Directors' Use of Recurring Imagery

Well there's Quentins little obsession...

 

Christopher Nolan, a self-confessed James Bond fanatic, seems to have a recurring shot of characters doing heroic stomach slides like the famous one in OHMSS. These can be seen in Batman Begins (Wayne falling after an unconscious Ducard) & TDK (Bats falling after Rachel).

 

 

Of course, whether this is a deliberate homage or not I don't know. It just raises an eyebrow.

 

EDIT: Speaking of Bond, director John Glen made sure there was a cheap scare "pigeon shot" in every one of his 007 outings.

"Crap!!!" 

Edited by Art Decade - 9/21/11 at 9:05pm

Theres the use of Oranges to signify death in the Godfather films.

Actually, from what I heard* it is totally accidental at least in the first film. The oranges were put into the scenes by the DP, Gordon Willis, because he felt the composition needed a pop of color. It was just a coincidence that the oranges were mostly in senes before a death or near death event. Once a film theorist pointed this out to Coppola he loved it and ran with the idea.



*Pat Jackson, a professor I had in college, told the class this. She worked as Walter Murch's sound effects editing assistant from The Conversation to Apocalypse Now. So while this rumor is not striaght from the horse's mouth, it's much more reliable than "some guy online told me".
Edited by Tim K - 9/21/11 at 8:56pm

The Kubrick Closeup:

 

Do running gags count? John Landis has managed to sneak "See You Next Wednesday" into most of his films.

Edited by Hammerhead - 9/23/11 at 8:06pm

Don't forget Sam Raimi's prized 1973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile.



I don't want to repost content when a site has done a pretty good job documenting it's appearances, so go to http://www.ugo.com/movies/sam-rami-car for the full rundown of cameos. Pretty much the only film it wasn't in was the Quick and the Dead, but probably only because a producer stopped him from sneaking it into the old west.

Read somewhere online (yeah, I know) that one of the wagons in QUICK AND THE DEAD was built from and Oldsmobile. Probably nonsense, but kinda love the idea of it.

 

Further Tarantino:

He didn't have a car, but he still snuck that angle into Inglourious Basterds:

 

I don't know the model off hand, but Craig Brewer features his car in all of his movies (started in his short films). In Footloose it's the car the kids are driving in when they get demolished at the start.

 

Also, it's not a repetitive shot but The Wachowski's always have characters fly through the air and slam their backs into walls (or columns) during fights and fall forward. Seems like an obvious thing, but it feels like there's a dozen of those beats in the Matrix trilogy alone and they start to register as a tick.

He hasn't done it in awhile that I know of, but I'm sure everyone remember the Spielberg Shooting Star.

Quote:

 

Don't forget fog plus light source, usually a flashlight or headlights.  We could probably do an entire thread on Spielberg, though.

 

Also, I realize it's only two of his films, but Ridley Scott and unicorns.

 

Guillermo Del Toro and Tim Burton both love the swirl/spiral motif.

 

GDT's is more maze-like and Burton's is more German Expressionist hypnosis-inducing or B&W stripey, but...

 

Darren Aronofsky/Wes Anderson and the Center Composition!

Both Pusher III and Drive have a scene involving the washing and drying of a rather messy cutting instrument.

I've also noticed in both Drive and Valhalla Rising, Refn uses the motif of characters pointing their fingers.  It's in Valhalla with the derranged old dude covered in clay.  Twice in Drive:   When Driver points it at Christina Hendricks while his other hand is over her mouth and when cook points at Driver in that exquisitely framed parking shot.  Will have my eyes open for it in Bronson and The Pusher trilogy as soon as Amazon gets them to me.
 

 

Johnathan Demme's habit of having his characters look directly into the camera.

 

GDT also likes his 'exploding in blue light' skeleton shots as a direct homage to Watchmen (sorry no images and no time since I should be working)

 

Lynch = electricity, smoke, patterned carpets.

 

Always liked the accidentally-discovered "lens whacking" he used in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.

Joe Dante has featured a Triffid in more of his films than you might think.

Don't know how to describe it, but Gilliam had this giant warrior thing going during the better part of his career

 

 

Lucas: arms getting lopped off.  Because it's like a poem.  It rhymes.

Dismemberment tone poems.

I would've said strobe lights and creepy lip syncing.  But tomato tomahto.
 

 

Better copyright that assemblage of words before a shitty Metalcore band steals it for their name.

 

Don't forget red lamps!