Best Visuals (Black & White) in Film History (in progress)

Submitted by AfterHours on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 12:23
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  1. Metropolis-Lang (1927)
  2. Touch of Evil-Welles (1958)
  3. Faust-Murnau (1926)
  4. Citizen Kane-Welles (1941)
  5. The Magnificent Ambersons-Welles (1942)
  6. Sin City-Rodriguez/Miller (2005)
  7. Europa-Von Trier (1991)
  8. Othello-Welles (1952)
  9. Wings of Desire-Wenders (1987)
  10. Last Year at Marienbad-Resnais (1960)
  11. The Trial-Welles (1962)
  12. Mr. Arkadin-Welles (1955)
  13. The Scarlett Empress-Von Sternberg (1934)
  14. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari-Wiene (1920)
  15. Sunrise-Murnau (1927)
  16. Andrei Rublev-Tarkovsky (1966)
  17. Alexander Nevsky-Eisenstein (1938)
  18. Night of the Hunter-Laughton (1955)
  19. Raging Bull-Scorsese (1980)
  20. Persona-Bergman (1966)
  21. Hour of the Wolf-Bergman (1967)
  22. Schindler's List-Spielberg (1993)
  23. M-Lang (1931)
  24. Ivan the Terrible, Part 1-Eisenstein (1944)
  25. The Phantom Carriage-Sjostrom (1920)
  26. Eraserhead-Lynch (1977)
  27. The Last Laugh-Murnau (1924)
  28. Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte-Aldrich (1965)
  29. The Blue Angel-Von Sternberg (1930)
  30. Manhattan-Allen (1979)
  31. 8 1/2-Fellini (1963)
  32. The Virgin Spring-Bergman (1961)
  33. The Third Man-Reed (1949)
  34. Chimes at Midnight-Welles (1966)
  35. La Dolce Vita-Fellini (1960)
  36. Psycho-Hitchcock (1960)
  37. Hiroshima, Mon Amour-Resnais (1959)
  38. Dr. Strangelove-Kubrick (1964)
  39. The Lady from Shanghai-Welles (1947)
  40. On the Waterfront-Kazan (1954)
  41. Pi-Aronofsky (1998)
  42. La Jetee-Marker (1962)
  43. Ikiru-Kurosawa (1952)
  44. The Seventh Seal-Bergman (1957)
  45. The Battleship Potemkin-Eisenstein (1925)
  46. Satantango-Tarr (1994)
  47. Werckmeister Harmonies-Tarr (2000)
  48. Dead Man-Jarmusch (1995)
  49. Greed-Von Stroheim (1924)
  50. The Stranger-Welles (1946)
  51. Notorious-Hitchcock (1946)
  52. The White Ribbon-Haneke (2009)
  53. Sunset Boulevard-Wilder (1950)
  54. The Apartment-Wilder (1960)
  55. The Last Picture Show-Bogdanovich (1971)
  56. King Kong-Schoedsack (1933)
  57. Sansho the Bailiff-Mizoguchi (1954)
  58. Ugetsu Monogatari-Mizoguchi (1953)
AsColdAsIce06/01/2011

No love for the Cabinet of Dr Caligari?

AfterHours06/01/2011

Currently it's #21 ( : ...so it will undoubtedly be on here as I extend past 20. It could easily make it back into the top 20 as well.

Zacharyyy06/01/2011

Expand past twenty there is no reason at all to stop there.

AfterHours06/01/2011

As I mentioned above, I will be doing so

lottjohnny05/30/2012

Good list you missed a giant though as i would add anything by Carl Dreyer!!! JL

AfterHours05/30/2012

Thanks - both Passion of Joan of Arc and Vampyr will probably be added if I extend the list to 50.

Velliquette06/02/2012

Come on, AfterHours. Be a G, and bring 'Wings of Desire' up a bit!.

AfterHours06/02/2012

Even if I went and popped a cap in someone's ass, Wings of Desire would still have to be more visually amazing than the films above it for me to move it up! :)

Eggman_Walrus_Taxman06/02/2012

LOL I haven't seen Wings of Desire, but it must be really amazing, that it still has to be moved up when it's as high as #7!

lottjohnny06/02/2012

EGGMAN, WINGS OF DESIRE is amazing but it is a blend of B&W (when showing the spiritual world of angels pov) and vivid color when showing the physical world of the earth/humans, therefore im in agreement where it stands on this list. My choice for the two overall greatest films would be 8/1/2 by Fellini and Sunset Blvd by Wilder. 81/2 should be high on this B&W list. I am a filmaker and consider Fellini the greatest visual filmaker ever. I challenge you to take any Fellini film fast forward and randomly stop any where and you almost always have an image worthy of framing!!! Id rather see a fellini scene of two people in coversation in an empty room than the most active action scene from say a speiberg anyday! My two all time favorites and choice among the greatest ever made - it would be a tie between Magnolia and Wings Of Desire. JL

AfterHours06/02/2012

Those two would likely be on here if I extended the list to 30-35ish, and really, they could make it within my top 25 anyway. If I was rating by "perfection" of the frame, 8 1/2 would undoubtedly be in the top 10 (if not 5 - Last Yr at Marienbad perhaps #1). But I rate according to the emotional resonance of the visuals and in that case find the visuals of films like Citizen Kane, with its highly subjective, intense ghostly solitude, and multi-faceted stylistic/emotional palette, quite a bit more powerful. Or, Metropolis, with its wild montages, crazed religious symbology, spectacular city scapes, art deco monuments, cavernous underworld, crowds running amok, electrifying and imaginative special effects...etc...