Shall We Dance?
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 04:40AM Just watched Harold and Maude again, classic film. Bud Cort as Harold with his banjo dancing along the California cliffs made me think about my favorite dance scenes in movies (exluding musicals).
For your consideration:
1. Some Like It Hot - Jack Lemon in drag and Joe E. Brown, as funny as it gets. Watch it and try not to laugh.
2. Witness - Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis dancing and romancing to Sam Cooke's Wonderful World played on a car radio. Tension, humor, tension and humor again as they circle the forbidden. His best film.
3. Scent of a Woman - Al Pacino and the lovely Gabrielle Anwar (one of my movie girlfriends) made me want to learn the tango the moment I watched them. The shy but beautiful and kind girl, the blind man whose asked for a count off of the dance floor dimensions. If the film was only as long as the dance scene he would have still deserved the Oscar.
4. My Darling Clementine - Henry Fonda in one of John Ford's classics, watch the way the discomfort and social stiffness gives way to the frontier dance, as Fonda makes every frame of film iconic. Ford did community dance scenes as good as anyone ever did.
5. The Big Easy - Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, New Orleans sexual tension and heat, laissez les bon temps roule! Va Va Voom.
6. Its A Wonderful Life - Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed dancing over the underground pool, and then in it. The last few steps and notes of the song on their walk home. Capra hits a home run.
What did I forget?
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Reader Comments (8)
One of the best 'dance' scenes has to be Tim Robbins solo effort in 'Nothing To Lose', which you can see here....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60SPN_sIpeA&feature=related
Just to inform you - in the previous scene he spilt petrol (gas) over himself whilst filling the car.
Carlito seeking out his old girlfriend Gail and watching from a roof across the street as she attends ballet class. Carlito in the pouring rain is using a dustbin lid as an umbrella.....all topped off with some beautiful operatic music. Only a few seconds long, but its one of my fav movies.
aaaah, great to hear that someone else remembers the wonderful Harold and Maude.
RS - Yes, a touching moment that shows his aspiration for a life away from the mean streets.
Harolsd and Maude is an all time clasic black comedy,
If you want to watch the best political film ever made rent A Lion in Winter Peter O'Toole & Katherine Hepburn
as for dance films I default to Fred Astaire
The scene in " Scent of a Woman " is wonderful.
As is the movie.
( from trial scene )
Out of order, I show you out of order. You don't know what out of order is, Mr. Trask. I'd show you, but I'm too old, I'm too tired, I'm too fuckin' blind. If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a FLAMETHROWER to this place! Out of order? Who the hell do you think you're talkin' to? I've been around, you know? There was a time I could see. And I have seen. Boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there isn't nothin' like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that. You think you're merely sending this splendid foot soldier back home to Oregon with his tail between his legs, but I say you are... executin' his soul! And why? Because he's not a Bairdman. Bairdmen. You hurt this boy, you're gonna be Baird bums, the lot of ya. And Harry, Jimmy, Trent, wherever you are out there, FUCK YOU TOO!
I regret that I cannot think of any dance scenes from classic (non-musical) movies, it's just not the sort of thing I look out for when watching such films.
The only 'dance scene' I can recall from contemporary TV is the scene from Season 2 ep.5 of "The Office", in which the wonderfully written character 'David Brent' takes his pathological desire for popularity to absurd lengths.
I must get round to writing a post titled "In praise of Gervais".