Not necessarily in a good way. You know the things like the "Shower Scene" in Psycho that caused people to be anxious when taking a shower, Jaws etc.

For me,
Tattoo with Bruce Dern. Never looked at a pay phone, or even a co-workers phone that I was forced to use without recalling him cleaning hand sets.

Four Rooms with Tim Roth. When I go into a hotel room I always wonder if there is a dead hooker under the bed. That scene made me laugh hysterically, but it has also had a long term effect.

That girl from The Ring crawling out from the TV.
I almost bought a LCD screen because of her.
She can't come from a LCD, can she ?
A friend of mine thought this film was boring and ridiculous.
Now I realize that seeing a videodrome trailer (with that gun coming out from the tv) when I was a kid might have something to do with my stress reaction to The Ring.

Videodrome did it first.

The scene in Mulholland Drive where the homeless man/witch creature appears from behind the dumpster shook me deeply when I first saw it.

Fire Walk with me was also very disturbing, particularly when the Masked Boy was dancing around and when David Bowie appeared.

Not so much as change my life, but Lost Highway's walk into that dark room. That one still haunts me as perfect example of cinematic terror. That it mimicked some old nightmares didn't help.

lynch is good at doing that implacable menace. Remember when Dennis Hopper did that disappearing thing in Blue Velvet? It was a simple trick, but very disturbing.

A couple of David Lynch's films -
Eraserhead - in a bad way - I still get a little nauseas - like when the baby is unwrapped and has no skin, or when the couple is sleeping and the girl keeps grinding her teeth and starts to pull out zygotes. (I still say that David takes his penchant for the shocking too far - beyond art - but that's another topic).
Blue Velvet - where Dennis Hopper is inhaling cocaine (edit: or whatever it is) through an oxygen mask in the limo, and talks into Isabella Rossellini's vagina.

Blade Runner - so many sublime scenes.

Fellini's Satyricon - also magical scenes - that man had an unparalleled vision.

Sure there's more...
Yeah, I wouldn't say life-changing, but definitely powerful and unforgettable.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: aqua,

Apparently the entire Star Wars IV film, which I saw at age 10(ish).

My mom tells me that I was actually levered up on the arms of my chair like a gymnast on the parallel bars for about the last 10 minutes and that I started shouting encouragement when Luke dropped into the trench, causing her incredible mortification. I, of course, remember none of this being completely gone into the movie at the time.

At any rate, I will credit it with being the intro into a lifelong addiction to science fiction. Before that, I never really "got" scifi and didn't read much of it at all.

Poltergeist.. The whole untuned TV thing. Damn, terrifies me to this day, but luckily, we have 24/7 TV these days, so I can't wake in the middle of the night terrified anymore.

Lawrence of Arabia, of course. The scene where Audar (Anthony Quinn) says,

"I must find something honorable."

or actually,

"Yes, the year is running out, Brighton. I must find something honorable."

I find that as my year runs out (my life, actually), I must find something honorable. And I mean it in the same primitive way that Audar meant it.

quote:

Four Rooms with Tim Roth. When I go into a hotel room I always wonder if there is a dead hooker under the bed. That scene made me laugh hysterically, but it has also had a long term effect.

Agreed, I just made the tired joke this weekend at a hotel in Orlando when my friend remarked that the room was nice enough and cheap enough that if there was a dead hooker under the bed it was ok as long as she didn't start to smell.

For me I guess the scene that I think of a lot is from Heat. De Niro dying at the end of the runway with Pacino holding his hand while they are lit by the lights of the passing aircraft. Moby's 'God Moving Over the Face of Waters' playing (and how much has Moby raked in with selling that track for movie soundtracks?)

Four Rooms? Had to be seeing Ione Skye's nice boobies!

I must find something honorable!

quote:

Originally posted by Trogdor:
Lawrence of Arabia, of course. The scene where Audar (Anthony Quinn) says,

"I must find something honorable."

or actually,

"Yes, the year is running out, Brighton. I must find something honorable."

I find that as my year runs out (my life, actually), I must find something honorable. And I mean it in the same primitive way that Audar meant it.

Yo Trog. I sent you an email. Did you get it?

Fave L of Arabia scene:

Where Alec Guinness describes how now the old men must lie and bargain to create something like a lasting peace.

The suicide scene in The Royal Tenenbaums really sticks with me. The way he cuts his hair and shaves his beard, indicating he just doesn't want to be who he is. Then when that doesn't take the pain away he goes a step further.

quote:

Originally posted by Trogdor:
Four Rooms? Had to be seeing Ione Skye's nice boobies!

I must find something honorable!

Oh yes, very nice those.

The opening gunfight in "The Wild Bunch." It jolted us all out of the age of phony cinematic sterile violence and into something resembling the real thing. It seems mild now but in '69 nobody had seen such a thing. It changed movie violence forever.

quote:

Originally posted by Evilpenguin9000:
The suicide scene in The Royal Tenenbaums really sticks with me. The way he cuts his hair and shaves his beard, indicating he just doesn't want to be who he is. Then when that doesn't take the pain away he goes a step further.

Plus the soundtrack of the scene by Elliott Smith, the man with the most Shakespearian suicide in modern times. That song, "A Needle in the Hay" made that scene what it was.

Not a movie but a book. One character says "We have two choices" and another says "Don't ever say that - we have infinite choices". Yes!

I like when Chauncey walks across the lake at the end of Being There.

Oh, and the last scene in Red where it freeze frames on Valentin's image against the red blanket after the ferry disaster.

I don't know about life changing though...