10 OF THE BEST
We’ll always have Paris.
1
LADY BIRD
Saoirse Ronan’s titular teen throws herself out of a moving car to exit an argument with her mum. The vivid pink cast she then wears symbolises her defiance. You can buy posters of the cast inscribed with the legend, ‘What if this is the best version?’
2
REAR WINDOW
Stuck at home, nosy neighbour L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) spies murder. Perhaps. Hard to credit that Cornell Woolrich’s short story only reveals our hero has a broken leg in the last line –the cast screwed onto Stewart’s left leg is arguably the most famous in movies.
3
THE BIG FIX
Richard Dreyfuss’ PI hustles with a broken wrist. Repeatedly asked how he did it, he changes the story each time. Viewers learn the truth in the film’s coda, but only cinephiles will know the running gag was a late addition because Dreyfuss broke his wrist IRL.
4
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) slips on a fake cast to lure Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith) into helping him load furniture into his van. Then slams the doors on her.
It was a favourite ploy of Ted Bundy’s in the 1970s...
5
THE VANISHING
…and is also used by killer Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) in George Sluizer’s chilling Dutch thriller The Vanishing, regarded by Stanley Kubrick as the most terrifying film he’d ever seen. The phrase ‘suffocating tension’ has never fitted more snugly.
6
SPANKING THE MONKEY
David O. Russell’s indie debut sees Jeremy Davies’ pre-med student spend a hot summer caring for his bedridden mom (Alberta Watson) while his salesman dad is away on business. Rubbing lotion onto her broken leg, Oedipal urges arise. That title g
