The Cameron Goes To An Art Gallery Scene

The Movie: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

The Moment:



Why It’s Defining: It’s weird. And profound.

To be an ‘80s teen movie, you have to contain at least one surreal WTF moment that wouldn’t make it past a test-audience today. This one’s our favourite.

We’re not sure why we love it so much, perhaps because it’s soundtracked by a super-rare instrumental of The Smiths’ Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Dream Academy, perhaps because it’s a moment of pause during Ferris’ breathless narrative, or perhaps because it’s so damned beautiful.

Whatever, it’s defining. After all, it’s a visual celebration of how almost every teen flick from 1980 to 1989 managed to sneak at least one genuinely profound moment past producers probably too busy sniffing coke to notice.

This scene is a pop culture artefact making as insightful a comment about the relationship between artwork and the observer as we’ve ever gawped at. Oh, and it also serves as a metaphor for the entire film - it's the little details that matter.

BBC 2 could air a 9 hour episode of The Culture Show and, not only would Mark Kermode’s quiff start to wilt eventually, they wouldn’t come close to the depth of analysis this moment offers in its 41 second duration.

And this, in a film that plays the theme from Star Wars when a Ferrari flies through the air. John Hughes, you are God, sir.

Why It'll Stay With Us Forever: It's the reason whenever we take a day off from work, we have a nagging compulsion to head for our local art gallery.

Next: Pretty In Pink