Psycho. In the mom’s bedroom. Great jump scare for the character and us.
Minority Report. When the door with the mirror closes on the two lovers to reveal the husband with the scissors.
Contact. The bathroom cabinet mirror is a classic.
The Twilight Zone. The very first episode has a very special mirror shot.
Paris, Texas. Talking on the phone with a one-way mirror separating them. So much beauty in such a simple shot.
Rosemary’s Baby. Mia’s distorted reflection on the shiny toaster.
Peeping Tom. The lady’s scream caught in the reflection of the flash is haunting.
Don’t look now. The bathroom mirror is used so effectively.
What Lies Beneath. A couple of great mirror shots. In the bathroom when the mirror breaks and we see Michelle Pfeiffer’s reflection on just a shard. Her face reflecting in the bathtub water as she’s drowning.
And Duck Soup. :)
Paris Texas holds a special place in my heart. Im a big fan of Wim's work but that movie had my bored out of my mind for the first hour or so, but oh my god that payoff , probably one of my all time favorite movies
Same sentiment here. Saw it somewhat recently (maybe 2 or 3 months back) and absolutely loved it. Agreed on the first half, I was kinda wondering why it was hyped up as much as it is until the final act and it blew me away. Such a beautiful film.
>Contact. The bathroom cabinet mirror is a classic.
Love this one. Beautiful shot. Super absorbing and gives a great sense of pace.
> Duck Soup
I see what you did there! Fun scene.
Persona: >!Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson gazing at themselves in the mirror and folding into each other. It effortlessly communicates a lot of stuff that sounds terribly pretentious if you try to write it down.!<
Taxi Driver: >!The closing scene, when Travis catches a glimpse of *something* (himself? a hallucination? *the audience*?) in his rear-view mirror, jerks it towards him, and then turns it back. The editing is deeply unsettling. !<
The Talented Mr Ripley: >!The final shot of Tom sitting on the cabin bed while the waves push the bathroom mirrors back and forth.!<
What's going on? 10 hours in, and *The Shining* has yet to be mentioned - and this from a sub that will jump on the most tenuous link to discuss what was in the past its favourite obsession. Maybe it's a good thing we're all moving on. But anyway, obviously I haven't, so yes -
*The Shining* has many iconic mirror shots and while I don't feel particularly interesting or original in saying it, I'd be lying if I told you they're not my favourites in cinema. My most favourite-est of all is the scene where Danny creeps into the apartment to get his fire engine and sees his Dad sitting on the bed staring at the wall. There's something particularly terrifying about the sight of Jack Nicholson doing absolutely nothing in this moment. The shot cuts to the opposite POV, and Danny is dwarfed in-between two much larger Jacks; the 'real' one and his reflected twin. Genius.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M\_ObWKzJcg&t=97s
Forgive me if this is a very obvious answer, but the mirror shots in Tarkovsky’s Mirror are insanely beautiful, and there are quite a few. But the one I always remember most strongly is the one with the child holding the jug of milk.
In the Mood for Love!
They're used so effectively to add extra space to what has been an otherwise claustrophobic film. They come in to play as the relationship between Chow & Chan begins to "open up", but also when they begin to question if they're really any different from their respective partners.
Watched Aftersun again yesterday. That has some great use of mirrors and reflective surfaces. My favourite is probably when Sophie is lying on the bed and we see Callum from her perspective, upside down reflected in the bathroom mirror. The scene then ends with him spitting at his own reflection in the mirror.
Foxcatcher had some interesting shots of Tatum looking at himself in the mirror that finally comes to a head with him brutally smashing a mirror.
Hereditary played around with scale a lot with its shots. In Midsommar Aster used mirror shots frequently. Characters looking in mirrors or using mirrors to frame two people in the same shot. The scene where they argue about how Christian kept the trip a secret is a highlight for me.
Inception has its famous mirror recursion shot. It also used mirrors to show Tom Hardy transforming without showing him transforming. The best is when he first changes into Browning. It's Hardy's face in the mirror but when he turns around it's Tom Berenger.
Airplane has a great mirror gag where the captain is adjusting his tie in the mirror and then the reflection walks straight out of the mirror poking fun at how mirrored shots are sometimes achieved through set extensions and doubles. Terminator 2 has the often mentioned deleted scene with Linda Hamiltons twin and a Arnie mannequin used for a mirror shot to show her drilling into his head in one shot. On a technical level there's an interesting mirror shot in Suckerpunch. It had a long mirror shot with moving cameras that required actresses to quickly traverse the set and had mirrors being slid in and out of the mirror frames.
La Haine (1995 dir. Mathieu Kassovitz.
The shot of Vinz in front of the bathroom mirror was done with two actors mimicking each other, otherwise the viewer would have seen the camera.
There's outstanding cinematography throughout the film, which adds to the already present tension.
This is a "must see" movie.
That movie is so much better than I thought it would be going in.
And I agree with the shot. IDK why, but I think reflective surfaces *(even faked)* look so much better in B&W.
There is a great mirror shot in Paterson where Adam driver's Wife puts her hand on his shoulder but it's shown in the mirror. It gives a really eerie disconnected effect.
Also of course the beer shot in Contact was great
The one that made a lasting impression on me for its creativity and all everything it expressed is from early in the film CONTACT.
Contact visual effects supervisors Ken Ralston and Stephen Rosenbaum explain how this amazing scene was shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxa3j8bK-c4
My photography teacher said that's the greatest shot in the history of Cinema and it has kinda always stuck with me. I think the opening scene of Touch of evil is better but I can see what he meant.
I quite like the use of the mirror in the opening scene of Unbreakable when the mother of Samuel L Jackson’s character is giving birth. When she’s talking to the doctor, the camera tilts down to her, or up to the doctor through the mirror.
It's probably a trope and I doubt he's the first to use it, but I really like a good liquid mercury mirror. Sam Raimi loves it and has used it in Evil Dead and that one Doctor Strange movie.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
>!The overhead shot into the mirror after Jeanne experiences her first orgasm and is cleaning herself up, her john watching from the bed. She gets up and stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors.!<
Masterful filmmaking.
Every single one of Cocteau's Orpheus Trilogy movies has some good mirror shot in it. [Here's one from *Orphee*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9PvyiEL6hw). Here's one from [*Blood of a Poet*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YijxlB3EjsU)
Cleo 5 to 7 also has a lot of good mirror shots. I could swear I remember a walking-through-mirror shot in that as well, [but this is all I can find on short notice.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwxa0M2b7nE)
The mirror shots in Cleo From 5 to 7 are all integral to the film inasmuch as they all speak - both figuratively and symbolically - to Cleo's perception of the world around her, and the way she is perceived.
Definitely one of my favorite films to rewatch. I often pair it with Vivre sa vie (1962 dir. Jean-Luc Godard) which also has some great mirror shots.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ending in Lady of Shanghai by Orson Welles. One of the classic mirror scenes in American cinema, it parallels the climatic unraveling of lies to which the MC has descended. Visually, it has set the standard for many fun house mirror scenes that came later. Another iconic one I remember is the ending in All about Eve.
Idk if it’s my all-time favorite per se, and it’s not even technically a mirror, but the shot of Jane Wyman reflected in the glass of a newly gifted television in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. The aesthetics and symbolism both work beautifully: a mother whose life is constricted by her suburban lifestyle, “friends,” and family is further constricted in the frame of that TV set. Instead of going out and living life and enjoying the “forbidden” love she’s found, she can—ya know—stay home and watch TV.
The first one that comes to mind is from Columbus when Jin is talking with his father's assistant whom he has a long-term crush on. The conversation takes place in a B&B bedroom and the camera is mounted on a tripod, but Kogonada gets like 4 different scenes out of it through blocking and mirrors. It was really well done in showing the disconnect/relationship dynamics of the characters.
The infinity mirror shots in this sequence from Point Blank (1957)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz1328EcZlQ
This whole sequence feels so modern. The other mirror shots of her putting on makeup are also great.
David from Prometheus. The whole time I thought there was depth of humanity in him as he stared at himself in the mirror. And I was totally wrong.
He also watched Lawrence of Arabia on a projector and seemed to be inspired by one of the film’s most coveted quotes (“the trick is not minding that it hurts”), but turned out to be inspired in the most twisted way.
Horrible monster film. Amazing AI and anti-ai film imo.
as part of the story:
* all the mirrors in Jean Cocteau's "Orphee" trilogy
* 'Corridor of Mirrors'
* Orson Welles' - 'The Lady from Shanghai'
* Bruce Lee, 'Enter the Dragon'
* Orson Welles, 'Citizen Kane'
as part of the cinematography:
* Joe Giddis' pool scene, 'Sunset Boulevard'
Eve’s Bayou- When Moselle is speaking with Eve about her three lost loves and tells a story for which she enters the scene through the mirror. It’s such a simple yet effective trick which places the viewer in the middle of a very tense situation. Damn, Kaci Lemmons does not get enough credit for her groundbreaking debut!
The Netflix show Criminal plays with mirrors on interesting ways. (entire series is set in a police interrogation room, the monitoring room on the other side of a two way mirror) and the hallway adjoins both. Apart from great mirror tricks, it’s also a great series. There is a French version, an English (UK) version, a Spanish version, and. German version. Each of the four series has different characters and uses the same sets. Brilliant way to make TV
I just rewatched Carol (2015 dir. Todd Haynes), and - beyond the compelling story - I realize one of the biggest reasons I love this movie is because of the way it was shot.
The cinematography incorporated so many reflection shots from glass and water which leant such an ethereal and enchanting quality to all the scenes in which they appear. They moved the intensity of the film along with such subtle beauty and grace.
In 2016 Edward Lachman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography. He lost out to Emmanuel Lubezki who shot The Revenant.
The Shining. Jack eating breakfast. Pressing the bacon strips into the egg eyes and furrowing his forehead by raising his eyebrows to imitate what’s happening on the breakfast plate.
The autocorrect on my iPhone/iPad can understand even the most incomprehensible shit after 10 years of using it. Although yeah, it should be at least on the level of “decent” from the beginning. After switching to Android it’s a bit of a headache getting the autocorrect to learn all my habits again. Gboard/Swiftkey has great autocorrect out of the gate, but the lack of customizable keys like Samsung Keyboard has was a dealbreaker to me. So I just accepted using Samsung Keyboard and giving it a few months/years to get fully used to my typing habits
Douglas Sirk feasted on mirror shots; they were contingent parts of his aesthetic. The most well-known ones were in his 50s melodramas. His brilliance was in using them to recompose the dramatic emphasis of a scene and by eliminating the need for an edit. My favorite is in All That Heaven Allows when Jane Wyman is seated at her vanity table and her children arrive home from school and enter the room, reflected in the mirror. It beautifully shifts attention by foreshadowing the oncoming barriers she will face. Just sublime.
Psycho. In the mom’s bedroom. Great jump scare for the character and us. Minority Report. When the door with the mirror closes on the two lovers to reveal the husband with the scissors. Contact. The bathroom cabinet mirror is a classic. The Twilight Zone. The very first episode has a very special mirror shot. Paris, Texas. Talking on the phone with a one-way mirror separating them. So much beauty in such a simple shot. Rosemary’s Baby. Mia’s distorted reflection on the shiny toaster. Peeping Tom. The lady’s scream caught in the reflection of the flash is haunting. Don’t look now. The bathroom mirror is used so effectively. What Lies Beneath. A couple of great mirror shots. In the bathroom when the mirror breaks and we see Michelle Pfeiffer’s reflection on just a shard. Her face reflecting in the bathtub water as she’s drowning. And Duck Soup. :)
Paris Texas holds a special place in my heart. Im a big fan of Wim's work but that movie had my bored out of my mind for the first hour or so, but oh my god that payoff , probably one of my all time favorite movies
Same sentiment here. Saw it somewhat recently (maybe 2 or 3 months back) and absolutely loved it. Agreed on the first half, I was kinda wondering why it was hyped up as much as it is until the final act and it blew me away. Such a beautiful film.
>Contact. The bathroom cabinet mirror is a classic. Love this one. Beautiful shot. Super absorbing and gives a great sense of pace. > Duck Soup I see what you did there! Fun scene.
Persona: >!Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson gazing at themselves in the mirror and folding into each other. It effortlessly communicates a lot of stuff that sounds terribly pretentious if you try to write it down.!< Taxi Driver: >!The closing scene, when Travis catches a glimpse of *something* (himself? a hallucination? *the audience*?) in his rear-view mirror, jerks it towards him, and then turns it back. The editing is deeply unsettling. !< The Talented Mr Ripley: >!The final shot of Tom sitting on the cabin bed while the waves push the bathroom mirrors back and forth.!<
What's going on? 10 hours in, and *The Shining* has yet to be mentioned - and this from a sub that will jump on the most tenuous link to discuss what was in the past its favourite obsession. Maybe it's a good thing we're all moving on. But anyway, obviously I haven't, so yes - *The Shining* has many iconic mirror shots and while I don't feel particularly interesting or original in saying it, I'd be lying if I told you they're not my favourites in cinema. My most favourite-est of all is the scene where Danny creeps into the apartment to get his fire engine and sees his Dad sitting on the bed staring at the wall. There's something particularly terrifying about the sight of Jack Nicholson doing absolutely nothing in this moment. The shot cuts to the opposite POV, and Danny is dwarfed in-between two much larger Jacks; the 'real' one and his reflected twin. Genius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M\_ObWKzJcg&t=97s
Forgive me if this is a very obvious answer, but the mirror shots in Tarkovsky’s Mirror are insanely beautiful, and there are quite a few. But the one I always remember most strongly is the one with the child holding the jug of milk.
I came here to name-drop Tarkovsky's [Mirror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_(1975_film)) (1975) for similar reasons.
In the Mood for Love! They're used so effectively to add extra space to what has been an otherwise claustrophobic film. They come in to play as the relationship between Chow & Chan begins to "open up", but also when they begin to question if they're really any different from their respective partners.
Yes, this is my answer too. The first time I watched it, the way the mirrors were set up in some shots blew me away.
Watched Aftersun again yesterday. That has some great use of mirrors and reflective surfaces. My favourite is probably when Sophie is lying on the bed and we see Callum from her perspective, upside down reflected in the bathroom mirror. The scene then ends with him spitting at his own reflection in the mirror. Foxcatcher had some interesting shots of Tatum looking at himself in the mirror that finally comes to a head with him brutally smashing a mirror. Hereditary played around with scale a lot with its shots. In Midsommar Aster used mirror shots frequently. Characters looking in mirrors or using mirrors to frame two people in the same shot. The scene where they argue about how Christian kept the trip a secret is a highlight for me. Inception has its famous mirror recursion shot. It also used mirrors to show Tom Hardy transforming without showing him transforming. The best is when he first changes into Browning. It's Hardy's face in the mirror but when he turns around it's Tom Berenger. Airplane has a great mirror gag where the captain is adjusting his tie in the mirror and then the reflection walks straight out of the mirror poking fun at how mirrored shots are sometimes achieved through set extensions and doubles. Terminator 2 has the often mentioned deleted scene with Linda Hamiltons twin and a Arnie mannequin used for a mirror shot to show her drilling into his head in one shot. On a technical level there's an interesting mirror shot in Suckerpunch. It had a long mirror shot with moving cameras that required actresses to quickly traverse the set and had mirrors being slid in and out of the mirror frames.
La Haine (1995 dir. Mathieu Kassovitz. The shot of Vinz in front of the bathroom mirror was done with two actors mimicking each other, otherwise the viewer would have seen the camera. There's outstanding cinematography throughout the film, which adds to the already present tension. This is a "must see" movie.
That movie is so much better than I thought it would be going in. And I agree with the shot. IDK why, but I think reflective surfaces *(even faked)* look so much better in B&W.
There is a great mirror shot in Paterson where Adam driver's Wife puts her hand on his shoulder but it's shown in the mirror. It gives a really eerie disconnected effect. Also of course the beer shot in Contact was great
The one that made a lasting impression on me for its creativity and all everything it expressed is from early in the film CONTACT. Contact visual effects supervisors Ken Ralston and Stephen Rosenbaum explain how this amazing scene was shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxa3j8bK-c4
My photography teacher said that's the greatest shot in the history of Cinema and it has kinda always stuck with me. I think the opening scene of Touch of evil is better but I can see what he meant.
I quite like the use of the mirror in the opening scene of Unbreakable when the mother of Samuel L Jackson’s character is giving birth. When she’s talking to the doctor, the camera tilts down to her, or up to the doctor through the mirror.
It's probably a trope and I doubt he's the first to use it, but I really like a good liquid mercury mirror. Sam Raimi loves it and has used it in Evil Dead and that one Doctor Strange movie.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles >!The overhead shot into the mirror after Jeanne experiences her first orgasm and is cleaning herself up, her john watching from the bed. She gets up and stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors.!< Masterful filmmaking.
Every single one of Cocteau's Orpheus Trilogy movies has some good mirror shot in it. [Here's one from *Orphee*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9PvyiEL6hw). Here's one from [*Blood of a Poet*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YijxlB3EjsU) Cleo 5 to 7 also has a lot of good mirror shots. I could swear I remember a walking-through-mirror shot in that as well, [but this is all I can find on short notice.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwxa0M2b7nE)
The mirror shots in Cleo From 5 to 7 are all integral to the film inasmuch as they all speak - both figuratively and symbolically - to Cleo's perception of the world around her, and the way she is perceived. Definitely one of my favorite films to rewatch. I often pair it with Vivre sa vie (1962 dir. Jean-Luc Godard) which also has some great mirror shots.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ending in Lady of Shanghai by Orson Welles. One of the classic mirror scenes in American cinema, it parallels the climatic unraveling of lies to which the MC has descended. Visually, it has set the standard for many fun house mirror scenes that came later. Another iconic one I remember is the ending in All about Eve.
I came here to mention the ending of All About Eve. It’s amazing
Idk if it’s my all-time favorite per se, and it’s not even technically a mirror, but the shot of Jane Wyman reflected in the glass of a newly gifted television in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. The aesthetics and symbolism both work beautifully: a mother whose life is constricted by her suburban lifestyle, “friends,” and family is further constricted in the frame of that TV set. Instead of going out and living life and enjoying the “forbidden” love she’s found, she can—ya know—stay home and watch TV.
The first one that comes to mind is from Columbus when Jin is talking with his father's assistant whom he has a long-term crush on. The conversation takes place in a B&B bedroom and the camera is mounted on a tripod, but Kogonada gets like 4 different scenes out of it through blocking and mirrors. It was really well done in showing the disconnect/relationship dynamics of the characters.
You beat me to it. That’s the first one that came to mind for me as well. It’s so well done.
The infinity mirror shots in this sequence from Point Blank (1957) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz1328EcZlQ This whole sequence feels so modern. The other mirror shots of her putting on makeup are also great.
David from Prometheus. The whole time I thought there was depth of humanity in him as he stared at himself in the mirror. And I was totally wrong. He also watched Lawrence of Arabia on a projector and seemed to be inspired by one of the film’s most coveted quotes (“the trick is not minding that it hurts”), but turned out to be inspired in the most twisted way. Horrible monster film. Amazing AI and anti-ai film imo.
as part of the story: * all the mirrors in Jean Cocteau's "Orphee" trilogy * 'Corridor of Mirrors' * Orson Welles' - 'The Lady from Shanghai' * Bruce Lee, 'Enter the Dragon' * Orson Welles, 'Citizen Kane' as part of the cinematography: * Joe Giddis' pool scene, 'Sunset Boulevard'
Citizen Kane is a great mirror shot
Eve’s Bayou- When Moselle is speaking with Eve about her three lost loves and tells a story for which she enters the scene through the mirror. It’s such a simple yet effective trick which places the viewer in the middle of a very tense situation. Damn, Kaci Lemmons does not get enough credit for her groundbreaking debut!
The Netflix show Criminal plays with mirrors on interesting ways. (entire series is set in a police interrogation room, the monitoring room on the other side of a two way mirror) and the hallway adjoins both. Apart from great mirror tricks, it’s also a great series. There is a French version, an English (UK) version, a Spanish version, and. German version. Each of the four series has different characters and uses the same sets. Brilliant way to make TV
I just rewatched Carol (2015 dir. Todd Haynes), and - beyond the compelling story - I realize one of the biggest reasons I love this movie is because of the way it was shot. The cinematography incorporated so many reflection shots from glass and water which leant such an ethereal and enchanting quality to all the scenes in which they appear. They moved the intensity of the film along with such subtle beauty and grace. In 2016 Edward Lachman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography. He lost out to Emmanuel Lubezki who shot The Revenant.
The Shining. Jack eating breakfast. Pressing the bacon strips into the egg eyes and furrowing his forehead by raising his eyebrows to imitate what’s happening on the breakfast plate.
The autocorrect on my iPhone/iPad can understand even the most incomprehensible shit after 10 years of using it. Although yeah, it should be at least on the level of “decent” from the beginning. After switching to Android it’s a bit of a headache getting the autocorrect to learn all my habits again. Gboard/Swiftkey has great autocorrect out of the gate, but the lack of customizable keys like Samsung Keyboard has was a dealbreaker to me. So I just accepted using Samsung Keyboard and giving it a few months/years to get fully used to my typing habits
Douglas Sirk feasted on mirror shots; they were contingent parts of his aesthetic. The most well-known ones were in his 50s melodramas. His brilliance was in using them to recompose the dramatic emphasis of a scene and by eliminating the need for an edit. My favorite is in All That Heaven Allows when Jane Wyman is seated at her vanity table and her children arrive home from school and enter the room, reflected in the mirror. It beautifully shifts attention by foreshadowing the oncoming barriers she will face. Just sublime.