MARTIN SCORSESE

Martin Scorsese, making films for over fourty years now, is certainly one of the important contemporary American filmmakers. He has worked in about every genre and has proven to be awe inspiring. Scorsese is also certainly one of the biggest film-lovers and is said to have an amazing knowledge about film.

His love for film has inspired two wonderful documentaries, directed and narrated by him: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies and Il Mio viaggio in Italia (My Voyage to Italy).

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MARTIN SCORSESE recommends

Let's start of with a list that Scorsese compiled in 2005 of his top 10 movies that demonstrate a "masterful use of light and color". "Films use light and color to tell a story in a special narrative way, which delivers a strong emotional and intellectual impact on the viewer," Scorsese said. Made for Philips Electronics, the lists divided into English-language and international films include works that, according to Scorsese, "made a very strong impression on me and have affected how I try to use color in all of my films."

American films
that demonstrate masterful use of light and color:

1. Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975)
Cinematography by John Alcott

Kubrick used lenses developed by Zeiss for NASA which allowed him to shoot many of the scenes using natural light, including scenes by candlelight. His use of the zoom lens in many shots produces a flatter image, allowing Kubrick to present his 18th century settings in a way that nearly replicates paintings of the period.

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2. King Vidor's Duell in the Sun (1946)
Cinematography by Lee Garmes, Ray Rennahan & Harold Rosson

One of the first films that Scorsese saw in a cinema. His father used to take him to see westerns, but, when Duel In The Sun arrived at their local theatre, his mother insisted she took him: "The movie had been condemned by the church," says Scorsese. "'Lust In The Dust' they dubbed it. I guess she used me as an excuse to see it herself."

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3. William Cameron Menzies' Invaders from Mars (1953)
Cinematography by John F. Seitz

Menzies and Seitz, who also was DOP on Sunset Blvd, had to work on a very limited budget on Invaders. They used minimalist sets and forced perspective to portray everything we see from a small boy's dream point-of-view. According to recent interviews, John Seitz confirmed that the film was planned in great detail to be filmed in 3D but that at last minute it was discovered that no camera was available.

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4. John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Cinematography by Leon Shamroy

"...Leon Shamroy's color cinematography, a deserving Oscar-winner, looks like era magazine illustrations put to film..." -- Mike Clark, USA Today

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5. John Huston's Moby Dick (1956)
6. Arthur Lubin's Phantom of the Opera (1943)
7. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes
8. John Ford's The Searchers (1956)
9. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain (1952)
10. Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958)
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