Good overview of how cinematography styles have changed through history. I would have liked more technical details about how they achieve the look of films.

A candy store.

And so, my "movies I want to watch"-list grew after watching this doc

Interesting, but not informative enough. It's always nice to hear anecdotes and get insights about the film industry, but Visions of Light mostly hops to and fro, not really focusing on anything in particular and therefore not being as wonderful as it could have been. Still a good time for filmfreaks. And aren't we all, here on Criticker?

Mostly very basic, surface stuff, more of an exercise in Appreciation 101 than detailed technical analysis. I also wished for a few more esoteric examples. Most of the films discussed are the really obvious ones. The first half of the film is the best part, getting into some of the history, and I particularly enjoyed the look at John Alton and film noir. As a whole, it's a nice compendium and there are a few interesting insights, but it really lacks the depth I was hoping for.

Hard to rank as a movie because it was fairly dry and "informational". This was no action-packed thrill ride, but I enjoyed it on an educational level. And I also really liked seeing some of the classic cinematic moments that I've only heard about but have never seen. The description of Blake's prison cell scene in "In Cold Blood" was worth the rental just for that. What a beautiful shot.

Enlightening. If you're the sort of person who loves the visual power of films and who likes to follow your favorite directors around from film to film, now you'll want to follow the cinematographers too.

The problem with these kinds of docs is that it makes you want to go back and watch all the films it showcases again (a daunting task). But this one, being an AFI production, still feels mainstream in not revealing some truly amazing lesser-known DPs.