Favourite frames in the PT

About 30 minutes I thought. Third. "Something is wrong". Padme worries.

At all, there is a lot of very beautiful shots in the PT. I like this one. I don't know why.

I've written plenty about many of the scenes. That's actually what is causing me such anxiety at the moment:

Where do I begin? This is such an epically great thread. Easily one of the best on the board. Pat yourself on the back double-time for this one, Arch Duke!

What I'm thinking of doing is quoting everyone and adding some additional thoughts to each selection.



The veranda set is one of my favourites in ROTS. I love how it is shown in three configurations: first at night with a relaxing and almost-mournful air (Anakin's nightmare), then in an evening/sunset light recalling a lot of the imagery on Coruscant in TPM beginning with Anakin being tested at the Jedi Temple (Anakin and Padme complaining/discussing politics), then in a kind of late-afternoon, dreamy sort of creamy-white light (Obi-Wan going to Padme to try and get Anakin's whereabouts from her). In the latter, Anakin has fled to Mustafar, but his presence lingers like a ghost. It's a very lush and beautiful set, carried off very well by the three different daytime settings. And the way it transitions through these three different settings lends a kind of fateful, transcendental quality to the proceedings.

It can be taken as in-movie evidence for Pyrogenic's suggested RETRO ORDER (i.e., watching the movies in a kind of reverse, countdown-to-launch order: III, II, I). As dire as things become, the veranda set seems to be brightening in a way that is inversely proportional to the happenings of the movie, as if the night-time setting of the first scene embodies ROTS (particularly the theme of death/loss and Anakin dressed in a kind of sleek, bathing-house black robe), the sunset tones of the second encapsulates AOTC (where the closing scene of AOTC is even alluded to by Padme), and the bright quality of the third symbolises TPM (accentuated by Padme's innocence/naivete toward Anakin's crimes). It's a weird thing when you notice it, but very George Lucas. I love it.  

It also led to this image, so the veranda set is really the set that keeps on giving... 

One more from each film

Another examples of Lucas' composition

Proportions


What's new in the Binary Sunset?

This thread is honestly so fantastic and inspiring! I have had to suppress my muse, my urge to comment on every post.

I see that a number of posts focus on the first veranda scene between Anakin and Padme in ROTS, right after Anakin has his nightmare. I commented on it myself in my first reply, but it got brought up again after that. Just so much I could say! This thread eats away at my prequel-loving soul like few others. The cinematography of these films is so solid and so brilliant, you can't really run out of things to say.

Oh, man... Seriously, I have so much love to spill over the "frames" of the PT (and so many image compilations I've done on my PC)...

How on Earth do I come even half-way close to saying it all? It's overwhelming to even think about.



Every frame in the PT deserves its own essay.

To paraphrase that video:

The most beautiful things that have ever been filmed.

Describe the universe. You have fifty words. LOL.


I love the way there's an amber backlight on the lovers in this scene. A dark moment for the two (in some ways, the darkest moment in the saga), yet a wisp of light remains. It's almost like chalk outlines tracing around dead bodies. Yet these people are still warm, fleshy, living: a reminder made all the more potent with Padme's bare shoulders (and what a fantastic dress she on -- again). The pillars in the background lend a Greco-Roman air to the proceedings (very apt given all the historical references to Ancient Greece and Rome in the PT), while the deep blue that the walls and floor of the veranda are stained in, along with the general "sad gloom" of the scene, lends the feeling of these characters drowning underwater in the murky depths (there's a "Titanic" vibe to this pair's romance, and to the PT as a whole, is there not?). But that light! "Hold on, Anakin... (you're going to get us both killed)."

Honestly, that lamp kills me. It's very elegant: understated, dreamy, and beautiful (like Padme). I suppose it is loosely intended to evoke the organic underwater Gungan cities. It is very much like a third character in the scene. "I'll just shine away while you two love birds think about how doomed you are." Note that there are two specular highlights within the lamp, as if two Tatooine suns are trapped inside: destiny and "looking to the horizon" in miniature -- ornamentalised. The drooping "legs" of the lamp also match Padme's drooping pearls. What a spectacular piece of art direction! The top of the lamp, meanwhile, looks like a flying saucer; adding subtly to the "Silver Age" 1930s-and-1940s Flash Gordon/Roswellian vibe of the PT. It's appropriate that it has a bulbous bottom and there appears to be two suns inside: Padme! Carrier of the Skywalker twins. And recall that Padme discreetly emerges from an amber curtain in Anakin's previous nightmare scene in AOTC:

(But also note, compared to the lamp, there are much richer and deeper amber tones in this shot -- Padme's light in ROTS is fading...)



Yellow, generally, is such an important colour within Star Wars. Heck, it's the colour of the opening logo.

I think this image says STAR WARS as much as anything:



See? You can even make new frames.

As for the scene generally, I wrote this on TFN all the way back in 2005 (partial quote):


Yep. I still love this saga.

Ingram, you deserve 20 thumbs up. Damn, Lucas really loved cinematography...

I love the audacity of this shot, just from a technical perspective. Live actors on a partial set mixed with miniature photography mixed with CG characters and environmental elements. Obviously not the only occasion where this is done, but I don't know where else it comes together quite so beautifully.


I love Otoh Gunga. An underwater world of windows.