100 Reasons I Love the Movies

Rear Window – Lisa jumping in with both hands

Rear Window is my favorite film of all time, so I’d be plenty justified in just saying “the whole thing” as I have for some other films. But the part that I love the best is easily when Lisa jumps in to do the investigative work that Jeff, laid up in a wheelchair in his apartment, can’t do himself. Like everything else in the film, it plays perfectly on both narrative and thematic levels, and it’s just a damned suspenseful scene on its own.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – “I Will Wait For You”

I’m a little off from consensus by preferring The Young Girls of Rochefort a bit to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (the music works a bit better for me throughout plus it’s just so joyful), but nothing can beat the love theme from Umbrellas, and its wonderful rendition as our young lovers are saying goodbye at the train station (right after the credits in this edited clip). This is the emotional side of the French New Wave done to perfection.

The Big Sleep – the bookstore

I love this little almost unnecessary section of The Big Sleep, when Marlowe stakes out a bookstore (a front for his target) from a rival bookstore across the street – and ends up in a little tryst with the bookseller, a small but memorable role for Dorothy Malone. As much as I love all of this film, and so many moments in it, this one somehow sticks in my memory the most.

Manhattan – New York + b&w + Gershwin = perfection

The moment I started watching Manhattan and the opening strains of “Rhapsody in Blue” came up paired with gorgeous black and white photography of New York I was in love. Add in Woody Allen’s neurotically-pitched intro that celebrates New York while also perfectly indicating the kind of writerly, solipsistic world we’re going to see in the film, and yeah. This is one of favorite openings of all time.

The Women – catfights

True to its name, The Women has exactly zero men in the cast, and the women in here, true to stereotype, are catty to the nth degree. But with wit and vigor, making The Women one of the most fun films ever made. This is my favorite part, when Rosalind Russell’s character ends up in Reno, joining most of the other women who are already, and finds out that Paulette Goddard is the one who stole her husband. A brief but hilarious physical altercation follows. This clip has a lot of the best lines, but the whole thing is awesome.

Once Upon a Time in the West – opening scene

This opener is not afraid to take its time, and that’s one thing that’s so great about it. It takes FOREVER to set up this nearly-deserted station and the three men who arrive there, waiting. With all that build-up, you know they must be big players in the film, perhaps three heroes? Or no, the three major villains that our hero will have to spend the whole film taking out. But after the silence finally erupts into a shootout, that’s not how it plays out at all, and that’s the other thing that’s so great about it.

The 400 Blows – freeze-frame

It’s said that Jean-Pierre Leaud only held this look that François Truffaut wanted for a split second, so he had to make a freeze-frame of it for the final shot of the film. But intentional or no, the fact that this last shot is a freeze-frame is utterly perfect. Antoine has run away, run far away, gotten to the sea, which was his goal, but…now what? The film and this portion of his story ends on a frozen moment, the moment where he’s gotten what he wanted, but…now what?

The Lady Eve – seducing Charles

Barbara Stanwyck is awesome in everything, and never more so than in her pseudo double role in The Lady Eve – she sparkles both as soft-hearted conniver Jean and her made-up alter ego Eve, and I especially love her in this scene (as Jean) as she seduces the hapless Charles Pike. The part when Fonda pulls Jean’s skirt down over her knee was improvised; Stanwyck never broke character, and it’s one of the best moments in the scene.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Yeah, I couldn’t pick a single scene from here. I mean, really. The Black Knight with a flesh wound? Hurling French insults? The killer rabbit? The holy hand grenade? Guarding the effeminate heir? The silly place of Camelot? The autonomous collective? Burning witches? How do you choose? So yeah. The whole thing.

Stage Door – the circle of theatrical boarding house life

I’ve probably seen Stage Door more than almost any other film, thanks to a period of time where I was watching it literally every week. It’s an incredibly underrated film that ought to be seen more, with a fantastic ensemble cast from Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers to Eve Arden, Lucille Ball, and Adolphe Menjou. The script is both witty and moving, and captures both the silly camaraderie and desperation pervading the theatrical boarding house setting. And what I like the most is how it ends almost as it begins, with a reverse of the opening shot – the inhabitants chatting, the camera pulling back out of the house and indicating that this is a slice of life. We care about these individual characters, but life goes on and so does the theatre, and the cycle will continue with new hopefuls turning into seasoned regulars.

La Strada and Nights of Cabiria – Guilietta Masina’s face

Cinema has no other faces quite like Guilietta Masina’s, and no one know how to use it better than her husband Federico Fellini in his two neo-realist classics. She grounds both these films, often with very little dialogue. She doesn’t need it. It’s all in her face.

Double Indemnity – double entendres

You just don’t get much better than Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray trading double entendres over an insurance policy and an anklet. The rest of the movie lives up to the promise of this scene, but I never get tired of watching this part over and over.

Kill Bill

Some people place the Kill Bill films low among Tarantino’s filmography, saying he’s just playing around with genre and not really doing that much that’s innovative, but whatever. This is some of the best genre homaging anyone’s ever done, mishmashing martial arts, samurai films, spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation, and even film noir together without ever losing Tarantino’s own individual style. If I had to pick one part, it’s the fight at the House of Blue Leaves. But I could easily point to a dozen other parts I love.

Gold Diggers of 1933 – “We’re in the Money” pig latin

An improvisation by a bored Ginger Rogers turned out to be one of the most delightful bits in a very enjoyable film.

In a Lonely Place – Laurel gives Dix an alibi

When Dix (Humphrey Bogart) is accused of murder, his neighbor Laurel (Gloria Grahame) gives him an alibi, saying she saw the victim leave his apartment alone and in good health. Why? Because she “likes his face.” And indeed, that may be the only reason, because we don’t actually know that she DID see what she said she saw. And in that moment, In a Lonely Place becomes something more than a crime drama – it becomes one of the most adult and unconventional romances (bringing in elements of noir, melodrama, and Hollywood gothic) ever on screen.

It Happened One Night – hitchhiking

Gable thinks he has this hitchhiking thing down pat, he’s even gonna write a book about it. But Claudette Colbert has better tools for the job.

Mulholland Drive – Betty’s audition

The final turning point in Mulholland Drive is the Club Silencio scene, included above, but this is the first turning point. Up to here, Naomi Watts has been playing Betty as a sunny, hopeful actress wannabe, a little over-playing her, in fact, to the point where we wonder if Naomi Watts can actually act at all. But then she goes to this audition, and something happens – she blows everyone away, including us, and suddenly we realize that Betty’s persona is the act, and maybe there’s another level to this film than we initially thought.

Modern Times – the nonsense song

Charlie Chaplin’s last silent film was made in 1936, some eight years after pretty much everyone else stopped making them. But it isn’t totally silent – it has some synchronized sound effects and this wonderful song that hearkens straight back to Chaplin’s vaudeville days. Most deliciously, it both uses sound and proves that Chaplin didn’t need it – the words are nonsense French and the song is every bit as funny without having any idea what he’s supposed to be saying.

Cyd Charisse’s legs – Broadway Ballet/Girl Hunt Ballet/etc

Not only did Cyd Charisse have legs a mile long, but she sure knew what to do with them. I’m especially drawn to her segments of the Broadway Ballet from Singin’ in the Rain and the Girl Hunt Ballet from The Band Wagon, but really, you could take any of her dances in any move. No one can match her.

Run Lola Run – the flash-forwards

Everyone talks about the repeating storyline and the techno music and the MTV pacing of Run Lola Run, but you know my favorite part? Those little future sections every time she runs past that woman with the baby carriage. They show in the sharpest relief the branching-world effect of the main plot – just a few things Lola does differently create entirely different futures for even people she casually interacts with. A ripple effect of possible worlds.

Cinema Paradiso – the outdoor screening

The one cinema in Salvatore’s little village is full up, leaving a crowd of would-be cinemagoers clamoring in the streets. So projectionist Alberto reflects the image out the window and onto one of the buildings in the square so people can watch it out there. This scene encapsulates everything I love about the film – cinema is universal and the way these people love their cinema, well, this is precisely why I became a cinephile.

Swing Time – “Pick Yourself Up”

Fred and Ginger have lots of incredible dances in all their films, but I always come back to this one as my very favorite. Professional hoofer Fred has been pretending to be totally inept at dancing to try to extend a lesson with dance teacher Ginger. When she’s fired for giving up on him, he proves he’s no slouch, and this is simply one of the most joyful and interestingly-choreographed numbers they ever did.

Band of Outsiders – dancing the Madison

I can’t really explain what it is about this scene that grabs me so much. It’s a simple, repetitive dance, but Anna Karina’s enthusiasm is infectious, the voiceover cutting in is dryly hilarious, and it’s just…perfect. I’ve watched it a thousand times, and I will watch it a thousand more and be captivated every time.

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