Midweek Line Up |10 Films with Inspirational Lighting
The Cinema encyclopaedia is so vast, that just naming 10 extraordinary films under any category is likely to cause serious fights, even among close cinephile friends. Nevertheless, take a look at these classics mentioned in this list of films with some great use of light to enhance the film, featuring works of Terence Malick, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Alfred Hitchcock, and even David Fincher. Despite missing many names, this list is a good place to start studying the effect of lighting on cinema.
Find the list here: 10 Films with Inspirational Lightning
His Master’s Voice | Paolo Sorrentino
Paolo Sorrentino (1970 – present)
Italian film director and screenwriter
Sorrentino is considered among the most audacious contemporary filmmakers today. His work has been critically acclaimed across international film festivals and the global film community. The themes he depicts in his cinema have led him to be compared to Frederico Fellini, Ettore Scola and Michaelangelo Antonioni.
His film The Great Beauty scored a hat-trick, when in 2014 it won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, BAFTA award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, after being nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Films of Note: One Man Up (2001), The Consequences of Love (2004), The Family Friend (2006), Il Divo (2008), This Must be the Place (2011/English), The Great Beauty (2013), Youth (2015/English)
His Master’s Voice | Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman (1937 – present)
American actor and film director, with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960.
Hoffman has been known for his versatile portrayals of anti-heroes and vulnerable characters. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer, and in 1988 for Rain Man. Widely considered one of the finest actors in history, Hoffman first drew critical praise for starring in the play, Eh?, for which he won a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award. This achievement was soon followed by his breakthrough 1967 film role as Benjamin Braddock, the title character in The Graduate. Since that time, Hoffman’s career has largely been focused on the cinema, with sporadic returns to television and to the stage.
Along with 2 Academy Award wins, Hoffman has been nominated for 5 additional Academy Awards, and he was nominated for 13 Golden Globes, winning 6 (including an honorary award). He has won 4 BAFTAs, 3 Drama Desk Awards, a Genie Award, and an Emmy Award.
Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012.
Films of Note: The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), John and Mary (1969), Little Big Man (1970), Straw Dogs (1971), Papillon (1973), Lenny (1974), All the President’s Men (1976), Marathon Man (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Tootsie (1982), Rain Man (1988), Hook (1991), Outbreak (1995) and Wag the Dog (1997), Meet the Fockers (2004), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Kung Fu Panda 1, 2 and 3 (2008, 2011 and 2016/voice of Master Shifu)
His Master’s Voice | Park Chan-wook
Park Chan-wook (1963 – present)
South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic
One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Chan-wook’s films are noted for their immaculate framing, black humour and often brutal subject matter. Park said his films are about the utter futility of vengeance and how it wreaks havoc on the lives of everyone involved. His films have a massive audience worldwide, having done spectacular business and won close to 25 awards across several international film festivals. Hollywood filmmaker Quentin Tarantino considers Chan-wook’s films to be one of his biggest sources of inspiration.
Films of Note: Joint Security Area (2000), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), Lady Vengeance (2005), I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (2007), Thirst (2009), Night Fishing (2011), Stoker (2013)
A Shot of Short | Big Business (Hal Roach)
For many contemporary audiences, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy exist more as archetypes than memorable performers in and of themselves. The Laurel and Hardy comedies had an undeniable influence on mismatched comedy duos throughout the twentieth century, ranging from Abbott and Costello and the Warner Brothers cartoons to the Honeymooners and, derivatively, The Flintstones. Many of their catchphrases have been ingrained into popular culture so completely that they have been unknowingly attributed to later sources (most notably Homer Simpson’s iconic “D’oh”). Before succeeding in the sound era, however, Laurel and Hardy were masters of the silent slapstick comedy short as a team with Director-Producer Hal Roach.
Big Business, a short silent released in what many consider to be the last real year of the silent era, showed how, unlike many of their silent film contemporaries, Laurel and Hardy were able to successfully make the transition to the sound era by relying heavily on primarily visual and physical comedy. The plot is the kind of simple material oft found in comedy shorts; Stan and Ollie are Christmas tree salesmen in California who enter into tit-for-tat rallies of escalating hijinks with a would-be customer.
The appeal to audiences of all ages is apparent in the cartoonish gags for which the pair are so well-known, due in no small part to Laurel’s lead creative role on the writing team, frequently challenging his co-writers to one-up one another to even more ridiculous and hysterical bits. The film was entered into the National Film Registry in 1992 and retains the goofball charm it held for audiences around the world.
Courtesy: www.tasteofcinema.com
His Master’s Voice | Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (1918 – 2007)
Swedish director, writer and producer who worked in film, television, and theatre.
Recognised as one of the most accomplished and influential auteurs of all time, having directed over sixty films and documentaries for cinematic release and for television, most of which he also wrote. He also directed over 170 plays. His work often dealt with death, illness, faith, betrayal, bleakness and insanity.
From 1953 he forged a powerful creative partnership with his full-time cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Among his company of actors were Harriet and Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in Sweden, and numerous films from Through a Glass Darkly (1961) onward were filmed on the island of Fårö.
Films of Note: Smiles of a Summer Night (1953), Wild Strawberries (1957), The Seventh Seal (1957) The Magician (1958), Brink of Life (1958), The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), The Silence (1963), Shame (1968), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), The Magic Flute (1975), Face to Face (1976), Autumn Sonata (1978) Fanny and Alexander (1982), The Best Intentions (1992), Saraband (2003)
His Master’s Voice | Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke (1942 – present)
Austrian film director and screenwriter
His work often examines social issues, and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society.
Has worked in television‚theatre and cinema. Besides working as a filmmaker, Haneke also teaches film direction at the Film Academy Vienna.
His films have been appreciated worldwide and awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globe and Academy Award, among others. He is the only Austrian director and the seventh in the world to have received the Palme d’Or twice. In 2013 Haneke won the Prince of Asturias Award for the arts.
Films of Note: The Seventh Continent (1989), Benny’s Video (1992), Code Unknown (2000), The Piano Teacher (2001), Cache (2005), Funny Games (2007), The White Ribbon (2009), Amour (2012)
His Master’s Voice | Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry (1963 – present)
French independent film director, screenwriter and producer, he is noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. He is well known for his music video collaborations with The Chemical Brothers, Björk and The White Stripes.
He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), which is often ranked one of the greatest films of the 2000s.
Films of Note: Human Nature (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), The Science of Sleep (2006), The Green Hornet (2011), The We and the I (2012), Mood Indigo (2013), Microbe & Gasoline (2015)
His Master’s Voice | David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher (1962-present)
American film director, film producer, television director, television producer, and music video director
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the romantic fantasy drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and the drama The Social Network (2010). For the latter, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. He was instrumental in the creation of the critically acclaimed US television series House of Cards.
Fincher knew from a young age he wanted to go into filmmaking. When Fincher was two years old, the family moved to San Anselmo, California, where filmmaker George Lucas was one of his neighbors. Fincher moved to Ashland, where during high school, he directed plays and designed sets and lighting after school, and was a non-union projectionist at a second-run movie theater, production assistant at the local television news station KOBI in Medford, Oregon, and took on other odd jobs such as fry cook, busboy, and dishwasher. Inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Fincher began making movies at age eight with an 8mm camera.
Films of note: Alien 3 (1992), Seven (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), Zodiac (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2014) House of Cards (TV series/2013-present)
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