These are just amazing movies for the photographers to watch from famous directors. This selection is the most interesting and beautifully shot films, in which the concept and artistic solution of the task were executed and brought together at the highest level. Many of these movies are rightfully considered cult classics.

All movies for photographers are very different: from gothic fairy tales and noirs to science fiction about androids, films that explore the inner world of characters and the fantasies of the main characters.

Noirs, thrillers, art-house: movies for the photographer

Mirror

Mirror, 1975
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

There is no one better than Tarkovsky. With all due respect to all: Fellini, Polanski, Hitchcock, Trier… But no, Tarkovsky is a phenomenon. Yes, I say this with complete confidence. I have never experienced that level of emotional shock, that level of immersion in the film and admiration with any film.

This is how it was filmed! That perhaps no one will ever approach such a level of mastery. If you had only one day to get acquainted with at least one film on earth, it would have to be a film by Andrei Tarkovsky. Someone might say that this is art house, not for everyone, but how are you going to become a photographer, an artist, if you cannot appreciate, or at least try, a work of art that is not wrapped in a shiny and fashionable plastic wrapper of fast and vulgar mass culture?

Nightmare Alley

2021

A mysterious circus, mediums, readers of fate… Events unfold in Art Deco scenery. A very beautiful and dramatic (not only visually) film from the unsurpassed Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrin), and the cinematographer Dan Laustsen is known to us from Silent Hill.

By the way, this is a remake of a film of the same name, but since I haven’t seen the original, for me the 2021 version is beautiful and incomparable. A famously twisted plot and gorgeous video sequences will not leave anyone indifferent.

Fallen Angels

Do lok tin si, 1995

Wong Kar-Wai’s aesthetically aesthetic art-house and atmospheric, gloomy movie doesn’t really need much introduction. Parallel stories from the private life of a couple – a killer and his colleague-manager who in love with him, and a strange but cute guy. Hong Kong and decadence, beautiful girls and charismatic young men, shootouts in cafes and hairdressers. Really special atmosphere.

Antichrist

Antichrist, 2009

Oh, movies Trier have made leaves no one indifferent! Especially the Antichrist. It’s a scary movie, but it’s also beautiful. Perhaps I would not recommend this film to impressionable people. For the rest, it’s a must-see.

If you have already watched this movie and want more, I advise you to pay attention to Nymphomaniac and Dogville. In general, of all the things I’ve seen in Trier’s works, the only thing I didn’t really like was The House That Jack Built.

By the way, it was after this film that people started talking about the director as the Tarkovsky of our time. Yes, and in the credits it is more clearly noted “Dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky”

2046

Another great movie by Wong Kar-wai, but this time this is fantastic noir about a writer who is lost in time. There are murders, romances, and dubious acquaintances. Beautiful dark and dramatic. By the way, this is a movie from the program of the Cannes Film Festival.

Crimson Peak

Guillermo del Toro’s creation: a gothic story about love and terrible secrets. You are provided with ghosts, riddles, a beautiful picture and a plot according to all the canons. The only downside is that it’s a little predictable movie. But from a visual point of view, everything is perfect.

Vertigo

1958

One of the best noirs, thrillers and even gothic, in a way, films, which is also a creation of Hitchcock. The beauty, of course, is in the details and storytelling, visual language. The story twists you with green silk and blinds you with bright, green, again, light. Keeps you in suspense until the very end. A masterpiece, what else can you say.

Separately worth mentioning is the opening scene with the roof, which, apparently, was quoted by the Wachowskis in “The Matrix”. Well, the legendary effect of “Vertigo” – transtrave, was first used in this film. By the way, this film even pushed “Citizen Kane” in the rating of film critics.

“Citizen Kane”, by the way, I would also recommend watching for general development. And also “Mank” 2020 by David Fincher. Well, I also can’t help but mention Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” – a monochrome work of art.

Sucker Punch

2011

Why have I included this movie in this post? Well, first of all, it’s one of my favorite movies. What’s so special about it? I can explain: both real events and events in the heroine’s imagination are equally important. Have you noticed how creators often make a distinction between “reality” and “fantasy, thoughts”? Permanently. Often we don’t see or hear anything at all that is happening in the inner world of the protagonist. It’s the other way around. We know a lot about what is going on in the heroine’s head, and only then we understand what is happening “in reality”. A kind of flow of creation is incredibly interesting presented against the background of dramatic events and an extremely sad story of a young girl.

Beau Is Afraid

2023

Have you read Nabokov? No, I’m not talking about Lolita. If you’ve read it, you’ll find some common tricks. In general, we have Bo. And he visits a therapist. Next, we delve into Bo’s inner world. And his real world. Now we are trying to understand where the inner world ends, where the real one ends, and what is happening. And why is Beau afraid? And again we return to the question – what comes first? According to Marcus Aurelius, belief is what prevails over everything.

I watched this film in a cinema in a literally empty hall. So what?

Rita’s Last Fairy Tales |The North Wind

In ninth place, I placed two movies at once. Why? Because both films, under the same director – Renata Litvinova – are quite different in presentation. If Rita’s Last Fairy Tales filmed from the heart and extremely emotionally, but at the same time authentically, The North Wind is an aesthetic and cold tragedy.

Speaking of Litvinova, I can’t help but mention that for me, first of all, she is a very cool and original screenwriter. This can be understood from the works of Kira Muratova, filmed after Litvinova and with Litvinova.

Blade Runner

This list is not a rating at all! And how can you even compare… It’s impossible. Every movie is very different. And Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie stands out in terms of idea and genre: it’s a fantastic movie. Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the movie tells the story of life on a dying planet. Life… Yes, but not just humans, but replicants too.

I would say that this film is almost brilliantly shot. After all, it’s 2024 and 42 years have passed since its release, but Blade Runner is still a benchmark.

Movies for photographers to watch

This was a list of movies for a photographers, although of course there are many more such movies. For example The Mirror by Tarkovsky or La Dolce Vita by Fellini.