Thirty Spine-Tingling Movie Moments '69-'99 - Brief Article

1 The sheer grooviness of the boogie Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) performs in front of the tied-up cop whose ear he's about to slice off in RESERVOIR DOGS (1992). 2 Having told his cellmates how he killed a man a with a billiard ball, Roberto (Roberto Benigni) says, "I ham a good egg!" in DOWN BY LAW (1986).

And we believe him. 3 Eggs? What about a tasty piece of bacon stuck to the wall above the scrawny kid's bath with its soup-colored bathwater in GUMMO (1997). 4 Fran (Tara Morice) and Scott (Paul Mercurio) are given a scintillating lesson in the Paso Doble by her unshaven dad in STRICTLY BALLROOM (1992), and on a nearby railroad track a freight train rattles into the Aussie night. 5 After giving a hand job to a surprised bus passenger in BREAKING THE WAVES (1996), innocent Bess (Emily Watson) stumbles vomiting onto the grass verge and comes face-to-face with a bunny. So she twitches her nose at it. Wouldn't you? 6 42nd Street's hell balefully surveyed by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), gliding by in his cab, in TAXI DRIVER (1976). 7 A demented conquistador (Klaus Kinski) with a crew of monkeys crows about his omnipotence as the camera swoops round his raft on the Amazon in AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1973). 8 In YOUNG EINSTEIN (1988), a burly chef thrusts a huge pie into a heated oven. its filling is the sweetest, cuddliest, mewingest kittens we've ever seen (but, hey, not a hair gets singed). 9 The way Myra (Annette Bening) smirks as she struts toward a jeweler at the beginning of THE GRIFTERS (1990). 10 It could be the way Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo) curls up catlike on a couch ready to tell all to Graham (James Spader) and his camera in SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE (1989), but really it's the creak of her leather boots as she neatly folds her legs beneath her. 11 A man driven mad (Erland Josephson) runs around his burning house in the apocalyptic conclusion to THE SACRIFICE (1986). 12 Willard (Martin Sheen) rises from a swamp to assassinate Kurtz as the Doors' "The End" kicks in once again in APOCALYPSE NOW (1979). 13 Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is distracted talking to Eileen Wade (Nina Van Palandt) in THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) as her husband (Sterling Hayden) takes his last lonely walk into the Malibu surf. 14 Marlow (Michael Gambon), crippled pulp novelist, smiles as he gets to his feet and stumbles toward the hospital psychiatrist as they lip-synch "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" in THE SINGING DETECTIVE (1986, shown theatrically in the U.S.). 15 The perfectly kinky thrill of Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) chipping her tooth when she takes Jeffrey to bed in BLUE VELVET (1986). 16 In NAKED (1993), Johnny (David Thewlis) wheels away forlornly when the Scottish lass (Susan Vidler) he's befriended is kicked across a piece of wasteland by her boyfriend (Ewen Bremner). 17 In a voice like an oboe, the young king (Kenneth Branagh) rouses his men with the St. Crispin's Day speech before the battle of Agincourt in HENRY V (1989). 18 In THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971), Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson) recounts his idyll with a young woman he loved and lost years ago. He dies off camera a few days later. 19 Jane (Nastassja Kinski) looks over her shoulder, as if aware that the husband (Harry Dean Stanton) she ran out on has stepped into the cheap joint where she works. But she doesn't see him - will she ever? PARIS, TEXAS (1984). 20 Somewhere in post-Communist Europe in ULYSSES GAZE (1997), a questing filmmaker played by Harvey Keitel watches a giant sculpture of Lenin's head being ferried to nowhere on a barge. 21 Two sexy tangos I can't choose between: Dominique Sanda and Stefania Sandrelli's in THE CONFORMIST (1970) and Teri Garr and Raul Julia's in ONE FROM THE HEART (1982). 22 Two drug trips I can't choose between: Filigree objects - is that a hat? - swirl like floaters in the eyes of Matt Dillon's junkie in DRUGSTORE COWBOY (1989); Renton (Ewan McGregor), blissful though unconscious, is carted into hospital while Lou Reed sings "Perfect Day" in TRAINSPOTTING (1996). 23 Gretta Conroy (Anjelica Huston) tells her husband (Donal McCann) in the quiet of their hotel room about the boy in her past who loved and died for her. Via James Joyce, this scene from THE DEAD (1987) was the mesmerizing postscript to director John Huston's career. 24 Spike Lee serenades a heaving Harlem crack den by blasting Stevie Wonder's "Livin' for the City" on the JUNGLE FEVER (1991) soundtrack. 25 Intoning hypnotist extraordinaire Max Von Sydow, heard but not seen, lures us into benighted postwar "Europa" as the camera speeds over miles of railroad tracks in ZENTROPA (1991). 26 Three schoolgirls slip into a crevice, two of them never to be seen again, in PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975). 27 The buzz, throb, and keening voices of Goran Bregovic's music hymn a Gypsy youth's dream of romantic love and communality on a firelit Macedonian river in TIME OF THE GYPSIES (1990). 28 Oscar night 1997: Jim Carrey stretches out his arms in imitation of the poster for LIAR LIAR, which had done boffo business in the previous three days. "And how was your weekend?" he says. 29 Ballsy waif Elodie Bouchez smiles her overbite smile having learned a girl whose fiat she squatted in has come out of her coma in THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS (1999). 30 "Oh, come on, it's only a scratch!" complains the limbless knight (John Cleese) who wants to carry on fighting King Arthur (Graham Chapman) in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975). The Pythons' TV show first aired in Britain on October 5, 1969 - happy thirtieth anniversary to you, too, boys.