When I sat down to re-watch Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s animated masterpiece, I didn’t see a “simple” cartoon. I saw a masterclass in cinematographic restraint. It’s a monochrome world, sure, but it’s exactly that lack of color that forces you to look… Read More »Persepolis (2007) – Cinematography Analysis
It’s easy to overlook The Killing in favor of Kubrick’s later, more symmetrical epics, but The Killing is where he truly found his visual legs. It’s a lean, mean heist film that functions with the precision of a ticking bomb. For me,… Read More »The Killing (1956) – Cinematography Analysis
When you watch The Night of the Hunter you aren’t just watching a “movie set in the 30s.” You’re stepping into a waking nightmare. While some call it a noir set in the Ohio River Valley of West Virginia, it’s… Read More »The Night of the Hunter (1955) – Cinematography Analysis
John Carney’s Sing Street (2016) I’m a fan of Carney’s other stuff like Once, but Sing Street hits differently. It’s set in 1980s Dublin, and while the music is the hook, the visual language is what keeps me glued to the screen. It’s not just… Read More »Sing Street (2016) – Cinematography Analysis
A film comes along that makes me put the technicalities aside and just feel the weight of the image. Michael Haneke’s Amour (2012) is that film. On the surface, it’s deceptively simple, but under the guidance of the legendary Darius Khondji, its cinematography is a… Read More »Amour (2012) – Cinematography Analysis
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 thriller Notorious, my brain is basically wired to look at how light and shadow do the heavy lifting for the script. Notorious is the ultimate example of this. It’s a movie that balances being a high-stakes spy thriller and… Read More »Notorious (1946) – Cinematography Analysis
Few films hit that mark quite like Patton (1970). On the surface, it’s often dismissed as just another “Big War Movie,” but look closer and you’ll find a deeply layered character study meticulously carved out by its cinematography. When I revisit… Read More »Patton (1970) – Cinematography Analysis