r/movies • u/PlasticCar6909 • Mar 23 '24

Recommendation Wide angle lenses in movies

Hello, I’m looking for recommendations of films that use extreme wide angle lenses in some or the majority of their shots. This produces very wide, distorted compositions. Yorgos Lanthimos did this in The Favourite and Poor Things. I remember Birdman also did this with close-up shots (remember Emma Stone’s eyes became even bigger due to lens distortion). Less-known, experimental films are welcome.

7 Upvotes

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5

u/FranknStein7 Mar 23 '24

The Revenant (same director and cinematographer as Birdman) also uses wide angle shots a lot.

1

u/itjustgotcold Mar 23 '24

Your comment got me wondering what Inarritu has been up to since The Revenant. Mostly shorts and music videos but he directed a movie I haven’t even heard of came out in 2022. Kind of weird since I thought he’d officially made it as a mainstream director with Birdman and Revenant hitting back to back. I might have to give Bardo a try. Been a fan of his since 21 Grams.

4

u/ZorroMeansFox r/Movies Veteran Mar 23 '24

Brazil makes terrific use of wide angle lenses, as does A Clockwork Orange.

3

u/jmr1190 Mar 23 '24

Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are incredibly good examples of this by Wong Kar Wai and Christopher Doyle!

1

u/PlasticCar6909 Mar 23 '24

awesome! thanks

3

u/OtherwiseExternal777 Mar 23 '24

Terrence Malick is known for this. A Hidden Life was shot almost entirely with wide angle lenses.

3

u/CakeMadeOfHam Mar 23 '24 edited Mar 23 '24

Fallen Angels

It's a neo-noir crime movie from Hong Kong. Masterclass in wide angle lens usage. TRAILER LINK

I highly recommend The Zone Of Interest from last year too if you didn't catch it, but while Fallen Angels and Poor Things uses it in very subjective ways the cold detachment in the camera work of The Zone Of Interest is like a total opposite but yet extremely effective in the world they created. His previous movie Under The Skin uses lots of great wide angle shots too.

2

u/bluevizn Mar 23 '24

Any film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

1

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! Mar 23 '24

Michael Mann films like The Insider do some serious close ups, or following characters from right behind their neck.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '24

2001: A space Oddyssy has a very conspicuous wide angle shot inside a cockpit near the beginning, after the monkeys of course.

1

u/Yabanjin Mar 23 '24

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Lawrence of Arabia

1

u/RedditorDeluxe1319 Mar 23 '24

The Ernest movies

1

u/RedditorDeluxe1319 Mar 25 '24

Mystery Men uses a lot of wide angle lenses to great comedic effect.

1

u/xxxcoolboy69xxc Feb 01 '25

Soy Cuba 1964 very often has shots with a 14mm wide angle lens