Some of My Favorite Endings

Inspired by Greg Ferrara's wonderful post this morning over at Cinema Styles (http://cinemastyles.blogspot.com/2010/01/monday-morning-mumbles.html), I've decided to put together a list of my favorite endings. Someone I was sitting with on a panel once said, "You really write a movie for the final five minutes.  And if those moments work, then everything else just kinda falls into place."  I never really articulated it in that way.  But I do have to admit, the final five minutes of a movie are more important to me than everything else.  

Here's my list, as I can best remember them (not in any specific order):

The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
The Soft Skin (Francois Truffaut, 1964) 
Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975)
King of New York (Abel Ferrara, 1990)
La chienne (Jean Renoir, 1931)
Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993)
The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994)
Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) 
Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)
The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)