The birth scene in Robert Kramer’s MILESTONES
The family reunited scene in John Cassavetes’ A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANY MORE — Ellen Burstyn and Diane Ladd finally make friends in a scene that can only make Scorsese’s recent output look rather pallid and mechanical.
SHOAH — where to begin?
A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE — little David finally becomes human as he prays to an unresponsive plaster statue.
in Shoah maybe the barbershop scene is the most moving
I was thinking the sequence of the letter describing needed modifications to the gas trucks, myself.
@Dutch Great choices, though the Fargo one in particular was amazing. It reminded me of how many perfect Coen Brothers endings there are. A Serious Man may be the most moving for me, but Fargo, Barton Fink, and No Country for Old Men also have mind-blowingly perfect endings. It also reminded me of the ending to Fight Club, which is probably the closest I’ve ever come to crying during a movie (yes, I’ve never cried at a movie). It wasn’t that it was so moving, as much as the final shot was just so awe-inspiring in its scope and its implications that I just got chills all throughout my body. Same thing happened with the end of A Separation last year, but that was more because the final shot made me realize what a masterpiece I had just experienced before my eyes.
i totally subscribe Dutch, but they’re so many more .. god, this topic is making me think how great cinema is !
FARGO? Moving? Sorry, never found it moving. Or even particularly interesting.
For reasons that defy articulation, I find the Premature Ward scene in Stroszek in which the doctor illustrates to Bruno S the will to survive particularly affecting. Also, the finale of Au Hasard Balthazar never fails to elicit tears despite a number of viewings. Then there is the final scene in Mary and Max when the adult Mary is poised to finally meet Max…
the scene from Werckmeister Harmonies by Bela Tarr where the towns people riot and encounter a very old man (trying not to spoil the scene for people that haven’t watched it)
the end montage sequence in Harold and Maude.
Last scene from:
25th hour (Spike Lee)
Nights of Cabiria (Fellini)
Red (Kieslowski)
Not one less (Yimou)
Once upon a time in America / the West (Sergio Leone)
Castaway on the Moon (Lee Hae-jun)
Balthazar (Bresson)
Plenty of scenes from Cinema Paradiso, The New World (Malick), Apu trilogy, Barry Lyndon or Wong Kar Wai love trilogy.
I can actually name more than 200 which do it for me.
In Lost in Translation when Bob has to say goodbye to Charlotte = the most cathartic scene for me in film.
Theo’s monologue at the immigration office in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
@Roscoe, I know it isn’t your normal type of moving film, but the final monologue is such simple expression of exasperation at the forces of evil (and what drives it) in the world that I found it absolutely beautiful, especially as it segued into the breathtaking final shot of the cars slowly approaching in the snow.
I cannot believe I forgot Toy Story 3. It was not the incinerator scene that did it for me but when Andy realized the little girl was the perfect new owner of the toys but still had hesitation about giving them away.
I remember my theater when I saw it. It seemed there was a major age-gap because nobody under 30 sobbed at that scene.
someone mentioned the mirror monologue scene in Paris Texas-that scene made me cry. and the scene in the Bicycle Thieves is extremely moving too.
Wings of Desire moved me as well. it’s hard to pinpoint just one scene but the scene where the angel meets the trapeze artist finally is quite beautiful. and the scene where Peter Falk talks about once being an angel.
Tokyo Story – just riddled with scenes which choke me up. The scene that really moves me is the one where Setsuko Hara’s character ‘confesses’ to her mother in law the state of her feelings about her marriage and her desires to break away from the past. She’s so torn, and so guilty, so lonely, so full of yearning you just want to reach in and give her a hug.
And there are lots of scenes where you just catch a character’s look or glance, or watch them losing themselves in thought – so moving.
The closing speech of The Great Dictator, everyone knows it but it carries such weight and meaning, it’s timeless.
A moment that allows gets me though is John C Reilly searching for his gun in Magnolia. There is something so pathetic, but profound and human in that scene. I find it uncomfortable to watch at times, it’s hauntingly real.
A few scenes come to mind. I saw them in my early teens and they still affect me to this day.
The whole village scene from Platoon.
The scene in Falling Down where, after D-Fens (Michael Douglas) hops the fence to the plastic surgeon’s mansion, hides from the police with the caretaker and his family and after the father offers to be taken hostage, feels taken aback and begins to reveal the more vulnerable part of himself that is suffering from the whirlwind of a maelstrom he started earlier that day.
The scene in One Hour Photo, after he is fired for falsifying print inventories (to hide that he was keeping his own copies of the Yorkins’ family photos) and for openly giving Jake a free camera, Sy develops the photos Jake took and examines them alone, and is brought to tears by their innocence and simplicity, an indicator of a healthier childhood he never had.
Though I didn’t see it till I was 20, the ending of Ordet.
I also second the OP’s mention of the ending of Sansho the Bailiff.
Also, I’m going by scenes that literally brought me to tears. I can be emotionally moved in other ways, though these are the ones that seemed to have had that particular effect on me.
I cannot believe that almost no one has mentioned The Green Mile which is my all time favourite film tied with Taxi Driver and makes me cry every time, even after seeing it five times, The scene where SPOILERS: John Coffey tells Paul why he is tired of living and why he wants it to be over and done with makes me cry every time, as does the execution of John Coffey.
Did anyone else think that in The Deer Hunter when SPOILERS: Nicky died was REALLY sad.
When in The Godfather SPOILERS: Vito died
When in American History X SPOILERS: Danny died, although it was a bit bitter sweet
Forrest Gump was sad
There are a couple of scenes in Philadelphia which were very sad but haven’t seen it in a long time so I can’t remember off hand
http://mubi.com/lists/the-top-13-most-important-death-scenes-in-cinema
I can’t say these are the most emotionally moving, cause I don’t know how to rank something like that, but here are a few moments that affected me deeply.
TRAFFIC, at the end, Del Toro’s arc, sitting in the baseball park that he paid for by selling information to the US DEA. “We need lights for the park so kids don’t grow up become Obregon brothers.” A small idea in his head that materialized. Everything about it was huge, the bleachers, the lights, the crowd. How overwhelmingly touching that moment must have been for his character.
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, the end where the father tries to quantify God to his psychologically scarred son.
L’ENFANT, The scene in prison. In my opinion, the perfect way to show what love is. An emotional burden, without reason. Why that girl would go back to him makes no sense and is heartbreaking if you consider just how desperate she is. She’s risking a lot by going back to him, but she can connect with him. Their rubbing foreheads together, something they probably came up with on a passionate night out of boredom — when their futures were bright and their spirits high. I love the idea behind that moment.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS, Yep… The movie being what it is notwithstanding, that ending remains incredibly cinematic and breathtaking. What an emotional achievement, I felt energized, inspired, stimulated.
Fanny och Alexander- the scene when fanny and alexander watch their mother cry/scream her lungs out after their father died.
The Color of Pomegranates- the poets death scene (idk why, i just started sobbing randomly)
The Kid- THAT SCENE
Secret Sunshine- basically all of it.
The Passion of Joan of Arc- actually all of it, but i lost my cool when she learned she will be put to death
And I also agree with ‘Sansho the Bailiff’, i cried throughout the movie (i’m rather sensitive) but i was literally shaking from the last scene. I was so happy i couldn’t contain myself.
Tima, good call on Secret Sunshine. Interesting thing with that though is I’d get riled up and then the next scene would be something totally ridiculous. I know this was intentional but man, how uncomfortable was that movie…
It’s just like, “What the fuck am I feeling?”
Henriette @11:20 to 12:50
Okay, if that would were a question to be answered about any scene from a film that is so emotionally moving, I’d say this…
the last hour of Ozu’s TOKYO STORY (1953), where the grandmother dies (that made me cried so much I couldn’t stop crying through that hour because that’s the way how life goes on.)
The scene from Tokyo Story that kills me is when the grandmother tells her daughter in law what a pleasure it is to sleep in her dead son’s bed. That and the scene where the youngest daughter asks the daughter in law if life is a disappointment.
I’d take the scene where Mija meets Agnes’ mother in the fields from Poetry as even more emotionally devastating than anything in Secret Sunshine (which I thought was excellent).
The last shot in Nights of Cabiria kills me.
Roscoe
Most of the above, and:
THE 400 BLOWS — almost all of it.
SEVEN SAMURAI — Mifune screams at the other six samurai. “What’s a farmer to do?!”
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE — “My big brother George — the richest man in town!”
ANDREI RUBLEV — the bell, and the little scene after it, when Andrei breaks his vow of silence.
FANNY AND ALEXANDER — the little scene between Gunn Walgren and Erland Josephson on Christmas Eve.
TOY STORY 3 — in the incinerator, they join hands to meet their fate together and I’m getting choked up typing this…
LA STRADA — the last scene on the beach, where Zampano realizes he actually has feelings.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING — Gimli the dwarf describes his gift from the lady Galadriel.
THE TWO TOWERS — Treebeard’s outrage “A wizard should know better!” culminating in the great attack on Isengard.
CITY LIGHTS — the final scene, well duh. It works every time.