Greatest cinematographer?

M

MADness

Veteran X
I was watching 'Butch Cassidey and the Sundance Kid' the other night and during the opening credits I saw that Conrad L. Hall was the cinematographer.

The reason that this sparked my interest is because I absolutely loved what he did with 'Road to Perdition.' His work on American Beauty is probably familiar to a lot of younger people as well.

A list of some of the more famous movies he shot:

Cool Hand Luke

In Cold Blood

Butch Cassidey and The Sundance Kid

ElectraGlide in Blue

American Beauty

Road to Perdition

and about 20 movies in between.

Anyways, he gets my vote. :)
 
Robert burks

-the birds
-north by northwest
-vertigo
-the man who knew too much
-to catch a thief
-rear window
-dial m for murder
 
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Hall is good..

Arthur Edeson
John Toll
Douglas Slocombe
Janusz Kaminski

among my personal favorites
 
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MissJess said:
Hall is amazing. I spent most of Road to Perdition marvelling at the way it was filmed.
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same. it's pretty incredible. i think the dude died shortly afterwards though...
 
Janusz Kaminski (Spielberg doesn't use anyone else anymore)


Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Minority Report (2002)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
... aka A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) (US poster title)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Amistad (1997)
Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Schindler's List (1993)
 
MissJess said:
Hall is amazing. I spent most of Road to Perdition marvelling at the way it was filmed.
Click to expand...

This has truly become one of my favorite films of all time.

Maybe we have some film buff here who knows more about the processes involved.

Road to Perdition had such a 'vivid' feel to it. The images looked almost BETTER than real life.

I don't know if the color was over-saturated or he used an odd type(wtf was this typo? Holy shit) of film or what he did.

Also, the focus of the camera was odd. The focus of the scene was in focus but the edges were out of focus at times...but it seemed a bit more precise than simply being an odd lense.

Anyways, every time I watch the film I can't help but obsess over how he made it look the way he did, does anyone know?

It is funny, I didn't realize that he had done Cool Hand Luke but when I saw the credit it made sense. His 'style' is definitely in that movie.

Butch Cassidey and the Sundance Kid is a gorgeous film. The scenes at the Hole in the Wall....holy shit. Just the scenery alone. Newman's famous blue eyes stand out even more than usual as well. I liked the scene with Newman and Katherine Ross riding the bike. There was one where they are filmed from inside of a barn or behind a fence and you see them (and light) flashing between the wooden slats. Very cool bit of showing off for a 35 year old film.

I didn't realize that Hitchcock used the same cinematographer so often.

North By Northwest has some incredible scenes/effects/technique. Vertigo and Rear Window are great as well.
 
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A younger guy who has several films that have amazing cinematography is Frank Griebe.

He works with Tom Tykwer of 'Run, Lola, Run' fame.

Both Run LoLa Run and The Princess and the Warrior were incredibly well shot. The Princess and the Warrior is very slow but visuals alone make it worth watching, IMO.

BTW, Mulholland Drive had amazing cinematography but I don't know how much of that is directly related to Lynch or not. The same guy shot Lost Highway. :shrug:
 
Pagy said:
Robert burks

-the birds
-north by northwest
-vertigo
-the man who knew too much
-to catch a thief
-rear window
-dial m for murder
Click to expand...

Particularly "to catch a thief" was unimpressive to me.

N by NW had some great moments, though. The cornfield especially. :lol:
 
MADness said:
This has truly become one of my favorite films of all time.

Maybe we have some film buff here who knows more about the processes involved.

Road to Perdition had such a 'vivid' feel to it. The images looked almost BETTER than real life.

I don't know if the color was over-saturated or he used an odd type(wtf was this typo? Holy shit) of film or what he did.

Also, the focus of the camera was odd. The focus of the scene was in focus but the edges were out of focus at times...but it seemed a bit more precise than simply being an odd lense.

Anyways, every time I watch the film I can't help but obsess over how he made it look the way he did, does anyone know?
Click to expand...
im not sure of the process but as for the purpose, it was probably shot that way to preserve some of the graphic novel feel, since that was the story's original form and the basis for the film.
 
MADness said:
This has truly become one of my favorite films of all time.

Maybe we have some film buff here who knows more about the processes involved.

Road to Perdition had such a 'vivid' feel to it. The images looked almost BETTER than real life.

I don't know if the color was over-saturated or he used an odd type(wtf was this typo? Holy shit) of film or what he did.

Also, the focus of the camera was odd. The focus of the scene was in focus but the edges were out of focus at times...but it seemed a bit more precise than simply being an odd lense.

Anyways, every time I watch the film I can't help but obsess over how he made it look the way he did, does anyone know?

It is funny, I didn't realize that he had done Cool Hand Luke but when I saw the credit it made sense. His 'style' is definitely in that movie.

Butch Cassidey and the Sundance Kid is a gorgeous film. The scenes at the Hole in the Wall....holy shit. Just the scenery alone. Newman's famous blue eyes stand out even more than usual as well. I liked the scene with Newman and Katherine Ross riding the bike. There was one where they are filmed from inside of a barn or behind a fence and you see them (and light) flashing between the wooden slats. Very cool bit of showing off for a 35 year old film.

I didn't realize that Hitchcock used the same cinematographer so often.

North By Northwest has some incredible scenes/effects/technique. Vertigo and Rear Window are great as well.
Click to expand...

Road to Perdition was amazing to me because they used only very MINIMAL digital color control (it wasn't shoddy and over-the-top like in Gladiator) . . . a huge part of what they do is basically just a super-advanced version of the 'curves' control in photoshop -- but much more than that, as a cinematographer they have to keep this perfect, constant mental image of how it needs to look and be lit and so forth; the best cinematographers end up having to work closely with lighting/set/costume stuff, and (of course) the director himself.

It's something that takes amazing insight -- you have to 'see' it ALL beforehand to create that kind of consistent look and feel. A lot of the stuff that people mistakenly give a director credit for is actually the work of a cinematographer. Obviously, not to take anything away from the director. It's his vision. But that actually makes it HARDER for a cinematographer; he has to practically read the dirctor's mind . . .
 
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