6 Brilliant Films by This Weekend's Honorary Oscar-Winning DP Gordon Willis

3. All the President's Men (1976)

Willis had a terrific relationship with Alan J. Pakula, shooting six of the director's films -- more than a third of Pakula's total output -- over a 26-year span. All the President's Men was their peak, from the vast, littered sanctum of the Washington Post newsroom to the parking-garage catacomb where Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) met Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) -- the appropriately shadowy source who would help the young journalists topple a president.

4. Pennies From Heaven (1981)

Herbert Ross's lip-synch musical was something of a noble failed experiment, but as Willis's only tuner, it endures as a something of a curio blending the candy-colored spectacle of Depression-era jazz with his native dark, earthy, dramatic tones. (Plus the guy lit nighttime car interiors better than anybody who ever lived, and Pennies features his best.) For a taste of the former, look no further than the great Christopher Walken hoofing and stripping (!) to "Let's Misbehave."

And for the more serious side -- but not without a song -- check Bernadette Peters and Steve Martin:

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