Ryan McNeilToday, we begin wrapping up 2013 by returning to an annual tradition here at The Matinee. It occurred to me some time ago that when you think back on a film, sometimes you think about one solitary image. When you bring those images together, it turns into a neat little tapestry of the year on the whole.
The idea started back in 2010, and continued through 2011 and 2012.
Decide amongst yourselves what it means that I have been choosing more and more images as the years have gone on.
Oooo nice ones. I just saw American Hustle and laughed so loud at that part.
I think some of these shots will almost definitely make it into my list, like Gravity and Before Midnight. And in case of films like Stoker, Frozen, Frances Ha and Spring Breakers, it’s so hard choosing just one shot. Such stunning films.
Comparing this list to some of those previous entries, it feels like I chose more conventional shots this year. I couldn’t help it though – some of the touchstone images from this year’s crop of films were so iconic!
Be sure to ping me if/when you put up a post like this.
fab!
Gracias senorita – talk to ya in a few weeks.
Quite the trip through 2013 cinema, and with nary a word! I like that. When I write about my favorite shot of the year I always self-indulgently blather, but you let the images speak for themselves and let us take away what we will.
For instance…the pint in “World’s End.” It kinda looks like a shiny hoppy thing you’d buy at Spencer’s Gifts.
In a way this is sort of the antithesis to my weekly “Freeze Frame” post. While in those O like to blather on for a few hundred words about what an image says to me, here I feel like we’ve all said all that needs to be said as the year played out.
I don’t know why, but if I had to pick a singular image out of these, I might pick the one from THE SPECTACULAR NOW. There’s a hopefulness to it that the romantic in me identifies with…which interestingly contradicts the lack of hopefulness that story leaves us with.
Wong Kar Wai is calling… he’s asking for his shirt back.
Funny thing with THE GRANDMASTER: I couldn’t settle on just one image. The shot of the blood mixing with the rain came closest but still didn’t seem to do it justice.
Love that shot from NEBRASKA.
I figured you’d like that one.
Bravo on all of these!
Thanks Brittni – and thanks for dropping by so often this year.
The Audrina Patridge house shot in The Bling Ring is definitely one of my favorites and justifies Sofia’s genius as a filmmaker.
Admittedly, that one would have been better served with a gif
beautiful photography, beautiful people, but a dull movie just like Somewhere. She needs to go back and watch The virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation to remind herself what she can do.
Funny, BLING RING was actually the film that brought me back to Coppola. I disliked ANTOINETTE and outright loathed SOMEWHERE, but I thought there were ideas in BLING that were timely…something I haven’t felt in Coppola’s movies in a long time.
We’ll see what she does next.
wow, great choices. as you know, I have done the same thing but quarterly, so have four times more pics than you. We picked lots of the same movies but only one image the same.
I had a have enough time doing this once a year. I have no idea how you manage to do it four times over!
Such glorious shots – especially love Frances Ha and The Spectacular Now. 🙂
Thanks Katy! Any moments in 2013 you would have added that I might have missed?
I love that one from Side Effects – such an impeccably well shot film! Also love the one from Spring Breakers, The Great Gatsby, The Bling Ring, Before Midnight, The Spectacular Now and The Wolf of Wall Street. My fave of the year is probably Cate Blanchett when she’s telling her nephews that a person can only go through so much before they start running on the streets screaming. Just her face…it is glorious acting. Man, I kinda wanna do a post like this now, but is haven’t seen enough!
I need to revisit Blue Jasmine sometime soon, since its appeal has only grown since I first watched it. If I’m a betting man, Blanchett has to be an early favorite for Best Actress.
PS – if you did a post like this, I reckon you could piece together some great shots of your own!
PPS – Looking up at that image of THE SPECTACULAR NOW reminds me that I’m curious to know your thoughts on. Be sure to give it a look.
Have seen The Spectacular Now – think it made number eight on my 2013 list? I may or may not do a review type thing on it, but that post would end up just being a whole mess about how confusing and sucky life is between high school and university and how Aimee actually is me. But yes, it was very very good.
Cripes, I’m an idiot. I even linked/commented on that post! Sorry about that.
You leave me curious though: In what ways did you identify with Aimee?
Ah, everything. Just the awkwardness, putting everyone before herself, I don’t know…basically everything. I’m like a hybrid of Aimee and Maya from Zero Dark Thirty. Which is a bizarre mix, I know, but that’s me!
The best shot just has to be from “Before Midnight”…
Awful pretty shot ain’t it? Considering where the story goes from there, some may say it’s even a prophetic moment!
Great list! I just stumbled onto your blog and this is a really cool idea for a yearly post. A bit of a different spin on an end of year retrospective. That shot from Upstream Color still haunts me, and I laughed really hard when I saw your choice from Inside Llewyn Davis.
Thanks Bender. Interestingly so many more of the shots I had in mind were able to be sourced this year. (The previous entries are smaller because I couldn’t find all the photos).
We mentioned that shot from UPSTREAM on a podcast I did recently. A friend of mine suggested it might have been the most Tumbled image of the year, including showing up in all sorts of spaces – spaces not normally dedicated to movies.
Any shots you can think of that I missed?