If it’s a digital square with a celebrity on it, Rotten
Tomatoes wants it. (Except for pictures of shirtless
Dane Cook; we’ve seen
enough of those.) So while not all movies are made equal, each one has the
opportunity to produce some fantastic production photographs. Here, we present you some of the ones that stood out to us throughout 2007.
The Blockbuster
300 (released March 30). The critics were really split on 300; some loved, some hated it. But wherever your opinion lies, it undeniably made for some purty scenes.
Grindhouse (April 6). It was an up-and-down
season for blockbusters. A lot of
franchise Tomatometers took big dips from their immediately preceding
films (Spider-Man,
Harry Potter,
Shrek), while original big-budget releases that critics did recommend didn’t make money, like this or
Sunshine.
Ocean’s Thirteen (June 8). This is like a less smug, maybe more coolly self-satisfied
picture from
Garden State.
The Foreign Film
Tears of the Black Tiger (January 12). A Spaghetti western from the Philippines with the most
frenzied color design of the year.
Red Road (April 13). An overlooked psychological thriller with some compelling
(even shocking) moments.
Paprika (May 25). Though
Ratatouille and
Persepolis are dominating the
animation awards this year, distant dark horse Paprika should also be noted for injecting the world a major dose of
surrealist anime visuals.
The Horror! The Horror!
The Reaping (April 5). Horror is a fantastic genre (even if they do have the worst
movies) and it consistently makes for some of the best production photos.
Hostel: Part II (June 8). The soft-focus evil dude in the background is a common
horror movie photo but, for whatever reason, big headphoned
Heather Matarazzo makes it more
fascinating.
Black Sheep (June 22).
Village Voice‘s Jim Ridley put it best: "There is no such
thing as an unfunny cutaway to a sheep."
Captivity (July 13). The evils of torture porn
(especially one made by
Roland freaking Joffe) is touched on frequently. But
Captivity makes this subgenre like a Versace photo shoot.
The Invasion (August 17). So does Nicole Kidman never age or what?
The Drama
Rescue Dawn (July 4). With pictures like this, tales of
Christian Bale‘s bug
cuisines, and the wonderful movie itself, there’s no doubting Rescue Dawn‘s cast
and crew’s commitment to the project.
Across the Universe (September 14). The musical continues to make waves in Hollywood, and with
that fact come the extravagance and excess.
Elizabeth the Golden Age (October 12).
The queen’s map room would probably make for a great game of Risk.
The Comedy
Hot Fuzz (April 20). Interesting how one of the best action movies of the years
had to be a loving spoof of one.
Knocked Up
(June 1). An awkward
Katherine Heigl
and an uncomfortable
Seth Rogen
with the specter of expanding fetuses looming over their head. It’s rare to
perfectly encapsulate a movie in a single image, but there it is.
Hannah Takes the Stairs (August 22). It’s like looking at what American Apparel ad models and
their weird-looking boyfriends do during lazy afternoons.
The Documentary
Air Guitar Nation (March 23). Another example of a single photo capturing almost an entire film. This picture of a guy jumping through a wall of smoke
wielding an imaginary ax pretty much says it all.
The King of Kong: A
Fistful of Quarters (August 17). If
Chasing Ghosts, another fantastic 2007 documentary about
the arcade scene, ever comes out on DVD, it’d make a great double feature with
this.
Steep (December 21). Documentary photos are great fun to look at. It’s a
refreshing contrast going between actors pretending to be characters with
interesting lives and real characters with interesting, usually life-threatening
hobbies.
The Indie
Cashback (July 20). Emilia Fox, interesting composition, and small details like
the piece of scotch tape on Fox’s wrist watch. A lovely little picture.
Wristcutters: A Love Story (October 19). Based on a short
story by the great Etgar Keret, Wristcutters takes place in an after-life
purgatory (it’s a lot like our world, though a little emptier and with a better
soundtrack) which lends itself to some whimsical shots.
Nina’s Heavenly Delights (November 21). At the bottom of each photo page are thumbnails to recently
updated galleries. When this picture was featured, there was a noticeable spike
in our traffic. No joke.
The Directors
Sweeney Todd‘s Tim Burton. Most pictures of directors are simply guys making funny
gestures with their hands, so anything that deviates from that formula is
instantly memorable.
The Darjeeling
Limited‘s Wes Anderson. Still
wondering whose hand that is.
Rescue Dawn‘s Werner Herzog. Despite how iconic the slate board is, this might be the
only picture this year to feature one.
The City of Lights
France’s tourism board must’ve been très happy this year. Paris played a big part in 2007, from a cheeky
cameo in 28 Weeks Later to being
momentary stomping grounds in
National Treasure: Book of Secrets,
to hosting crucial plot points in smaller films like
The Darjeeling
Limited and
Broken English. We’ll
cap off the feature with three postcards from
The City of Lights.
Dans Paris.
Angel-A.
Paris, je t’aime.
So to our RT faithful: Here’s to a new year!
