What is the Most Famous Movie Scene?

[belinda]

Hello Viper. Yes, "Nosferatu" is great. It was one of only 2 films to scare me as a child.

So, what was F W Murnau's real name?

Cheers.
LC

Have you seen the Kinski Nosferatu?

[The Good Michael]

The scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when the principal is caught by Ferris' sister as he is at the back door after he has already got his leg bitten by a dog and other stuff. She opens the door and he is standing there with this look on his face that is priceless.

Mike

[mariab]

Belinda wrote:
Oh Yes it is touching when Christiane takes Detlef the cake. I thought she took it to the station?
Wow, Kristiane F. is known in Australia?! Amazing! I thought it was considered a very minor movie. I have the DVD somewhere, I don't recall if she brought him the b-day cake at the station (Bahnhof Zoo) or elsewhere. Uneventfully, when I copycatted that scene I was in junior high and not living in some busstop, so I brought him the b-cake to school, which doesn't cut it compared to what was going on in the movie. ;-)
What's funny is that when I first saw Kristiane F. I was a tween in Athens, Greece, and had no clue whatsoever that I'll end up living a mere 10' min. walk from Bahnhof Zoo, as I do now. When I first came to Berlin, about a decade ago, there were still junkies and syringues full of blood in public WCs at Bahnhof Zoo, but since about the Cancellor/Bundestag and the ministries moved to Berlin from Bonn, they “cleaned it up“ and put cops on patrol (mostly watching out for terrorist acts, as there's not much serious crime going on in Berlin – there was one knifing this summer at a park, ONE.).
Klaus Kinski is a extremely skilled actor, and he passed on the skills to his daughter, Nastassja.

[mariab]

To The Good Michael:
Is Ferris Bueller's Day Off an early John Hughes opus without Molly Ringwald and with Matthew Broderick, prominently featuring downtown Chicago? Another movie showing a lot of downtown Chicago is My best friend's wedding, while Proof with Anthony Hopkins and Gwyneth Paltrow prominently features the University of Chicago campus (where I work on odd years) and my neighborhood (incidentally, the Obamas' old neighborhood) in Chicago Hyde Park. What's irritating is the flick shows Paltrow sitting alone on a park bench after dark in the snow by lake Michigan. LOL. You DON'T do that in the winter time after dark in Hyde Park, otherwise there's a 30% chance you'll eat a bullet.

[Derrick]

My favorite movie with Nicholson is probably One flew over the cuckoo's nest, Chinatown, and The postman always rings twice.

Make you mind up! Which one is it. Or should that have been movie plural and an or instead of an and?

Derrick

[mariab]

I should have made it a plural. If I had to choose, it would be probably Chinatown. Love the ending. Totally noir. But then Polanski's probably my favorite director.

[Derrick]

I should have made it a plural. If I had to choose, it would be probably Chinatown. Love the ending. Totally noir. But then Polanski's probably my favorite director.

Well with Robert Towne's brilliant script I could have directed Chinatown and it would still be ok.
My favourite Polanski film is The Pianist which echo's Polanski's own inherent need to survive and strive for freedom by any means possible.
Adrien Brody's character is neither brave nor moral per se but through the basic need to survive, with help from others in a perilous situation, he makes it through.
This echo's Polanski's plight over the charges from the USA that have been hanging over him for 30 odd years.

If one scene is memorable from it it has to be the arbitrary nature of the fascist mentality towards the taking of human life. Workers are lined up and decimated on the spot. The executioners gun fails.....how bloody awful is that? That is movie making at it's most immediate. It hits you in the guts because it should.

Spielbergs 2 greatest films Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan do the same thing to you. It is important to note that the general subject is the same in all 3 films....World War 2.

In Schindlers List, Ralph Fiennes has complete control over the camp he runs. He shoots dead a jewish woman, the architect of a new block, with caprice. But his own hanging leaves one with a bitter taste that is not really equivalent to true justice after all that we know about him as a human being..

Yet in Saving Private Ryan, an American soldier dies because he tries to help the child of a French family. The sniper is shot but the pointless loss of life through trying to do good highlights the decisions taken in war, both good and bad.

In Kubricks' Paths Of Glory the futility of war and the class perception of its needs is fully developed. The ruling class needs to punish those supposedly on the same side for refusing to relinquish thier own lives in the persuit of the ruling class's plan. Without organization the ruled class are just cannon fodder. Kirk Douglas' role, as a lawyer, is one of a voice where common human values are expressed and perhaps justice can be obtained for the condemned men. Yet it is up to the viewer to decide what is right and what is wrong.

I also love The Big Chill. It is more accessible than John Sayles', Return Of The Secaucus Seven on which it was alledgely based.

Derrick

[The Good Michael]

Sayles film, Eight Men Out had the line: Say it ain't so, Joe.

I think it was Sayles who made the movie Slackers which was absolutely mesmerizing though nothing really happened. I think that was the point. It was the first kind of reality movie I recall.

Mike

[FrankO]

...but the scenes mentioned by Frank van Oploo are not visually impressive enough so as to leave a lasting impact on the “collective conscience of movie goers“, which is what we're talking about in this thread.

OK Maria, if it has to be visually impressive (which I don’t think it does, really), now that Derrick has mentioned the movie, I’d say the long opening scene from ‘Saving private Ryan’.

[Rubyretro]

Polanski's probably my favorite director.

a bit of an 'aside' Maria...but I like Polanski films too. Despite that, I absolutely HATED 'Ghost Writer' ; what did you think of it ?

I really appreciate Ewan Mcgregor, as an actor, as well.....but he looked totally bemused and unconvincing in that film, too.

Talking to friends that saw Ghost Writer, I felt that their arguments as to whether they liked the film or not, basically came down to whether they supported Polanski's fight against the legal system (or rather, whether his
Case merited pursuing), or not.

I also thought that the 'recompenses' that the film won, were 'political'.

For the record, I DON'T think that Polanski should have been pursued, but I DO think that Ghost Writer was a turkey (and if not, certainly didn't merit any awards).

[mariab]

To Derrick:
I've been hearing about John Sayles' Return of the Secaucus seven as a precursor to The big chill, I have it in mind to find it at some point. I just don't wanna buy it before seeing it.
I'm afraid I'm everything but a Spielberg fan, I think he tends to majorly trivialize his subjects. Jaws, of course, is the exception, it's his definite masterpiece in dramaturgy, pacing, and technique. Although it can be safely said that this flick has negatively contributed to the environmental question of great white shark preservation as a species!
The Chinatown script is obviously very good, but I happen to believe that it's the directing, editing, and the acting (not just by Dunaway and Nicholson, but also by John Huston) who differentiate, and I gotta say, even elevate this film above noir with Bogart, whom I happen to find a very weak actor. Polanski's cameo as the diminutive thug with the knife who cuts Nicholson's nose is very clever too.
My favorite oldies by Polanski are Repulsion and Knife in the water, maybe also Macbeth. From the recent ones, Frantic and Bitter moon are spot on representative of Paris without romanticizing it (unlike that ridiculous Amelie flick). And I also thought The 9th Gate was very clever and well-done.

[Rubyretro]

I'm afraid I'm everything but a Spielberg fan, I think he tends to majorly trivialize his subjects. Jaws, of course, is the exception, it's his definite masterpiece in dramaturgy,

I don't like Spielberg either -but I'd rate 'Duel' above Jaws even

[The Good Michael]

Return of the Secaucus Seven is better than the Big Chill. It felt real. The Big Chill felt contrived... to me.

Mike

[Rubyretro]

[QUOTE=The Good Michael;158001]

RSecaucus Seveneturn

I have noted down the film title (realigned) to watch on Vuze.com.

I love especially Todd Haynes' films -often flawed (and even boring at first view -but I can just keep watching them over and discovering new things).
Gus van Sant is the same (like Todd Haynes, he gets the BEST performances from his actors -just see Sean Penn in Harvey Milk).

Emir Kursturica's 'Time of the Gypsies' and 'Arizona Dream' are favourites.

I guess the thing is -(like books)- I don't care about the immediate power, as much as the films which resonate and I enjoy watching over for completely different reasons...

'An Angel at My Table' -Jane Campion- was another...

'Dead Man' -Jim Jarmucsh..I'm never ever bored by it..

[mariab]

Rubyretro wrote:
Talking to friends that saw Ghost Writer, I felt that their arguments as to whether they liked the film or not, basically came down to whether they supported Polanski's fight against the legal system (or rather, whether his
Case merited pursuing), or not.
Hello Ruby,
pertaining to the sexual assault old case, I think that the attempt at an extradiction to the US 30 years later was completely ridiculous, especially since it appears that Polanski has settled with Geimer and her lawyers. (I've read somewhere that he payed her over half a million $. For such a sum I'm afraid I'd concede to get assaulted for a week.) Actually I disagree that a work of art should be judged according to the morals of its creator. Lenni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the will is a fascinating film technically, even if the ideas behind it are completely despicable.(Incidentally, this is a quote from Woody Allen's Husbands and wives, verbatim.)
As for The ghost writer, I wouldn't call it a turkey. It's a little slow in pacing, but it entirely follows up the first part of Chinatown and The 9th Gate, with a journalist/researcher sticking his nose where he doesn't belong. To which I have to confess I completely relate to, so I wasn't bored by The ghost writer. Actually I'd like to watch it again, as I saw it only once, late at night and very tired after researching all day in Paris.
(An extra personal touch for me was that it was filmed on Sylt, which is a tiny island in the German North Sea where sometimes there's surf, so it was kinda fun watching Sylt passing for Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard being a place I'd rather set myself on fire than consider visiting.)