Stylishly filmed movies...if you know what I mean

[Phat-T]

I'm finding it increasingly more boring to watch normal movies now that I've seen the "stylish" filming techniques used in films such as Baz Laughman's Romeo + Juliet and Fight Club.

Some other cool ones I've seen were City of God, the Kill Bills, Waking Life, Unleashed, and Sincity.

Anybody know of any other films like these?

[vigostar]

ahh, unleashed i have to see that.. and adrenalin junky movie.. i loved romeo and juliet... its in my collection.. So, is kill bill, and fight club..! sin city rocked hard... hero and house of flying daggers rings bells when it comes to stylish. and crouching tiger... run lola run is another one... fear and loathing, moulin rouge.. ummm... shit... spotless mind...

[I_LOVE_ART]

The stylishly filmed movie of the year is SIN CITY!

[bracomadar]

"Apocalypse Now" and "The Beach". Also, the movie Frida was good. I thought it would be some chick flick, in a way it was, but it was good.

[Ssenkrah Semaj]

The Hulk...very stylish film,Ang Lee is a genuis I love that movie...don't get what people hated about it so much.

[fanboy]

What about "Man on Fire" and "Once Upon A Time In Mexico"?

[Elwell]

Citizen Kane

[jetpack42]

Motorcycle Diaries, Ping Pong, The Godfather I, 28 Days Later, Oldboy.

[Target]

"28 Days Later" and "Man on Fire" - Man on Fire was a surprise for me, I was certainly impressed by the whole thing.
"Snatch" and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" were just plain kewl. Also two of my favs.
"gattaca," if I remember, was interesting.
"City of God" was beautiful. "Man Who Wasn't There" -interesting and sorta stylish. "Collateral"
And of course, the top of my badass movie list, stylish as well ---> "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Just oozes cool. It's sticky with it.
Oh yeah, another entertaining one, great feel to the whole thing, "Basic."
And I liked "Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events." Not only was jim carey nuts in it, but the whole feel of the whole movie was just great.

And, ahem, Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." Try watching that and staying sane.

[Target]

OOOOH OOOOH
"Three Kings." Watch that one. It's good.

[Presence]

The Hulk...very stylish film, Ang Lee is a genuis I love that movie...don't get what people hated about it so much.

The Hulk? Style? I am missing something here.

Fight C. is in there without a doubt, Sin City was soaked in it, 12 Monkeys really worked for me visually as well as the latest Batman, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Snatch, iRobot, Brazil, T2, Titanic, Matrix, Abyss, O Brother where art Thou? Gerry, Get On The Bus, The Limey, Dark Crystal, Solaris, The Birds, The Conversation, 7 Samurai, Constantine, Bleu...I could go on...Now some of these are not the greatest films ever but they do have a distinct style visually which I liked.

I still need enlightenment in terms of the Hulk :nohope:

[Denart]

just watched ELEPHANT an hour ago. Was thinking to myself, damn this director is stylish. Then saw this 'stylish film' thread here....I was like, "damn, that's cosmic..."

[John]

Boondog Saints. Such a fun & fast paced movie. Kind of stylish as well.


Edit - Kung Fu Hustle.

[glikster]

Boondog Saints. Such a fun & fast paced movie. Kind of stylish as well.


Edit - Kung Fu Hustle.
Boondock, you mean?

[hayeske]

Natural Born Killers
Hero
Kill Bill
Most movies by M. Night Shymalan: Sixth Sense, The Village, Signs, etc. (I can't say that I love his movies, but I think he has a good sytlish feel)

[Smeagol71]

Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa...one of the best movies of all time.

[Aerythes]

Mulholland Drive. Eraserhead. Or any David Lynch movie, actually.

[Target]

David Lynch...yeah, those are stylish. So weird...I just saw the last episode of "Twin Peaks" (I haven't watched any of the other episodes, so I was heavily confused) but DAMN.

[talbot]

Boondock Saints. Such a fun & fast paced movie. Kind of stylish as well.

Watch "Overnight." It's a documentary about that movie's writer/director. He is without a doubt, the most egotistical paranoid person in Hollywood. There is a reason why he only made one film. He burns his bridges every time he opens his mouth. And it's sad to see how he had everything and lost it all.

As for stylish movie: The Evil Dead movies, City of Lost Children, Batman Begins, Equilibrium.

[glikster]

Watch "Overnight." It's a documentary about that movie's writer/director. He is without a doubt, the most egotistical paranoid person in Hollywood. There is a reason why he only made one film. He burns his bridges every time he opens his mouth. And it's sad to see how he had everything and lost it all.

As for stylish movie: The Evil Dead movies, City of Lost Children, Batman Begins, Equilibrium.

Dude, I spent a weekend hanging out with him. He's a very cool person - could be he's not such a good business man, but a very cool guy.

[John]

Boondock, you mean?

Er - no. It's a totally different movie. :$ Boon - um - this boon dog - you know - it's like this guy, dog, and he totally goes and shoots stuff and - nah ok. You're right. :bashful:

[vigostar]

Denart- ELEPHANT was an AMAZING movie.. i reccomend it to everyone!! i forgot about that flick.. thanks for reminding me..

Elwell- citizen kane was a great movie for its time.. Extremely ground breaking and will always be on the top 5 movie list of all time.. but, its a pretty slow movie... one of my favorite oren welles movies is "A Touch of Evil" that movie is great!!! I believe it still has the longest uncut shot in movie history... its about 11 minutes long.. pure genius!!!

David Lynch is great also.... Twin peaks, Lost highway, blue velvet, the elephant man, yeah everything he did!!!

[egerie]

Mulholland Drive was .. well it left me kinda shellshocked. But it's true that the way it was filmed was interesting.

I recommend Bound too...

[prostate sunrise]

immortal, casshern, sin city, sky captain and the world of tommorrow.

[jetpack42]

Mullholland Drive holds a special place in my heart as the worst movie I've ever seen.

[Porgy]

All of Stanley Kubrick's stuff; 'Doctor Strangelove', 'Full metal jacket', 'The Shining', '2001' etc. Also I think 'The Life Aquatic' by Wes Anderson is quite a cool film that is shot well.

[IceMoon]

Versus, by Ryuhei Kitamura is insanely stylised. Actually anything bij Kitamura is very stylised but Versus started it all.

Hero, and House of Flying Daggers are also very beautiful.

[vigostar]

versus... i dont see the hype about that movie.. i thought i blew big chunks.. but, thats just me.. especially that scene when those dudes get out of the car in the begning of the movie.. i thought i was watching a 1980's rock vid... anyways,... Casshern was dope as well. thats in my collection along with "the returner" which wasnt that stylistic but, had awesome special effects and some good concepts...

[Presence]

i thought i blew big chunks.. but, thats just me

LOL! sp

[IceMoon]

versus... i dont see the hype about that movie.. i thought i blew big chunks.. but, thats just me..

I only liked the beginning of it, but still, it's very stylised. I only like stylisation when it adds something, but that's not allways the case with Kitamura.

[vigostar]

to be honest ice moon.. i rented from netflix and i couldnt get passed that part really. then i saw the zombies and i was like... ohhhh, no.. what the f**k is this.. Pressed stop then eject!

[Smeagol71]

Memento is another good one.

[vigostar]

memento was just placed in my dvd collection...! great freaking movie.. goes along well with LA Confidential, Confidence (which was a highly underated movie), and the Usual Suspects..!

[bizarre]

Black Hawk Down
The Sum of All Fears
Tears of the Sun
Saving Private Ryan

well, i liek the colors.

[PaulGanguly]

Regarding movies that are visually distinctive, here's my short list (in no particular order):

What Dreams May Come - I'm not gonna even spell out why this movie is cool. There's a whole freaking thread on it. (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41150)

28 days later - The Grungy, high contrast way it was shot, as well as the "strobe-esque" action scenes made this one cool as hell. Plus, an original spin on the zombie genre. If you haven't seen it yet, if you do, skip over the opening sequence. It makes it so much cooler if you don't know where the infection came from. The first time I saw it, I walked into the theatre late, and missed it. It spooked the shit out of me, and I don't get creeped out by movies.

Trainspotting - Same Director as 28DL. I just watched this for the first time yesterday, and this movie had kind of a hilarious way of showing you something that's altogether pretty terrible (Drug addiction, and it's effects). Also, the way some sequences are edited together is pretty damn slick. There's also some great semi hallucinatory scenes, and the narration by the main character is great.

Requiem For A Dream - Darren Aronofsky really should be a bigger director than he is. There's some really cool camera tricks that you have to see to get what I'm talking about. Also, one of this director's apparent trademarks is fading to white, rather than black in certain shots. In the context, it's really striking, and sometimes downright disorienting. Perfect technique for a film of this subject matter. Oh yeah, and this has the greatest, most moody, and non-stereotypically dark soundtracks that you will ever hear in a movie.

Pi - Grainy, gritty black and white movie by the same director as RFAD. Again, the main characters' narration make this movie really cool. Visually, there are some bizarre camera angles, and some genuinely disorienting sequences where the main character is being chased. Some controversy arose when the matrix came out, that they had stolen certain elements from thsi film, including the white backgrounds, and the scrolling screen of numbers.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels - The sets in this movie are just so cool. They're just insanely filthy and shady looking, and the characters are so at home in them, which makes them shady as hell too. There's also some crazy camera tricks where the film is sped up and slowed down in various spots. In this movie, as well as other ones by him, there's some really hilarious flashback scenes. If you know anything about the director, Guy Ritchie (Madonna's Husband) he has this way of introducing characters that's kinda hilarious.

Snatch - Same Director as Lock, Stock... Looks cool for more or less the same reasons. Altogether, this movie is much more polished, and a little more of a comedy than Lock, Stock... . And the soundtrack on this movie is cool as hell.

Layer Cake - Not as "clever", per se as the above two, but much more polished and serious. This one is directed by Matthew Vaughan, who produced the above to. Perhaps as a result, they are stylistically similar in many respects, but altogether they are very different types of movies. Whereas Ritchie's movies have intentionally, and somewhat absurdly winding plots, this one is far more linear, and dare I say more "realistic". Stylistically, this movie is just a really slick looking, and sounding. The characters are badass in a sort of no-nonsense, non-caricaturized sense. The soundtrack is just damn perfect for the movie, and the camera work just makes all of the scenes look so beautifully put together. This movie plays liek a smart indy movie, that you'd assume had a really low budget, but is so polished that you're at no time distracted out of the story.

Man On Fire -I think this is my favorite movie of all time. One of the most striking features of this movie is the way subtitles are done. They appear on screen, and sometimes scroll out as they are being spoken. They never appear running along the bottom of the screen, and are removed when a character moves in front of them, or something of the like. It's sort of like a subtitle equivalent of what conversation bubbles would look like were a comic to come to life, but not as cheesy as you're thinking. Also, they subtitle some things that are in english, just to emphasize them. Trust me, when they do, it's cool. Also, this movie just looks gritty, and dusty, and all of the shots make you feel like you're with the characters, in the sweltering heat of mexico city. Everything is glowing, sort of, with warm colors, like every shot takes place at sundown. It makes the atmosphere "feel" genuinely hot. Also, the character Denzel Washington plays in this movie is a badass of the caliber of Dirty Harry. Also, Christopher Walken is in it. That makes this movie worth seeing.

Dark City - This movie is, to sort of paraphrase a description, is what it would have looked like, had tim burton directed the matrix. Everything looks really cartoonishly distorted, and there are some great anachronisms (that make sense in the scope of the movie). Everything looks like an oldschool, 30's detectve comic come to life. This one's worth seeing just because it's so visually different. Not a particularly fantastic movie otherwise though. It does have some cool elements discussing human nature, and the nature of memory and nature vs. nurture in the people's behavior.

Gattaca - Few movies better combine the coupling of overall theme with their overall visual style. The look of this movie is so disturbingly sterile, inhumanly so even. You get an secondary impression of what this outlook of the future means to the people involved/left.

Unleashed - By far the smartest kung fu movie I've ever seen. It has Morgan Freeman in it, for god's sake. I think I liked the look of this movie for the same reasons I like Lock, Stock... and Snatch. The scenes are so dingy, and the atmosphere so dreary that it's just that extra highlight that these characters (except for Danny, who's essentially a prioner) need to just further reiterate what dirtbags they are.

Of course, sin city is on there, as well as Kill Bill (Pulp Fiction, for that matter), Fight Club, Crouching Tiger..., Hero, Kung Fu Hustle, Wes Anderson's movies (The Life Acquatic, The Royal Tennenbaums), Memento although I didn't think it lived up to the hype. Oh man, I'm sure there's more, but these are at least the ones that I've seen that it seems not too many others have seen.

And in defense of Ssenkrah Semaj (Just in this case), I did to some extent appreciate the way they tried to "flatten" some of the shots in Hulk, in effort, I assume to adapt the look of a comic to the film, but it just didn't really come through all that well. In some places it was bad, but in others, like the scene where the Helicopters are flying toward that underground base, it was pretty well done.

[bryanfn]

Visually distinctive?

Clockwork Orange
Triumph of the Will
A Waking Life

[wassermelone]

I am SHOCKED AND APPALLED that no one mentioned Amélie!!


HEATHENS!

[PaulGanguly]

Well, I'm straight, so I haven't seen it.

Oh yeah, I can't believe I didn't mention Oldboy.

I watched this movie several months ago, without subtitles. I knew the plot just from having read articles on it, but after finally seeing it recently with subtitles, it's definitely one of the most bizarre movies I've ever, ever seen. Visually, it's not too much different than say, Layer Cake. There's one sequence, where the main character gets in an absolute brawl with about 15 guys in the hallway of an apartment building that had become a makeshift prison. It's several minutes long, and is shot in one take, from one end of the hall to the other (think Side Scrolling). It's unlike any sequence I've ever seen in a movie. Almost worth watching just for that scene. And there's a claw hammer prominently featured in the film.

[wassermelone]

Well, I'm straight, so I haven't seen it.

Oh no! The "romantic comedy" might destroy your precious manhood! It will make you GAY!!!

:rolleyes:

Its flat out a great film. Im sure you would like it.

[thirdeye]

Three of my all time favs :

FIGHT CLUB - "who is tyler durden", bob had bitch tits" you know what I mean :) It's classic.

THE DARK CITY - to what PaulGanguly said I'd like to add - great atmosphere, a classic film-noir, great role by Kiefer Sutherland, beautiful Jen Conelly ( she's yummy :) ) nostalgic John Hurt, and of course flying alien humanoids injecting people's dreams and maniulating time. Great movie.

LA Confidental - another film-noir, great cast speaks for itself: Crowe, Basinger, Kevin Spacey, very classy crime movie.

[Dizon]

CASSHERN!!! THe movie was damn confusing though....I still have some questions...anyone willing to help?

[OBX]

...Casshern... lol. Interesting movie as the whole thing was Blue screen. The fight scenes were neat... but i had no idea wat was happening in the one with the red haired chick... too many flashes and dum graphics trying to ooogle u. I liked the other action sequences tho... definetly tried to imitate something anime-ish. didnt make much sense. definately a neatly done movie tho. dont think i could answer any questions tho.

prey alone(a short film done entirely with computers, with human actors tho) is a recommendation on my part.

[egerie]

I am SHOCKED AND APPALLED that no one mentioned Amélie!!


HEATHENS!
Oops ! Yes of course anything by Jeunet for that matter...

DELICATESSEN !

[Odiferous Welp]

Ooh, ooh, I got one, I got one....Anything by Ingmar Bergman (I think that's how you spell it.) His movies were soaked with his darkly thoughtful style. A lot of deeply scary stuff, too.


Movies to watch list (thanks to this thread):

Casshern
Amelie
The Dark City
Elephant
Unleashed

Thanks guys! :)

[vigostar]

wow... your the second one that mentioned unleashed.. i gotta check that out.. yeah.. casshern was good... some scenes better then others but, still pretty damb good.. confusing it was!

[klid]

sexy beast

[EKU_11]

Battle Royale by Kingi Fukasaku
Being John Malkovich
The Truman Show

[ElvisMcVegas]

3 Kings was filmed awesomely, it made the desert look so cool

[staceydiana]

did anyone mention Baraka? and the two precursers to it? I liked grey gardens as well...Brazil, anything by Micheal Gondrey {spelling mayhaps} R.A.N

[Vincent]

'Trainspotting' is pretty cool, its quite insane and twisted, but there's some strange sence of humour troughout all of it.

I dont believe anyone mentioned 'Requiem for a Dream' yet, stylish in the way like snatch, twisted in the way like Trainspotting.

'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' with Depp was great too.. great acting, very stylish, great humour.

Pulp fiction speaks for itself, i dont believe anyone mentioned it, but i guess thats becouse it's too obvious hehe, same goes for all of Tarantino's movies.

[Qitsune]

Anything Tim Burton as well... Both Live action and animation.
Frankenweenie is disturbing <3

In animation: Sylvain Chomet (Les triplettes de Belleville, La vieille dame et les pigeons) IMDB says he's preparing a few new films, can't wait.

[K-17]

I'm mostly an anime guy these days but here goes.

Clerks, Equilibrium, Coffee and Cigarretes, Trainspotting, Elephant, Donnie Darko, Divine Intervention, Versus, Battle Royale.
Dolls, Kids Return, Brother, Hana-bi, Zatoichi ad anything by Kitano.
One Missed Call, Koroshiya 1, Zebraman, Izo ad anything by Takashi Miike.

[Qitsune]

Zatoichi is funny as hell but I wouldn't call it stylish... to each his own I guess.

[K-17]

As far as action goes, it's right up there (bar Equilibrium). The fact that the camera doesn't dance all over the place, like in most action movies, makes all the difference. The little action it has is awesome.

[DavePalumbo]

No mention of Once Upon a Time in the West?! If any director ever had style to spare, it was Leone.

also any Coen Brothers (pre-Oh Brother Where Art Thou) or Terry Gilliam (pre-Brothers Grimm). What deserves some credit that hasn't been mentioned... Jackie Brown, Night of the Hunter, Swingers, Thief, Way of the Gun (with all due credit to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), City of Lost Children, Chinatown, and... oh yeah, the fuckin Godfather. How'd that slip by?

My top three visual films, for the record: Alien, Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian

[GunTrouver]

I believe it still has the longest uncut shot in movie history... its about 11 minutes long.. pure genius!!!

@ vigostar: Hm I'm not sure, but I think Hitchcock made a whole movie without cuts! ..or with just maybe a handfull...
I htink the english title is "Rope".

Stylishly filmed Movies: Hitchcok movies (Vertigo, Psycho,...), David Lynch's, Delikatessen, Stanley Kubircks movies (clockwork orange, 2001 Space Odyssee...), Sergio leone films ( Once upon a time in the west, The good the bad and the ugly...), Funny Games, Natural Born Killers, Django, Existenz(don't know if that's the english title...), Kill Bill, Pulp fiction, and many more...:)

[talmir]

The movie with the style that has impacted me most is City of lost children. It has this green tint and weird perspectives.. And it helps that the main actor is a giant.. Its one of those movies you´d imagine if you´d be high at a carnival.. if you know what I mean. (I´ve never been high at the carnival.. but I can kinda imagine how it would be.. or not.. not sure..) anywho.. just go watch city of lost children. Groovy shit.

[Deadly]

The Kill bills were pretty sweet..but what about jaws?! Classic =P

[iAn]

the movie is called Dark City, people. not 'the dark city'. there is no 'the'.

and yeah, that movie was amazing. one of my favorites. letsee...

wanna see a crazy assed movie? watch this one:
http://www.ichithekiller.net/
http://img419.imageshack.us/img419/6666/ichithekiller2qi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
you don't know dememted until you see this movie.

[seb]

Citizen Kane

if you like Citizen Kane check out "The Third Man"

[madster]

Blade Runner, The City of Lost Children, and Brazil.

~M

[DavePalumbo]

Rope was presented as one long shot, but it was actually several pieced together. The shots would switch when the camera passes over black areas that cover the screen, like somebodys shoulders in a dark suit, or the back of a box, get it? Still very impressive.

[Snowsfall]

wanna see a crazy assed movie? watch this one:
http://www.ichithekiller.net/
http://img419.imageshack.us/img419/6666/ichithekiller2qi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
you don't know dememted until you see this movie.

haha they made a movie out of that? The Manga Koroshiya Ichi that its based off of is pretty good but pretty messed up. A lot about Masochism/Sadism.


As for movies that were stylistically shot I don't have much to add that hasn't been mentioned before. Except maybe The Constant Gardener, same director as City of God, the camera work is a bit more less chaotic in this one though.