Bladerunner (and 2049) has a special place in my heart. There are so many classics that stretched film photography. Lawrence of Arabia. Alien. The Cell. Night of the Hunter. Dunkirk. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just to name a few. What movies are your favorites that aren’t as known?
When you say Night Of The Hunter, my mind immediately jumps to The Sweet Smell Of Success, which came out a year or two later, with
Charlton HestonBurt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. One film is in the country, the other in Manhattan, but the visual style is similar and just as striking.That was a fantastic movie! That’s a James Wong Howe film. But do you mean Burt Lancaster? I don’t recall Heston in that.
Yes! My mistake, meant to say Lancaster.
Have you seen Seconds? That one stars Rock Hudson and was also shot by Howe, so you might at least find the look of it appealing.
Sure did, in fact I owned it on DVD.
First and foremost, that film’s a Frankenheimer. I loved Manchurian Candidate, enjoyed French Connection 2 (that breathtaking final shot of the film elevated it for me), and read that Seconds was his unsung masterpiece at the time it came out.
I really liked Seconds, but it’s such a dark story, I never watched it again. Like with Requiem For A Dream, some films are masterpieces but also not really rewatchable.
Then I believe Seconds was the first big Hollywood release that showed full frontal nudity, in black and white, in 1966! The tone of that scene is fascinating, Frankenheimer was truly in uncharted post-Hayes Code waters there.