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The 60 Best-Looking Films Ever

Lights. Camera. Who cares about action? Just admire the view.

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40. 坐立不安 Suspiria (1977)

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Horror、by necessity、doesn't offer much in the way of aesthetics.  Chances are、if there's a good looking gal on screen、she's about to get butchered.

Dario Argento、thankfully、thinks differently.  As twisted and brutal as the best of 'em、maybe、but Argento remains adamant that the butchering looks good enough to screengrab and hang on your wall.

Cinematographer Luciano Tovoli achieved his redder-than-red imagery by a smart juxtaposition of old (the same Technicolor processing technique used on Gone With The Wind) and new (state-of-the-art anamorphic lenses).

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39. 阿凡達 Avatar (2009)

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Controversial choice、maybe、with some folk still banging on about Smurfs and Ferngully.

But the significant absence of another 3D flick to match James Cameron's stereoscopic vision (Clash Of The Titans?  Don't make us laugh) prove that the good looks of the future will be 'seen' in front of the cinema screen.

And、if we're honest、Pandora still looks remarkably tactile and luxuriant on a flatscreen at home.

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38. 成功的滋味 Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

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Alexander MacKendrick's acerbic satire of Manhattan media life is famed for the bitter poetry of its dialogue、but this is cinema、dammit、not a stage play.

Fortunately、MacKendrick wanted the film to look as hyperreal as it sounded and encouraged cinematographer James Wong Howe to shoot in Times Square with the oil-slick look of tabloid photography.

Mission accompanied.  This has a ripped-from-the-headlines intensity that virtually throws its inky blackness into your eyes.

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37. 霹靂高手 O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)

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Arguably、a coin toss would be the only fair way to decide which Coen Brothers film made this list.  How else to decide between、say、the chilly tragedy of Fargo、the  pop-art urbanity of The Hudsucker Proxy or the photographic precision of The Man Who Wasn't There.

All of those films were shot by Coens' regular Roger Deakins、and so was this one - probably their most innovative collaboration visually.

The first feature film entirely colour corrected using digital technology、it pays off as Deakins' captures the Coens' wish for the film to "look like an old hand-tinted picture."

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36. 日落狂沙 The Searchers (1956)

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John Ford、he's the Western guy、right?  Well、yeah.  Although he made other stuff (none of his four Oscars was for directing cowboys) that's the genre he made his own.

He was already a master by the time widescreen came along、so like a master he knew how to use that extra space.  Shot in VistaVision by Winton C. Hoch、Monument Valley has rarely looked so majestic as here.

But the real excitement comes from the contrast between the wild landscapes policed by John Wayne and the 'aw shucks' domesticity of U.S. civilisation.

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35. 曼哈頓 Manhattan (1979)

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Funny movies tend not to be good-looking、but Woody Allen - disciple of Bergman and Fellini - insisted on class. 

His visual peak is Manhattan、a monochrome masteriece shot by The Godfather's Gordon Willis to make late 70s Noo Yawk look as sophisticated and timeless as stills from the 1930s.  Honestly、you wouldn't clock this as being the same city that was so disturbing in Taxi Driver three years earlier.

If the rhapsodic opening sequence doesn't make you want to move to the Big Apple straight away、chances are you're probably already there.

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34. 灑渦之外 Out Of The Past (1947)

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The point about all those shadows in film noir were that they were cheap、a vital consideration for the war-hit resources of 40s Hollywood.

Still、that didn't stop filmmakers from getting creative; in fact、when all you have to play with is light、it's probably a good idea to know how to use it.

Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past (aka Build My Gallows High) is the gold standard for atmosphere on a budget、an intricate tale of double-cross and amour fou that gets the perfect visual style in Nicholas Musuraca's command of chiaroscuro.

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33. 烈火悍將 Heat (1995)

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Good looks needn't always involve spectacular scenery or eye-popping colours.

Michael Mann's sleek aesthetic has always involved a certain modernity、and Pacino and De Niro、playing cops 'n' robbers in designer suits、are models of minimalist cool matched by the look of the city around them.

For nearly three hours、Mann and his team (notably cinematographer Dante Spinotti and production designer Neil Spisak) conjure up an ethereal、existential world of steel and neon from everyday L.A. 

With street shootouts for added excitement. 

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32. 海底總動員 Finding Nemo (2002)

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With apologies to Walt Disney and Hayao Miyazaki、only one animated film makes the cut.

But it's a good'un: Andrew Stanton's realer-than-real dip under the ocean、which looks like the most astonishing aquarium ever devised.

Quite simply、it's a good job the film's storytelling was up to scratch、otherwise audiences might have been tempted just to sit and gawp at all of the underwater action.

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31. 花都艷舞 An American In Paris (1951)

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Under the guidance of songwriter-turned-producer Arthur Freed、MGM's musicals unit knocked out some of the most breathtaking song-and-dance moments ever committed to celluloid.

But here、director Vincente Minelli and star/choreographer Gene Kelly upped the game、using the film's Parisian backdrop to paint their manifesto for taking the musical seriously.

The climactic 16-minute Gershwin ballet、a half-million-dollar extravanganza shot on sets and costumes modelled on the great Impressionist painters、might be pretentious but it's undeniably gob-smacking.

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30. 潛水鐘與蝴蝶 The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (2007)

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Julian Schnabel ought to know a thing or two about imagery: in his day job、he's an artist whose work is "aiming at an emotional state、a state that people can literally walk into and be engulfed."

In The Diving Bell and The Butterfly、aided by Spielberg's camera guy Janusz Kaminski、that's exactly what Schnabel achieves on-screen、as we live in the thoughts of paralysed writer Jean-Dominique Bauby.

The locked-in view from Bauby's hospital bed is hellishly claustrophobic、but the film takes flight in lyrical flashbacks to Bauby's pre-stroke life.

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29. 藍絲絨 Blue Velvet (1986)

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Who would have thought that David Lynch、director of the brutal visions of Eraserhead and The Elephant Man、could be such an sensuous aesthete?

Here、the darkness of Lynch's mind is drapped in velvet and dipped in honey thanks to the tactile cinematography of Frederick Elmes、transforming white-picket suburbia into the lethal sexuality of a fever death.

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28. 柳媚花嬌 Les Demoiselles De Rochefort (1967)

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Like his earlier The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'The Young Girls of Rochefort' is Jacques Demy's love letter to cinema itself、a souffle-light concoction in story that's really just an excuse to film singing and dancing in super-saturated colours.

And how!  Cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet's images are like a swirling fairground、as Catherine Deneuve and her sister Francoise Dorleac frolic about in colour co-ordinated frocks. 

Demy was so adamant that the full richness of hiscolours should survive that he safeguarded his movies against deterioration by printing multiple copies of the negative for later remastering - the 1960s equivalent of backing up to a hard drive.

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27. 刺殺傑西 The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (2007)

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The long list of criminal injustices in Oscar history must surely include the lack of a golden fella for British DoP Roger Deakins: eight nominations to date、but no wins.

Andrew Dominik's gloriously evocative Western highlights Deakins' approach: a pumped-up classicism that somehow looks both timeless and thrilling modern、a perfect fit for Dominik's ever-relevant cautionary tale of celebrity in the cornfields.

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26. 萬惡城市 Sin City (2005)

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It's rare that a film's aesthetic is so bold that、within years、everybody is copying it - yes、Zack Snyder、we're talking about you.

Yet Robert Rodriguez's green-screen experiment、plonking live actors 'in' digital sets、remains the last decade's most innovative and influential revolution in cinematic style.

Who needs three dimensions when this level of control can deliver distilled essence of noir?  Oh、and the bevy of screen beauties doesn't hurt、either.

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25. 亂世佳人 Gone With The Wind (1939)

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More tickets sold than any other film in history、and it's not hard to see why.

Producer/ringmaster David O. Selznick worked through three directors and as many cinematographers、with Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan eventually getting the credit (and the Oscar) for the film's lush Technicolor hues and staggering scope.

Even after seventy plus years、it's still the benchmark for big Hollywood movie-making.

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24. 八又二分之一 8½ (1963)

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Federico Fellini was having a case of director's block、after helming the titular number of movies.  So he threw his dilemma onto the screen、along with just about everything else in his head.

Cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo and sets/costumes designer Piero Gherardi had the uneviable task of visualising Fellini's flashbacks and fantasies - but、aided by the Italian technique of post-synchronised sound、they created an appropriately operatic vision.

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23. 疤面煞星 Scarface (1983)

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Oliver Stone wrote Scarface as a political morality tale; Brian De Palma directed it as bloody opera.

Unsurprisingly、it's De Palma's hyperreal visual sensibilities that hold sway、its delirious decor setting the fashion for 80s excess and hip-hop bling culture alike.

John A. Alonzo's sun-kissed lighting is scorching、but it's Tony Montana's ostentatious suits (courtesy of designer Patricia Norris) and palatial home (Ed Richardson and Bruce Weintrab) that define the film's look.

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22. 羊男的迷宮 Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

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Fantasy、arguably、is easy to make astonishing but hard to make truly beautiful...as countless kitsch prog-rock L.P. covers will testify.

All the more remarkable、then、that Guillermo Del Toro's stunning movie (half full-on fantasy、half brutally realistic war drama) is absolutely spell-binding to look at、its out-there prosthetics merging seamlessly with Guillermo Navarro's earthy colour palette.

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21. 我倆沒有明天 Bonnie And Clyde (1967)

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Arthur Penn walked a delicate tightrope in Bonnie and Clyde、at once intent on shaking up 60s Hollywood with New Wave verve but also acknowledging the historical realism of the film's dustbowl 30s settings.

Amazingly、the film pulls it off、as Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway make gangster glam chic again、and veteran DoP Burnett Guffey counters the bloody、frenetically-cut mayhem with elegiac、romanticised strokes.

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[2010美國雜誌TOTAL FILM 1~20] 6月7日選出史上60部最好看的電影 The 60 Best-Looking Films Ever

[2010美國雜誌TOTAL FILM 21~40] 6月7日選出史上60部最好看的電影 The 60 Best-Looking Films Ever

[2010美國雜誌TOTAL FILM 41~60] 6月7日選出史上60部最好看的電影 The 60 Best-Looking Films Ever


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