Performance (1970, UK)

In directors Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's avante-garde psychological drama:

• the shared menage-a-trois bath scene between reclusive ex-rock star Turner (Mick Jagger), Pherber (Anita Pallenberg), and Lucy (Michelle Breton)
• the dramatic bullet's-eye zoom shot as gangster Chas Devlin (James Fox) shoots rock star Turner and the fatal bullet tunnels into his brain

The Perils of Pauline (1914)

In the most famous suspense serial in film history (presented in 20 episodes):

• the character of playful heiress Pauline Marvin (Pearl White) always in perilous situations as a 'damsel in distress' - i.e., tied to the railroad tracks on top of a trestle while a speeding train is rapidly approaching, abducted, or caught in a runaway hot-air balloon

Personal Best (1982)

In director/screenwriter Robert Towne's debut film about two female athletes training for the 1980 Olympics:

• the physicality of the athletic, well-toned women
• their frank dialogue in the locker room and steam room scenes
• the honestly-depicted lesbian relationship between Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway) and Tory Skinner (Patrice Donnelly)

The Petrified Forest (1936)

In director Archie Mayo's romantic crime drama:

• the death scene at the finale when idealistic and disillusioned writer/world traveler Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) dies in culturally-starved waitress Gabrielle (Gabby) Maple's (Bette Davis) arms after being shot by ruthless fugitive gangster Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) in a run-down Arizona desert cafe (she recites "...this is the end for which we twain are met")

Peyton Place (1957)

In director Mark Robson's sanitized, soap-opera adaptation of Grace Metalious' best-selling scandalous novel about small-town repression, incest, suicide, rape, homosexuality, adultery, abortion, and murder:

• the opening credits and sequence with picture-postcard views of a New England town
• the scene of aspiring writer Allison MacKenzie (Diane Varsi) - the teenaged, coming-of-age daughter of blonde and prudish single mother Constance MacKenzie (Oscar-nominated Lana Turner) - delivering her first kiss (in her 'secret place') to nerdy, shy and virginal Norman Page (Russ Tamblyn) on a large boulder on the hillside overlooking town
• the scene of tormented, wrong-side-of-the-tracks Selena (Hope Lange) fighting off the advances of her drunken stepfather Lucas Cross (Arthur Kennedy) in their tarpaper shack and views of her straining hands holding onto the bedframe before the rape
• the big Labor Day picnic sequence
• the scene of Constance's revelation to her shocked daughter Allison that she was born out of wedlock
• the climactic murder courtroom trial of Selena including Dr. Matthew Swain's (Lloyd Nolan) harsh and unapologetic confession-testimony as a witness for the defense ("I assisted her (Selena) in a miscarriage - a miscarriage of Lucas Cross' baby")

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

In director Rupert Julian's gothic costumed horror film:

• the image of the phantom (Lon Chaney) - "the man of a thousand faces," with a mask covering his acid-scarred face
• his spooky haunting of the Paris Opera House
• the scene of the dropping of a giant chandelier on the opera's audience
• the Phantom's sudden Red Death appearance among the guests at the two-color Technicolor Bal Masque
• the shocking scene of his unmasking by abducted opera singer Christine Dace (Mary Philbin) who sneaks up behind him and reveals the Phantom's skull-like, disfigured monster face

Philadelphia (1993)

In Hollywood's first major, big-budget feature film about AIDS - a landmark film by Jonathan Demme:

• the characters of likeable, kind, forgiving, and non-threatening lawyer Andrew Beckett (Best Actor-winning Tom Hanks) who was afflicted with AIDS and became increasingly emaciated as the disease progressed, and his homophobic and judgmental ambulance-chasing lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington)
• Miller's initial rejection of Beckett, and then his decision to represent him in a wrongful termination lawsuit against his prestigious ex-law firm (senior partner Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards) yells out: "He brought AIDS into our offices - into our men's room!") after seeing how he was shunned in the New York Public Library (nervous librarian (Tracey Walter): "Sir, wouldn't you be more comfortable in a study room?" "No. Would it make you more comfortable?")
• the scene of dying AIDS patient Andrew's powerfully transcendental, impassioned interpretation/translation of a Maria Callas opera aria "La Momma Morta" to Joe while speaking over the music and pulling his IV with him and ending with the words: "I am Love! I am Love!"
• the scene in the beginning of the courtroom case when Joe presents an opening speech: ("Forget everything you've seen on television. There's not going to be any surprise, last minute witnesses..."), his forceful questioning of one of the law firm partners when he asks whether he is homosexual: "Are you a homo? Are you a queer? Are you a faggot? Are you a fruit? Are you gay, sir?"
• and later, when the law firm's defense lawyer Belinda Conine (Mary Steenburgen) - after resorting to low-blow tactics -- mutters under her breath her distaste for the fraudulent case: "I hate this case" to her black partner
• the hospital scene of Beckett with his long-term male lover Miguel Alvarez (Antonio Banderas) after first bidding farewell to family and friends (Andrew's supportive mother Sarah (Joanne Woodward) whispers: "Goodnight, my angel, my sweet boy"), then alone when he turns down the lights, tells Miguel: "Miguel, I'm ready," and then removes his own oxygen mask
• the final scene during the reception held in the Beckett home following the funeral, mourners watched home movies of Andrew's younger days, to the tune of Neil Young's Philadelphia
• the effective use of Bruce Springsteen's tear-jerking Oscar-winning song Streets of Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

In director George Cukor's sophisticated romantic comedy based on Philip Barry's Broadway play - a true classic!:

• the opening argument prologue scene (without dialogue) in which ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) palms heiress and high society girl Tracy Lord's (Katharine Hepburn) face and pushes her backwards into the doorway of a grand estate and to the floor (out of the frame), after she has broken one of his golf clubs into two pieces
• the film's witty dialogue ("The prettiest sight in this fine pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges")
• the champagne drinking and moonlight poolside swimming scene between Tracy and tabloid journalist Macaulay "Mike" Connor (Oscar-winning James Stewart)
• Mike's drunk scene with Dexter
• Mike's marriage proposal to Tracy
• the surprise wedding finale and the freeze-framed last image

The Piano (1993)

In Jane Campion's haunting drama:

• the exotic image of mute, stubborn, pale-skinned 19th century Scottish woman Ada McGrath (Oscar-winning Holly Hunter) playing her beloved piano on a New Zealand beach (brought there as part of her belongings, for an arranged marriage with farmer Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill)) as her daughter Fiona (Anna Paquin) dances and tattooed estate-manager George Baines (Harvey Keitel) watches
• and later, erotic, intimate scenes of piano lessons (and bargained love-making) in Baines' house after he has bought her piano
• and the climactic scene in which the piano plunges into the sea and the drowning Ada - her leg ensnared by the piano's rope, decides against suicide (while envisioning her own death) and chooses to live (although she possibly expires and her rebirth was only a fantasy)

Pickup on South Street (1953)

In Sam Fuller's great hard-boiled crime-noir:

• the remarkable characterization of ex-con pick-pocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark)
• the opening scene on a crowded subway when the flirtatious McCoy steals/fingers (symbolically filmed like a violating rape) from the contents of the purse of prostitute Candy (Jean Peters) - inadvertently obtaining stolen US microfilm to be smuggled out of the country by Communist spies
• the sweaty, rough and tumble love relationship that ultimately develops between the two at his waterfront shack
• McCoy's retort to cops when questioned: "Are you wavin' the flag at me?"
• the thrillingly violent subway chase scene
• the character of elderly pickpocket and informant Moe (Oscar-nominated Thelma Ritter) who wants to avoid being buried in Potter's Field
• the remarkable scene in which Candy (wearing a white robe with a hood) is brutally knocked around her apartment by her shady boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley) - breaking lamps, picture frames and tables before being shot and wounded

Picnic (1955)

In Joshua Logan's widescreen version of William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play:

• the Kansas town's Labor Day picnic sequence
• the incredible circling camera work (by James Wong Howe) during the sensual slow "mating" dance of sexy drifter Hal Carter (William Holden) and Madge Owens (Kim Novak) to "Moonglow" under colorful Japanese lanterns on a boat dock landing at night
• the scene of aging schoolteacher Rosemary (Rosalind Russell) on the porch pathetically on her knees begging an overwhelmed Howard (Oscar-nominated Arthur O'Connell): "Please marry me, Howard"
• the final scene of Carter kissing Madge goodbye as he professed his love ("Listen, baby. You're the only real thing I ever wanted. Ever! You're mine. I've gotta claim what's mine or I'll be nothin' as long as I live...You love me, you know it, you love me, you love me") and then jumped onto a passing freight train
• the amazing helicopter shot of Madge's bus following Hal's freight train - both going in the same direction at the same speed

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

In Peter Weir's mystical, intriguing, and bewildering film about sexual repression:

• the image of young schoolgirls in their prim and constrictive white dresses and stockings - on Valentine's Day in the year 1900 during the Victorian-Edwardian-era in Australia - preparing for an ill-fated journey with strict headmistress Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) to Hanging Rock for a picnic
• the exploration of four girls (including pretty and popular blonde Miranda (Anne Lambert)) among the outcroppings and phallic-shaped forbidden rock crevices as they strip away their layers of clothing before mysteriously disappearing
• the scream of lagging-behind Edith (Christine Schuler) when she witnesses something at the moment of the three other girls' disappearance
• after the final concluding narration - the slow-motion return to the picnic scene with Miranda waving goodbye and the freeze-frame of her turning her head away from the camera - and the film's final fade-out

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

In writer-director Albert Lewin's black and white occult-horror fantasy drama based upon Oscar Wilde's story about a man's soul and its evil destiny:

• the sudden and shocking final view of the hideously-aged painted portrait of Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) (occasionally shown in Technicolor) showing the ravages of sin and withered aging (while he remained young, vain and handsome)
• in the last scene when Dorian stabs the heart of his own image in the picture to release his awful visage, he collapses to the floor and takes on the hideous and deformed characteristics of the painting - as the painting reverts back to its original (while a swinging lamp casts ominous shadows)

Pillow Talk (1959)

In this fluffy 50's 'clean' sex comedy from director Michael Gordon (the first of three successful Day-Hudson romantic comedies):

• the many shared party-line phone scenes, filmed with vertical and other split-screens, between bachelor playboyish neighbor Brad Allen (Rock Hudson) (who pretends to be drawling Texan Rex Stetson to hide his real identity) and virginal interior designer Jan Morrow (Oscar-nominated Doris Day)
• their famed bathtub scene implying that they were playing footsie with each other - across screens

Pink Flamingos (1972)

In director John Waters' ultimate trashy/cult film ("An Exercise in Poor Taste") and homage to the Manson family:

• the scatological, disgusting gross-out scene of overweight transvestite Divine/Babs Johnson (Divine or Harris Glenn Milstead) eating real fresh dog feces in a competition to become the 'World's Filthiest Person' at the film's conclusion
• the other characters in Babs' trailer, including her delinquent son Crackers (Danny Mills), her traveling companion Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce), and her half-dressed, mentally-ill corpulent mother Edie (Edith Massey) who sits in a playpen and eats hard-boiled eggs
• the shocking scene of the killing of a chicken during copulation
• the over-the-top birthday party scene featuring bizarre sex acts (including a singing anal sphincter)
• the killing and cannibalistic eating of a quartet of policemen (reminiscient of Night of the Living Dead (1968))
• Babs' stunning "filth politics" speech to TV reporters: "Blood does more than turn me on, Mr. Vader. It makes me come. And more than the sight of it, I love the taste of it. The taste of hot, freshly killed blood...Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat s--t! Filth is my politics! Filth is my life!" before she executes Raymond (David Lochary) and Connie Marble (Mink Stole) in front of the press