The first thought I had when a designer friend pointed me to this article about a new approached to creating animated gif files (or at least a much more artistic way) was “So that’s how we’re going to implement those moving Harry Potter pictures and newspaper photos…” As you can see by the moving cab above and several other of their “cinemagraphs”, there’s a much more delicate feel to these – they focus on a small portion of the picture moving and have a much smoother feel than any random “best of the day” animated gif you’d care to mention. It’s more then simply stitching together frames from a video and allows for the focus to be on the photography. They wanted to create “something more than a photo but less than a video” and I’d say they were pretty darn successful.
Of course, when you see something this cool, you tend to click on the links the article provides and prowl around a bit. In so doing, I found a spiffy tumblr page called If we don’t, remember me and found a huge selection of animated gifs of small clips from films. Though these seem to use the old style of just taking frames from the film and collecting them, each image tends to focus on more subtle movement – either a very specific person or thing or, even more effectively, some glimmering of light or the breathing motion of a person. Here’s a few selections, but check out the site for a whole whack more…
I’ll leave out the film titles to see if anyone can guess them (make your guesses before you go to the tumblr page as the film titles are provided there). As they get answered, I’ll put the film titles into the post.
1. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick – 1987)
2. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola – 1972)
3. The Truman Show (Peter Weir – 1998)
4. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen Brothers – 2001)
5. The Fearless Vampire Killers (Roman Polanski – 1967)
6. L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni – 1962)
7. Swimming Pool (Francois Ozon – 2003)
8. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell – 1960)
9. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock – 1958)
10. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah – 1971)
11. Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni – 1966)
12. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau – 1950)
Holy Shit! These are seriously awesome.
Agreed, these are great! Normally .gifs annoy me to death, but these are really well done and minimalistic.
Let’s see what I can guess:
#3 – The Truman Show
#8 – Peeping Tom
#9 – Vertigo
#11 – Blowup
#1 – Full Metal Jacket
#2 – Godfather
#4 – The Man Who Wasn’t There
#5 – The Fearless Vampire Killers
#9 – Rear Window
#10 – Straw Dogs
I thought #2 was The Godfather, but I wasn’t sure. Now that I look at, #9 might be Rear Window. I’m gonna be embarrassed if that’s the case – both Rear Window and Vertigo are in my top 20, I oughtta be able to tell them apart.
I feel like I’ve probably seen #6. Thought it might be Cleo from 5 to 7 at first, but I don’t think it is.
I didn’t notice the link until after I answered, and it says that it’s Vertigo — probably after the dream sequence — guess Jimmy wore the same pajamas in both movies. At least I got Vampire Killers, which is a gorgeous movie and has some great direction (the dance sequence) but is otherwise dreadful.
Yep, that was Vertigo…You got all 4 right Jandy. And nice job getting 5 Nat!
#6 isn’t Cleo, but it does contain one of the most gorgeous couples ever – half of which is in the photo.
The remaining ones – 6, 7 and 12 – are all foreign (two are French and the other Italian).
Hmmm…could #6 be L’Avventura? And #7 might be Ozon’s Swimming Pool, if it’s French.
7 is definitely Swimming Pool. I love that one…. for various reasons.
Swimming Pool is correct. And number 6 is indeed an Antonioni film, but not that one. It’s Monica Vitti in the photo and she’s paired up with one of the coolest dudes, like, ever.
L’Avventura and Blowup are sadly the only Antonioni films I’ve seen. I could probably figure it out with some IMDb help, but I’ll pass on it for tonight.
Jandy – I myself also need to see more Antonioni. But I can confidently say that The Passenger is totally worth a look.
Oh yeah – #12 = Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus?
These are incredible and everyone I’ve shown/tweeted them to has said so too. Really fantastic way to use .gif.
Nice pick Marc! Yep, that’s Orpheus. A really, really gorgeous film.
Number 6 is L’Eclisse starring Vitti and long-time man-crush Alain Delon. Seriously, I dare you to find a better looking couple anywhere at any time.
On your dare, I’d nominate another couple, albeit and Antonioni is still the director:
Marcello Mastroianni & Jeanne Moreau in La Notte. (Bonus: Vitti is waiting in the wings to flirt with Mastroianni)
Not bad, not bad Kurt…Though Moreau isn’t as classically beautiful as Vitti, she has always been enormously sexy – especially in “Bay Of Angels” and “The Lovers”. Mastroianni is awesome of course, but I have to still give the edge to Delon. Delon wouldn’t have to beat you up to steal your girl – he would just have to give her one look and then she would beat you up. That’s how cool he is.
When my man goes to sleep….Sheep count him.