Best Shot In The Dark

a film's best frame. their crowning moment. burned in your head.

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Atonement - Runner Ups

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Atonement (2007, Joe Wright)

Often dismissed as Prestige Historical Melodrama, Joe Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel is more sharply intellectual than meets the eye.  More in common with Merchant-Ivory than David Lean (tho clearly inspired by both), especially in its immaculate first act anchored by Saoirse Ronan’s steely performance, the film goes for restrained and intimate when the emotions seems to suggest otherwise.  It remains entirely successful until the second act but then sticks the landing at the end with Vanessa Redgrave delivering a powerful monologue on the nature of truth and compassion.

This fleeting moment here, one of my favorites in the first act, captures dual impending tragedies so cleverly.  As one of the main character sets in for an afternoon summer bath, he dreamily looks up at his skylight and sees a military plane slowly flying overhead.  This is England in 1935 and the world is soon about to turn upside-down.  What makes this moment so magical is how chilling and sad and altogether bittersweet it becomes upon second viewing: this is the last exact trace of freedom and tranquility this character has before all the storms hit.  The plane glides from the two panels of the skylight window that might as well read THAT WAS THEN and THIS WILL BE NOW.

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A Tribute To:

The woefully animated and thoroughly charmless end title sequence in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

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Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004, Brad Silberling)

Few images in the film really capture the absurdly gloomy and playfully Gothic tone of the book series as this shot here.  It’s a depressing parental non-sequitur that pops up in the last third of the film adaptation in a series of unfortunate sign posts warning the citizens of the harbor town, and especially the Baudelaire orphans, to address the existential questions of their safety.  DOES anyone know they are going this way?  For our main characters, the question seems to actually continually be, “Does anyone really care?”

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Romeo + Juliet - Runner Ups

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Romeo + Juliet (1996, Baz Luhrmann)

Luhrmann’s tattoos-and-guns, SoCal-meets-Shakespeare, post-punk glam ‘90s reinvention of the classic tragedy is the stuff that divisive opinions are made of.  There’s some finely tuned emotional lead performances and some fantastic music, design, and visual cues; the hard teen crush lingers and burns.  The best frame comes when the Friar Laurence equivalent is envisioning the peace, love and understanding that will arrive as the results of the two teen’s blissful union and this image above etches out: in Juliet joining her Romeo, we see a classic Catholic burning heart figurine married by the white dove of peace flying into frame.  It’s a nifty editing detail that illustrates the story’s basic, very recognizable themes and motifs in a few seconds.  Might be too literal for some but it’s a moment that works gracefully and perfectly with this particular adaptation.

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A Tribute To:

The charming period design details in Down With Love

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Down With Love (2003, Peyton Reed)

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Far From Heaven (2002, Todd Haynes)

There’s an aching heartbreak that slowly builds to this beautiful film’s lovely and realistic finale and this moment here, with Cathy (Julianne Moore, impeccable) seeing her chance at true love slowly leave on a train going elsewhere, is just crushing in the best possible way.  The film spit-shines the cliche train-departing romantic moment and presents it fresh and lovingly.  There’s much to be said about the symbolism (it’s a Douglas Sirk homage, after all) but just look at the lights above her!  Their reflection on the train as it leaves in a completely new direction and the last reminder of a chapter ending in this poor woman’s circumstance: you can see her heart crumble from here and it’s painful.  The exciting 1960s are right around the corner with their new opportunities but in this moment, right here, you can feel the pain that will take years to heal.

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To The Wonder (2013, Terrence Malick)

3-2-1

Though far from my favorite entry in Malick’s small filmography, the film’s story is bare bones and its character minimal but where it really shines is in creating large-scale intimacy like these above.  Ever a fan of shooting during magic hour (the results speak for themselves) he commands such a confident hand now in knowing the mosaic he wants to paint.  The trick henceforth will be finding a story/setting/characters fleshed out enough to apply his signature eye.  I’m optimistic but this particular entry proved simple in highlighting the strongest segment as the other elements of the film don’t quite come together as one hopes.  There’s the marvel of the Oklahoman sky shot by the gifted Emmanuel Lubezki in the starring role and very little else.

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The Tin Drum (1979, Volker Schlöndorff)

This bizarre and unpleasant Cannes and Oscar winner from (at the time, West) Germany certainly tests the nerve with its epic length and obnoxious lead character.  There’s a bit to say about whether it’s a failed allegory or a successful indictment but it doesn’t end without at least some memorable moments.  My favorite of which is this subversive side-eye that happens when a Nazi rally is interrupted and quickly turned into a ridiculous large-scale dance party (yes) and serious mister commander here was not amused at all.  It’s an unexpected moment of sly humor in a film filled with unexpected moments of horror, shock, and disturbing imagery.  Side-eyes are always welcomed reaction shots and this was a weirdly funny one that stuck.

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A Tribute To:

The majestic aerial shots in Angels in America.

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Angels in America (2003, Mike Nichols)

The stellar HBO miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner’s landmark and brilliant play features some amazing imagery, wondrous performances, everlasting moments and a real slow burn drive of wit, passion, humor, and despair.  This proved a monumental task in trying to select the best images from the nearly six-hour running time but I’ve managed these eight, four from each half, for being reminders of incredible performance beats, brain-burned references, pure fabulousity and/or utter beauty.  If anyone is subsequently encouraged to ever seek it out as a result of these impressions then I, I, I, I’ve done the lord’s work.

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Paris Is Burning - Runner Ups

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Paris Is Burning (1990, Jennie Livingston)

An enduringly influential and vital social snapshot of the NYC LGBT ball scene of the late 1980s, Jennie Livingston's wistful, hilarious, thoughtful, tragic, and ultimately loving portrait of the various scene queens has become a doc classic and a gay youth viewing rite of passage.  An anthropological study of these certain people in this particular place at this moment in recent history; there wasn't anything remotely like it before and not much has compared since.

What the best shot of the film here really captures for me is the dreaming and aspirations of the young.  One of the film's central figures, the ambitious and lovely trans woman Octavia St. Laurent, is window-shopping at her namesake boutique and admiring the expensively clothed mannequin, no doubt imagining herself in the luxury and status that an A-list brand like YSL offers.  She wants to be somebody but all she can do for now is dream through the glass.  It's a moment we've all experienced and connects to the truth of the film's message about dreaming big and finding the place you want for yourself in the world.

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A League Of Their Own (1992, Penny Marshall)

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The Night Porter (1974, Liliana Cavani)