Pickpocket, the entire last scene.
Breaking the Waves, the entire epilogue.
Jean Dielman, the last five minutes, or so.
The Third man is a great one.
There are more, but these are the ones that are on the brain right now.
Savvy
Sansho the Bailiff – the reunion between mother and son
Au hasard Balthazar – Balthazar’s death
Andrei Rublev – the paintings and the horses
The Eclipse – the eclipse
The Silence – the silence
Two already mentioned came to mind almost immediately: the mother-son reunion in “Sansho the Bailiff” and Cabiria’s beatific face in “Nights of Cabiria”
But the greatest ending of all time: the freeze frame shot of Antoine looking directly into your soul in “The 400 Blows”
Other great endings:
Ethan Edwards in silhouette walking out the door in “The Searchers”
The walk back to the car for Chihiro and her parents in “Spirited Away”
The final hour of “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, Fassbinder’s recapitulation (or re-imagining) of the 14 hours that came before.
Enid getting on the bus in “Ghost World”
The snow scene outside the service station in “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”
I could go on for hours…
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Woody’s half smile in Manhattan
Shampoo
The Station Agent
The Circus
Pink Flamingos
Dumbo
off the top of my head
2001 A Space Odyssey
Casablanca, as noted
The Third Man, as noted
Kagemusha
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
North by Northwest (my favorite)
The Maltese Falcon
High Noon
Those come to me quickly as examples of films that end with a very powerful final moment, often a single image like Hitchcock’s double entendre train going into the tunnel. As the OP notes, film as a form seems to emphasize the last scene perhaps more than most, so I suspect that your list of favorite final moments will be fairly closely related to your list of favorites in general.
Dogville
@JONCORELIS- I second Nights of Cabiria and The Italian Job
First ten off the top of my head…
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
I Vitelloni- (scene of Moraldo on the train leaving his friends behind)
Cross of Iron- (freeze frames and montage)
Throne of Blood
Le Cercle Rogue
No Country for Old Men
Repulsion
This Sporting Life
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Herzog’s Cobra Verde- (Kinski on the beach)
Ten I really love:
Beau Travail
Dellamorte Dellamore
The Innocents
Celine & Julie Go Boating
Stalker
Repulsion
Synecdoche, NY
Pickpocket
Simon of the Desert
The French Connection
Goodfellas
Usual suspects
The lives of others
Matchpoint
2001: A space odyssey
Notre musique
Pulp Fiction
The orphanage
Mirror
In the mood for love (and amidst the temple ruins//0
L’Eclisse
Thanks for the interesting responses.
I don’t know how I forgot the potter’s return home in Ugetsu. I should have made it eleven.
The Third Man seems to be on lots of lists. If you’re interested, please take a look of the picture of me in Vienna on my Profile page (click on it to make it bigger.)
Agree with Beau Travail, that little coda is a real slap in the face.
Some favorites:
The last moments of Seconds trump any sci-fi or horror film conclusion I can recall; not fun viewing, though.
That confrontation between Robert Redford and Cliff Robertson at the end of 3 Days of the Condor is especially satisfying.
The hilarious—and completely honest—last lines of Burn After Reading.
The long shot of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, possibly making up, in Broadway Danny Rose.
Bruno Ganz on horseback, galloping off to who knows where across the beach in Nosferatu (1979).
Audrey Hepburn defiantly walking past the crowd in The Children’s Hour.
The reporter in The Thing from Another World warning listeners to “keep watching the skies.”
Love, love, love the spoken credits as Orson Welles wraps up the production of The Magnificent Ambersons.
Doctor Lemonglow, agree with the spoken credits of Ambersons/
In no particular order:
The Third Man (She just walks straight past him)
Layer Cake (All gangster films end this way, but as Layer Cake was so original elsewhere it came as a surprise)
Before Sunset (Like the first one it allows to imagine your own ending)
An American Werewolf in London (love that credits song)
Eyes Wide Shut (“Fuck”)
There Will Be Blood (I’m Finished!)
Full Metal Jacket (singing M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E before cutting to be credits with the Stones playing).
Fight Club (beautiful Pixies song as Ed Norton delivers: “You met me at a very strange time in my life” .
The Godfather 1 & 2 (The door closing on Kay/ Michael’s lizard-like eyes post fratricide)
Casino Royale (The name’s bond…James Bond as the iconic score starts up)
Lost in Translation – Que “Just Like Honey” as the cab drives away
Revanche – Chopping Wood
Dogtooth – Hold on the trunk of the car
The Thing (Carpenters) – Wait there looking at each other
Children of Men – The sound of the playground
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days – “We’re never gonna talk about this again”
And a lot that have already been mentioned
Some Like It Hot – “Nobody’s perfect.”
“400 Blows” – freeze frame
The end of Cabaret: the MC disappears into the curtain and the camera turns to show the distorted reflected faces of the audience.
Brazil – “He’s got away from us, Jack.” “‘Fraid you’re right, Mr. Helpmann. He’s gone.”
Birdy – “What?”
10 random choices from me could be:
“Bād mā rā khāhad bord” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aNvb2byGlA)
“Charaluta” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb1Gz7NS_po)
“Der amerikanische Soldat” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv_ZFUiu7OQ)
“Il grande silenzio” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8VXJJIwDsY)
“Kundskabens træ” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2V5m-5H9WM)
“L’Argent” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDHeyTwPNmc)
“Offret” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fysiepJ93M)
“Praėjusios dienos atminimui” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab0Ys1bjqCE)
“Sátántangó” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9SLbdWRuM)
“The Draughtsman’s Contract” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYwAyFablFw)
Jon, I think you made this an interesting discussion by leaving your definition of “ending” fairly vague. Last line? Last scene? Last shot? Lots of ways to think about it. An interesting follow-up would be “best scenes during credits,” and for that I would again mention Kagemusha. That bit entrances me every time.
You could also discuss scenes that are the “climax” in some sense, but not the last scene. I bet 80% of the people you ask on the street would say Rick and Ilsa at the airport is the last scene in Casablanca. Many more examples of that, where the penultimate scene is more or less the end of the narrative, and the last scene is a coda.
I did take at look at your Vienna picture. Cool.
La pianiste ( Michael Haneke )
A few others that have not been mentioned:
La Grande Illusion
Taste of Cherry
8 1/2
Mike Leigh’s Naked: Johnny limping toward the camera , slow pullback
A Woman Under the Influence: Nick and the kids chasing Mabel around the house after she tries to slit her wrists.
Ah hasard Balthasar by Bresson— Titular donkey dies surrounded by sheep that look on in something close to total indifference/bafflement—you can not beat this ending for perfection/completion of film!
Au hasard Balthasar by Bresson— Titular donkey dies surrounded by sheep that look on in something close to total indifference/bafflement—you can not beat this ending for perfection/completion of film—I am far from the first to appreciate this ending!
I love the ending to The Trouble with Angels – hysterical! I saw it in the theatre and the audience kept laughing through the credits. Also the end of Blood Simple.
Beatrice Dalle riding away in the snow, at the end of Deni’s masterpiece, L’Intrus.
I don’t know why this is one of the greatest endings I’ve ever seen, but I’m sure interested in finding out why.
one day.
LOVE EXPOSURE – using perhaps one of the most over-used religious works (Da Vinci’s Creation of Adam) in one of the most liberating and human-empowering moments in cinema.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail ending…
seriously…
moreover: The Illumination final shot by Krzysztof Zanussi
and more of course….
Maybe a good example of the “virtual ending” — that is, something that’s not the ending scene but which you remember as such since it’s so climactic — is James Cagney’s breakdown into “cowardice” in Angels With Dirty Faces.
Was there ever a Cagney performance that wasn’t terrific? Along with Cary Grant, he may have been the greatest purely cinematic actor ever.
Trick question: What’s the last line of The Maltese Falcon?
»Trick question: What’s the last line of The Maltese Falcon?«
“Huh?”… :)
Jon Corelis
Thinking over the most memorable scenes in my film watching experience, it seems like most of them are endings. I’m not sure what this says about the medium, but it might be interesting to consider people’s choices. Not from a critical standpoint, but the top ten endings, some not necessarily the very last line, but at least the moment of closure, which I keep remembering are (quotes from memory so may be slightly inaccurate):
City Lights: “You can see now?” “Yes, I can see now.”
Nights of Cabiria: She smiles.
Casablanca: probably the most famous one. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
The Italian Job (original 1969): “Hang on, lads; I’ve got a great idea.”
The Seven Samurai (personal nomination for all time greatest ending): “Again, we have survived.” “Yes. But it is they who have won.”
My Darling Clementine: “I ain’t gonna kill you. I hope you live a hundred years…”
Red River: “Say, you ought to marry that girl.”
The Third Man: Walks right on by.
Morocco: Throwing the shoes away.
Barbary Coast: “Come on.”