Top-10: Ones & Zeroes

When movies started to be shot digitally in the late 90s, I was very resistant. They didn't look like movies. They were grainy/too clear, the colors were weird and often the frame-rate caused them to look like bad television. Sometimes this was able to work. If the filmmaker needed a "rough"/faux-documentary look or if it was a movie about the media, this new aesthetic became somewhat acceptable. But these were exceptions, right? Digital could never replace film! Could it?

What a difference a decade makes. Today, many of the world's greatest filmmakers have embraced the new technology with arms wide open. Film is now the exception held on to by a few loyal "fetishists" like Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson. Back in July I even wrote an editorial addressing my conflicted feelings on the matter. But as they say: The Only Constant Is Change. And so as an act of good faith, here is a personal list of the photographically greatest digitally-shot movies and the artists who shot them. You might even notice a few names in common with the list of black and white films from last week...

Zodiac - Harris Savides

Che - Steven Soderbergh

Tetro - Mihai Malaimare Jr.

Bamboozled - Ellen Kuras

Dancer In The Dark - Robby Müller

Hugo - Robert Richardson

Collateral - Dion Beebe & Paul Cameron

Antichrist - Anthony Dod Mantle

Rachel Getting Married - Declan Quinn

Inland Empire - David Lynch