Friday, August 31, 2012

Best Cinematography: 1950s

UPDATE: Alex suggested including each year's Oscar winner and whether or not my pick was nominated, so I've added that on my Best Picture and Best Cinematography picks. My acting picks will be updated very soon.

1950: Sunset Blvd. (John F. Seitz)
Oscar winner: The Third Man (B&W),
King Solomon's Mines (Color)
Was this film nominated?: Yes

1951: Decision Before Dawn (Franz Planer)
Oscar winner: A Place in the Sun (B&W),
An American in Paris (Color)
Was this film nominated?: No

1952: The Quiet Man (Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout)
Oscar winner: The Quiet Man (Color),
The Bad and the Beautiful (B&W)

1953: Ugetsu (Kazuo Miyagawa)
Oscar winner: From Here to Eternity (B&W),
Shane (Color)
Was this film nominated?: No

1954: Seven Samurai (Asakazu Nakai)
Oscar winner: On the Waterfront (B&W),
Three Coins in the Fountain (Color)
Was this film nominated?: No

1955: The Night of the Hunter (Stanley Cortez)
Oscar winner: The Rose Tattoo (B&W),
To Catch a Thief (Color)
Was this film nominated?: No

1956: The Red Balloon (Edmond Sechan)
Oscar winner: Around the World in Eighty Days (Color),
Somebody Up There Likes Me (B&W)
Was this film nominated?: No

1957: The Seventh Seal (Gunnar Fischer)
Oscar winner: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Was this film nominated?: No

1958: Vertigo (Robert Burks)
Oscar winner: Gigi (Color), The Defiant Ones (B&W)
Was this film nominated?: No

1959: Black Orpheus (Jean Bourgoin)
Oscar winner: Ben-Hur (Color),
The Diary of Anne Frank (B&W)
Was this film nominated?: No

Updated: 5/22/14

14 comments:

  1. Wonderful screenshots! I especially like the one from Little Fugitive. The perspective and use of light and darkness are captivating.

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  2. I Heart The Red Balloon like a ridiculous amount. Such an inspired choice!

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    1. Thanks! I love that film. It was a bold choice by the Academy for Best Original Screenplay that year.

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  3. Oh great picks again! Love the Red Baloon and Vertigo being on the list.

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  4. The Seventh Seal is one of my Top 10 favorite looking films of all time. I can spend hours upon hours marveling at its beauty. Gives me chills just thinking about it. Fo' real.

    Also, great picks all around here. Loving this series.

    I might be asking too much here, but would you be opposed to giving two bits of information for every year: what film won the Oscar and if YOUR pick was even nominated? I always find myself looking that stuff up when I check out these posts.

    Just my opinion though, love these posts either way!

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    1. Agree 100% on The Seventh Seal.

      Thanks man! :D

      Doh! I never thought of that. Sure thing, pal. I'll even update the acting and Best Picture posts too. :)

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    2. It's really baffling that films as beautifully shot (and in English) like The Night of the Hunter and Vertigo weren't even nominated for their cinematography. It's kind of ridiculous.

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    3. Ridiculous, but it happens. How about Shutter Island or Munich? Both gorgeous films that should've been right up the Academy's alley, but didn't get nominated. That's the nature of the beast, unfortunately.

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    4. Aw man you gave me link credit and everything! You're too kind!

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  5. Nice list. Have only seen the Seventh Seal. Having said that it has perfect cinematography, I mean for crissakes the last scene is improvised, everything is gorgeous. Weird how few of these were nominated. Wilder has a lot of films on netflix so I'm going through those (if you haven't seen it check out the Front Page, pretty hilarious film with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon).

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    1. Thanks Trevor. The Front Page is on my watchlist, so I'll be seeing it at some point for sure.

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