Landmarks in handheld cinematography

I realize Chris Doyle has been mentioned but check his work out in Chunking Express. Great, great, great film. Such a beautiful motion picture with some nice handheld work. + 1 for Y tu mama Tambien as well, if you haven't seen that check it out asap. Great example of how the handheld work really enhances the mood.
 
Real Landmarks in handheld cinematography are:

Jules and Jim (Truffaut)
Breathless (Godard)
A women under the influence (Cassavettes)
Knife in the water (Polanski)
Mean Streets (Scorsese)
Breaking the waves (Von Trier)
French Connection (Friedkin)

The rest are just "movies that use handheld camera".....
 
Claudio - have you actually seen either Intermission or Bloody Sunday?

Feel free not to answer if doing so might embarrass you for any reason
 
pwyll said:
Claudio - have you actually seen either Intermission or Bloody Sunday?

Feel free not to answer if doing so might embarrass you for any reason
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Bloody Sunday, yes. Preety good. But it's "documentary style" drama, so what's the big innovation from what Cassavettes was doing 30 years ago?
And i haven't seen Intermission.....and i'm not embarrased at all to say so. If i knew all about cinematography or filmmaking, i wouldn't be here....

Why are those Landmarks in handheld cinematography?

The thing is, those movies are Landmarks not because they are gret (they are), or because they are the only ones that are great (they are not), but because every single one of them has innovated in some way (Landmark?) in this style of filmmaking....and of course i could have missed a few...

P.D: English is not my first language, so sorry for any gramatical error....
 
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I agree with Claudio, for the most part.

As much as I think his list is a bit short, and there is certainly room for more handheld (and modern) examples...

many examples already given are simply good films with hand-held work.... I was just reading the 1975 March edition of American Cinematographer and Spielberg is quoted saying that Jaws is the most expensive hand-held movie ever made. This of course is not a landmark either, just the fact they couldn't put the camera on support for many of the shots they needed.
 
Claudio - Landmark does not mean the same thing as innovative. Landmark means you look at the number of films nominated for best film/director/cinematography Oscars over the past couple of years. You see over half featured hand-held cinematography front and center. You ask "How did that happen?" You look back over your shoulder and see all the different films that led us to this place. Those are the landmark films.

Bloody Sunday is a seminal movie. It catapaulted Greengrass from an obscure Brit TV director to the most sought after director in Hollywood overnight - thereby bringing handheld cinematography into prominence in major studios that it had never achieved before. A major landmark. Handheld is now part of the Hollywood vernacular, and this has happened only in the last 4 or 5 years.

As to the point about "good films with hand-held camerawork" vs "landmarks in handheld cinematography" I agree with both on that - but wouldn't "French Connection" & "Mean Streets" fall into the former category?
 
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Postmaster said:
Why is anyone shoothing handheld when you can add the shaking in post? :D

Frank
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because hand held moves with the operators breathing, heart beat, foot steps, muscles etc.. its not random camera shake..... its moves organically. No computer can replicate that....
 
good point - you can buy a special turntable gizmo that shakes the TV set around a bit - it's great for giving older films a more modern feel. Check The Sharper Image Catalogue.
 
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