Yes, movies that inspire you!!!

#1

I think movie making is an art, not to everybody but definitely an art. With no offense to the mods here, since it’s a very young new forum too.
Yes the images are just chemically stored but they can be crafted in any way you can imagine. Now with cg technologies even more so. Also I find it absolutely mesmorising to watch pictures that move. Here’s an example of what I mean with art in film, amongst many that is:
A scene from Bladerunner, very short one shot scene in which a uncicorn comes running past. This is when Decker falls a sleep at the piano. Ofcourse they’re copyrighted but in this case I don’t think they’d mind.

The end of the scene:

I noticed that there was another thread about movies that inspired people/artists but it wasn’t put in this forum. But still, moviemaking is an artform. It is still very young so the best movies still have to made, but there are a few(or maybe a lot upon closer consideeration) good movies.:wise:

   So here are my recommendations:
   
   [b]Microcosmos [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117040/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117040/)a movie about insects, yes just insects. Excellent photography and soundscore! They have succeeded in my eye to make insects appear to have human qualities, and done so with even some humour. Itt's not for everyone though, so be warned. Very beautiful movie, also an excellent relaxant.
   
   [b]Mulholland Drive [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/)by David Lynch. A movie full of messages and mysteries and double bottoms. It's more fun if you watch it than me telling you that I'm not certain that I understood it. Really good and intricate storytelling.
   
   [b]Magnolia [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175880/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175880/)forgotten who directed it. Very good story and good characters. It tells multiple stories and folds them together. I particularly like the openingsscene. 
   
   [b]Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/)directed by Terry Gilliam. One of the friggin' best comedies I've ever seen. Filled with utter madnes and fueled by complete insanity and lack of grip on the world around us. At the same time being a message-esque way of informing us on strange aspects of our lives. I read somewhere:"One long bad trip!" It says it all.
  
  [b]Fantasia [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032455/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032455/)possibly the biggest experimental film/animation ever made. Made by Disney, of-course excellent animation and some fun stuff in it. But also a steppingstone for animation to grow up beyond the comical and superficial. Beautiful soundtrack with works from a lot of the great classical composers, and my favourite piece The Rite Of Spring.
   
   [b]Bladerunner [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/)by Ridley Scott. Some of the best photography and production design I've ever seen in my life. The story is really good or dare I say beautiful. And I seemingly still haven't figured out all the niches. The scale models and other special effects are even today very good I think. The only thing I don't like is the soundtrack, a poor choice to go for a pop band but hey everything else is good.
   
   [b]2001, A Space Odysee [>>*<<](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/)[/b][,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/)directed by Stanley Kubrick. An absolute masterpiece with a lot of angles and really good production design. Trying to put these movies in a good light in a few sentences is silly so I'll just say a must for sci-fi fans.

These are the first to popo up, but I’m noticing a slight over-zealous string of thought coming up. So I’ll just go looking for relevant links for these films so far and edit them in later. Nice resource if you haven’t clicked the funny stars imdb

   Soow...Which movies got to you most, and why?:) And...Do you consider them to be art at all?
#2

i’d add anything by sergio leone… especially “Once Upon a Time in the West.” whenever i’m having atrist’s block, i just throw on one of his movies and it usually goes away. also, they’re great reference as well. there a ton of close-ups of people with really interesting faces and great lighting.

Also, Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” I guess it’s the mood of if that I find inspiring. no other movie has anything close to that mood.

#3

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

simply awesome.

#4

I take different things away from different films but for visuals and atmospherics it would have to be:

Eraserhead (David Lynch) - I saw this in my formative years and it left an indellible impression

The Duellists (Ridley Scott) - his first film after doing adverts but luscious visuals and I have a weakness for the Napoleonic era - all that elan!

Brazil (Terry Gilliam) - a darker edge than his others (what a shame his Don Quixote project died)

#5

And dont forget City of the lost children by Jeunet. Weird to say the least, but beautiful. Several layers of art in this one.

#6

Yes, now you remind me, add Delicatessen too - so claustrophobic and wonderful to look at.

#7

I definitely agree with you jmBoekestein. I never knew some people were saying that movies are not an art (if that’s what you were saying)…whoever did is not an artist themselves. With the chemical thing you could say the same thing about CG. The computer renders everything and does all the “drawing” work but it’s you who really defines everything and gives it purpose.

I think movies are the highest form of art (besides what can be thought up in the imagination) because you can combine all forms of art into a movie.

I am in total agreement with you on the presence of moving pictures as well. I used to watch Eadweard Muybridges first snapshots of a horse moving…freezing some frames…looking at the glow from the one-dimesional black and white photography…than letting it move. It just gave even more life to an already dominant form of art. I know we all receive the phi phenomenom everyday but putting it into the hands of our imagination just gives us so much freedom.

But I still have a question…a lot of people need to be inspired to keep moving…I have never had this problem/medicine. And I want to ask…if artists are inspired either by nature or there fellow minds, and than those fellows inspired by theirs…and the hierarchy backward moving into the seed…I want to ask WHO WAS THE ORIGINAL?

#8

@Integrity,
The “everything” carrying it on, one would have to say god I guess.
We’re always doing something with truth or reality, either changing it or adapting it and then going from there towards the origin again. Sort of like with film. It goes full cycle first through all the preproduction stages and then is brought to a “truthfull” form.
This IS rather oversimplifying it, but it’s what I see happening basically. I guess an idea stmes from truth and/or reality, then it flows with the people who change it and relativate it to them selves, and then it’s brought back to a form of truth or rather a depiction of truths.

But I must be as wrong as I am right in this, because I know human perception isn’t flawless. So some things might end up to be incoherent in the end. Adding up to a that doesn’t do it for me. Quite a question you’ve posed there. Matter for a couple more thoughts. This 'll keep me busy for quite some time!!!:thumbsup:

And I also love those Muybridge pictures, I could never get my hands on them though. I’ve ran some google searches but only got stills then. Do you know of any weblinks for them? btw, in the old days when those pictures were taken there was a really hefty opposition as to film and photography were an art or not. I think nowadays opinions are more divided(hopefully). Most new ideas probably take a good deal of time to become fully accepted.

#9

Another one springs to mind after seeing delicatessen, not quite the same but they remind me of eachother.

Naked Lunch by David Lynch, a more, uhm, direct approach to the human condition.

I’m going to search for City of the Lost Children! Sounds really interesting, I like Jeunet.

And I found a trailer for Eraserhead, that looks like a really old style like Das Kabinet des Dr. Garibaldi. Expressionist I think it was called.

#10

http://web.inter.nl.net/users/anima/chronoph/muybridge/index.htm

The only suitable website I found…don’t remember how I got to it but had the only cured animations I could find. The actual plates of the locomotive studies are in museums and cost thousands of dollars. I personally like Plate 187…the woman dancing. They call it “fancy”.

I had searched Google the other day with their image database and found a lot of pictures/animations just to let you know. Their not of high quality but they are there. Most of those websites are respective links right on the website that I gave you.

#11

I think you mean David Cronenberg.

#12

Why would we be offended? Steven and I are both writer/directors, and we love film just as much as anything else creative. I’m sure the other Forum Leaders all love film too.

#13

My favorites:

Andrei Rublev:: I love this movie- it drags you down to the depths of depression but rises you up again! This is one of the only movies I’ve seen that makes you feel the emotions along with them.

Nightmare before Christmas/Big Fish:: Tim Burton’s vision is so cool- like a blend of disney with goth. (He did work as an animator for disney so that’s understandable)

Hero/Amelie:: Both of these movies are chosen for their visuals-I’m a very visual person so when I see a movie I can watch at the cinema with just as much enjoyment as on DVD- I’m hooked.

Lilo and Stitch: This one has a warm place in my heart- it’s so sad at places but just cute!

That’s all for now. I’m sure I’ll come up with more at a later stage!

#14

Good subject Jan Mark, i can’t leave the thread without leaving some of my favs too, so here they are :

Jeunet Movies - City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, Amelie : The production design and cinematography in those movies are really worked finely, all images are studied and nothing is wrong…Aside from the visual aspect, i like the strange and crazy story that tell those movies and the character research, each one have something special, i found them really inspiring !

Lynch Movies - Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive : This is my fav director, i like the strangeness of his movies and also the cinematography research, i think we have a lot to learn by him because he really know how to attract the spectator in his game, this guy is crazy !

Alice in the Wonderland : Yes alice in the wonderland, i resaw this movie few days ago and i was amazed by the story and the character of this film.

Cohen Brothers Movies - Big Lebowsky, Fargo : Really good serious/comedy movies with a fine touch of black humor, story and characters are brillant too.

Agreed also with previous comments about Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey and Blade Runner which are the must for Sci Fi movies, i’ll add Metropolis (by Fritz Lang) and Tetsuo (Shinya Tsukamoto).

Anime movies inspire me a lot also for character design and lighting research, especially Pixar, Disney, Miyazaki movies, Ghost In the Shell and Akira.

-cipher

#15

so many movies to select from but there is one worth mention

What dreams may come - it’s a visual journey and it’s very beautiful…

I can agree with most of the above titles, maybe not eraserhead it’s so filled with anguish and to sick for me… hehe

some movies has been so inspiring that I had to send my friends home while the end credits where rolling,
just so I could get creative right away :smiley: :smiley:

I see movies as a very inspiring source…

#16

Movies from the most hated director; Lars von Trier especially Dancer in the dark and Dogville. From the same dogma-group i like Festen [color=White]very [/color]much. Ehm, animation, yes i do like Miyazaki very much furthermore Les triplettes de belleville is worthwhile to mention and the iron giant is probably the best animation ever.

Not only feature-films but also tv-series, commercials and videoclips contains lots of inspiration for me.

#17

hum

in diffenret ways, different films inpired me, I have to say that on older movies, i love the entire Hitchcock filmography and westerns, but I think that it isnt necessary for a movie to inspire someone, it can be just a small scene or take, in that way, its a long list…

#18

Really happy to hear that. Film just seems to be overlooked a lot in my eyes and I tend to kick shins. Not my place to be telling you what not to do and what you should do, that’s all. Nothing really specific.:slight_smile:

:rolleyes:…nobody saw that…:rolleyes:
't was late anyway.

Thanks Integrity! I’ll check it out right away:bounce:, I’ve only had internet for a couple of months so.

Cipher, can’t believe I overlooked Fargo, thanks for pointing those out to me.

paperclip, seen all of them except Andrei Rublev. Blasted thing is I can’t find some of them in my local rental store anylonger. I’ll have to resort to some internet searching I guess.

Jannis, I personnally don’t like most Dogma’s anylonger, I thought they were okay for the first time but that was because fo the actor/story based way of filming. Festen I find an exception though. As for tv-series I always enjoyed the Maxx a lot. And weird shows like Twin Peaks.

edit:daw, I think What Dreams May Come is also an excellent example of what VFX should actually be in movies. To make it all seem real, and augment the story.

Now I’ll have to go out and rent me some! And I have so much to do! Does anybody know the name of that movie with the boy who travels ina peach and ends up in Manhattan with his insect friends?

Oh and here’s another one that amazed me and would amaze most: Spider, directed by Cronenberg also (:rolleyes:if I’m not misstaken)

R, there’s much to say for that since it’s hard to tell who did what on big producions. But generally I find that some movies have such great talents working in them that they’re unmistakable. Or I simply ike the subject, like in Blueberry. I loved the vfx in it and the sound was awesome, so was the score and they all served the idea really well. I’m rambling…stop it…

#19

Now I’ll have to go out and rent me some! And I have so much to do! Does anybody know the name of that movie with the boy who travels ina peach and ends up in Manhattan with his insect friends?

Yeah cool movie, i’s James and The Giant Peach

#20

That would be James and the Giant Peach (based on a story by Roald Dahl).

I read the book Spider by Patrick McGrath many years back but have never seen the film of it - sort of passed me by that one.