This list is all about the kinds of movies that have a spellbinding quality about them. Of course, I don’t mean moments in movies about magic. (Next time, my fellow Muggles. Next time.) I mean films with a moment of soaring uplift or cuttingly deep sentiment that captivates the viewer, a crafted connection between screen and audience. I’m talking about the perfect marriage between soundtrack and visuals; where cinematography, score, movement and direction are woven seamlessly together to form a scene that strikes a chord with the viewer on a personal, intimate level, even without the necessity of dialogue. In no particular order, here are ten resonating scenes that capture the kind of understated magic that stays in your head for a long time.

10. Circle of Life - The Lion King (1994)

Arguably the most iconic opening to any film, let alone a Disney animated feature, this magnificently animated sequence shows animals from far and wide gathering at Pride Rock to honour Mufasa, king of the jungle, and Simba, his newborn son, to the strains of Sir Elton’s ‘Circle of Life’. The song reaches its soaring climax just when Rafiki dramatically hoists Simba up in the air. It’s so good that you barely register that Tim Rice’s lyrics are actually sort of crap.

9. Heart And Soul meets Chopsticks – Big (1988)

The crowd-rousing keyboard dance-duet by Tom Hanks (masquerading as a 13-year-old) and Robert Loggia hits all the right notes as one of the most affectionate movie depictions of childish, giddy playfulness, in the young and not lost in the old; it’s the kind of scene that has you grinning from ear-to-ear for sharing the simple pleasure of it all.

8. The Wind - Almost Famous (2000)

In the director’s cut of Almost Famous, the inner-workings of Stillwater groupie Penny Lane are conveyed as they never had been in the original version, as we witness her dancing alone with a rose in her hand, on the floor of an empty auditorium scattered with post-concert debris, to the tune of Cat Stevens’s ‘The Wind’. Okay, so, it isn’t so much ‘dancing’ as it is just twirling around and sliding on napkins, but still. A captivating scene nonetheless.

7. “Your Father’s Passing” - To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

In this emotionally charged and highly poignant moment of the film adaptation, the racist jury’s verdict on an unjustly accused black man leaves the courtroom agonisingly silent. The white onlookers disperse as Atticus (Gregory Peck), his scrupulously honest lawyer, gathers his things together in defeat; the gallery of African-Americans, however, stay and stand in dignified respect as he leaves the courtroom. “Miss Jean Louise,” Reverend Sykes tells Atticus’ daughter, “Stand up. Your father’s passing.”

6. Life’s a Bitch - Fish Tank (2009)

Fish Tank indeed does have a fish in it, but it dies. There’s a horse as well, but that dies too. All in all, the fish tank ofBritain’s social ‘underclass’ is a glass cage of disillusionment and dejection. It is a rare instance of reconciliation and recognition in a relentlessly bleak film, then, when Mia dances in tandem with her mother and younger sister to Nas’s anti-anthem ‘Life’s a Bitch’, in a moment of wordless connection; Mia actually sort-of smiles, for one, and it is also the only time she dances with other people instead of dancing by herself, or for them. Despite the unsentimental verbal exchanges preceding the moment, there is a sort of fragile hope and intimacy that binds them together.

5. The Hollow with a Secret - In the Mood for Love (2000)

After a complicated love affair, Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) inaudibly whispers his secrets into the hollow of an ancient wall in Angkor Wat, in an assembly of unconventional, evocative camera angles. The silent space around him is filled with Michael Galasso’s haunting cello arrangement. He finally seals his confession into the hole with grassy mud, which he believes would hold it there forever. The heady romanticism of the gesture mesmerisingly counterbalances the muffled yearning, the things unsaid, between the two star-crossed lovers.

4. Singin’ In The Rain - Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

I know, I know, I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise… But who doesn’t feel a thrill of unadulterated joy when they see Gene Kelly perform a manly tap-dance amidst puddles and lampposts whilst singing the film’s title song in a heavy downpour? Kelly’s chipper energy (despite supposedly running a 103-degree fever at the time of filming) is enough to buoy the spirits of anyone feeling down in the dumps.

3. Married Life – Up (2009)

The beginning of Up features a tender, dialogue-free montage that synopsises the heart and soul of a happily married couple growing old together. A series of vignettes unfolds to illustrate their dreams and disappointments, ups and downs and life and death in the space of four minutes, waltzing along to Michael Giacchino’s wistful score. The unexpected candidness of the sequence stands out from most Pixar fare, adding an extra heart-wrenching quality rivalled only by the climax of Toy Story 3.

2. Across the Moon - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Come on, like any list of ‘magical’ moments is going to exclude this classic scene. What’s not to love? The kid’s got a little alien in his bike basket, and he’s pedalling and pedalling, but aah the forest is too bumpy, so he brakes, then whoosh! E.T. makes the bicycle take off from the ground and John Williams’ rousing score hits full flow. Our hearts soar along with the bike as it sails over treetops in front of an impossibly full moon.

1. The Sixth Station - Spirited Away (2001)

In this breathtakingly animated sequence, Chihiro embarks on a train journey with her companions, surrounded by passengers that are no more than faceless, ghostly shadows, moving between trains and platforms. We see lonely silhouettes against darkening skies and neon signs that speed past. A commuter’s journey has never been captured in such an honest, bittersweet way; it is every backpacker’s memories of interrailing. Meanwhile, we notice Chihiro in her transition from petulant, spoilt child to an emotionally mature and responsible young adult as she departs from her parents for the first time, quietly pensive and poised next to her sheltered, metamorphosed friends peering out of the window in childlike excitement. Joe Hisaishi’s simple piano arrangement forms the perfect complement to an intelligent, profound scene.

And a couple of overcooked moments to add to the pot:

“O Captain! My Captain!” - Dead Poet’s Society (1989)

So this is what it’s like to drown in a vat of cheese. The film had obviously been boiling up to this rather obnoxiously sentimental point, in which adoring students of Robin Williams’ English professor declare their undying admiration for him by standing on their desks and spewing out a line from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Way to ruin poetry, guys.

The Empty House - Good Will Hunting (1997)

Ben Affleck tells best friend Matt Damon that the best part of his day is to knock on Damon’s door and he won’t be there, without having said goodbye; later, he knocks on his door, and grins enthusiastically when he gets no response. As Community once hilariously pointed out, it’s actually kind of a really horrible thing to say to a mate.

The Plastic Bag - American Beauty (1999)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie, but methinks it got more than a little carried away with the ‘philosophising’ – a plastic bag in the wind is mostly just a plastic bag in the wind.