Good one - this was one of which I was thinking, too. (And it’s Jim Craig, played by Tom Burlinson - imdb is my friend.) 
Another one: the opening credits then the entry of the starcruiser in Star Wars: A New Hope, coupled with the John Williams score - breathtaking.
Our first look at the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
The actors really played it well, expressing the awe & joy of all the childhood Dinosaur fans in the audience when we get a good look at the Apatasaurus.
Also from JP, the scene when the T-Rex attacks the Jeep with the kids in it.
And, from The Incredibles, the battle between the Supers & the Omni-Droid, in the streets of the city.
The scene from Disney’s Tarzan, where Tarzan peels off Jane’s glove is, while completely proper, one of the steamiest in Cartoon history.
The La Marseillaise scene in Casablanca.
In America- the sex scene. The two parents send the kids to get ice cream and then they have sex uder a skylight while it’s storming outside. Their neighbor is painting at the same time, either with blood or with red paint, throwing it on the canvas and making handprints and stuff… There are drums and just the whole scene is tense and exciting in the sort of way that, when it’s over, you just go, “woah.” And I hate sex scenes.
I was thinking of Wim Winders’ beautiful camera movement up the baroque staircase in Buena Vista Social Club
and tons of scenes from Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia, especially those in the ruins of San Galgano.
Lot’s of great movies listed so far! I’ll just add one:
Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon The entire movie is just gorgeous, like a moving painting. And the indoor candle-lit scene is nothing short of amazing, both visually and technically!
Lots of great movies listed so far! I’ll just add one:
Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon The entire movie is just gorgeous, like a moving painting. And the indoor candle-lit scene is nothing short of amazing, both visually and technically!
In Apocalypse Now when the helicopter arrive, silhouetted with the sun rising in the background, just before they start to play “Ride of the Valkyries” there is some other music, a few chords, I think. It is a beuatifully shot scene, the has a weird dissonance because of the destruction about to occur.
The final scene in The Third Man.
The final home run in The Natural, where he blows out the lights has a lot of hokiness and even cliche to it. But it is a wonderful shot, the stadium darkening as light rains down. Yeah it is a happy ending, but that scene on it’s own is wonderful.
The final scene in Runaway Train. Our anti-hero has saved his freindsand could save himself, but instead climbs to the top of speeding, doomed train racing through the frozen Alaskan wilderness. His arms outstretched we are left with a quote from Shakespeare:
“No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.” – Richard III
Elvira Madigan.
There are lots to mention, so off the top of my head:
The very end of Magnolia. Not the rain part, but the very end.
Several from The West Wing: “Noel”, “In Excelcis Deo”, “Two Cathedrals”.
The bit in Match Point with the ring and the railing, echoing the tennis net shot from the opening.
The end of The Iron Giant.
Probably I’ll think of more later.
The scene in Hero where Nameless and Snow are (improbably, but gracefully) swatting arrows away from the calligraphy school, intercut with Broken Sword writing the “sword” character on a huge sheet of paper
The scene in FOTR where Gandalf, on Caradhras, is trying to repel Saruman’s spell. The camera pulls up on the Fellowship on the ledge, and you can hear Saruman’s voice in the wind. Then the camera turns towards Isengard, where we see Saruman standing on the top platform, while the sweep of the camera fully captures the power of his magic. Great stuff.
The near-last scene in TTT, where Sam is talking about the heroes in the old stories. As he speaks, there’s a great montage of the two victories of the movie - Helm’s Deep and Isengard, and the music swells…
Funny Face. I don’t know about you, but I think that Fred Astaire, in a straw skimmer and sporting a walking stick and striding down the real Champs d’Elysees, is gorgeous.
Keeping it in Paris, Amelie is replete with gorgeously photographed, colorful scenes of the city. It’s like looking at candy!
Cinema Paradiso:
The protagonist is laying on his back smoking a cigarette. We see his face close up, his eyes closed. He mutters and curses the summer, and wishes that it would end (what goes unsaid is he hates the summer because the girl he loves will return to the town in the fall.) At that moment, the rain begins to fall on his face…for some reason I will never forget that moment.
Also, the scene at the end, when he finds the reel with all the kisses that had been edited out of all the movies the old man had shown through the years…kiss after passionate kiss, it’s positively an overwhelmingly beautiful moment.
(Forgive me if I messed up the details, it’s been years.)
In Kill Bill, the part before the fight with O-Ren Ishii.
Hell yes. I can’t even think of that scene without feeling a tear well up. My single favorite scene in any movie.
The scene in Clockwork Orange where Alex turns on his Droogs to establish who’s in charge of the gang. The bit where he turn and draws the knife out of his walking stick behind his back, then squats down and holds out his hand to the Droog he just pushed into the water is just stunning. Something about the way he moves puts an ache in my chest.
There’s an effects shot in Innocent Blood—a pretty entertaining Vampire movie—that’s subtle, but deeply effective…
[spoiler]…towards the end of the movie, the main villain, a newly “turned” vampire, escapes from a car explosion, completely ablaze.
Now, usually, when a movie sets someone on fire, the standard repetoire of the stuntman in the flame suit is to run around like a maniac, overturning as much furnature as possible.
But for this shot, the character, basically just the outline of a man’s body, completely engulfed in fire, just…calmly stands up, walks a few paces out of the wreckage of the car, stops in front of the heroes, and starts talking (aka “monologuing”), like there was absolutely nothing wrong.
Very cool, and very fundamentally unsettling to the mind. Moreso, because this movie was made before widespread CGI effects. So it looks like, and you know, that it’s not animation…that’s really a man standing there, engulfed in flame, just—gloating.
(Albeit with some editing and dubbing. But still, it’s not as easy to mentally brush away as a CGI effect.)[/spoiler]
ah yes and of course Delicatessen, the scene in which all the various denizens start doing their various activites in synch with the rythm of the handy man’s working.