Favorite Shots

If I’m being honest this should technically be called “Favorite Frames”; after all, the majority of these are chosen for pictorial value, though certainly all draw much of their power from the way they develop in motion. And while I certainly wouldn’t claim that these are definitely my ten favorite shots, nor the ones that rise to the surface of my brain most frequently, these are among the ones that continually come back to me, often out of thin air. While there are many worthy contenders, these are dearest to me at this moment. The first is first, the rest are unranked.

chungking

Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-wai)

night

The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)

north

North by Northwest (1955, Alfred Hitchcock)

pierrot

Pierrot le fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)

odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)

touch

A Touch of Zen (1971, King Hu)

terrorizers

The Terrorizers (1986, Edward Yang)

close-up

Close-Up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami)

mulholland

Mulholland Dr. (2001, David Lynch)

miami

Miami Vice (2006, Michael Mann)

And a few more…

napoleon

Napoléon (1927, Abel Gance)

spione

Spione (1928, Fritz Lang)

ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)

meet

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Vincente Minnelli)

breathless

Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard)

rochefort

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, Jacques Demy)

ashes

Ashes of Time (1994, Wong Kar-wai)

evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995, Hideaki Anno)

yi yi

Yi Yi (2000, Edward Yang) [the shot that changed my life]