Poetry in a Dance and in a Shot

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Vincente Minelli's The Band Wagon (1953).

Minnie and Moskowitz, 1971, John Cassavetes

Minnie: You know I think that movies are a conspiracy? I mean it. I mean it, they are actually a conspiracy because they set you up, Florence. They set you up from the time you are a little kid. They set you up to believe in everything. They set you up to believe in ideals and strength and good guys an romance and... and of course, love. Love, Florence.

Florence: Love?

Minnie: So... you believe it, right? You go out, you start looking. Doesn't happen, you keep looking. You get a job, like us, and you spend a lot of time fixing up things - your apartment and jazz. And... you learn how to be feminine, you know, quotes "feminine". You learn how to cook... But there's no Charles Boyer in my life, Florence. I never even met a Charles Boyer. I never met Clark Gable, I never met Humphrey Bogart, I never met any of them. They don't exist Florence, that's the truth. But the movies set you up, you know? They set you up and no matter how bright you are, you believe it. And Florence, you know that we're bright?

Frances Ha, 2012, Noah Baumbach

Frances: It's that thing when you're with someone, and you love them and they know it, and they love you and you know it, but it's a party and you're both talking to other people, and you're both laughing and shining... And you look across the room and catch eachother's eyes. But not because you're possessive, or it's precisely sexual, but because that is your person in this life. And it's funny and sad, but only because this life will end, and it's this secret world that exists right there in public, unnoticed, that no one else knows about. It's sort of like how they say that other dimensions exist all around us, but we don't have the ability to perceive them. That's what I want out of a relationship. Or just life, I guess.

Cinema Paradiso, 1988, Giuseppe Tornatore

Alfredo: Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt.

A Place in the Sun, 1951, George Stevens