The “one-shot technique” has been a hot topic of discussion for the past few years ever since the opening of Sam Mendes' military drama1917. This method involves filming an entire movie in one continuous shot, or, at least, making it appear that way. Cinephiles adorethis ambitious filming technique, which aims to make the audience feel as if the action is taking place in real time.
It’s not one that’s easy to pull off, which is why only a handful of directors have even tried; however, there’s no denying that for those who have, most of them have absolutely nailed it. So, if you’re looking to get an up close and personal experience with a film, this is an assortment of movies that were filmed in one take (or, at the very least, look like they were).
Updated on August 16th, 2023 byGaurav Krishnanafter a previous update byAmanda Minchin:This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.
18Rope (1948)
Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first to attempt a one-shot movie. His earliest tries were with 1937sYoung and Innocentand 1946sNotorious, respectively. It wasn’t until two years later that he struck gold with 1948’sRope.One of hismost experimental films, this movie was filmed in a series of 10-minute takes out of necessity — The 35 mm film cameras at the time couldn’t shoot for any longer. The Master of Suspense and the movie’s cinematographers, Joseph A. Valentine and William V. Skall, decided to hide any of the cuts. Instead, theyshot the film inreal time.
In doing so, they perfectly captured the claustrophobia encapsulated in the play by Patrick Hamilton upon which the movie was based. Hitchcock’s thriller about two murderous students attempting to hide a body has gone down in history as both a compelling and technically bold movie.
17Limbo (2020)
While there are several films namedLimboout there, this German film directed by Tim Dünschede was filmed in one shot while playing out an interesting plot in the crime/drama genre. The movie tells the story of the intersecting paths of an office manager and several notorious characters who are part of a money laundering racket who all meet each other at an illegal fight and the plot twists ensue.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, but the positive reviews described it as an ambitious attempt for a German film to be filmed in one take considering its plot. The film could also be Germany’s answer to Guy Ritchie’s Snatch but shot in one take. The movie stays true to its tagline “Drei Leben. 90 Minuten. Ein Take” or “Three lives. 90 minutes. One take,” and is a rare German production on this list.
16Macbeth (1983)
While Hitchcock’s film looks as if it’s in one take, it wasn’t until 1983’sTV movie adaptation of William Shakespeare’sMacbeththat audiences would experience an actual one-shot take film for the first time (almost).
Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr composed a 57-minute-long shot for the majority of the film, though. Technically speaking, the film is composed of two shots; the first prior to the main title is five minutes long and the second comprises the rest of this short film’s whopping 57 minutes.
15Empire (2002)
Andy Warhol’sEmpiremight just be one of the strangest and most random one-take movies ever made. The entire film, a silent black and white film, comprises 8 hours and 5 minutes of slow-motion footage of a single frame of the Empire State Building in New York City. The film is widely regarded as a pivotal relic of avant-garde cinema and according to Warhol, he made the film “to see time go by.”
While he certainly managed to do so, in the years since, the National Film Registry dubbed the movie as “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant”. It’s an odd film to say the least and according to reports most of the people who watched the movie in theaters after its release began angrily protesting and demanding their money back ten minutes into its screening. Nonetheless, it’s an out-of-the-box film concept, despite being pointless and something nobody could ever watch in its entirety.
14One-Shot (2021)
A rather recent entry on this list, James Nunn’sOne-Shotis a modern-day action movie filmed in one-take. The plot revolves around how a team of Navy SEALs and a junior CIA officer have to escort a prisoner off a CIA black site amidst an attack by insurgents.
It could be clubbed into the category of an uninspiring action flick with the one-take cinematography being the only compelling aspect of it. The film didn’t receive too much criticism nor did it receive too many plaudits, making it a bang-average production. It could even be termed as a B-grade, modern1917, using the filming technique to make up for its toothless plot. However, it’s cool enough to make for a quick binge if there’s nothing else you want other than a well-shot, all-out action flick.
Related:13 Perfect Camera Shots in Horror Movies
13Utøya: July 22 (2018)
The 2018 filmUtøya: July 22is a one-shot depiction based on the true events of the Norwegian summer camp tragedy of July 2011 in which a right-wing extremist posed as a police officer and shot and killed sixty-nine teenagers. Unfortunately, many more were either left injured or emotionally scarred over the course of the attack, turning the youth summer camp into an unimaginable horror scene from straight out of a movie. Before creating the film about this experience, director Erik Poppe conducted interviews with forty survivors in order to portray the events as realistically as possible.
In doing so, Poppe recreated the incident in one continuous, 83-minute shot, exactly as it happened on the day, which allowed the audience to see the catastrophe through the eyes of the victim. The only inaccuracy here is the movie was filmed on a neighboring island, and not on Utøya itself. After a week of rehearsals, Poppe and his crew spent five days trying to get the perfect take, with just one take attempted per day. The take from the fourth day was the one used in the film.
12Victoria (2015)
German director Sebastian Schipper achieved the impossible withVictoria, a one-shot film released in 2015. The movie followsa party girl and three menas they attempt to rob a bank late at night. As one might expect, things don’t go exactly as planned. The 138-minute crime thriller features 22 locations, a bank robbery, nightclub scenes, a large cast and crew, and was shot in Berlin in one take between 4:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.
Even Schipper wasn’t sure if it would be possible, but he wanted to make something that existed outside modern cinema audiences' expectations. He succeeded by shooting the film three times in one take from beginning to end. After each take was complete, he watched all three and chose his favorite, which he then used as the final film.
11Running Time (1997)
Another example of a heist movie that takes advantage of the one-shot technique is the 1997 filmRunning Time. The story followsbeloved actor Bruce Campbellas a recently released convict gearing up for his next big heist. He finds out the hard way that good help is hard to find. Directed by Josh Becker and co-written alongside Peter Choi, this film pays homage to the noir steeped heist movies of the 1940s and 50s.
Inspired by Hitchcock’sRope, the movie itself is in black and white and seems to take place in one fluid, continuous shot thanks to some killer editing. Shooting took place over the course of ten days, ending fittingly on the last day at 10 AM sharp. Its stellar editing has convinced at least one critic that the film was truly a one-shot.
10Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020)
That being said, an endless cast and inflated budget is by no means a requirement for the one-shot genre. Take the movieBeyond the Infinite Two Minutes, for example. Made overnight during the course of seven days using a tiny camera strapped to the back of a smartphone, this microbudget film was edited to appear as if it was done in just one long shot. The creators refused to pull punches with the plot here either. ThisJapanese science fiction dramedyreads as ifEverything Everywhere All at Oncewere a micro-genre.
Instead of a laundromat, this film takes place in a Kyoto café. The movie follows a man who discovers a screen that is streaming his life a whole two whole minutes in the future. It should be noted that this movie was heavily inspired by the new cult classicOne Cut of the Dead, which followed a film crew as they shot a real-life zombie film for television. While this early example of a nagamawashi (long-shot) film is made up of what appears to be a small handful of long takes, this movie took the concept to a whole new level.
9Son of Saul (2015)
Son of Saulis a heartbreaking drama that follows the life of Saul Ausländer, a Hungarian Jew imprisoned at Auschwitz, as he’s ordered to clean up after the executions of other prisoners in order to save his own life. For 107 minutes, the camera rarely leaves the lead’s head as he fights to hide and bury a boy’s body according to proper Jewish rites. As one can imagine, the film is incredibly distressing and emotional to watch, but its one-shot approach gives the audience a very real experience by doing so.
Director László Nemes intended for the film’s point of view to not wander beyond Saul’s limited perspectives, therefore giving the film a vibe that synchronizes the audience with the headspace of the struggling protagonist. Upon its release, Son of Saul earned positive reviews from critics and was eventhe first Hungarian film to winthe Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.
