Rome, Open City (1945, It.) (aka Roma: Citta Aperta)

In Roberto Rosselini's landmark, neo-realistic post-war classic:

• the shocking, realistic scene in which pregnant widow Pina (Anna Magnani) runs after a military truck hysterically screaming the name of her lithographer fiancee and underground leader Francesco (Francesco Grandjacquet), when she is abruptly machine-gunned and killed on her planned wedding day, in front of her ten year-old son Marcello (Vito Annichiarico) and brave parish priest Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi)

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

In director Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespearean romance-drama of star-crossed lovers:

• the two young teenage leads, especially the beautiful Olivia Hussey as Juliet
• Romeo (Leonard Whiting) and Juliet's first meeting at the Capulets' dance and their "palm to palm" dialogues
• the classic balcony scene
• the rousing crowd and realistic fight scenes
• the wedding scene at the altar of the chapel
• their controversial nude scene during their honeymoon
• the tragic ending sequences including Juliet's potion speech
• Romeo's pre-poisoning speech ("Why art thou yet so fair?") and Juliet's "happy dagger" suicide
• the climactic ending with the double funeral procession and tolling bells

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

In director David Mirkin's buddy comedy:

• the scenes of vapid blonde S. Californian Romy White (Mira Sorvino) and empty-headed Michele Weinberger (Lisa Kudrow) dancing at the club
• their reminiscing about their high school years while looking through a yearbook
• the bragging monologue (a faux business-woman tale told at Sagebrush High School's 1987 ten-year reunion in Tucson, Arizona) to the A-listers about how she and empty-headed Michele invented Post-It Notes

A Room With a View (1986, UK)

In director James Ivory's elegant adaptation of E.M. Forster's 1908 novel:

• the character of young feisty, passionate and ravishing Britisher Miss Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) whose heart and sexuality were awakened during a chaperoned trip to Florence with her spinister chaperone Aunt Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith)
• her facing of a choice between sensuous passion (after an unexpected impetuous kiss in a wheat barley field) with handsome and intense free-spirited admirer George Emerson (Julian Sands) and an engagement to prissy suitor Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis)
• the scene in which Lucy discovers George, her brother Freddy (Rupert Graves) and overweight Rev. Mr. Beebe (Simon Callow) swimming naked in a pond and cavorting around
• the final scene of Lucy honeymooning with new beau George at the Italian pensione where they first met, residing in the "room with a view" and kissing each other at the window

Rope (1948)

In Alfred Hitchcock's first film in color:

• the unique technique of long periods of uncut action (basically eight 10-minute takes) appearing to make the film one continuous take - with clever splices between takes

Rose Marie (1936)

In W.S. Van Dyke's musical romance:

• the lovely scenic backdrops
• the beautiful celebrated duet "Indian Love Call" between Sgt. Bruce (Nelson Eddy) and Marie de Flor (Jeanette MacDonald)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

In director Roman Polanski's effective horror film - based on Ira Levin's novel:

• Rosemary's (Mia Farrow) constant torment and guilt regarding her pregnancy and her lapsed Catholicism
• her hallucinatory recollection of a rape by the devil ("This is no dream - this is really happening!")
• the creepy neighbors Minnie Castevet (Oscar-winning Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer)
• her first viewing of the child ("What have you done to its eyes?") amidst the neighboring Satanic cult
• her nurturing/maternal response toward the black-draped baby crib and her baby Adrian (Satan's son or the Anti-Christ?)

Roxanne (1987)

In director Fred Schepisi's comedy updating of the 17th century soldier with a giant nose:

• the marvelous retort/monologue that long-nosed, witty modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac - Washington State fire chief Charlie "C. D." Bales (Steve Martin) - delivers to a boorish bully in a bar (who calls him "Big-Nose"), challenging him by suggesting twenty better, more imaginative insults for his own oversized nose:
  ("Obvious: Excuse me, is that your nose, or did a bus park on your face; Meteorological: Everybody take cover, she's going to blow!; Fashionable: You know, you could de-emphasize your nose if you wore something larger, like Wyoming; Personal: Well, here we are, just the three of us; Punctual: All right, Dellman, your nose was on time, but you were fifteen minutes late; Envious: Ooh, I wish I were you. Gosh, to be able to smell your own ear; Naughty: Pardon me sir, some of the ladies have asked if you wouldn't mind putting that thing away...")

Royal Wedding (1951)

In director Stanley Donen's romantic musical:

• the amazing, most spectacular dance scene ever created - after being lovestruck by Anne Ashmond (Sarah Churchill), Tom Bowen (Fred Astaire) tap-dances energetically in the number "You're All The World To Me" on the walls and ceiling of a London hotel room
  [the set was devised as a rotating cube that rotated at the same speed as the strapped-down camera]

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

In director Leo McCarey's western comedy:

• the scene of a slightly drunken Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton) in a Western barroom masterfully reciting Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" to an audience of cowhands and bar drinkers - the film's climactic high point

The Rules of Attraction (2002)

In director Roger Avary's love-triangle romantic comedy:

• the scene in which the camera tracks a single delicate snowflake as it descends and lands on the corner of just-rejected lover Sean Bateman's (James Van Der Beek) eye - and melts into a tear, after Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon) has broken up with him

The Rules of the Game (1939, Fr.) (aka La Regle du Jeu)

In director Jean Renoir's great classic - a satirical observation of bourgeois life and the social class system:

• the setting of a weekend hunting party at La Colinière - a French chateau at the start of World War II - for this dark upstairs-downstairs bedroom farce concerning the affairs of the aristocrats and the lowly servants
• the frequent use of the catchphrase, spoken by director Renoir himself: "Everyone has their reasons"
• the much celebrated, darkly disturbing "Dance Macabre" by the servants of the house, dressed as skeletal figures with umbrellas, who perform a grotesque dance of death and cavort among the rich audience, eerily foreshadowing the cold murder of lovelorn, philandering pilot André Jurieux (Roland Totaine)
• the incredible dolly shot from left to right as Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio) shows off a large-sized music box on a stage
• the sweet, heart-breaking scene in which upper-class heiress Christine de la Cheyniest (Nora Gregor) admits she loves her close friend - the clownish, middle-aged, low-brow Mr. Octave (director Jean Renoir) in a greenhouse where they kiss each other passionately and hopelessly, knowing their love affair is an impossibility
• the most famous key scene - the graphic slaughter of pheasants and rabbits - and the metaphoric meaning behind the vivid killings

Run Lola Run (1998, Ger.)

In director Tom Tykwer's relentlessly-thrilling hit film:

• the three breath-taking attempts of short red-haired Lola (Franke Potente) to help her drug-dealing boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) by running and acquiring replacement cash of $100,000 marks in 20 minutes so that he doesn't have to rob a grocery store - and have them suffer fateful consequences
• notable was the film's techno/industrial soundtrack and the use of a mix of visual styles
• Manni's reassuring words to Lola at the film's end after a third successful attempt, asking her: "Did you run here? Don't worry. Everything's okay. Come on"