Film directors who think like stills photographers

Filmmakers whose approach is similar to Ozu's (though not necessarily inspired by or interested in still photography): Roy Andersson
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Aki Kaurismaki
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Jacques Tati:
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Ruben Ostlund:
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thank you so much for starting this thread. all the recommendations are a breath of fresh air. now time to start watching all these films!!
 
silkyfeet said:
thank you so much for starting this thread. all the recommendations are a breath of fresh air. now time to start watching all these films!!
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My apologies to all - having started the thread I have been down with winter flu (or at least man flu) for a few days and have left this thread unattended. But not unloved.

As Silkyfeet says, thanks to all for your contributions and ideas. Though I fancy myself as a film buff I have to admit there are many Directors mentioned here that I know little about (I guess I tend a bit towards Asian cinema - particularly older stuff that does not involve ninjas or Shaolin monks administering karate chops to villains.) Now to start exploring some new options............

A post on this thread mentioned Wes Anderson as being a director who thinks like a stills photographer. Interestingly there are lots of articles and videos comparing his work specifically to Ozu. So I guess that means others think so too.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/hele...and-wes-anderson-location-colour-and-costume/
 
Actually I forgot one film in which there is a very direct stills pic feeling. It is called "Carol" stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (in which Mara herself plays a photographer) and is like a walking, talking moving Saul Leiter image. This seems to have been a very deliberate artistic choice by the director who is Todd Hayes, about whom I know very little.

Never the less in this film at least, he aces it.

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Great thread... I have seen many of the aforementioned films and directors. Having noticed this connection between the two visual mediums, I spent a few dollars to attend one of director Bruce Block's seminars on Visual Structure. I highly recommend his book The Visual Story. Lots of illustrations and explanations. And really helps one to tie motion pictures and still photography together.
 
Most of that so called 50mm perspective comes from his theater background. Most everything he wants to show, is like a theater stage and blocked as such.

Kurasawa was once quoted that Ozu films were like watching tea boil. And Ozu responded "I can make fried tofu, boiled tofu, stuffed tofu. Cutlets and fancy stuff, that's for other directors."

I'd add though don't forget Mizuguchi and even Seijun Suzuki, who probobly had a big influence on Daidō Moriyama

peterm1 said:
I am a bit of a film buff and have lots of DVDs of films I have bought over the years. (Too many in fact - how the heck to store them accessably is the problem!)

Like many film buffs I have become interested in foreign movies (well, there are only so many crappy Hollywood comic book based movies one can watch in his life and have any hope of not reverting to the mental age of a 13 year old boy). I recently stumbled on the work of a Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu. Ozu started as a cinematographer in the silent era when cameras were very static (almost no camera movement, no panning and even very few tracking shots) and he carried this style through out his life - even with more modern cameras. As a result he developed a style of camera work very, very like a stills photographer. He shot almost exclusively with a 50mm lens incidentally to keep it "real".

Here is a nice video on him and you will see immediately how so many of his shots look like stills. In fact this is a theme of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ra0xEQ8yaU

And another video on how he interspersed his movies with little scenes that often seemed just to have the purpose of making it contemplative and to set the movie in a time and place. You can readily see how many of these are composed as a stills shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQwFxhiVQs

As I posted in the comments section of the first video, at 0.57 seconds into that video, for example, there is a scene with a woman and man in the mid range eating from bowls and in the background a child. He has aligned them diagonally with their bodies broadly describing a line from top left to bottom right and they are framed by the door of the home and the dark interior of the home - all of which add visual interest. It is pretty much exactly how I would aspire to compose the shot if I had a choice. And the same goes for the shot that precedes it at about 0.52 seconds - two people on a seawall fishing framed by the rockwall below them and the two verticals of the lighthouse and the electricity pole. Ozu, unlike almost any other director was about composition of the shot - aiming for beauty. Just like a stills photographer.

I thought I would share these videos (and some others may find Ozu's work interesting though his movies are very quiet and some would say boring though I love them when I am in the right frame of mind - quiet, contemplative etc) but I also thought I would ask - is there anyone else who directs and shoots more or less like this? Ideas?

Kubrik a little, perhaps???
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as far as still photography style directors, I'd add Krzysztof Kieślowski. Most of his shots tend to be static, but the composition is astounding and the art direction spot on.
 
Kubrik's "Barry Lyndon" was mentioned here and the same thought occurred to me when I was composing my initial post.

I stumbled on this video about how Kubrik shot the film - much of which I already knew but it is interesting never the less - I have often marvelled at how authentic the film looks.

And of course his use of an ultra fast Zeiss Planar to shoot candle lit scenes is stuff of legend and no doubt known to many here. The two links are firstly, a video about his shooting of the film and second, an article specifically about his various lenses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOLZMr52Wcc

https://www.patreon.com/posts/lenses-at-in-san-11951942

EDIT: And there is this video on Kubrik and his cameras - many of them stills cameras. I knew he started out as a photographer but it seems he never lost his love for photography. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfNB4YepvTA
 
UPDATE: Pawlikowskis "Cold war" is even superior to "Ida" when it comes to stills (the story is better too).
 
The films of Abbas Kiarostami (e.g. Taste of Cherry) make extreme use of the visuals, generally using dialog only when necessary for furthering the plot. He's in that lineage the includes Vittorio de Sica (the Bicycle Thief), Ozu and Satyajit Ray (e.g. The Apu Trilogy).

In my case, I found myself going from video and motion picture to still photography and the darkroom. There's something very satisfying for me about creating a print as a physical object.
 
santino said:
UPDATE: Pawlikowskis "Cold war" is even superior to "Ida" when it comes to stills (the story is better too).
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i lost this thread. glad i found it again as so many gems to watch. cold war is due out at the end of jan over in the uk so thanks for letting us know
 
Ozu has a film about 2 young brothers who want to watch TV and rebel against their strict father.

The film is so stunning visually i left the cinema in a state of shock. I could not say what i exactly saw. It was everything and it was nothing. Shot in color.
 
colker said:
Ozu has a film about 2 young brothers who want to watch TV and rebel against their strict father.

The film is so stunning visually i left the cinema in a state of shock. I could not say what i exactly saw. It was everything and it was nothing. Shot in color.
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That film ("Good Morning") has such a stunning colour palette. Muted, earthy primary colours. It reminds me somewhat of family photos on Agfa paper from the 70's.
 
filmtwit said:
It's like "watching tea boil."

A. Kurosawa
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Yes but its better than watching grass grow...well maybe not.

(But I do love it for some weird masochistic reason)

The thing about Ozu movies is that there are too many car chases and gunfights. :)
 
telenous said:
That film ("Good Morning") has such a stunning colour palette. Muted, earthy primary colours. It reminds me somewhat of family photos on Agfa paper from the 70's.
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Yes the movie is referenced here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053134/reviews

You mention the colors in his color films and I have noticed how sumptuous they are and agree they are beautiful - just like old film stock. without being overdone in the Hollywood technicolor style. Check out the stunningly beautiful colors in this clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQwFxhiVQs


And BTW have you noticed how so many of his movies have old farts sitting around, drinking and talking about the good old times, or family problems, or women. Sounds like my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLJqFxPH7Rg

While on the subject of Ozu I came across this video titled "Cafe Lumiere: Modernizing Ozu's Tokyo Story". It is kind of cool. https://vimeo.com/210008426
 
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