Gene Hackman as Harry Caul in The Conversation, standing in a largely empty warehouse lit by pendant lights and a large blue fluorescent tube

The Conversation (1974)

A bowler hat, thrown in celebration of the Bolshevik victory in Russia, falls onto an elaborate chandelier. Screenshot from Warren Beatty’s Reds.

Reds (1981)

Screenshot from Visconti’s The Damned in which Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin, Reinhard Kolldehoff, and Renaud Verley are luridly lit as they meet to plan the details of allying their massive steel company to the Nazi party—it doesn’t end well for any of them

The Damned (1969)

A clay head being crushed against the ceiling of a small room, pushing aside a hanging lamp. Also what every moment of 2025 has felt like so far.

Darkness, Light, Darkness (1989)

Susannah York is unbelievably great

Altman’s Images

The Palmer/Chalfont/Tremond house with its pendant porch light blazing ultra bright

Laura Dern as Diane is standing nervously to the left of a motel room door; Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper is in dark 3/4 profile in the foreground on the opposite side. A torchiere lamp, strangely shaped, is between them.

Scene from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return with Janey-E and Dougie seated at their breakfast table complete with orange lamp

Scene with Sonny Jim playing on his new jungle gym from the Mitchum brothers

Big Ed’s Gas Farm

Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

Rosanna Arquette plays a psychic medium trotted around the South by her drunken father, Jason Robards—here they have a confrontation backstage after she claims to have had a genuine vision

A man’s body, killed in his home in the manner Arquette’s character described in her vision, is discovered by his wife

After this scene between Arquette and Robards (Eugene O’Neill mode: engaged) in a dramatically lit and mirrored dressing room, I immediately paused to buy the Arrow Blu-Ray

This isn’t much of a lamp but the town’s depraved chemical magnate, here preaching a sermon, has some truly notable eyebrows

Black Rainbow (1989)

Screenshot of all-purple hallway lit by pendant lamps in the season 2 finale of Squid Game

Screenshot of all-purple hallway lit by pendant lamps in the season 2 finale of Squid Game

Squid Game (2021-present)

Screenshot from Black Christmas with Olivia Hussey standing in the glow of the coziest and most sinister red Christmas lights

Black Christmas (1974)

Screenshot of Mare Winningham outside the diner in Miracle Mile

Screenshot of the diner interior in Miracle Mile

Screenshot from Miracle Mile

Screenshot of Anthony Edwards, his helicopter pilot, and his helicopter pilot’s twink in Miracle Mile

Miracle Mile (1988)

Screenshot from John Schlesinger’s Altman-meets-Cannonball Run farce Honky Tonk Freeway

Screenshot from John Schlesinger’s Altman-meets-Cannonball Run farce Honky Tonk Freeway

Screenshot from John Schlesinger’s Altman-meets-Cannonball Run farce Honky Tonk Freeway

Screenshot from John Schlesinger’s Altman-meets-Cannonball Run farce Honky Tonk Freeway

Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)

Lights draped with haphazard charm on a building hosting a graduation dance

A woman’s legs in front of a pool light in one of The Prowler’s murder sequences

The Prowler (1981)

Screenshot from Identikit with Liz Taylor (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit with Liz Taylor (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit with Liz Taylor (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit with Liz Taylor (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit with Liz Taylor and Andy Warhol (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Screenshot from Identikit with Liz Taylor (cinematography by Vittorio Storaro)

Identikit, aka The Driver’s Seat (1974)

Screenshot from The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Screenshot from The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Screenshot from The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Screenshot from The Abominable Dr. Phibes

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

The Group

Still from The Keep with glowing cross

The Keep (1983)

Still from Robert Altman’s Quintet

Still from Robert Altman’s Quintet

Still from Robert Altman’s Quintet

Still from Robert Altman’s Quintet

Quintet (1979)

Footprints on the Moon, Topkapi, Mon Oncle

Prince of Darkness (1987)

Still from The Comedians with James Earl Jones and Richard Burton

Still from The Comedians

Still from The Comedians with Peter Ustinov, Elizabeth Taylor, and some exciting airplane reading lamps

The Comedians (1967)

Still from the movie Summer of 85 featuring a tacky boat sculpture that doubles as a wall sconce

Summer of 85 (2020)

Still from the movie Bluebeard with giant red lamp and Joey Heatherton

Still from the movie Bluebeard with Joey Heatherton and another actor in front of a massive floor lamp topped with what can only be described as a chiffon sphincter shade. The Hungarian subtitles are because this movie is not easy to stream—no effort should be made to make it easier.

Bluebeard (1972)

Still from the movie Memoria featuring dramatic overhead library lighting

Still from the same scene featuring a library table lamp

Memoria (2021)

Inferno is part of a loosely-bound trilogy with Suspiria and is excellent (Mother of Tears is the third but it is…not excellent)

Provincetown Players scene from Reds

Provincetown Players scene from Reds

Reds (1981)