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Soy Cuba contains lush and gorgeous B&W cinematography. The film opens up with the camera flying over the waters of Cuba; the reflection of the water is glisten
by coolandsmartrr 5y ago
Soy Cuba contains lush and gorgeous B&W cinematography. The film opens up with the camera flying over the waters of Cuba; the reflection of the water is glistening in a way unlike other films. I believe they used an X-ray film strip to achieve this shot.
Mikhail Kalatozov has included another impressive shot at the end of his previous work, "The Cranes Are Flying." (Palme d'Or at Cannes 1958) The camera follows the protagonist, then gets seamlessly lifted up by a crane to depict the entire street parading.
While Soviet-era films does not have much exposure in the English-speaking world, there are so many gems, critically and technically. The filmmakers were acutely aware of great filming techniques.
Also check out:
Walking the Streets of Moscow (1964)
- B-roll scenery contains another lush reflection of the Moscow waters
Ivan the Terrible (1944/1958)
- Eisenstein is an ardent practitioner of the montage, and prefers to static camera shots. However, his compositions are very imaginative, and there is no shot you want to miss. His film also briefly experiments with color, and he exploits colored lighting to emphasize the characters' psyche.
Anything by Andrei Tarkovsky
- Tarkovsky is indisputably a master of Russian cinema after Eisenstein. He often shoots in nature, but no director shoots with such rich texture of the mud. His long shots emphasizes the bleakness inherent in the Russian psyche.
The Ascent (1977)
- Set in WWII, the film shows the resistance escaping the Nazis covered in snow and panting in the cold. Great snow photography.
Hard to Be a God (2013)
- A sci-fi story on the immigration of humans to a different planet, the colonizers inhabit the inhospitable environment. Like Tarkovsky, the slow dragging in the mud conveys the dreary lives.
These are recommendations I came up off the top of my head relating to cinematography, but there are definitely many more to appreciate.
- rusanu 5y agoThis scene from Cranes are Flying? https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/oqqgcl/this_amazing_shot_from_the_1957_soviet_war_film/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/oqqgcl/this_amazi...
- justinator 5y agoX-Ray or infra-red?
- AHabe 5y agoIR.
- irthomasthomas 5y agoWater absorbs IR, making it seem darker.
- dmitryminkovsky 5y agoWalking the Streets of Moscow is a beautiful movie. The cinematography, the acting, the music, the cast, the story. Young Nikita Mikhalkov[0] is excellent as the lead. Almost like if Ferris Bueller's Day Off was Soviet Socialist Realism, or something. So much in that one film. I love how it's framed by the digging of the metro. Haven't seen the other movies except The Cranes are Flying. Thank you for those suggestions. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Mikhalkov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Mikhalkov
- FpUser 5y ago>"...bleakness inherent in the Russian psyche..." This is one big pile of BS.
- dustintrex 5y agoMost Russians I know would agree that there's something along those lines in the Russian psyche, although I'm not sure "bleakness" is the right word. Fatalism, perhaps?
- FpUser 5y agoI am Russian. Was born and lived in USSR until I was 30. As you might guess I knew a boatloads of them and I think most of them including yours truly would call a BS on that. Reading Dostoyevsky does not make one know Russians.
- ithkuil 5y agoNor does being Russian make one know Russians. It helps though
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- culebron21 5y agoIf you open YouTube in Incognito mode from Russia, with most watched stuff, you'll see no Tarkovsky, Dostoyevksy or other gloomy movies. Instead, half of the preview images are comedy movies and shows, and other half is boxing, cars, history. It would be really hard to find the psyche you're talking about in everyday artistic content. As for high art, like Tarkovksy, I saw the same tragic content in arthouse movies from Westrn Europe.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoA lot of the western idea of Russian seriousness is probably from the difference in cultural attitudes toward smiling. Westerners look at pictures of non-smiling Russians and think they are angry or serious or sad. There is a picture floating around with three astronauts, an American, a Russian, and an Italian: Big Smile, Soul Piercing Death Stare, Big Smile. If you are in any way familiar with russians, you understand why, but a lot of westerners just aren't, and completely misread it.
- blancNoir 5y agoFor long, unbroken, takes I would additionally recommend Bi Gan's 2018 film Long Day's Journey into Night whose second part features an hour long take over various open terrain and enclosures. I would recommend it in any case, as it's a beautiful film by a highly creative young director who was inspired by Tarkovsky to become a filmmaker.
- austinpow 5y agoAgreed! I knew to expect it, but not the slow burn of anxiety and mystery that (for me) resulted from being trapped in that single take as it evolved. Our screening was 2D but I think it was shot in 3D. I wonder if that would make the effect even more pronounced.
- coolandsmartrr 5y agoThat was really impressive. From motorcycles to lifts, the camera continued throughout various platforms. Bi Gan's long shots are definitely influenced by Tarkovsky. It's also thematically interesting to see the lives of rural Chinese villages.
- TheOtherHobbes 5y agoThere's also Russian Ark, which is an insane 96 minute tracking shot of multiple scenes in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark
- peter422 5y agoYes a beautiful movie until that violinist looks at the camera.
- mkl 5y agoI would like to recommend Timecode (2000) [1]. The screen is divided into four quarters, each containing a single 93 minute take, all shot simultaneously. A camera will follow one person into a room and follow another one out, or you end up with multiple cameras showing different angles of the same events, or four completely unrelated events. Careful audio mixing and timing guides your attention. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecode_(2000_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecode_(2000_film)
- ivvve 5y agoSaving this for later. Thanks for the informative post!
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y agoMy favourite is the "battle on the ice" sequence from Alexander Nevsky, by Eisenstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZPgGbUuX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZPgGbUuX0 ... well because it's epic! But also because it has a kind of comic-book or perhaps theatric aesthetic. I'm talking particularly of this scene: https://youtu.be/vKZPgGbUuX0?t=267 https://youtu.be/vKZPgGbUuX0?t=267 Where you see the Great Magisters of the Teutonic knights riding on as their oriflames pass by (edit: also, Prokoviev). The most epic scene I've watched outside of the final battle in the original Conan movie. And while you can clearly see how it was shot, that doesn't detract from how badass it all looks. I don't think it's possible to create experiences like these with modern techniques, perhaps because the latter are so perfect they leave nothing to the imagination and the emotions of the viewer. I don't think modern audiences can even parse that kind of language anymore :(
- richardfey 5y agoDefinitely theatrical aesthetic for me; I agree, it looks badass
- richardfey 5y agoI couldn't put my finger on it but now I can: it reminds me of wooden puppets theatre, and that goes way back. I wonder if it had been an influence for Eisenstein.
- skhr0680 5y agoThe shot from OP looks like IR film, it’s what makes it look “HDR” with plenty of detail in the shadows and sky. If it were shot on normal film then exposing for the sky would make the areas in shadow look black.
- teh_klev 5y agoYes it's shot on infra red stock. From further into the twitter thread: https://twitter.com/NickDale/status/1450981356251451394 https://twitter.com/NickDale/status/1450981356251451394
- mabub24 5y agoParajanov's works are also incredible. A lot of his stuff was not "acceptable" in the U(kr)SSR because of their regionalism and stark non-realist aesthetics, but Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a fascinating and gorgeous look at traditional Ukrainian folktale and visual culture. If you like Hard to Be A God, you should check out Aleksei German's other films, especially Khrustalyov, My Car! from 1998, which is nominally a comedy film, but plays much more like a surrealist horror film that riffs endlessly on the Kafkaesque paranoia of Stalinist Russia. It would make a brilliant double feature with Iannucci's Death of Stalin from 2017, which was definitely influenced by German's film.
- aezell 5y agoI'm guessing that, especially for the earlier films, if there are a lot of outside constraints on the stories you can tell then your creative energy goes into how you are telling the story that's allowed. That's obviously an oversimplification but for many creative folks, that drive to organize the world in a new way is what constitutes their art so it has to be expressed in whatever way possible.