Citizen Kane (1941)

The opening prologue including the shot of media tycoon Charles Foster Kane's (director and co-writer Orson Welles) estate of Xanadu and the uttering of the mysterious word "R-o-s-e-b-u-d" by the giant rubbery lips of a dying, mustached man as a crystal globe/ball of a snowy scene (of a snow-covered house) falls from his hand and shatters, the "March of Time" newsreel sequence, the scene in the smoky projection room where shafts of light come from the projection booth and the reporters are told to investigate the enigmatic meaning of Kane's last word, the deep-focus scene as young Kane plays in the snow outside and his future guardian talks to his parents inside, the clever transition when a picture of a newspaper staff comes to life, the Walter P. Thatcher library flashback sequence, the famous breakfast montage scene that symbolizes the deterioration of Kane's marriage, the dolly shot/dissolve into the skylight of Susan Alexander's (Dorothy Comingore) nightclub, Kane's explanation to his accountant: "You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in 60 years"; Bernstein's (Everett Sloane) speech about his memory of a girl with a white dress and a parasol, Kane's memorable political speech, the memorable boom shot upward to two stage hands who comment on Susan's disastrous operatic debut, Kane's firing of Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and his finishing of the negative review of his wife's performance, the images of Xanadu's huge fireplace and Susan hunched over a crossword puzzle, the startling jump cut to a screaming bird, and the scene of Kane's angry furniture-destroying rage after Susan's departure, his stumbling walk through the mirrored hall, the panoramic view of Kane's basement warehouse, and the final fadeout scene from the time the reporters start up the stairs to a shot that closes in on the incineration of the sled in the furnace -- (revealing the meaning of "Rosebud"), and the smoke rising toward the sky, in one of filmdom's most celebrated films with many landmark cinematic techniques (including dramatic lighting and deep-focus)

City Lights (1931)

The Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) mocking of talkies in the opening scene, the Tramp's encounters with a drunken millionaire who repeatedly attempts suicide, the marvelous pantomime of the prize fight episode in which the Tramp dances around the ring to evade his opponent; the slapstick scene when the blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) pulls a thread and unravels the Tramp's long underwear, the hilarious spaghetti-confetti sequence in which the Tramp confuses the spaghetti on his plate with strings of streamers; and the tearful, sentimental ending when the Tramp first sees the blind girl - now with restored sight in the flower shop window of her successful business, and the moment that she takes pity on a trampish beggar - and simultaneously recognizes and realizes that he is her unlikely benefactor-savior - shown with a closeup of the Tramp's face and smile (with a rose stem in his mouth) when she identifies him -- in this memorable Charlie Chaplin silent film

Cleopatra (1934)

Queen of Egypt Cleopatra's (midriff-bearing Claudette Colbert) seduction of both Caesar (Warren Williams) and Antony (Henry Wilcoxon); including the infamous barge/bordello scene that began with near-naked dancing girls accompanying an ox (with a dancer riding upon it and stroking its side) - and the remarkable sequence in which 'clams' that were hauled up in a net were revealed to be more dancing-girls wrapped in seaweed, followed by leopard-skinned animals/girls led by trainers with whips - and more! - as a prelude to her seduction of Antony; and in the film's conclusion - her memorable live snake-to-breast death scene ("Now give me the basket - it holds victory"), in director Cecil B. DeMille's classic

Cleopatra (1963)

The pageantry of the spectacular, triumphant entrance scene of Queen Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) riding into the Eternal City of Rome on a giant sphinx behind a processional of dancers and chariots, and wearing an elaborate costume, in this expensive, over-budget sumptuous epic by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Clerks (1994)

The appalling scene in which New Jersey video store clerk Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) orders X-rated stock (with really filthy titles like "Cum Clean") over the phone in front of customers at the counter - while a Mom (Connie O'Connor) and her young daughter wish to purchase "Happy Scrappy Hero Pup"; also the ludicrous Star Wars dialogue ("...any independent contractors who were working on the uncompleted Death Star were innocent victims when they were destroyed by the Rebels"), and the "I'm 37!?" scene when girlfriend Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) tells a shocked Dante (Brian O'Halloran) the honest truth about her sexual history (Dante: "...I understood that you had sex with three different guys and that's all you said!...How many?...How many d--ks have you sucked?" and Veronica's reply: "Something like - 36..." and including him made 37), in this low-budget comedy by writer/director Kevin Smith

Cliffhanger (1993)

The opening, palm-sweating scene of stranded climber Sarah (Michelle Joyner) falling to her death into an abyss when her harness broke while attached to a taut steel cable thousands of feet above an abyss - and there was a vain attempt at a daring rescue by Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone); also the breathtaking scenery and helicopter shots, in Renny Harlin's action-thriller

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The opening close-up of slyly grinning hoodlum Alex (Malcolm McDowell) with one eye decorated with a false eyelash staring directly at the camera, followed by the pull-back view of him lounging with his 'droogie' friends in a milk bar with white furniture of nude women - accompanied by the voice-over beginning with: "There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs...," the delinquent gang's stylized "ultra-violence" rampages including the fight scene in an old theatre with a rival gang synchronized with music from Rossini's The Thieving Magpie, the scene at novelist Mr. Alexander's (Patrick Magee) futuristic home when the droogs wear masks and deliver brutal kicks to the old man's body during the rape of his wife - rhythmically punctuated with the lyrics of Singin' In The Rain, the persistent use of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Alex's ecstasy: "Oh bliss, bliss and heaven..."; the sped-up, slapstick orgy scene accompanied by the William Tell Overture in Alex's bedroom with two teenage girls that he just met at a record store, the scene of Alex's brutalization of the 'Catlady' (Miriam Karlin) with an enormous penis sculpture/weapon, Alex's "aversion therapy" brainwashing against sex and violence with his eyes painfully held open, and the scene with an almost-nude woman to demonstrate its effectiveness, the use of unique doublespeak slang-dialogue throughout, and Alex's final closeup and line: "I was cured all right," with his fantasy of frolicking in slow-motion on piles of white snow while making love to (or raping?) a nude woman, while two rows of Victorian Londoners sedately applauded, followed by Gene Kelly's original rendition of Singin' in the Rain during the end credits, in Stanley Kubrick's futuristic film adapted from Anthony Burgess' novel

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The discovery in a northern Mexico desert during a sandstorm of a collection of vintage fighter aircraft from World War II, the scene of the lights/power going out section by section in Indiana, the moment at a railroad crossing when electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) signals a second vehicle to pass his truck - and the UFO unexpectedly rises and bathes him in brilliant light, young Barry's (Cary Guffey) view of the swirling clouds, his exclamation "toys" when his playthings are brought to life, and the opening of his door to an orangish light-show; the encounter of "the third kind" when everything goes haywire in the house and a mesmerized Barry is abducted by aliens, the recurring mental images of a huge mountain, the pattern of musical sound waves in five tones that signals communication; the scene of the dazzling hovering and the first sight of the arrival and landing at Devils Tower (Wyoming) of an immense, circular, revolving alien 'mother-ship' in the presence of newsmen and scientists; and the finale in which the doors open, humans who have been missing emerge, and Roy is chosen or 'adopted' and taken into the 'mother-ship' craft, and one of the aliens says farewell with hand signals to UN scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut), in Steven Spielberg's memorable sci-fi film

Clueless (1995)

Alicia Silverstone's portrayal of self-centered Beverly Hills Valley-Girl high-schooler Cher Horowitz, with her distinctive lingo, including such expressions as: the PC-correct "hymenally challenged" (instead of virgin), "surfing the crimson wave", "Baldwin" (meaning a very handsome male), "Betty" (Cher's term for the perfect girl), and "Monet" - ("It's like a painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess"); the opening scene in which she picks out her outfit for school; the scene of her driving test with a DMV testing officer ("...Off hand, I'd say you failed") and the LA freeway driving scene; Cher's father Mel's (Dan Hedaya) warning to a date: "Anything happens to my daughter, I've got a .45 and a shovel. I doubt anybody would miss you", and his surprise at her improved report card; the scene of Cher's mugging when she is forced to lie down on the pavement, and the debate scene in which Cher talks about Haitian (pronounced 'Hay-tee-ans') immigration, in writer/director Amy Heckerling's teen-oriented comedy - a modern update of Jane Austen's classic Emma

The Cocoanuts (1929)

The many insults and attempts by corrupt real estate salesman and hotel manager Hammer (Groucho Marx) at courting wealthy widow Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont): ("Are you sure your husband's dead?...Tonight, when the moon is sneaking around the clouds, I'll be sneaking around you"); also the crazy scene between two adjoining hotel rooms, and the famous "viaduct"/"Why a Duck?" routine between con man Chico (Chico Marx) and Hammer with a wet blueprint: (Hammer: "Now here is a little peninsula and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland." Chico: "Why a duck?"); the rigged land auction scene led by Hammer ("You can have any kind of a home you want to. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stucco") during which Chico does most of the bidding; and the "I Want My Shirt" scene after the brothers have played tic-tac-toe on Detective Hennessey's (Basil Ruysdael) undershirt, in the Marx Brothers' first film

Cocoon (1985)

The life-inspiring scene in which three seniors: Art Selwyn (Oscar-winning Don Ameche), Ben Luckett (Wilford Brimley), and Joe Finley (Hume Cronyn) are rejuvenated to life after swimming in the cocoon-filled swimming pool and exude vitality and spunk toward their wives and fellow retirement home residents; also Art's amazing solo break-dancing scene at a disco dance club - ending with his salute to the appreciative younger audience; the sexy scene in the swiming pool in which gorgeous Kitty (Tahnee Welch, Raquel Welch's daughter) demonstrated how alien Antareans express their affection ("we show ourselves...it's very fulfilling") - without touching - to charter boat operator Jack Bonner (Steve Guttenberg); the sad scene of the death of Bernie Lefkowitz's (Jack Gilford) wife Rosie (Herta Ware) after which he carried her limp body over to the non-functioning life-giving pool near the Florida retirement community to vainly revive her; also the goodbye scene of Ben telling his grandson David (Barret Oliver) goodbye while standing knee-deep in water - and what he would miss on Earth (grandsons, fishing holes, hotdogs, baseball games, etc.) by going away forever to another planet, but also what he would gain ("When we get where we're going, we'll never be sick, we won't get any older, and we won't ever die"); and the scene of the boat-load of seniors being transported upward into a departing Antarean spaceship for the unknown planet in the finale, in Ron Howard's sci-fi fantasy

The Color of Money (1986)

The well-choreographed, Atlantic City pool contest-competition with trick shots between resurrected "Fast Eddie" Felson (Paul Newman in an Oscar-winning role - his first) and hot-shot Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise); Felson's words of advice: "Sometimes if you lose, you win," and "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned"; and the final anti-climactic scene of the older and cagier Felson shooting a powerful break shot while confidently retorting to Vincent: "Hey, I'm back!", in Martin Scorsese's sequel to the original film The Hustler (1961)

Colorado Territory (1949)

The train robbery sequence, and the exciting conclusion in which wounded, sought-after outlaw Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) made a last stand in rocky mountain outcroppings with mixed-race, El Paso dance-hall partner Colorado Carson (Virginia Mayo) standing next to him with guns ablazing toward the authorities; she made an heroic effort to defend them, but they were outnumbered and shot down; at the moment of their fateful deaths, they poignantly clasped their hands together, in Raoul Walsh's and Warner Bros' noirish western-adventure (W.R. Burnett's novel High Sierra recast as a western)

Coming Home (1978)

The tender love affair between housewife Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) and embittered and partially paralyzed, wheelchair-bound war veteran Luke Martin (Jon Voight) while she was working as a volunteer at a veteran's hospital, and her subsequent violent breakup with returning husband-vet Bob (Bruce Dern) (Sally: "It happened. I needed somebody. I was lonely..." Bob: "Bulls--t...if it's over with us, it's over...What I'm saying ISSSS! I do not belong in this house. And they're saying that I don't belong over there"); also Luke's "there's a choice to be made here" speech to high school students, in Hal Ashby's definitive, Oscar-winning anti-war Vietnam film

The Company of Wolves (1984)

The troubled dreams of a pubescent, almost 13 years old Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) on the verge of sexual awakening, wearing her sister's lipstick (and symbolically Little Red Riding Hood), that express her fearful anxieties about men and approaching womanhood and sexuality, the scene of her "killing" off her older sister Alice (Georgia Slowe) in the woods by wolves during a revenge-dream; also matronly Granny's (Angela Lansbury) cautionary fairy tales and advice ("Once upon a time...") about wolves while knitting a red protective cloak for Rosaleen: "Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle," and "Oh, they're nice as pie until they've had their way with you. But once the bloom is gone... oh, the beast comes out" - and her advice to not stray from the path (although Rosaleen eventually does and meets a handsome and tempting Huntsman (Micha Bergese) on her way to Granny's house - who transforms into a wolf with its snout forcing its way out through his gaping mouth, and encourages her to rid herself of her shawl); also the scene of a pregnant witchy forest woman (Dawn Archibald) cursing everyone at a 19th century wedding party and horrifically transforming the newlyweds and their families into long-snouted werewolves; also one of Granny's tales in which a young woman's missing husband (Stephen Rea) appears many years later in her log cabin and rips open his face to expose his "hairy" insides in another werewolf transformation scene, and the final scene of a lone wolf crashing into Rosaleen's real waking-life bedroom window as she screams, in director Neil Jordan's stylish fantasy horror film that updated the folklore fable/fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood

Compulsion (1959)

A Clarence Darrow-like Jonathan Wilk (Orson Welles) and his spellbinding three-day (10 minutes in the film, and considered the longest true monologue in film history) argument against capital punishment ("They say you can only get justice by shedding their last drop of blood. Isn't a lifetime behind prison bars enough for this mad act?...You hang these boys, it will mean that in this land of ours, a court of law could not help but bow down to public opinion"), in director Richard Fleischer's courtroom drama loosely based on the famous 1924 murder trial of Leopold and Loeb

Contact (1997)

The stunning opening sequence - a long, zooming pull back shot from the planet Earth past other planets and the end of our solar system (accompanied by TV and radio transmissions on the soundtrack that stretch back in time) - culminating as a bright dot of reflected 'sun'-light in the eye of nine year-old Ellie Arroway (later Jodie Foster) who dreams of alien contact; also the scene when Ellie travels to Vega and is so moved by her experience that she breathes reverentially: "Some celestial event. No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea... I had no idea..."; and the scene of Ellie's testimony about her experience ("I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever...a vision of the universe"), in director Robert Zemeckis' space exploration film

Contempt (1963, Fr) (aka Le Mepris)

The opening scene with an exploitative extended view of a fully nude Brigitte Bardot (as unsatisfied and bored wife Camille Javal) lying face down in bed with her screenwriter husband Paul (Michel Piccoli) - the scene, shot with a colored filter, was ordered by Italian producer Carlo Ponti, to capitalize on her immense popularity, although it desexualized the sex kitten with her questioning dialogue about her own objectified body parts: "Do you like my breasts ... my ankles ... my knees ... my thighs?", in New Wave film-maker Jean-Luc Godard's unrated European import - a marriage drama

The Conversation (1974)

The technical brilliance of the opening sequence in which an alleged adulterous couple (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) (heard saying "He's not hurting anyone" - "Neither are we") in a crowded Union Square in San Francisco are under surveillance by wire-tapping expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman); the mesmerizing sequence in which Harry repeatedly replays and discloses the hidden dialogue on the audio tapes ("He'd kill us if he got the chance") - similar to a photographic scene in Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966) - and 'thinks' he knows what will transpire; Harry's guilt-plagued obsession to follow the couple to the Jack Tar Hotel on Sunday at 3 o'clock (Room 773) for a startling murderous revelation, and the devastating ending as Harry sits amidst his destroyed apartment after receiving a phone call: "We'll be listening to you" - playing his melancholy-sounding saxophone with the camera encircling him, in Francis Ford Coppola's thriller

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Rebel prisoner Luke (Paul Newman) and other new convicts having the 'rules' of the house given to them by Carr (Clifton James): "Them clothes got laundry numbers on 'em. You remember your number and always wear the ones that has your number. Any man forgets his number spends the night in the box..."; the titillating scene of a sexy teenage girl (Joy Harmon) - the warden's daughter? - frustrating the prisoners by soaping up, pressing her sudsy breasts against the window, and hosing off herself and her car in plain sight ("drivin' us crazy and lovin' every minute of it"); the epic brutal boxing match with boss convict Dragline (George Kennedy) in which Luke refuses to give up by staying down on the ground - and thereby receives a beating; the entertaining, one-hour 50 hard-boiled egg-eating contest (50) that Luke wins; the image of the guard's impenetrable sunglasses; the prison visit of Luke's sick mother Arletta (Jo Van Fleet) who talks to him from the back of a pickup truck - and the scene of his strumming a guitar singing the irreverent "plastic Jesus" song following his mother's death; the nasty prison boss Captain's (Strother Martin) famous line to defiant Luke: "What we got here is failure to communicate"; and the escape attempt in the concluding sequence with the final Christ-figure imagery and the smile on Luke's face as he sasses back ("What we've got here is a failure to communicate") when he is killed (and his epitaph: "he's a natural-born world-shaker"), in director Stuart Rosenberg's popular prison chain-gang drama with numerous Christ references and images

The Court Jester (1956)

The amusing, convoluted dialogue between medieval valet/court jester Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) and ambitious court witch Griselda (Mildred Natwick) about a riddle, with instructions on how to avoid a poisoned drink: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle [in the flagon with the dragon]; the chalice from the palace...has the brew that is true"; and the spell cast on the jester by Griselda that can hilariously be undone - and reinstated - by just a snap of the fingers, in co-directors Melvin Frank's and Norman Panama's classic musical comedy that spoofed medieval swashbucklers

The Covered Wagon (1923)

The first outdoor views of the pioneering Western frontier, including the rugged trail, Conestoga wagons, plains, ranges, and buttes (of Utah and Nevada), in director James Cruze's early epic western

Creep Show (1982)

In one of the five horror anthology tales: "They're Creeping Up on You" - the scene of the swarm-attack of cockroaches on racist eccentric millionaire Upson Pratt (E. G. Marshall) in his sterile penthouse, followed by the creepy, sickening sight of cockroaches emerging from within his corpse, in writer Stephen King and director George A. Romero's satirical horror anthology and tribute to EC's horror comics of the 1950's

Crime Wave (1954)

The tale of an ex-convict and reformed parolee Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) trying to go straight with wife Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), yet trapped and haunted by his former life when a wounded former cellmate kills a cop and he is pursued as a suspect and handcuffed by a relentless Detective Lieutenant Sims (Sterling Hayden) who presumes that he's guilty ("once a crook, always a crook"), in director Andre De Toth's low-budget crime drama