20 Best Looking Movies Since 2000

Black and white cinematography sometimes gets overlooked by contemporary film fans as being anachronistic, but there are enough modern films around which demonstrate that it can be exceptionally expressive in a way that crisp, colourful cinematography can't.

Perhaps the best example of gorgeous monochromatic cinematography in recent years can be found in Ida, Paweł Pawlikowski's Polish drama set in the aftermath of the Second World War, following a young nun-in-training who visits her aunt before taking her vows and discovers that her parents were Jews who had been murdered by the Nazis when she was a child.

Resembling the gorgeous work of Sven Nykvist, who worked closely with Ingmar Bergman on some of his most famous films, Ida shows just how much subtle framing decisions and the use of negative space can create striking imagery which is austere yet haunting.