David Thomson (The Biographical Dictionary of Film) has come up with another book of film lists. Moments That Made the Movies doesn't focus on the best or the greatest, though, but on "moments that have stayed in my memory," be they a few seconds or an entire scene, culled from 70 films stretching over more than a century of cinematic history.
Some of Thomson's choices are unsurprising, like the final scene in The Searchers or Cary Grant chased by the plane in North by Northwest. Psycho is represented here, but it's the scene with Norman and Marion having supper at the motel, "maybe the best conversation in all of Hitchcock." Other, less expected choices include Jimmy Stewart holding up panties in Anatomy of a Murder or Dean Stockwell lip-synching to Roy Orbison in Blue Velvet. These, along with Thomson's other moments, are captured in a few pages each, with 250 glorious stills accompanying the brief analyses. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher