| B (continued) |
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The Birds (1963)
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Birds hovering, gathering, and
unexpectedly and randomly attacking everywhere in a coastal town, especially
at a children's birthday party and in clusters on the jungle gym behind
oblivious socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) as she calmly smokes
a cigarette in the schoolyard next to the Bodega Bay school (with children's
voices heard singing a sing-song, repetitive nursery rhyme in the background),
and Melanie's sighting of one flying crow that she watches in mid-air, follows
its path, and sees it landing on the crowded equipment behind her, the subsequent
attack on the children running down the hill from the school, the scene
of Melanie trapped in a phone booth as the man at the gas station is attacked
and engulfed in flames, the impressive overhead aerial view of the town
with gulls looking down on the disaster, Lydia Brenner's (Jessica Tandy)
discovery of the eye-pecked body of a farmer and her inaudible scream from
her open mouth - her Ford truck backfires instead, the streaming of finches
into the house of Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) and the attack on Melanie in
the attic (without music but only flapping bird sounds), and the final ominous
scene of hundreds of birds sitting everywhere as the main characters ease
out of the house and drive away - without Hitchcock's typical "THE
END" - to imply an unending threat, in one of Alfred Hitchcock's landmark
horror-thriller classics |
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The Birth of a Nation (1915)
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The incredible Civil War battle
scenes resembling historic Matthew Brady photographs with Benjamin "The
Little Colonel" Cameron's (Henry B. Walthall) assault and the stuffing of
a Confederate flag down the barrel of a Union cannon, the techniques of
closing down the iris of the camera and cameos, the touching and poignant
scene of Benjamin Cameron's return to his ruined Southern home, the recreated,
skillfully-executed Lincoln assassination scene, the tense sequence of 'Little
Sister' Flora (Mae Marsh) being chased by 'renegade negro' Gus (Walter Long)
into the woods and jumping to her death, and the image of zealous and heroic
Ku Klux Klan on horseback terrorizing blacks and riding to the rescue, in
this landmark blockbuster epic film from director D.W. Griffith |
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The Black Cat (1934)
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The surrealistic, moody cinematography
and bizarre sets, the scene of devil-cult worshipper Poelzig (Boris Karloff)
holding a ritualistic Black Mass, and the terrible torture-revenge of Dr.
Verdegast (Bela Lugosi) skinning his victim alive (seen in dark silhouette), in Edgar Ulmer's dark horror film |
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Black Narcissus (1947)
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The breath-taking imagery and
Technicolor cinematography of the Himalayan palace with a bell tower (once
a bordello) on the edge of a precipice (although the film was mostly shot
on a British sound stage), the scenes with the insane character of a sexually-conflicted
and starved Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) who turns mad with lust for British
government intermediary Mr. Dean (David Farrar), with her climactic scene
with devout and pious Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) - when she wears a forbidden
red dress after renouncing her nunhood and then applies bright red lipstick
(symbolizing her break with the nunnery), and the cathartic ending scene
in which intended victim Sister Clodagh is saved from death as she grabs
hold of the belltower rope after being pushed toward the precipice by jealous
and vengeful Sister Ruth, who loses her balance and falls, in Powell and
Pressburger's dazzling cinematic masterpiece |
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The Black Pirate (1926)
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The greatest dueling scene ever captured between
a pirate leader (Anders Randolf) and vengeful "Michel" - the Black
Pirate (Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.) in one of the first great pirate movies;
also, his rescue of "the Princess" (Billie Dove), and the super-spectacular
stunt of the Black Pirate's ride down a ship's two canvas sails/drapes on the tip of
his knife to reach the lower deck, in this landmark, silent two-strip Technicolored classic swashbuckler
buccaneer tale by director Albert Parker |
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The Black Stallion (1979)
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The gorgeous early scenes of a
young boy Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno) and a black stallion horse shipwrecked
on a deserted island, especially the scene of their emotional bonding on
the beach, in director Carol Ballard's beautifully-photographed children's-oriented
adventure film |
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Blade Runner (1982)
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The imaginative, fiery apocalyptic
view of Los Angeles ("Neo-Tokyo") in the dystopic 21st century
with hover cars, gigantic skyscrapers, electronic holographic advertisement-billboards
on floating crafts, etc. - reflected in a single human eye in the film's
opening; the film's first glimpse in the rainy drizzle of the blade runner-hero
Deckard (Harrison Ford) reading a newspaper against a store display window,
the scene in which Deckard informs unknowing replicant Rachael (Sean Young)
that she isn't human, their love scene against venetian blinds, the chase
through the busy streets after replicant snake lady Zhora (Joanna Cassidy)
wearing a transparent raincoat - and her slow-motion death amidst shattering
glass and blood, the brutal killing of Tyrell (Joe Turkel) who was responsible
for the creation of the replicants, Pris' (Daryl Hannah) hiding among dolls
and then her attempt to crush Deckard's head between her thighs, and the
final vivid and brutal chase scene between Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) and
Deckard - through Sebastian's apartment and onto the rooftop, Deckard's
rescue from the edge of the building followed by replicant Roy's climactic,
mournful and poignant soliloquy ("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter
in the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time
like tears in rain. Time to die....") as he expires in the rain and a white
dove flies upward - supplemented by Deckard's narration: "Maybe in
those last moments, he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just
his life, anybody's life, my life"; and the discovery of a very small,
silver, tinfoil origami-folded unicorn and its significance ("It's
too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?") at the conclusion,
in director Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic |
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The Blair Witch Project (1999)
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The scene of the close-up, teary
confessional of amateur film student Heather (Heather Donahue) in the glare
of a flashlight in the Maryland woods ("I just want to apologize...We're going to die out here. I'm so scared..."), and the final ambiguous shot in which Josh (Josh Leonard) is seen standing motionless facing a wall in a corner
(was he drugged, semi-conscious, or propped up dead, in order to distract the next victim?); the film's final
ambiguous POV shot is accompanied by the sounds of "thwack", "thump",
and "crash" as Heather's camcorder hits the ground (after she is attacked and killed?); the camera is broken, but continues filming -- before the end credits appear, in this made-to-look-like camcorder
video/documentary film by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez |
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Blazing Saddles (1974)
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The scene of near-sighted Governor
Le Petomane's (Mel Brooks) nuzzling into bosomy secretary Miss Stein's (Robyn
Hilton) cleavage while being advised by villainous Hedley Lamarr (Harvey
Korman); also the scene of the new Sheriff Black Bart's (Cleavon Little)
warning to the townsfolk as he reaches down for his acceptance speech -
to their gaspings: "Excuse me while I whip this out"; and the
infamous gas-passing, bean-eating scene around the campfire by flatulent
cowboys; the scene in which Mongo (Alex Karras) enters Rock Ridge riding
an ox, then later punches out a horse with a bare, single-fisted punch;
and Madeline Kahn's exquisite parody of Marlene Dietrich's "Frenchy" and
her memorable phrase: "It's twue, it's twue" after unzipping sheriff Black
Bart's (Cleavon Little) fly and examining his endowment in the dark; and
the scene in which Hedley is recruiting men to assault the town - in which
the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) holds up Bart as bait for two Ku Klux Klan members
so that they can steal their white robes - with Bart's mock-dumb (racially-stereotyped)
taunt: "Hey! Where are the white women at?" - and more - in Mel
Brooks' western spoof |
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The Blob (1958)
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The third screen role (and first major starring
role) of a young Steve McQueen (as Steve) and teenaged girlfriend Judy (Aneta
Corseaut) who try to convince Pennsylvania townspeople that an amorphous,
gelatinous, purplish-red alien Blob is attacking - the memorable scenes
are of the Blob menacing a medical facility, a car mechanic, a movie projectionist's
room, and a cafe diner, in this low-budget, campy teen, alien invasion horror
B-flick from director Irvin Shortess Yeaworth, Jr. |
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Blonde Venus (1932)
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The opening sequence in which
Helen Faraday (Marlene Dietrich) and her friends are frolicking and skinny-dipping;
and the memorable sequence in which nightclub singer Helen opens the cabaret
show by first appearing in a full-body gorilla suit - and then revealing
herself via a striptease by removing the head-piece and body-suit before
singing "Hot Voodoo" in a throaty voice to the beat of an African
drum - she wears a blonde Afro wig and stands with hands on her hips before
a chorus line of archetypal 'native' dancers: (some of the lyrics were:
"That African tempo has made me a slave, hot voodoo - dance of sin,
hot voodoo, worse than gin, I'd follow a cave man right into his cave"),
in director Josef von Sternberg's melodrama |
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Blood Simple (1984)
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The recurring shots of putrifying
fish, the absolutely horrifying scene of small-town bartender Ray (John
Getz) burying alive a mortally wounded Texas strip-bar owner Marty (Dan
Hedaya) in a barren field, and the sensational climax - a cat and mouse
pursuit in Abby's (Frances McDormand) apartment, in which super-sleazy detective
and hired assassin Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) has his hand impaled on a window
sill with a knife and struggles to pull his hand free - and then shoots
bullet holes in the wall that let through beams of light, in this Coen Brothers
film-noir |
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Blow Out (1981)
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The participatory scene of listening to a recorded sound
tape (of a political murder involving a car plunging off a deserted Philadelphia
bridge) with porno slasher film sound-effects recorder Jack Terry (John
Travolta), and the climactic, violent pursuit scene during a surreal Liberty
Day Jubilee 1981 celebration in Philadelphia with fireworks during which
the injured Jack reaches serial killer ("The Liberty Bell Strangler")
named Burke (John Lithgow) who has just killed wired hooker Sally Medina
(Nancy Allen) while she was being used as bait, and the ironic - haunting
and sad - use of her recorded scream for a slasher film, in the ending
of this Brian De Palma thriller |
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Blow-Up (1966)
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The scene in a swinging London
photographer's studio where hip, disinterested and jaded fashion photographer
Thomas (David Hemmings) seduces a model (Verushka) with his camera during
a solo shoot, the scene of his innocently following and taking photographs
of lovers (a young woman and a middle-aged man) embracing in a London park,
the scene of a topless Jane (Vanessa Redgrave) desperately and seductively
asking for the film, the exciting montage of the stages of the pictures'
development, printing and enlargement in the darkroom scene - especially
when he believes he sees a hand holding a gun; his frolicking, wrestling/orgy
scene with two naked young wanna-be teenage models or "dolly birds"
(Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills) in his studio (39) on purple backdrop paper,
the haunting sound of the wind blowing through the trees in the park - the
discovery of the scene of the murder and the man's corpse, and the final
scene of a group of mimes playing a mute game of tennis with an invisible,
non-existent tennis ball on a tennis court, in Michelangelo Antonioni's
absorbing first English language film |
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The Blue Angel (1930, Germ.) (aka Der Blaue Engel)
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The captivating and alluring image
of leggy, black-stockinged temptress Lola Frohlich (Marlene Dietrich) with
a tilted top hat singing "Falling in Love Again" and "They Call Me
Wicked Lola" in a sleazy German nightclub cellar (named The Blue Angel
Cabaret), and the degradation scene in which once-dignified but now disheveled,
disgraced and broken Prof. Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) crows like a rooster
in a pathetic clown act for her, in Josef von Sternberg's erotic drama |
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The Blues Brothers (1980)
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The tremendous number of noisy
and wasteful multi-car crashes, pile-ups, carnage, destroyed buildings and
malls, the many cameo appearances (Twiggy, Carrie Fisher, Ray Charles, John
Lee Hooker, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, Steven Spielberg,
Frank Oz - of the Muppets), and Elwood Blues' (Dan Aykroyd) famous line
of revelation to Jake Blues (John Belushi) to justify their brotherly activities:
"They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God", in
director John Landis' rock-filled comedy |
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Blue Velvet (1986)
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A bizarre,
erotically-charged and nightmarish film of the dark-side of life, with its
masterful opening scene of images of small-town, white-picket fence Americana
concluding with a zoom-close-up into the grass finding insects fighting
to the death; the discovery of a severed ear carelessly discarded in undergrowth;
the scene of Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) singing "Blue Velvet" in a nightclub,
the victim/voyeur/abuse scenes as clean-cut Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) watches
from Dorothy's closet and is then seduced by her at knifepoint; the evil
and depraved drug-pusher psycho Frank (Dennis Hopper) with an oxygen inhaler
while terrorizing and raping Dorothy as he play-acts being both her Daddy
and Baby; Sandy's (Laura Dern) description of her dream of the robins returning
to Lumberton, the Heineken/Pabst Blue Ribbon line of dialogue, crazed Ben's
(Dean Stockwell) remarkably surreal scene when he lip-syncs - karaoke-style
- Roy Orbison's pop tune "In Dreams," the truly terrifying scene of Frank's
brutalization of Jeffrey by distorting the metaphor of the lyrics of the
song "Love Letters Straight From Your Heart", the appearance of a naked
and battered Dorothy on the Beaumont's front lawn and into Sandy's house
and her odd declaration ("He put his disease in me"), and many
more bizarre images and scenes, in director David Lynch's definitive film |
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Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
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With the
tagline "Consider the Possibilities" and its story of encounter
groups, permissive sex, countercultural temptation and emotional openness
among affluent adults - two couples: Bob and Carol Sanders (Robert Culp
and Natalie Wood) and their best friends Ted and Alice Henderson (Elliott
Gould and Dyan Cannon), who have their marital vows of fidelity challenged
during a weekend swinging trip to Las Vegas; the scene of Dyan Cannon urging:
"Orgy, have an orgy" after being asked what she wanted to do;
the film was noted for its publicity - a view of the couples in bed together
discussing either group sex or seeing Tony Bennett; also the film's end
with the Burt Bacharach song "What the World Needs Now (Is Love, Sweet
Love)," in Paul Mazursky's satirical film about changing sexual mores
in the late 60s |
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Body Double (1984)
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Hard luck and out-of-work LA actor
Jake Scully's (Craig Wasson) voyeuristic watching through a high-powered
telescope a beautiful, rich Gloria Revelle (Barbara Shelton) (?) as she
performed a self-pleasuring dance; the infamous phone cord strangulation/power
drill murder of Gloria by her disguised husband Sam (Gregg Henry); Melanie
Griffith's breakthrough role as porn queen Holly Body, and the famous use
of British pop band Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" for the
porn shoot; Jake's ironic line to her in the porn: "I like to watch"
in Brian De Palma's homage to both of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear
Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958)
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Body Heat (1981)
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The tempting, sizzling femme
fatale Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner) with her famous line toward simple-minded
Florida attorney Ned Racine (William Hurt) - "You're not too smart,
are you? I like that in a man", the erotic, steamy sex scene in which
Ned breaks down the glass patio door with a chair to make love to an eager-looking
Matty inside the house, the sound effects of wind chimes, the fight-to-the-death
with Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna) during a botched murder in the hall
of his opulent home; Matty's final assuring words to Ned: "Whatever
happens, you must believe that I love you" which prove to be empty
in the surprise ending when Ned sees Matty's picture in a yearbook (received
while serving time in the Florida State Penitentiary), but her name is "Mary
Ann Simpson" (with the nickname "The Vamp" and her ambition:
"To be rich and live in an exotic land") - with a final view of
her reclining on a beach chair in the tropics, in Lawrence Kasdan's film-noirish
crime drama modeled after The Postman Always Rings
Twice (1946) |
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Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
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Bank-robbing Clyde Barrow's (Warren
Beatty) first seduction of Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) by showing off his
gun and bouncing a wooden matchstick (shot upright as a phallic symbol)
between his teeth, numerous sped-up (a la Keystone Cops slapstick) bank
robberies to the sound of banjo music, the scene of refuge in a movie theatre
while viewing We're In The Money, the scene in which the gang takes
pictures of itself, the realistic death scene in a field of Clyde's mortally-wounded
brother Buck (Gene Hackman) with Blanche's (Estelle Parsons) hysterical
screaming, Bonnie's poem - "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"; and
the quick montage-succession of events during the roadside ambush sequence
and the final violent, slow-motion, two-minute "ballet of blood" as both
gangsters' bodies spasm in a dance when pummeled with an unprecedented number
of bullets, in Arthur Penn's controversial, ground-breaking film |
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Boogie Nights (1997)
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The recreated look of the late-70s
LA porn industry, beginning with the virtuoso long, opening tracking shot
into and throughout the interior of a Reseda, California Hot Traxx
nightclub; the dignified presence of LA porn filmmaker Jack Horner (Burt
Reynolds), high-school dropout Rollergirl (Heather Graham) who removes everything
but her roller skates for sex; the filming of bus-boy turned porn star Dirk
Diggler's (Mark Wahlberg) first sex scene with porn queen Amber Waves (Julianne
Moore); and the nerve-wracking, violent cocaine sale/rip-off scene in the
house of silver bath-robed, raving drug tycoon Rahad Jackson (Alfred Molina)
with his young Asian servant boy Cosmo setting off firecrackers in the background
- all accompanied by Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" and Rick
Springfield's "Jesse's Girl" on the soundtrack; and the final shot of Diggler's
endowed (prosthetic) 13 inch "special thing" as he recites in his mirror:
"You're a star, you're a big shining star," in Paul Thomas Anderson's
period film |
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