Best Moments of Dialogue-Free Acting

Totally stole this thread idea from another board, but whatever. Name some of your absolute favorite moments of acting with facial expressions or hand gestures or anything like that (sans speech, of course). I was thinking about this after watching A History of Violence and seeing Maria Bello's brilliant bit of wordless acting at the end. That last scene alone should have gotten her an oscar nod, but oh well.

So what do you Mofos think are the best moments of wordless acting in film? I'll think up a couple more after some of you guys chime in.

The most recent example I can think of are the subtle facial expressions that Daniel Day-Lewis used in There Will Be Blood. Two of my personal favourites are...

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

The best example of this, I think, is the totally unspoken connection between John Wayne as Ethan Edwards and his sister-in-law, Martha, in The Searchers (1956). The intense look they exchange as Ethan returns home after years of travel; A later scene in which the Preacher-Ranger Captain Clayton witnesses Martha stroking Ethan’s coat before she takes it to him; still another exchange of looks as they part. Then later Ethan’s obvious concern when the rangers figure out they’ve been led away from the settlements by Comanche on a “murder raid;" his frantic search for Martha amid the ruins of the ranch; and the sick dismay on his face when he finds her body. Every reference to a relationship is visual. Not a single word is ever spoken about it in the film before or after those scenes, but there’s a story being played out of one brother who leaves a girl behind and another brother who marries her. And it’s this connection between Ethan and Martha that motivates his search for her daughters and fuels his hatred of the Comanche. (By the way, I tried to find the name of the actress who played Martha, but none of the online sources I found identifies her.)

Dorothy Jordan

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

In Edward Scissorhands, when Vincent price dies, his face seems to just melt. The effect is heartbreaking. He was a great, underappreciated actor.

__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite wordless pieces of acting actually comes from a not-so-great movie, Proof of Life. At the end, Russell Crowe's character, Terry Thorne, is watching the woman he loves drive away with her husband, and for close to 40 seconds, you just see his face. You can almost hear the thoughts in his head, and it's as though he's silently going through the five stages of grief just in that one scene. Rather amazing, and kind of wasted in an action flick.

__________________
Reporter: What would you call that hairstyle you're wearing?

George: Arthur.

Thanks, Mark. And that scene above shows exactly what I'm talking about--one of the best bits of acting I've ever seen.

Keir Dullea as he's about to power down HAL in "2001: A Space Oddysey" popped in my head right away...

Don’t know if this qualifies as acting (I think it does) but not a word is said in the 18-minute ballet featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron at the end of An American in Paris (1951). It’s reported that number cost more than $500,000 to film, a staggering sum at the time. Ending a film with a long, expensive dance number was a pretty gutsy move, both then and now.

Anytime Dustin Hoffman is on screen, but isn't speaking in Midnight Cowboy.

His best performance, IMO.

__________________

Al Pacino sitting in the diner waiting to kill Solozzo and the police captain

__________________

Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

Kate Hudson learning her rock star boy-toy sold her to Humble Pie for $50 and a case of Heineken in Almost Famous. Fantastic piece of acting and she never says a word.

Hugh Jackman's emotional breakdown in The Fountain when he tattoos his finger. Perfect.

__________________
"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Guy Pearce in Memento, as he's being chased in the trailer park. Amazing scene, and you're about as confused as he is.

__________________

^love it John

how bout William Hurt's breakdown in Into the Wild when he walks out and crys in the middle of the street, a very powerful scene.

I think the opening twenty minutes of There Will Be Blood is brilliant because it tells you so much without ever saying a word. Although, that says more about the script then acting....

The kissing scene from Amelie

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

The start of the Princess Bride...where with a few looks the two leading characters fall in love...I actually fall in love with both at that point!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has a LOT of amazing scenes without any dialogue. There Will Be Blood, was my other choice. Daniel Day-Lewis actually made feel his character was real and I became afraid of him.

__________________
"I'm a man." "Not everybody's perfect!" - Some Like It Hot

Two of my favourite, and incredibly powerful scenes that involve no dialogue. Just awesome, awesome acting.

Birth
Nicole Kidmans character Anna, visits the opera for the evening with her fiance, trying to forget about the boy who turned up at her house earlier in the day, insiting he was her dead husband, reincarnated. Slowly as she watches the Opera, she becomes overwhelmed with the idea that her dead husband, her first love has come back to her...
&feature=related

The Bridges Over Madison County
After her husband leaves town on a work trip with their children, Meryl Streeps Francesca meets Robert, a photographer in town to photograph the countys bridges. After hitting it off, he refreshes Francesca bored life and they begin a passionate affair. But too quickly the week is over and her husband returns with Francesca's old life and she realises that what she has with Robert cannot continue. After giving him a rosary necklace, they agree to never see eachother again.
Then just before he leaves town for good, they come across eachother in the street...


EDIT: Didnt realise the clip was in Italian, but its the only one of the scene on the web and theres hardly any dialogue so you still can see whats going on.

__________________
Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

Death of A Salesman wheer John Malkovich is sobbing so much you can like see the spit.