"pretty pictures, pretty paper..."

[pmw]

Originally posted by juba
i'm sort of addicted to pretty movies, so far my collection of pretty includes:

in the mood for love
the little princess
the circle
nostalghia
george washington
amelie, as much as i didn't really like it
va savoir
scent of green papaya
a number of ang lee movies

i'm sure there are more, what are yours?

how about Snow Falling on Cedars?
hmmm.....what else?

[juba]

i think that snow falling was a bit too cheesy, but that's just me. i'm drivin' crazy though, by trying to remember what the hell the movie was that had three little kids and i think it took place somewhere in the middle-east, lebanon? and there are like bombs and bullets, and these little kids are playing around in it. and there are two boys and one girl, and the two boys are constantly playing around and sneaking peaks at the older folk.

[pmw]

That would be West Beirut by Ziad Douieri!!

I love that movie. Ziad was a cameraman for Tarentino for a long
time and then spent something like 3 years trying to get funding for this project. He got it and it was the first Lebanese movie to be widely distributed internationally. Big hit in Lebanon as well...

Good call Juba.

As for Snow Falling...agreed way too cheesey but the shots are beautiful, the lighting etc...

[juba]

yay! that WAS a great movie--and the little girl was beeeautiful... and the boys were so funny. truly a great movie.... woohoo, thanks pmw!

[johnwstiles]

Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman

[tabuno]

There was a Japanese movie I believed titled, "Afterlife" where the dead people found themsevles in sort of waystation in which they could have one and only one memory to take with them in the "Afterlife" which would be their's forever. This sort of surrealistic, haunting portrait of one's most intimate experience could be considered to fall along the line of "pretty."

[Johann]

Check out "The House of Spirits" if you haven't already. The performaces are first rate (Streep, Irons & Gallo) & it's as "beautiful" as they come. Bille August is one of my favorite filmmakers.

Other beautiful films that come to mind:

Dancer in the Dark
Noce Blanche
Barry Lyndon (My favorite film of all-time)
More
Pandora's Box
Like Water For Chocolate
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
The Ice Storm
Devdas

[fuzzy_nolan]

Three movies with brilliant cinematography and production design:
- Onegin (1999)
- Amadeus (1984)
- Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
It could be that I've just got a thing for period movies. Or perhaps these movies all portray times and places that demand glorified visuals.

I'd have to disagree with Johann on one of his points...I thought that Dancer In The Dark could have vastly improved in the visual stakes. Although Von Trier is only conforming to the tenets of Dogme 95, the handheld digital camera and all the other visual aspects combine, I think, to distance the audience when they should be empathising. Dancer In The Dark ended up feeling very cold and empty.

[trevor826]

Someone has already mentioned "The Scent of Green Papaya" but what about "At the Height of Summer" also known as "Vertical Rays of the Sun" some others that spring to mind:

Ju Dou
Raise the Red Lantern
The City of Lost Children
The Wizard of Oz
The End of Evangelion
Any Miyazaki film
Hero
The first half hour of "House of Flying Daggers
Last Life in the Universe
Almost any Wong Kar Wai film
Blade Runner
Alien
Early Disney
Tampopo
The Isle
Amelie
Ang Lee's early films

There are so many, I'd better stop for now.

Cheers Trev.

[tabuno]

It's hard to know how to define pretty, but looking over Trevor826's list, I would think that Brazil would qualify, since it's based in part on appearance, look, background.

His list is wonderful and captures a variety of genres meaning that he has been able to envelope a notion of pretty that is inclusive.

[oscar jubis]

I'd watch these again with the sound turned off.

EARTH (Dovzhenko)
PANDORA'S BOX (Pabst)
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (Tourneur)
THE RIVER (Renoir)
BLACK NARCISSUS (Powell)
THE CRANES ARE FLYING (Kalatozov)
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Resnais)
THE LEOPARD (Visconti)
SHADOWS OF OUR FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS (Parajanov)
THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (Parajanov)
ANDREI RUBLEV (Tarkovsky)
WALKABOUT (Roeg)
FATA MORGANA (Herzog)
THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (Erice)
BARRY LYNDON (Kubrick)
THE INNOCENT (Visconti)
THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS (Olmi)
THE HORSE THIEF (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (Davies)
YEELEN (Cisse)
LANDSCAPE IN MIST (Angelopoulos)
LESSONS OF DARKNESS (Herzog)
ASHES OF TIME ( Wong Kar Wai)
THE LONG DAY CLOSES (Davies)
VISIONS OF LIGHT:The Art of Cinematography
A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING (Kieslowski)
CINEMA EUROPE: The Other Hollywood
KUNDUN (Scorsese)
FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI (Hou)
MOTHER AND SON (Sokurov)
MARI IYAGI (Seong-Kang Lee)

[trevor826]

2046, the DVD I have doesn't have subtitles, (it was free) but the film is so visually beautiful you don't need words to enjoy it.