Cinematography is the art of capturing a story visually. It’s what separates great filmmaking from cliché movie making. Each visual element that appears on screen, can enhance the story and transport viewers into the storytelling of filmmakers and dazzle their senses.
Every beautiful movie displays the filmmaker’s signature as well as style of filmmaking while also captivating the viewers with the movie’s fascinating colours, framing, and camera movement.
We have compiled a list of 10 movies with such beautiful cinematography that will make you change the way you see films.
1. Blade Runner 2049
Poignant story, breathtaking visuals and serenely haunting score. It is such a remarkable transformation from the original prequel, delving into the light and dark facades of human nature and trying to answer the questions about what it really means to be a human.
Blade Runner 2049 is one of the finest movies of this decade. Perfect in every aspect – Direction, story, screenplay, music, cinematography, editing and acting.
This movie had a great plot (which will be deeply understood if you saw the first Blade Runner ) and equally brilliant cinematography.
2. Roma
ROMA contrasts the lives of two women, who though belonging to different social classes – one, a servant, the other, her mistress – are undone and made equal by the one thing; betrayal by the men they loved.
The story, seen from the viewpoint of a helper in an upper-middle-class Mexican suburb, is simple and straightforward. The film functions as a mood piece, a retrospective insight into one family’s life. Banal domestic moments are interspersed with light comedy and tragic events.
There is an objective, the documentary feels in the way that the characters are lensed, allowing the story to be told in small vignettes. At the same time, the viewer feels as if one was accessing memories or old photographs. This is cemented by the black and white cinematography.
It adds a nostalgic element while not neglecting small details. Each scene is like a moving photograph, and the director allows one to linger on certain moments.
3. Life of Pi
“Life of Pi” is based on the novel of the same name directed by Oscar-winner Ang Lee, starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe spall and notorious majestic royal tiger aka Richard Parker.
Differentiating between magic realism and pure fantasy is bridged quite impressively such that it becomes difficult to identify which is which. This, along with its themes on religion, beliefs, ideologies, spirituality and love makes it much more complicated and beautiful while simultaneously adding layers of depth compared to how simple it might seem to the untrained eye.
The storytelling context is so rich that the movie compels multiple viewing. This movie will take you into the beautiful and harrowing journey of survival where a young boy is trapped on a boat in the ocean along with a tiger where both have to struggle to remain alive in traumatic and dramatic situations.
This movie makes a strong impression of awesome cinematic skills which captures our senses. The director has done an outstanding and remarkable job where he created an unimaginable atmosphere in the movie which will remain a strong imperishable memory in audiences minds.
4. Children of Men
Children of Men is a 2006 dystopian future film that tells the story of a world when humanity is practically infertile. No human being has ever been born for 18 years by the beginning of this film’s timeline.
It deals with the reaction and degradation of society that has become desperate and lost hope for the future, dealing with a simulated issue of real-world topics such as immigration, human rights, politics, and class conflict.
At the same time, it solely focuses on the perspective of the main character throughout the film. It features some of the most mind-blowing, one-shot scenes and works both as a black comedy and an action/chase movie.
Every aspect of this film is of a high standard, from the storyline to the acting, where every scene fills your senses with plausibility and urgency, while the bleak revisionist ambience holds up faultless on each viewing, which is far more than can be said of many films of the last decade.
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gustave H, a concierge, is wrongly accused of murder at the Grand Budapest Hotel. In the act of trying to clear up his name, he becomes friends with a lobby boy.
From the get-go, it becomes clear that you are watching a Wes Anderson film. The set design and colour palettes are clear-cut visual clues for this.
The wonder of The Grand Budapest Hotel is hard to describe. It’s in the colour schemes, which are bright and beautiful, contrasting and complimenting like a bright childish fairytale. There is humour, romance, absurdness and generally breathtaking, meticulously constructed scenes throughout the movie.
6. Nocturnal Animals
Susan receives a manuscript of her ex-husband Edward’s new novel and finds it rather troubling. The story forces her to confront several disturbing details about their marital life.
However, this otherwise muted melodrama is pitched against the backdrop of a disturbing, violent thriller that delivers a visceral and intensely gripping edge to the movie.
Tom Ford and his team, both in front of and behind the camera, have combined to craft a film of exquisite beauty, topped with a fabulous score that is both sparse and sumptuous. The born-to-be synergy between the taut script, brilliant cinematography, provocative direction and late-night film editing, supported by a stunning strings score that pulls at one’s heartstrings.
7. 1917
The movie took place during World War I where two British soldiers – Lance Corporal Schofield and Lance Corporal Blake – receive unachievable orders. In a race against time, they must cross over into enemy territory to deliver a message that could potentially save 1,600 of their fellow soldiers – including Blake’s own brother.
What is shown onscreen is a work of art rather than a depiction of war. Sam Mendes’ 1917 is visual war poetry, ambitious in scope, depth and grandeur where two soldiers try to save 1,600 Private Ryans and Corporal Blakes.
The movie uses a beautiful combination of excellent editing, superb acting and an outstanding score from Thomas Newman, 1917 is a rare example of complete cinematic perfection.
The movie was shot in Scotland, Surrey and Wiltshire, Mendes utilizes the stunning landscapes yet designing his own sets providing a dramatic, astonishing contrast between the two.
8. Cold War
This rapturous film in sumptuous black and white enlightened the cinema of 2018. The tale is simple enough: in Communist Eastern Europe two lovers meet while he is putting together a folkloric music song and dance show. She will be one of the dancers and singers. Their destiny will be star-crossed.
The movie conveys the tenor of the times that it is set in as well as dramatizing what it was like to have lived in the cities & the countryside the characters find themselves inhabiting.
“Cold War” has received numerous honours & nominations for the 2019 Oscar Awards. The nominations include Best Foreign Film (Poland), Best Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski and Best Cinematography. Cinematographer Lukasz Zal utilizes his stunning lens to enhance the film’s mood and plot.
9. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Portrait of a lady on fire is a French romance/historical drama from the amazing Céline Sciamma, who crafts this accurate, tantalizing tale of an artist who falls in love with the woman she is assigned to paint.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a marvellously executed profound piece of cinema that would dip you deep in the colours of 18 century France. The entire movie looks like a huge continuous painting – You can try pausing at any moment during the movie and you would be left behind with a beautiful painting on your screen.
The sound of bristles touching the canvas, the friction of charcoal pencils and the colours you see throughout the movie, create such an experience that is indeed difficult to divulge in words.
10. The Revenant
This movie is about a guy who gets betrayed and left for dead by his own hunting team and tries to get revenge after surviving. The entirety of the movie was shot using natural light and not a single studio light was used which was what made it raw and very believable.
It’s a period film depicting survival skills in a hostile environment – warring men, weather, prowling wild animals. DiCaprio comes out with a heart-wrenching performance.
This movie is such a masterpiece in terms of every aspect, the direction, cinematography, background score, the stunning visuals, the locations, giving everything a very realistic feel.