It’s often been said that if you’re paying attention to the cinematography, the movie’s not doing its job. At the same time, when you have films that take the art of the movie picture to new heights, who cares if it takes you out of the movie? Recently, I’ve been drawn to watching films that have used the medium in beautiful and illustrious ways, and this video montage by the excellent YouTuber Burger Fiction has got me making a list of things to watch as soon as possible. It’s a big ol’ supercut of every Best Cinematography winner at the Academy Awards, and ooo-wee, Rick, it’s a thing to behold.
Something you very likely didn’t know–because who’d think of this, really–is that for a huge swath of time, there were two different Best Cinematography awards given out. Between 1936–when a special award for color photography was given to The Garden of Allah–and 1966, there were two prizes awarded every year, as both color and black & white cinematography were readily used. And from this video, you can see just how different the two are. The saturation of color gives those early films a softer, warmer look while the black & white showcases hard edges and distinct shadows (as in 1949’s The Third Man, which is one of my favorite movies ever).
There’s quite a few films in this supercut that I’ve never heard of, owing perhaps to a mixture of some movies falling out of favor and/or becoming hard to track down. The 1942 color winner is a pirate movie called The Black Swan and I want to watch it so bad, but it’s only available in standard definition. Oh well, film dork problems.
It’s interesting to see how the trends in the look of films changed over time and see how things influenced other things. Ah, the power of the montage.
Let us know your thoughts on the video in the comments below!
Images: StudioCanal
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
