Rosalind Little has a very short media attention span. She does not like albums. She prefers singles. She is well aware that this is not very indy cool of her, and that it implies she has shallow musical tastes. So be it. She just likes to listen to a good single again and again and again until she knows the words and can scream them like a fifteen year old. Is that so wrong?
I have more patience for films. I can enjoy an entire film easily. Yet I also have a certain fondness for the art of a good film scene. Think about this carefully. What are your favorite scenes in movies?
Think specifically of the scene itself: its mood, its dialogue, its beginning, middle, and end.
As I make a quick list, I notice that some of my favorite films, and some of the best films, don't make the cut. They are brilliant overall, but there's not one standout scene that is really amazing, that takes your breath away.
I also notice that early and opening scenes of films are especially close to my heart, because they can have such tremendous forward momentum, such an irresistable energy.
Of course a film can have a superb opening scene, one that makes your heart race, and still not be a very good movie. The film Contact (1999) is a good example of this. But the criteria isn't that the film be good. Just think about the scene.
Some of Rosalind Little's All Time Favorite Scenes in Movies:
- The opening of Contact: the long pull away from earth into space in which you hear snatches of radio broadcasts from the present into the past. I could watch this four hundred times in a row. (And have.) It's fascinating. It makes a sub-par film worth watching.
- The opening of Rushmore. Clearly an amazing, amazing scene, from a filmmaker who is a master of amazing scenes. The math problem, and then the montage of Max's activities. Over the one of the best soundtracks of all time.
- The opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Come on, it's a classic. It still gets you going.
- The scene in which Cole tells his mother his "secret" while in the car in The Sixth Sense. Creepy, tender, beautifully observed. The dead bicyclist out the window. Toni Collette's hand over her mouth as Cole tells her about her mother's message for her. Lovely scene.
- The scene in E.T. when Michael and Gertie meet E.T. for the first time. I mean, maybe I'm showing my generational bias, but does anybody make movies with such natural performances from children anymore? Do kids ever curse in films anymore? This scene is just spot-on, just perfect. If you've not watched it for a while and think of E.T. as being sentimental kids' mush, you should watch this film again. Gertie's sarcasm, Michael's Yoda impression, Elliot's anxiety: it's wonderful.
- Oh, and the bicycle chase in E.T. The one with the guns still in it. I dare you to watch it, watch the kids take off flying and the music swell, and NOT to start to get excited. I dare you.
- When Marty walks into downtown Hill Valley in 1955 in Back to the Future. Mr. Sandman is playing. As he picks up the newspaper and sees the date, the music turns ominous. This one always takes me back to the first time I saw the film.
- The sword fight between Jack and Will Turner in the beginning of the first Pirates of the Carribbean. This is the scene that clued me in that this movie was going to be better than I thought it would be. Funny, well-choreographed, charming. And both these men are so hot. I mean really. Rosalind Little is but a mortal heterosexual woman.
- The sword fight between the Man in Black and Inigo Mantoya in Princess Bride. Which is obviously cited in the Pirates of the Carribean fight. Another classic, at least for a certain age group. Love it.
Maybe I can think of more. Let me mull it over.
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