Top 10 Landscapes in Cinema
By James Oliver
Just as in painting, there's an art to filming landscapes. Too many directors and cinematographers make their locations look like postcards. Here's a list that salutes those filmmakers who know how to make topography part of their vision. Be it rural or urban, these are filmmakers who make us see the world with fresh eyes...
NB. We've limited ourselves to choosing from titles currently available in the UK
10. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
The real challenge of landscape cinematography isn't to make the scenery look pretty but to shoot it so it becomes a character in the film. As this clip shows, Nuri Bilge Ceylan understands this perfectly. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is, ostensibly, a police procedural but one where the countryside is as important as the crime. That makes it sound like a sort of art-house Midsummer Murders, doesn't it? Truly, the worst comparison ever.
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9. Koyaanisqatsi
One of the most singular of films, Geoffrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (it means 'life out of balance') is essentially a documentary about mankind's impact on the planet. It's sometimes dismissed because of its popularity with stoners and sundry bores but you don't need to be under the influence to be awed by Ron Fricke's photography and Philip Glass' mesmeric score. Reggio continued the sequence with the similarly powerful Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi.
8. Antonio Des Mortes
Brazillian director Glauber Rocha made a huge stir with Black God, White Devil, a commanding neo-western that made outstanding use of the Latin American countryside. He followed it with the even more impressive Antonio Des Mortes; drawing on John Ford's films and shooting in colour, Antonio Des Mortes follows the contract-killer from Black God... as he achieves political consciousness.
7. Red Road
It's probably too early, only three features into her career, to list Andrea Arnold amongst the very greatest directors of landscape but let no one deny she's got one hell of an eye. Wuthering Heights is the obvious choice – t'grim Yorkshire Moors an' tha' – but let's go with Red Road. No contemporary filmmaker films man-made (and man-ruined) locations so vividly.
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As if troubled by what Arnold showed, the good burghers of Glasgow recently detonated the Red Road high-rises. Here's a video of the demolition – and the aftermath.
6. The Round-Up
Here's a very different sort of landscape, the horizontal steppes of Hungary, devoid of anything much beyond land and sky. As Noel Coward so nearly said: “Very flat, Hungary'. It's a fascinating space, which director Miklós Jancsó exploits brilliantly. Like his countryman Béla Tarr, Jancsó favours very, very long takes, although not even Tarr moves his camera or stages his actors with the balletic precision of Jancsó.
5. L'Avventura
Few directors were as attuned to the power of environment as Michaelangelo Antonioni; he turned exteriors into a manifestation of the character's troubled psyches, such as his depiction, here in L'Avventura, of Sicily. Now, I've been to Sicily. I didn't see much existential despair or metaphysical crises, just lots of flavoursome ice cream. Maybe if Michaelangelo had allowed Monica Vitti and Co to have a cornetto, they'd all have been happier. Just a thought.
4. Witchfinder General
Although set in 17th century East Anglia, Michael Reeves – wunderkind director of Witchfinder General – was much inspired by westerns and resolved to use the British landscape as the American directors used theirs. He contrasts the aching, pastoral beauty of the countryside with the horrific acts perpetrated by the title character, as vividly seen in the horrific opening sequence.
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3. Stalker
So what is 'the zone'? In Tarkovsky's film, it's a place of such miracles and wonders: in colour, rather than the sepia of the world beyond, natural and overgrown, unlike industrial wasteland outside. All of Tarkovsky's films display his affinity with landscape (yes, even Solaris) but this is its apex. So what is 'the zone'? It doesn't matter. But it's beautiful.
And for your delectation and delight, here's writer Geoff Dyer and some of his chums discussing the film, the subject of Dyer's recent – and much admired – book Zona.
2. Dersu Uzala
Akira Kurosawa made better use of the great outdoors than almost any other filmmaker. From his very first film, Sugata Sanshiro where he staged a climactic fight on a storm-blown mountainside, through the rain and mud of Seven Samurai right up to Ran (King Lear on Mount Fuji), environment was integral to his art. Dersu Uzala isn't his best known film but it's one of his masterpieces, a simple story between a Russian cartographer and his native guide. Here, Dersu and his patron are at risk of hyperthermia, trapped on the ice as the sun sets. One of Kurosawa's greatest set-pieces.
1. The Searchers
Had to be, really. John Ford was, hands down, the greatest director of landscape, he influenced pretty much every director on this list, directly or indirectly, and arguably contributed to America's self-image (at least the country's relationship with its environment). His preferred arena was the huge crags of Monument valley, as seen here in the iconic opening and closing scenes of The Searchers. Ford wasn't the first director to shot there but he made it his own, to the extent that there's a part of it named after him.
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...and here's a National Geographic guide to the majestic rockery.
What did you think of the selection? Let us know below
Film Listing
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011
£6.99
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Grand Prix winner at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia ...
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011
£9.99
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Grand Prix winner at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia ...
Akira Kurosawa, 1975
£17.99
Dersu Uzala
Winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1975, Akira Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala (his only film produc...
Glauber Rocha, 1969
£7.99
Antonio Das Mortes
Glauber Rocha followed his acclaimed Black God, White Devil with this powerful sequel, Antonio Da...
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960
£11.99
L'Avventura
The landmark first film in a loose trilogy which also comprises La Notte and L'Eclisse. A woman g...
Andrea Arnold, 2006
£16.99
Red Road
A powerful drama from a major new talent that scooped a rare British triumph at Cannes when it to...
Godfrey Reggio, 1983-88
£10.49
Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi
Double bill featuring two of the films produced by the acclaimed partnership of c...
John Ford, 1956
£12.49
The Searchers (Special Edition)
The most majestic and greatest of all westerns. It's Ford's darkest, most complex...
Michael Reeves, 1968
£13.49
Witchfinder General
Michael Reeves' classic British horror drama is et In England during the time of Cromwell and see...
Miklos Jancso, 1965
£11.99
The Round-Up
A true masterwork of world cinema, set in the mid 19th century, when Austrian soldiers representi...
Michael Reeves, 1968
£18.99
Witchfinder General
Michael Reeves' classic British horror drama is et In England during the time of Cromwell and see...
Godfrey Reggio, 1983-88
£10.49
Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi
Double bill featuring two of the films produced by the acclaimed partnership of c...
Andrea Arnold, 2006
£9.49
Red Road
A powerful drama from a major new talent that scooped a rare British triumph at Cannes when it to...
