Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Moments in movies that make me cry

As I sat the other night sobbing again just from READING the Television Without Pity synopsis from the Buffy episode "The Prom", it occurred to me (not a real revelation) that I am a bit of a weeper (a trait I am sure I inherited from my mum: cue memory of us passing across paper-tissues to each other as we silently, but predictably, start blubbing watching stuff on TV whilst my dad looked bemused).

Anyway, it stirred me to construct this list of 'guaranteed to make me cry' moments from some favoured movies.


* Singing "The Marseillaise" in Casablanca (the ending gets me, of course, but when Yvonne stands up to sing - with tears streaming down her face - I'm a big pile of mushy sobs... and so is Cloud)

* Kisses - Alfredo's secret reel from Cinema Paradiso (my mum and I went to see this and there was much passing of paper-hankies)

* "Oh Captain, My Captain" - standing on the desks at the end of Dead Poets' Society (again, one I took my mum to see and it still draws a tear)

* "I like New York in June... how about you?" - redemption in The Fisher King (and the waltz scene)

* An angel's rescue - pausing time in The Hudsucker Proxy

* Running through Bedford Falls; the town clubbing together; Clarence gets his wings - sobbing all the way to the end of It's a Wonderful Life

* Not quite out of the building: "This is from Mathilde" - Leon (This also qualifies for my 'wishing it could be different' list AND my 'lip-biting revelation/gear-shift' list)

* A kiss of life for 'the one' - The Matrix (awh come on, you have to be a little hard of heart to not feel something for that. I know they milked the concept dry in the two sequels, but the original really worked)

* "He was not mine" - the funeral poem from Out of Africa (again, one of my mum films but it never fails to move me)

* "Stop all the clocks..." - the funeral poem from Four Weddings and a Funeral (putting poetry into the public domain is never a bad thing in my mind, even from this cheesy film)

* Driving across the canyon - Thelma and Louise's final escape (though the belated decision by Harvey Keitel to try and stop them also qualifies on my 'wishing it could be different' list)

* Moving on - Truly, Madly, Deeply (that was a full box of hankies on a Sunday afternoon for me and my mum)

* Taking a chance on the real world - a final farewell from The Truman Show (one of the most uplifting bits of teariness here)

* The ending of Twelve Monkeys - the looking around in the airport, eyes alighting, contact made (and, in a curious way, so is this)

Yes, I think my mum did pass on her sobbing gene (the comment "mum would have loved that" still often comes from me when watching stuff) and maybe I am too much of a sentimentalist --- even Love Actually got me in tears, but I'm putting that partly down to hormones. Even so, these are some lovely heart-warming/heart-stopping moments in film. And I felt they were worth recording.



2 comments:

Matt_c said...

Thought I'd leave a comment as this is perhaps the post's third outing as it were (original post, Norm, Best of...) and crying in movies in not to be sniffed at (and as you say no-one's commented). And your blog's good to, so...

I was surprised by your tears during The Matrix because it's, y'know, fantasy sci-fi where anything can happen, and Neo was never going to die because of all the Christ metaphors and stuff. But then we've got all the music and the explosions and giant robot squid so I guess that does make sense.

I always cry without fail when young Esteban dies in All About My Mother and when old Esteban appears at the graveyard. Sometimes a jsut tear, sometimes more.
I also always cry with joy at the end of 8 1/2. It's just so beautiful and sad all wrapped into one.

Sorry if I spoiled the 'No Comments' thing for you...

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Cheers Matt C for your comment and no I don't mind at all this post getting a comment at last, cos it has been well picked up (not least thanks to Norm)...

Yeah, I know its well cheesy to cry at the Matrix but its the adrenelin thing that gets me that way after all that excitement.

And your choices are very fine (probably a bit more highbrow than mine!!)

Ta for dropping by!