The Most Beautifully Shot Scenes in Film

Virtually any scene in "Ran."

I don't care to see his strawberry textured nose, epic fail.

There were nice images in The Tree of Life

There are some beautiful scenes in Brokeback Mountain...

R3 yes, epic fail, just like your Mother's pregnancy.

Days of Heave

HeaveN

The introduction of Lawrence in the desert in "Lawrence of Arabia".

Practically all of "Days of Heaven" by Terrence Malik

The use of color in "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" - copied to much lesser extent in "La La Land"

Two DLers already beat me to it. Days of Heaven has so many beautiful scenes it might as well be the entire movie.

There are a few shots in Point Blank with Lee Marvin that are stunning. The rain splattered windshield that turns his and two females faces into an impressionist painting, and when he knocks over all of the little bottles of colored liquid in the bathroom on Miller Drive and it all merges together with the broken glass..

I have to agree with op. Mainly because I love deniro. If only I had born a black woman. Scorsese’s use of the desert as the backdrop for the disintegrating friendship of the two characters was both beautiful and sad. I nominate passion in the desert. The whole film is eye watering

This, I know but it's so masterfully shot.

"The Days of Heaven" - Gorgeous

The end of "The Third Man".

Ice Palace scenes in DR. ZHIVAGO. The first movie I can remember as a small child...Yes Eldergay.

Coco has beautiful animation

The first 10 minutes of THE PRINCE OF TIDES.

The opening shot of Touch of Evil is amazing

Anything from In The Mood For Love.

Before Night Falls...so many wonderful scenes.

The martyrdom of a priest that begins "The Mission"

What does it mean "beautifully shot", OP? Pretty? Colorful? Contrasty? Stylized?

Subway opening scene of “pickup on south street”

I love the color in Far From Heaven and Carol.

In Cold Blood-Robert Blake describes the families murder before his execution as the rain streams down the window. The world is crying but the killer is not capable of tears and there will be no tears for him.

The fabric dying factory in JuDou

"Silk" -

Days of Heaven Shot by Nestor Almendros

One evening our BluRay player had a meltdown and zapped out the color elements of our BluRays upon playback. The film we'd attempted to watch at the time was Nestor Almendros' "Day of Heaven." We'd ended up watching the full film in black and white: Spectacular. The contrasting lighting/cinematography throughout the film was even more incredible.

This film should be released in black/white as well as color.

The train scene In the last episode of the “The Americans” as Elizabeth Jennings sees her daughter on the platform. Her hands trying to reach her daughter, her face pressed up against the glass in shock. WOW incredible shot and Keri Russell will win an Emmy for that shot alone. Great cinematography! Tremendous performance by Russell, Rhys and Taylor.

The opening of "Death in Venice"

"Sheltering Sky" 1990

Another vote for Days of Heaven. Entire film is beautiful

I love this scene from Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The pacing is beautiful, as are the profile shots of Burstyn and Ladd.

You don't realize where they're sunbathing until the last shot. Diane Ladd once said of the gust of wind that kicked up dust at the end of the scene, "that's God!"

"Picnic At Hanging Rock" (1975) by Peter Weir.

I thing it was Czech...at a festival the opening was water being let out of a big dam. As I recall you don’t know what it is for awhile. Amazing!

Tadzio on the beach in Death in Venice.

All of "Barry Lyndon."

[quote] What does it mean "beautifully shot", OP? Pretty? Colorful? Contrasty? Stylized?

Just what I was thinking. If we are taking about a scene, I'd say it should be a dramatic, meaningful, sequence written, directed, acted and shot well. It should hold together on its own yet act as a bridge in the development of the overall narrative.

I think the OP was referring primarily to the cinematography.

The bathtub scene in Femme Fatale still stands out to me.

R10, yes, Point Blank, one of my favorite movies. Too many beautifully shot scenes to mention. The unnatural way the characters talk adds to the beauty, in some way.

Once Upon a Time in America, too many scenes too list.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the scenes in the bar with the loud music.

Taxi Driver, any of the night scenes.

The last ten minutes of A River Runs Through It. Between the cinematography, editing, and narration I thought it was just wonderful. My favorite ending to any movie. I am haunted by waters.

UGH, OP, all I see are the giant pores in RDN's nose. Gross.

The Fall. A fantastical story filmed at exotic locations, no CGI. So beautiful it hurts, with Lee Pace.

The plantation scene in Lucy's MAME.

Adrian Lyne's Lolita had some beautiful shots, despite its tawdriness.

Cornfield, North by Northwest.

Sugarland Express has several.

The Rain People, Zabriskie Point.

YouTube sucks. Now you have to sign in to verify age...?

Judy emerging from the bathroom when Scottie's transformation of her into Madeleine was complete from Vertigo.

The last two minutes of "Showboat "

I’m Silence of the Lambs, the scene where the Memphis cops start their approach into Hannibal’s “cell”, finally enter, and they all assume their positions/poses, before the sergeant finally sees what Hannibal has done. To me, that is one of the most dramatic and dread-filled anticipatory scenes ever on film. Beautifully choreographed.

R44- I think the entire movie is breathtaking. It made me want to take up fly fishing!

The English Patient gets a lot of shit from DL but I thought it was a beautifully shot movie. The opening scene with the plane over the desert, the scene where Hannah is lifted up to view the frescoes, the sandstorm and war scenes. All gorgeous.

Pride and Prejudice

Any scene from Once Upon a Time in the West.

(There are a few clips on YouTube, but they are all pretty spoiler-heavy.)

Pick any scene in Barry Lyndon

Literally any scene -

They all look like paintings.

The snowy funeral in Fall of the Roman Empire.

One of my favorite movie moments is that short tracking shot of Teri McMinn approaching Leatherface's house in original The Texas Chainsaw Massacrre, with the camera positioned below her, and with ridiculously gorgeous blue sky above. It looks so fucking pretty and feels almost out of place in that film.

You can see it here, at the 35:45 mark.

The entire filming of "Inferno" by Dario Argento, especially the underwater scene! I find it to be far more suspenseful, less pretentious and better paced than Suspiria. The lack of a standard plot makes it better.

Luca Guadagnino's "I Am Love" and "Call Me By Your Name" had beautiful cinematography

Also Phantom Thread

I love the scene in the movie "My Cousin Rachel" where Rachel and Phillip head to a goregous meadow for some hanky panky. I love sound of her long dress rustling, the beautiful lushness and blue flowers - I can almost smell the air.

The helicopter attack-Flight of the Valkyries scene, APOCALYPSE NOW.

All the major dance/group scenes in Luhrmanns MOULIN ROUGE. But esp the Roxanne number.

Beach scenes in "Death in Venice."

The demon flying through the woods in The Evil Dead.

Sometimes even studio-bound scenes can be lovely.

The Magnificent Ambersons has many!

Gave me chills when I was 12. Still does.

The “April Come She Will” sequence in The Graduate is beautiful, especially the cut at the very end from the pool to bed. Quite innovative for the time.

I love the ending shot in Rushmore. So dreamy and beautiful.

I’d pick something from “Interiors.”

The long Dia de los Muertos tracking shot that opens Spectre is one of my favorites.

SUSPIRIA owns this... the opening 12 minutes is the most wild eye-fuck in Technicolor history.

Did you know that they actually used the very last Technicolor cameras and film on SUSPIRIA? Argento's father was a famous Italian producer and they had to cobble the cameras together from various disparate parts in order to use the film, so it's technically the last (European?) movie shot in Technicolor, I believe.

The last 7 min of Eclipse.

The last 9 min of Zabriskie Point.

The final shot of The Passenger.

Antonioni may not be most people's cup of chai, but he knew how to make the everyday weirdly poetic.

Black Narcissus

R73 Suspiria was shot using ordinary Eastmancolor stock. It was the theatrical prints that were made using the Technicolor process where 3 color matrices are stamped onto a blank piece of film to make a color image. I don't think the printing process made a huge difference in the look of the film. The intense colors comes more from the lighting system that was invented by the cinematographer involving colored velvet stretched over the lights. Not that we get to see the Technicolor print anyway since the image on dvd is a scan of the original negative.

Very interesting, R76! Thank you.

I'm not sure if this was the last film to use the Technicolor presentation... I could've sworn I've read they had to cobble together the cameras in order to capture the images correctly, but I'm a neophyte when it comes to the film processing process. The intention was always for it to be in Technicolor, though, I know that - Argento's biggest influence was SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN DWARFS and he wanted the colors to leap off the screen like they do in that. Either way, I would've loved to have been in the audience to see the pristine original Technicolor prints when the movie was first premiered. I show the movie now to millennials and they are in total awe. There's nothing like it... ever.

Adrian Lyne's "Foxes" opening credits (1980)

Here's the full movie -

r15, it was not only that scene in Dr. Zhivago but the funeral scene at the beginning. That boy who played the role for that scene did a brilliant job and the way the scene was shot was ethereally beautiful and poignant. Many of the scenes in Dr. Zhivago were so very well done, something entirely lacking in movies made today.