The Best-Photographed Films According to the American Society of Cinematographers

[Cremildo]

"Founded on January 8, 1919, the American Society of Cinematographers celebrates its 100th anniversary today.

As part of the centennial festivities, the Society released their members’ list of the 100 milestone films in the art and craft of cinematography of the 20th century." [Source]

The Top 10:


1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962), shot by Freddie Young, BSC (Dir. David Lean)


2. Blade Runner (1982), shot by Jordan Cronenweth, ASC (Dir. Ridley Scott)


3. Apocalypse Now (1979), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)


4. Citizen Kane (1941), shot by Gregg Toland, ASC (Dir. Orson Welles)


5. The Godfather (1972), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)


6. Raging Bull (1980), shot by Michael Chapman, ASC (Dir. Martin Scorsese)


7. The Conformist (1970), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)


8. Days of Heaven (1978), shot by Néstor Almendros, ASC (Dir. Terrence Malick)


9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), shot by Geoffrey Unsworth, BSC with additional photography by John Alcott, BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)


10. The French Connection (1971), shot by Owen Roizman, ASC (Dir. William Friedkin)

Titles 11–100 (in order of release):
Metropolis (1927), shot by Karl Freund, ASC; Günther Rittau

Napoleon (1927), shot by Leonce-Henri Burel, Jules Kruger, Joseph-Louis Mundwiller,

Sunrise (1927), shot by Charles Rosher Sr., ASC; Karl Struss, ASC

Gone with the Wind (1939), shot by Ernest Haller, ASC

The Wizard of Oz (1939), shot by Harold Rosson, ASC

The Grapes of Wrath (1940), shot by Gregg Toland, ASC

How Green Was My Valley (1941), shot by Arthur C. Miller, ASC

Casablanca (1942), shot by Arthur Edeson, ASC

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), shot by Stanley Cortez, ASC

Black Narcissus (1947), shot by Jack Cardiff, BSC

The Bicycle Thief (1948), shot by Carlo Montuori,

The Red Shoes (1948), shot by Jack Cardiff, BSC

The Third Man (1949), shot by Robert Krasker, BSC

Rashomon (1950) shot by Kazou MIyagawa

Sunset Boulevard (1950), shot by John Seitz, ASC

On the Waterfront (1954), shot by Boris Kaufman, ASC

Seven Samurai (1954), shot by Asakazu Nakai

The Night of the Hunter (1955), shot by Stanley Cortez, ASC

Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), shot by Jack HIlyard, BSC

Touch of Evil (1958), shot by Russell Metty, ASC

Vertigo (1958), shot by Robert Burks, ASC

Breathless (1960), shot by Raoul Coutard

Last Year at Marienbad (1961), shot by Sacha Vierny

8 ½ (1963), shot by Gianni Di Venanzo

Hud (1963), shot by James Wong Howe, ASC

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), shot by Gilbert Taylor, BSC

I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba; 1964), shot by Sergei Urusevsky

Doctor Zhivago (1965), shot by Freddie Young, BSC

The Battle of Algiers (1966), shot by Marcello Gatti

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), shot by Haskell Wexler, ASC

Cool Hand Luke (1967), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC

The Graduate (1967), shot by Robert Surtees, ASC

In Cold Blood (1967), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), shot by Tonino Delli Colli, AIC

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC

The Wild Bunch (1969), shot by Lucien Ballard, ASC

A Clockwork Orange (1971), shot by John Alcott, BSC

Klute (1971), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC

The Last Picture Show (1971), shot by Robert Surtees, ASC

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, HSC

Cabaret (1972), shot by Geoffery Unsworth, BSC

Last Tango in Paris (1972), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

The Exorcist (1973), shot by Owen Roizman, ASC

Chinatown (1974), shot by John Alonzo, ASC

The Godfather: Part II (1974), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC

Barry Lyndon (1975), shot by John Alcott, BSC

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), shot by Haskell Wexler, ASC

All the President's Men (1976), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC

Taxi Driver (1976), shot by Michael Chapman, ASC

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, HSC

The Duellists (1977), shot by Frank Tidy, BSC

The Deer Hunter (1978), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, HSC

Alien (1979), shot by Derek Vanlint, CSC

All that Jazz (1979), shot by Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC, AIC

Being There (1979), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC

The Black Stallion (1979), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC

Manhattan (1979), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC

The Shining (1980), shot by John Alcott, BSC

Chariots of Fire (1981), shot by David Watkin, BSC

Das Boot (1981), shot by Jost Vacano, ASC

Reds (1981), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Fanny and Alexander (1982), shot by Sven Nykvist, ASC

The Right Stuff (1983), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC

Amadeus (1984), shot by Miroslav Ondricek, ASC, ACK

The Natural (1984), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC

Paris, Texas (1984), shot by Robby Müller, NSC, BVK

Brazil (1985), shot by Roger Pratt, BSC

The Mission (1986), shot by Chris Menges, ASC, BSC

Empire of the Sun (1987), shot by Allen Daviau, ASC

The Last Emperor (1987), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Wings of Desire (1987), shot by Henri Alekan

Mississippi Burning (1988), shot by Peter Biziou, BSC

JFK (1991), shot by Robert Richardson, ASC

Raise the Red Lantern (1991), shot by Lun Yang

Unforgiven (1992), shot by Jack Green, ASC

Baraka (1992), shot by Ron Fricke

Schindler's List (1993), shot by Janusz Kaminski

Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC

Trois Coulieurs: Bleu (Three Colours: Blue; 1993), shot by Slawomir Idziak, PSC

The Shawshank Redemption (1994), shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC

Seven (1995), shot by Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC

The English Patient (1996), shot by John Seale, ASC, BSC

L. A. Confidential (1997), shot by Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC

Saving Private Ryan (1998), shot by Janusz Kaminski

The Thin Red Line (1998), shot by John Toll, ASC

American Beauty (1999), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC

The Matrix (1999), shot by Bill Pope, ASC

In the Mood for Love (2000), shot by Christopher Doyle, HKSC

[imsounoriginal]

Lawrence and Kane would've been my tops for color and B&W.

Great list overall. Hard to argue with any of those inclusions, except maybe French Connection being too high (top 10? Really?).

[MifuneFan]

No Suspiria? No Giallo? The Searchers? Nothing post-2000? It's a decent list, but I do feel they kept it pretty safe.

[filmbuffTX]

Yeah, interesting that only 3 out of 100 films are from the last 20 years and no film from the last 18 years made the list.

From this decade I would choose The Revenant and Dunkirk. Probably The New World and Brokeback Mountain from the 2000s.

[Cremildo]

Glad to see the much-undervalued Allen Daviau mentioned. His work in Empire of the Sun impressed me when I was young and just beginning to be aware of the craftmanship that goes in moviemaking.

Originally Posted by filmbuffTX

Yeah, interesting that only 3 out of 100 films are from the last 20 years and no film from the last 18 years made the list.

The list is specific for movies released in the 20th century, as mentioned in the first post. I couldn't specify it in the thread title because it'd be too big.

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

I get many lists like this will not put on newer movies, but Blade Runner 2049 is one of the best looking films i've ever seen. The top Roger Deakins choice imo and he has filmed some jaw dropping movies.

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

Just noticed the 20th century part haha. Bad reading comprehension is to blame.

[Foggy]

Seen 69 of them, got a few more in my collection waiting to be seen.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Lawrence and Kane would've been my tops for color and B&W.

Great list overall. Hard to argue with any of those inclusions, except maybe French Connection being too high (top 10? Really?).

Yeah. Seeing the names, regardless of where I'd probably count them in a list, I could agree w/it but I stopped at French Connection... and kind of made a face about it. Hahahaha. I don't know if I'd put it up that high. I'll probably put in the BD later cuz while a great film I guess I never thought of it being that high up in cinematography.

[Johnny Blu]

I'm surprised Pulp Fiction didn't make the list.

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by Johnny Blu

I'm surprised Pulp Fiction didn't make the list.

Was it ever known for being a showcase for great cinematography, though? Of the almost 70 nominations it received, only two were for the lensing.

[dancerslegs]

Raging Bull and The French Connection are much too high. Otherwise, solid list.

[tezster]

A little surprising to see Searching For Bobby Fischer to be on that list - it's a quiet, dramatic film which I love to bits, but it certainly isn't a "big"/groundbreaking film in visual terms.

I don't think there's been a blu-ray release (still hanging on to my DVD).

[Johnny Blu]

Originally Posted by Cremildo

The list is specific for movies released in the 20th century, as mentioned in the first post. I couldn't specify it in the thread title because it'd be too big.

So to celebrate their 100th anniversary, they're honoring 80 years of cinematography? Were they too lazy to expand the list to 100 years of movies to coincide with their anniversary?

[The Sovereign]

It's a helluva list in my opinion. Lots of my all-time favorites in there.

[Darth Marcus]

I redact my previous statement. I see that it is for the 20th Century and does not include films from the 21st.

Hell of a list!

[Bugg]

Honestly the list looks incredibly lazy. It's like they picked from the most sacred cows of cinema and mostly ignored the photography in less classic films. A list dedicated to one single aspect of filmmaking shouldn't look like a carbon copy of your standard alltime classics of cinema list.

[levcore]

Predictable choices!

[Gacivory]

I wouldn’t put French Connection top 10. Quickly looking, I would say Red Shoes (or most any Jack Cardiff) or Who’a Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In its place.

[Gacivory]

Of the last 18 years I would put Assassination of Jesse James, Tree of Life, No Country For Old Men, The Master.