems a fitting representation for what the entertainment industry has become. Less artistic quality and more commercial money-grabbing. Most stuff these days I won’t bother watching if it looks like they didn’t see the need for a cinematographer (or a good writer!). And I think every filmmaker/videographer/photographer should work on making their own Koyaanisqatsi, including the soundtrack to it. It’s a great exercise in “seeing.”
My personal and humble favorit: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - soooo many great shots
👍🏻
Great Video! thank you!
Thank you Felipe!
Nice to see Koyaanisqatsi mentioned in this diverse list of films. I will definitely check out Aftersun! If you are taking some suggestions, it be interesting to see your take on anything by Yorgos Lanthimos. Thanks for this comprehensive video!
It was part of a trilogy. I remember seeing it on Channel 4 shortly after it was released, when they were keen on showing anything innovative, unusual and avant garde.
Yes Lanthimos is right up my alley, I have yet to watch his latest movie with Emma Stone but I have really enjoyed the lobster, the favourite, dogtooth etc.. actually I’d love to make a full video on him in a different context! Thanks for watching Sebastian!
That’s right!
10 great choices T :-)
I learned most of my photography from looking at cinematography and also the fantastic pictures in the Sunday papers' colour supplements in the 1970s (they were a really great source of well shot images - great to learn from)
Thank you so much for watching, same here I’ve learned a lot from movies and will continue to of course!
7 out of 10 I have not seen or heard of. Thx Tatiana!! ❤
Awesome, hope you dig in! Thanks for watching!
I would suggest a couple of FW Murnau's films. Although known for Nosferatu, his earlier The Last Laugh and later City Girl are wonderfully shot, compositionally expressionist as well as a lesson in visual storytelling.
Completely agree!
Great selection. I feel we should really be crediting cinematographer Jack Cardiff for Black Narcissus and Red Shoes as the composition and lighting highlighted are very much his work.
Again Tatiana,where do you find them all ! That covers Christmas 2024 ! Have a good one !🥰
Thank you so much same to you! 🤝🏻
Good evening,
As always I am enjoying your videos as they are so much more about photography and less about cameras. I’m primarily a news/documentary photographer though I’ve done quite a few weddings and portraits. Very different styles. I’ve been told I cover a wedding as if it were a murder scene and that’s not completely inaccurate. I’m at my best photographing mischief, murder and mayhem. Sports too but that’s basically the same thing. If I may ask, I gather you’re in Europe somewhere. May I ask where? I would enjoy meeting you and having a few drinks while discussing our views on photography as it exists and how it got here. Please keep up your good work.
Love the black and white films, especially “Bob the Gambler” with its nighttime street images. Thanks for sharing these films.
It’s really good! I recommend other Melville movies, some of his colour movies that I know of are also superb. Claude Chabrol and Henri Georges-Clouzot are other two names I recommend 🤝🏻
Great content, please don't stop.
Thank you so much Neil!
Koyaniskaki 🙌 recommend: The scent of green papaya 1993
Thanks!
Where is in the mood of love? A must for photographers and cinema lovers in general¡¡¡
In the first edition of this video 👍
@ my apologizes so😉
🤝🏻
HIgh and Low is just a damm amazing movie... In my opinion, this gave Kurosawa bragging rights when easily being able to cross genres
I second that
Some years ago I watched a very obscure 1963 British film called The Small World of Sammy Lee, the cinematographer being Wolfgang Suschitzky. His best known film is probably Get Carter (the original 1971 version obviously).
He was also an excellent street/reportage photographer and that background really shows through in his film work. I've got a book of his photos taken in Charing Cross Road in the 30s, and Sammy Lee, set nearby in the seedy backstreets of Soho, has a very similar aesthetic.
He is my favourite example of a stills photographer using their experience, skills and ideas in cinematography.
I haven’t watched that one and I’m always on the lookout for more so I’ll add it to my watchlist, thanks so much for sharing and for watching!
The old technicolor films are cool … just for how the films were developed and the fact that dye transfer is now so rare!
I agree, there’s something special about those films and especially when you read about how certain shots were made, the solutions the filmmakers had to come up with.
The Florida Project: highly recommended! Great Film!
Yes! 👍🏻
Add to your list Vigot's L'Atlante. As I recall (have seen it only once), every frame, an enviable B&W still shot. From the early 20th C, I think; maybe earlier. Thanks for the VG program, Yours, a B&W film still photographer
Very good reference I would also say his à propos de Nice is also a great example! Personally I tend to quote more Jean Renoir too but that’s mainly personal taste.
I’m surprised Paris Texas is not in this list.
It was featured on the last episode that’s why 🤝🏻
Interesting choice of directors you made. Michael Powell's films Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes are masterpieces of filmmaking. The directors of Bob the Gambler and Rocco and His Brothers must have studied a number of American film noir #movies before making their films. The characters try to escape poverty and despair of their lives, but others keep pulling them down. High and Low, the industrialist's family falls victim to a ruthless kidnapper. But the wrong child is taken. Will the industrialist do what's right or be influenced by various outside factions? Akira Kurosawa was an amazing filmmaker. Koyaanisqatsi is a fantastic experimental film showing life on Earth during time lapse photography. I was unaware of Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother. As with his #films 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Volver, Broken Embraces and The Skin I Live In'. 'All About My Mother' follows the melodrama, eccentric humor and #LGBTQ themes Almodóvar often features.The #film #directors talked about here view the world unlike anyone else. Why haven't you directed a #shortfilm of your own? Perhaps it's time you did.
My Top 3 Lists:
1. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)
3. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
All very good choices! Paul Thomas Anderson is also a director I really enjoyed, Boogie Nights, The Master to name other options 👍🏻
Sunday cinema, it shaped me, whether in my grandparents basement fun-room watching 'home movies', or, less formally lounging on the sofa watching 'movies for a Sunday afternoon', all the oldies in rich technicolor- forming the base layer of my cognitive map.
Funny enough I have the same, Sunday afternoon cinema, always look back to it with fondness! Thanks for watching!
@@TatianaHopper I never miss one T. Just to impecunious to contribute more than that.
Great video. Can I suggest The Battle of Algiers ? The director spent months trying to find the right black and white look for the movie.
Of course, will add it to my list, thanks for the suggestion and for watching!
I suggest Cold War. The lighting, camera work, and overall atmosphere is pure art!
Agreed! Was on my list for a while for this video I might do a version of this video but just contemporary movies so that’s where I’ll fit it in!
Thank you for great video again. So, what about the very new movies that probably not many of us saw yet.
The Girl with the Needle
ua-cam.com/video/Mo8VcGW7qvs/v-deo.html
Citizen Saint
ua-cam.com/video/mAk64U3BgAI/v-deo.html
Fremont
ua-cam.com/video/t0XjLYsyIwU/v-deo.html
Mother Vera
ua-cam.com/video/4qmGq2a8cA8/v-deo.html
But of course there are many older movies as well. For example the films on which the Russian (from the USSR) cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky worked. Movies like The Cranes are Flying, I am Cuba. He used a very wide angle lens and black and white film. Of course, it has to be filtered from Soviet propaganda.
Not sure if Urusevsky were ever mentioned here.
ua-cam.com/video/2rINnJat-5k/v-deo.html
ROMA Alfonso Cuarón (2018)
Yes!
What a great film, totally agree!
Brilliant selection! But why not mention the directors of photographers, when this is about photography? I only mention Emanuel Lubezki… one of the greatest of all times in film.
Maybe in the next episode I’ll mention them 🤝🏻
❤We love you Hopper!
"We're so glad you found us!" 👀
Thank you! 🤍
some of the movies i think everyone should watch whether someone is photographer or not....
Cold war 2018
The farewell 2019
Crimson tide 1995
john Q 2002
Capernaum 2018
Blade runner 2049
Chunking express 1994
In the mood for love 2000
Dead poet society 1989
La La Land 2016
Conclave 2024
Perfect days 2023
Damnation 1998
Thanks for sharing your list! For sure in agreement with the ones I do know 👍🏻
Baraka is better than K--: Fricke really mastered his technique by then. Daughters of the Dust is another spectacularly shot film.
Gosh I watched Baraka such a long time ago, I owe it another watch so I can see where you’re coming from, but then again our opinions are subjective at the end of the day 👍🏻
Might I suggest Paris Texas.
Featured in the last episode 🤝🏻
I would suggest _Until the End of the World_ but I'm not educated enough to say why.
Barry Lindon, Stanley Kubrick ?
Barry Lyndon was included in the first episode 👍🏻
I would like to mention Abuot Time (2013).
Added to my list 🤝🏻
Next time Erich von Stroheim's Greed? (I don't know why I thought of this particular film 😉)
I wonder why too ahah one of my classic favourites. Thanks for watching!
I show "Night of the Hunter" to my B&W students because I think there is no respect for that era. People only thinking of giant ants and other bad sci fi movies.
Mentioned in the last episode - agreed 👍🏻
👍👍Italiano😂
Did you use the auto dubbing ? 😅
Have a nice 2025 😊
Thank you! You too! 🤝🏻
hiding titles is so annoying
They're in the video, you just have to watch it.
Worries about pronouncing Koyaanisqatsi incorrectly but gets it right, but then pronounces Pedro Almodovar incorrectly.
And that is life ladies and gentlemen.
She pronounced the English way not the Spanish way (with a Spanish accent) if that's what you mean, regardless it is pronounced correctly I believe.