For me it would be the scene in "Cinema Paradiso" when all the previously censored and edited-out pieces of film footage get get seen for the first time in a montage while Ennio Morricone's score builds up to its climactic peak.

(don't ask, let's just say I'm laughing hard at Esopus's comment)

I think many of the films about the Holocaust are affecting because they bring home the reality that this really happened. I think a good Holocaust film makes you feel either like you were there yourself, or at least makes you think things like, Oh my God, I can't believe this happened - can you even imagine enduring that? - how could this have happened?

There are way too many moments in The Pianist that are affecting. The scene where the old man gets thrown off the balcony in the wheelchair is simply emotionally harrowing. Touching? No. But it affects you because you can't even imagine that things like that happened, please, even worse things. That is a moment that makes your heart stop. Well, it makes my heart stop every time I watch it. Even when I know it is coming, it makes my heart stop like I'm watching it for the first time.

And also the gorgeously filmed scene when he climbs over the wall and you see all the devastation and he's walking alone in the debris and the snow and you realize he is the lone survivor in a destroyed world. That's a moving scene that needs no words.

Now, as for touching, affecting, moving moments that are WARM and FUZZY...If you've read my previous posts before I love the film Avalon. Two of my favorite scenes are two different times when Elijah Wood is running. The first is whe he's running through the crowd in the circus, it is just this pure moment of happy childhood. The other is when he is running to his grandpa's house because he feels guilty about the fire he thinks he caused. It is also a pure childhood moment, of a different sort, the time when you could run to your grandpa and he would make everything alright.

I also love the film Radio Days (as you can see I'm very into nostalgia!) I'm always moved by the last scene, when the door closes on the rooftop, and you realize those days are long, long gone.

Sorry, please don't think I was laughing at you...I was laughing with you: I'm just a little early and you haven't started laughing yet :)

But I think these are mostly compelling, affecting scenes. Touching, to me, is when something is so sappy - but so earnest - it gets you choked up. How about the scene in Good Will Hunting when Robin Williams tells Matt Damon, "It's not your fault," over and over and over again. Can't deny the lump in your throat!

There are tons more but let me think on it.

JIMBO

The surprise ending of The Others really threw me for a loop. I wasn't expecting it and I walked out of the theatre stunned.

Meet Joe Black was a very touching movie for me. Very emotional and tear-jerking--especially the father daughter relationship and when the father and Joe walk over the "hill" together at the end.

Then there is Cast Away when the shipwrecked fellow is found and returns to his now-married fiancee's home to retrieve his vehicle. That part when she runs out in the rain after him, gets in his car, but can't leave her husband and child. Always brings tears to my eyes.

That moment in Sophie's Choice echoes through my mind and I will never forget it.

Kathy

The driving behind the truck in the rain scene from "Bridges of Madison County"

Her sudden nervous breakdown in the kitchen and the subsequent 'beginning of happiness' monologue in "The Hours".

Cutting her sister's wig in "Marvin's Room".

Her nursing Prior in "Angels in America".

Dancing in "Dancing at Lunasa"

Her deathbed in "One True Thing".

Denzel also often moves me beyond words:

the diploma scene in "The Hurricane".

The farewell in "Antwone Fisher"

Playing basketball in "He Got Game"

2. The scene in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER in which
Tracy gives his speech on what he thinks of the impending
marriage while the camera angle shows Hepburn reacting.

3. The scene in THE COLOR PURPLE in which Shug leads the
group of jazz singers from the nightclub to her father's
church.

4. The final scenes ("the wall") of IN COUNTRY.

5. The final scene of ONCE AROUND.

6. The scene in SHENANDOAH in which the father visits his
wife's grave and speaks to her.

7. The scene in THE RIGHT STUFF in which the astronauts
watch Sally Rand's dance on stage intercut with the
flight of Chuck Yaeger.

8. That'll do, Babe

Falconnetti's signing the confession in "The Passion of Joan of Arc"

Norma Rae holding up the "UNION" sign in silent protest.

Johnny Depp's final visitation in "Blow".

The last scene of "The Sweet Hereafter".

Sean Penn's breakdown in "Dead Man Walking".

Bruce Willis hearing the radio in "Twelve Monkeys".

"Ponette" climbing up the hood of that car.

I'm not sure why, but the scene in Akira when the city starts to fall into the center of that...reaction always brings tears to my eyes. The only way I can explain it, because its not sad, but amazing, is because the music and imagery are so powerful to me that my body can only express the emotion in tears.

It's not a film, but an Anime mini series, but when Momiji gives her life for the nation of people that tried to kill her at the end of Blue Seed.

That would be the exact same scene I just mentioned in the post right before yours... ; )

Several in "The Dollmaker" which starred Jane Fonda. She really tore me up in this film and I think that it is one of the best performances ever by an actress.

Ditto Geraldine Page in "Trip to Bountiful"

The final scene of "Ghost and Mrs. Muir"

The scene where Hoke visits Miss Daisy in the last scene of "Driving Miss Daisy"

Funeral scene in "Imitation of Life"

I know, I'm a sentimental fool!

Ditto Geraldine Page in "Trip to Bountiful"

Gosh, Phillip, you and me both. I love that film.

And for some reason that reminds me of the scene in "Cool Hand Luke" where Lucas is talking to his mother, Arletta (played by Jo Van Fleet). She's lying in the back of the pick-up truck and is obviously dying. I'm always just on the verge of crying when watching that part, especially when Arletta says she always had a special feeling for Lucas. Then later, when Luke is told he has to spend time in "the box" because his mother has died, I nearly always lose control and sob.

Second, would be when the Sanitarium head Dr.( John Gielgud ) suddenly realizes that the Elephant Man is not an imbecile who can barely grasp life, but a man of substantial mind who fully comprehends and suffers his terrible condition. The look of shock on Gielguds' face is wrenching.

Thirdly would be at the movies' end as the Elephant Man looks at the locket with the picture of his beautiful mother for the last time, then lays on his back to end his life.

It always gets to me....very moving indeed.

I don't think there's a living soul on this planet that would not be moved by it. Probably the best film I'll get to see in many years to come. The scene when Ramon Sampedro (who's been confined to bed for over 20 years) pictures his body flying out his bedroom window, glidding over the mountains of northern Spain to the beach where he meets the woman he loves. It just doesn't get any better than this!!!