Picking up nine years after the events of Before Sunrise, Richard Linklater’s film reunites Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) for a talk-and-walk stroll through another handsome European city. They have an hour to kill before Jesse has to leave for his flight back to the States; in the meantime, they catch up, rekindle their love, and it becomes increasingly apparent that neither of them are going anywhere. And so Sunset ends in Céline’s apartment, with Nina Simone’s “Just in Time” playing out over the stereo. “Baby, you are gonna to miss that plane,” Céline teases; playfully, hopefully. “I know,” Jesse responds, laughing to himself, playing with the wedding ring on his finger, soon to be the discarded relic of an old relationship. It’s not perfect—Jesse is still married, with a young son—and you sense that there are quite a few bumps on the road ahead, but it is deeply, deeply romantic.
2. There Will Be Blood (2007)
Paramount Vantage/Everett Collection
That Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of his time hardly needs elaboration; it’s one of those facts of life that we just accept because it is so, as water is wet and a third of our paychecks disappear before any money hits the bank. But if evidence is ever required, turn to the final scene of There Will Be Blood, in which his Daniel Plainview torments religious conman Eli (Paul Dano, also an exquisite actor), forces him to renounce his faith, and then bludgeons him to death with a wooden bowling pin. It’s an exquisite expression of melodramatic mania that ends Paul Thomas Anderson’s period epic on a hilarious, baffling and deranged note—one that is completely unforgettable, and confirms There Will Be Blood as one of the finest films of the century.
1. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
2MN213Y E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL 1982 Universal Pictures film with Henry Thomas at left and ET played by Pat WelshPictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
How many Steven Spielberg films could make it to this list? Close Encounters of the Third Kind is definitely up there, with its spellbinding final sequence about first contact with an alien race; the quotability of Jaws‘ final duel places it firmly in the running, as does the solemn catharsis of Schindler’s List. (Look, the guy really knows how to nail an ending.) The best of the lot is E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, perhaps the most memorable in all of Hollywood cinema, closing on an ode to friendship that’ll never not make you cry. “I’ll be right here.” E.T.’s glowing finger touching Elliott’s heart. That John Williams score. God, somebody grab the tissues.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.
