I always lose it when watching the Inarritu segment of the 11’09’’01 – SEPTEMBER 11 omnibus film. That one leaves me shaking.
The final scenes of Au Revoir, Les Enfants. That movie was..touching.
The reveal of Chris Cooper’s past in ADAPTATION. My face thoroughly wet itself.
I get choked up when the kids bicycles take off in ‘ET’ – gets me every time.
I also shed tears at the end of ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ where David Niven and Kim Hunter are pleading their case before the heavenly court.
The ending of ’It’s a Wonderful Life’…
The tragic developments in ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ (my kids have watched this a number of times and every time I see it I’m a blubbering mess)…
The scene where Beth Heke sees her daughter hung herself and cried in ONCE WERE WARRIORS.
How about PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED:
Sure, it’s basically a comedy. A thirty-something woman gets beamed back to the 1950’s, to her teenaged years.
But while there, she gets to re-visit her grandparents, now long-dead.
Which of you reading this, if your grandparents are no longer living, wouldn’t give anything just to see them again…. just one more time?
(snif)
TONY CURTIS (ANTONINUS) telling KIRK DOUGLAS (SPARTACUS) how he loves him like a brother in a duel to the death, only so KIRK can be crucified and witnessing his son for the first and last time… then there’s CLINT EASTWOOD, standing in the rain, as MERYL STREEP, hand on car door handle, considers leaving her unaware husband in THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY… LIAM NEESON (SHINDLER’S LIST) realizing how much more he might have done… OLD YELLER and BAMBI’S mom buying the farm, JACK NICHOLSON’S lobotomy… my nose is running; gotta’ go
The only two film’s that consistently make me cry, as an adult, are two Werner Herzog Films, one being The Enigma Of Kasper Hauser, the scene where Bruno S. as Kasper Hauser tells his foster mother how alienated he feels, after being locked in a cellar for most of his life, and then being released into the everyday world.
Kasper Hauser: Mother, I am so far away from everything.
Kasper Hauser: Nothing lives less in me than my life.
Kasper Hauser: It seems to me that my coming into this world was a very hard fall.
The second film that makes me cry is Strozeck, also starring Bruno S. The scene that gets me welling up everytime is the one in the hospital when Bruno goes to visit a doctor friend, and he takes Bruno to the premature baby ward. One of the premature babys grabs onto the doctors fingers and the doctor lifts the baby up, and the baby hangs on for dear life, so consumed is it, by the desire to live, Bruno wells up, as do I, everytime.
Let me see:
- Near the ending of Ratatouille, when the food critic delivers a speech while we see the rat in his restaurant. Somehow I was deeply touched by that part. I didn’t cry like a baby, but my eyes got wet. I guess it’s got something to do with the triumph of the will or something cheesy like that? Because I always get that kind of feeling in movies with that sort of ending, like the following.
- Man on Wire: When he’s finally doing it between the twin towers. What a freaking beautiful scene, the music, the narration, the images. It was so empowering!
- The Remains of the Day: when Hopkins and Thompson say goodbye near the end under the rain. Just holding hands says so much, and even if it’s a little overdramatic, I guess that’s why it impacts so much, since the film is so restrained and subtle before that.
- Another Woman: the kiss under the bridge in the rain near the end. I get chills even thinking about it. That film might very well be the best drama Woody Allen has done ever.
- Autumn Sonata: I always get very depressed with Bergman films (and I love them all), but when Bergman delivers her lines almost at the end of the film I got in tears the first time.
- One Flew OVer the Coockoo’s Nest. I’m so ashamed that I cried with this because of the ridiculously manipulative nature of the scene, but the very end got me weeping as well.
I also cried with Finding Neverland. Freaking embarassing.
I also cried a little or was in the verge of crying with the endings in Wendy and Lucy, Au Revoir les enfants, Anderson’s death in Cries and Whispers, when “god” appeared in Fanny and Alexander.
Barbara stanwyck seeing her daughter at the end of Stella Dallas.
Howard Duff in a scene from All My sons when Burt Lancaster’s mother reminds him of how he was a part of her family damn great scene.
The final scene of Todos son mis hijos.
The ending of The Tarnished Angels.
Pickpocket as well : “Oh Jeanne, pour aller jusqu’à toi, quel drôle de chemin il m’a fallu prendre”
And, well, I have to say that I cry my eyes out evrytime I watch Pride & Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightley), but I’m not too proud of this one…
I think the first time I ever cried at a movie was when I was 13 or so, I saw this tacky Japanese drama piece called Koizora, or “Sky of Love” :-\ Girls will be girls.
Two other times I’ve cried, the second was in Tale of Two Sisters. I bawled. The stepmother could have been a carbon copy of my own mother, in appearance, personality, and behavior. Seeing a re-enactment of the darker moments of my childhood was too much.
The last time was the ‘Club Silencio/Llorando’ scene in Mulholland Drive, not only for its emotion and symbolism, but how I could understand every word she sang. I’m learning Spanish, and it was very emotional for me to see my efforts actually brought to some fruitation.
So mostly personal connections to films make me cry O:
I’m not sentimental at all, I take a rationally emotional view on films, I can see the emotional, understand it, and recognize how powerful it is, yet remain mostly detached. But occasionally things will be hit me.
The other day the end of The Road Home by Zhang Yimou hit me, and it was a really nice moment in the film, it earned my response. Aside from that I can’t think of any.
The Lovers of the Arctic Circle made me cry like a baby.
All of Umberto D. There’s something about old people that makes me extra sad.
The Pornographers: Haru madness scene
The tiger factory: everytime she get abused
Double suicide: the final scene, mainly for his stunning beauty
Intolerance: the craddle scene; everything Mae Marsh has to tolerate
off the top…
-the burial scene in “time of the wolf”, when the turkish/arab (?) family is crying. their crying and chanting starts to get rhythmic at a certain point
-the end of coup de grace
-the scene in george washington when vernon is in the bathroom with sonya, talking about giving his life to christ and whatnot
-the final scene in the wrestler. the way the music builds up as he climbs the top rope. chokes me up every time.
-the part in happy together when chang gives tony leung the tape recorder to say something in to, and he cant find the words, and starts to break down and tries his hardest not to cry
-the 2nd time bess gets on the boat to go meet with the sadistic sailors in breaking the waves. its like she knows shes going to die.
The last scene from City Lights..will always make me cry
what just struck me is that I have never seen a film use a crying scene as a prolonged release for the audience. almost all films seem to want to move forward after the total sadness has been reached, but i am wondering, what would happen if the bottom fell out completely.
i would love to have that experience with a film where it makes me cry for more than 5 minutes.
“i would love to have that experience with a film where it makes me cry for more than 5 minutes.”
got that with “Breaking the waves” a couple of years ago
Someone mentioned this like 150 posts ago:
the scene in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (no, you may not laugh) in which Harry comes back from the graveyard with Cedric Diggory’s dead body… His death certainly is sad and all, but his father’s despair and wailing cries just trigger the waterworks every single time I see this film. Poignant stuff.
Oh and The Elephant Man. A most gripping film. I had to pause it halfway (when he’s building the cardboard cathedral) to bawl and sob away like I had never done before when watching a film. Heart-breaking.
La Vie En Rose – Spoiler*
When she finds out Marcel is dead.
Oh and City Lights ending and Wall-E.
Someone mentioned Bridge to Terabithia. I did not expect that one to be so sad.
NIce to see my little ol’ thread still chuffing along :-)
The end of Ozu’s “Late Spring” got added to my list. So simple, and so devastating. Peeling an apple never had so much meaning.
Another moment: the drug-dealer film “Pusher 3” has Milo, the older dealer trying to take care of business while prepping for his spoiled princess daughter’s 25th birthday at a restaurant.
Milo rises to give a toast, and the little speech he gives is completely in character but also surprisingly tender and moving. Not “weeping” moving, but with some lovely lines in it that make you wonder what could have been for them.
One of the only that’s actually made me cry (actually, I think there’s one or two others but I can’t seem to recall them at the moment) was Tomb of the Fireflies.
Secrets And Lies – when Cynthia is begging Roxanne to forgive her
Au Revoir Les Enfants – that last look
It’s A Wonderful Life – last half hr, especially when he sees his brother’s grave
Cries and Whispers
My Left Foot – when Christy writes ‘mother’ in chalk on the floor, had my bawling
The Godfather Part 2 – where Michael tells Fredo he doesn’t want to see him again
City Lights – that last scene
The Elephant Man – when Merrick is reciting bible verses
Breaking The Waves
now I need some tissues
Platoon; first where they arrive at the village (all from where Charlie Sheen freaks out on the cripple to where he breaks up the attempted gang rape of the Vietnamese girl and Willem Dafoe shouts at them to clear out), and again at the ending as he departs.
Falling Down; where Michael Douglas comes upon the family housesitting for a plastic surgeon, and hides with them from the police, eventually revealing his feelings about his own family and his sorrow over how it will never be the same.
One Hour Photo; where after Robin Williams is told he’s been fired and has developed the photos for the boy whose family he’s obsessed with, where he sits hidden behind the counter looking through the set of photos and their childlike simplicity until he breaks down crying. Similar to the prior scene, wherein there’s a loss of something that hadn’t really been gained.
There are many others but these are the ones that stood out in my mind and it’s finally a relief to have others know of them as well.
I’ve only dropped a tear once and that was during the montage in Up. One of the most beautifully poignant films I have ever seen.
These are the other ones that have made me tear up, I’m definitely missing some stuff.
Ikiru – The swingset, the god damn swingset. Also, there is this one scene when he is getting the park built and he stumbles and people come to help him, and there is a beautiful close up of his face that just says so much about the character.
Saving Private Ryan – Yeah, yeah. It’s manipulative as fuck but it still gets to me.
The Last Letter made me tear up. That’s the last one I can remember.
Sansho the Bailiff andThe Grapes of Wrath
Robley
Just about every movie I give above a 7.5/10 makes me cry.