Quick: What’s
the common theme linking The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, Days of Heaven, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, What Dreams May Come, Legends of the Fall, Lawrence of Arabia, El Topo, La Dolce Vita, The Tree of Life, Chinatown, Barry Lyndon, Hero, Kagemusha, The Black Stallion, Vertigo, Manhattan, Apocalypse Now , 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Last Picture Show, Raging Bull, and Brazil?
Answer: They’re all featured in “135 Shots That Will Restore Your Faith in Cinema,” an eight-minute compilation of cinematic paradise edited by Jason Bailey, with music by Clint Mansell (from the movie Moon) for Flavorwire.
Here’s how Bailey explains the origin of the project:
A couple of weeks back, we posed a rather massive question: “What are the most beautiful movies ever made?” We came up with ten candidates of our own, but you, the readers, really stepped up, with over 100 commenters (and counting) offering up their own nominees. There were so many great suggestions, in fact, that a simple follow-up post seemed inadequate; instead, we got our hands on our original list, our runners-up, and your picks — a total of 86 movies — and put together some of our favorite images from them for this week’s video essay, a celebration of cinematic imagery that’s particularly needed in the midst of summer blockbuster season.
We think the result is beautiful, and we gladly direct you to it. Note that there’s also an alternate annotated version that identifies each film.