Usually when we think about our favorite movies, we remember the favorite scenes, and within those, the most hard hitting dialogues. But sometimes, even in the movies, silence is golden
This is not a list of scenes from the silent movies era; in fact some of these do have significant dialogue. But in all cases, the enduring impact is achieved by words withheld - and music added.
No 4. The Music Scene from Paths of Glory (1957)
Lesser known that Kubrick's other masterpieces, Paths of Glory is one of my favorite anti-war films. It showed the French military in such poor light that the French Government managed to delay its release in France till 1975. Of course, this was done through diplomacy - not easy to ban a film outright in France, is it?
Let me focus on the scene though. After showing horrific battlefield scenes and exposing the corruption in the French army, Kubrick, in the last five minutes of the movies, introduces the only woman in the movie - Christiane Harlan, who he would marry later in real life.
The setting is a tavern full of French soldiers having some downtime from the war menace. The owner brings a frightened German woman on the stage, and a lot of hooting and whistling ensues. Unsure of what to do, she breaks hesitantly into a German folk song about a victorious soldier marching back home.The drunken revelry subsides and the music soars. The lecherous catcalls give way to sombre silence first and a soulful chorus later. See the men's eyes as the woman transforms from a German plaything to an angel resembling their wife, daughter or sister.
Man - the sexist reference being deliberate and relevant here - is a complex animal.
You have to see the full movie to catch the real impact, but here is the scene itself..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0yVoxUQ7Q8
No 3. The Final Scene from The Bicycle Theieves (1948)
The Bicycle Theives
Born out of the death and destruction left behind by WWII in Italy...
Rated as the greatest movie ever made for a few years following its release...
The movie that supposedly inspired Satyajit Ray to become a filmmaker...
Wherein the director Vittorio de Sica refused to cast Cary Grant and picked up a average joe steelworker in the lead role of Antonio...
Featuring, in my opinion, the finest performance ever seen by a young boy: Enzo Staiola as Bruno...
Cut to the scene. Watch Antonio go through the myriad emotions of deprivation, moral dilemma, desperation, fear and despair without uttering a word. Watch Bruno's world crumble as he yells "Papa! Papa!". Watch this boy's restrain as he redeems his father by offering his soft hands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_lJbSJoIuw
If you havent reached for that handkerchief yet, maybe you need a chest scan to check for a certain missing organ....
No 2. The "Mozart" Scene from The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love Shawshank Redemption, and those who haven't seen it yet.
Either ways, as in the previous scenes, you needn't know anything about the movie to enjoy this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azWVPWGUE1M
Its such a beautifully crafted scene. Andy picks up Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" with tenderness, while contrastingly, the jailor casually flips through Jughead. There is a jarring moment when Andy switches on the loudspeaker, which reinforces the quality of the music. In one shot, the camera moves from ground level upto the loudspeaker perched atop a tall pole, looking down upon the prisoners listening in rapt attention, like a bird soaring up to the heights. I cant resist typing out what Red says in the clip:
"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."
I don't know if these words were necessary, since the music said it all. But no one could have said them like Morgan Freeman.
Incomparable narration. Incomparable music from the incomparable Mozart. Incomparable film-making.
No 1. The Immigration Scene from the Godfather II
Both Godfather I and II have many great scenes, but this one makes it to the top of my list not just for artistic reasons.
I recently visited the Ellis Island immigration Museum in New York. One story I read in one of the displays has stuck with me. The immigration officers were interviewing a Polish immigrant before granting her entry - everyone was welcome except the criminals, the diseased and the "idiots". She was a household maid back in Poland, so to check if she lacked common sense, they asked her "When you wash the stairs, do you do so from top to bottom or from bottom to top?" And she replies "I dont come to America to wash stairs"
This scene encapculates the defining moment in the life of generations of Italian, Irish and Jewish men, women and children who helped shape modern America - the moment they set their eyes upon Lady Liberty. The moment crime, prosecution, famine and poverty in Europe became a distant memory and ahead of them lay the promise of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
A lot has changed since then. America's image has taken a beating thanks to incursions in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fallout of the financial crisis.
But every time I fly to New York, I get goosebumps as I sight The Statue and feel the freedom as I cross the immigration checkpoint:
in a way not much different from tens of millions before me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20zToMCzFw8
This is not a list of scenes from the silent movies era; in fact some of these do have significant dialogue. But in all cases, the enduring impact is achieved by words withheld - and music added.
No 4. The Music Scene from Paths of Glory (1957)
Lesser known that Kubrick's other masterpieces, Paths of Glory is one of my favorite anti-war films. It showed the French military in such poor light that the French Government managed to delay its release in France till 1975. Of course, this was done through diplomacy - not easy to ban a film outright in France, is it?
Let me focus on the scene though. After showing horrific battlefield scenes and exposing the corruption in the French army, Kubrick, in the last five minutes of the movies, introduces the only woman in the movie - Christiane Harlan, who he would marry later in real life. 
Man - the sexist reference being deliberate and relevant here - is a complex animal.
You have to see the full movie to catch the real impact, but here is the scene itself..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0yVoxUQ7Q8
No 3. The Final Scene from The Bicycle Theieves (1948)
The Bicycle Theives
Born out of the death and destruction left behind by WWII in Italy... Rated as the greatest movie ever made for a few years following its release...
The movie that supposedly inspired Satyajit Ray to become a filmmaker...
Wherein the director Vittorio de Sica refused to cast Cary Grant and picked up a average joe steelworker in the lead role of Antonio...
Featuring, in my opinion, the finest performance ever seen by a young boy: Enzo Staiola as Bruno...
Cut to the scene. Watch Antonio go through the myriad emotions of deprivation, moral dilemma, desperation, fear and despair without uttering a word. Watch Bruno's world crumble as he yells "Papa! Papa!". Watch this boy's restrain as he redeems his father by offering his soft hands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_lJbSJoIuw
If you havent reached for that handkerchief yet, maybe you need a chest scan to check for a certain missing organ....
No 2. The "Mozart" Scene from The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love Shawshank Redemption, and those who haven't seen it yet.
Either ways, as in the previous scenes, you needn't know anything about the movie to enjoy this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azWVPWGUE1M
Its such a beautifully crafted scene. Andy picks up Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" with tenderness, while contrastingly, the jailor casually flips through Jughead. There is a jarring moment when Andy switches on the loudspeaker, which reinforces the quality of the music. In one shot, the camera moves from ground level upto the loudspeaker perched atop a tall pole, looking down upon the prisoners listening in rapt attention, like a bird soaring up to the heights. I cant resist typing out what Red says in the clip:
"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."I don't know if these words were necessary, since the music said it all. But no one could have said them like Morgan Freeman.
Incomparable narration. Incomparable music from the incomparable Mozart. Incomparable film-making.
No 1. The Immigration Scene from the Godfather II
Both Godfather I and II have many great scenes, but this one makes it to the top of my list not just for artistic reasons.
I recently visited the Ellis Island immigration Museum in New York. One story I read in one of the displays has stuck with me. The immigration officers were interviewing a Polish immigrant before granting her entry - everyone was welcome except the criminals, the diseased and the "idiots". She was a household maid back in Poland, so to check if she lacked common sense, they asked her "When you wash the stairs, do you do so from top to bottom or from bottom to top?" And she replies "I dont come to America to wash stairs"
This scene encapculates the defining moment in the life of generations of Italian, Irish and Jewish men, women and children who helped shape modern America - the moment they set their eyes upon Lady Liberty. The moment crime, prosecution, famine and poverty in Europe became a distant memory and ahead of them lay the promise of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of HappinessA lot has changed since then. America's image has taken a beating thanks to incursions in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fallout of the financial crisis. But every time I fly to New York, I get goosebumps as I sight The Statue and feel the freedom as I cross the immigration checkpoint:
in a way not much different from tens of millions before me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20zToMCzFw8
pls do a part 2 in this ......my fav movie sequencr.
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