Before I start this article off, let it be known that out of the 48 films Woody Allen has both written and directed, I myself have only seen 11, so this list can be taken as a snapshot of a certain point in time: a time in which I have only seen 23% of Allen’s films. So take this list lightly, and enjoy the magic.  Also, all of the scenes in this article are embedded from YouTube, so while you cannot watch them here at school, I urge you to watch them at home.

5) Opening scene from Midnight in Paris

While I wanted to put the opening scene to Manhattan on this list so very badly, I could not, sadly (and if I had it would have been ranked a lot higher as well). Instead, the opening to 2011’s Midnight in Paris will do. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to Paris and seen a handful of the locations featured in this scene, but the intro to this wonderful film evokes a warm sense of nostalgia and ease. Plus, that song (“Si tu vois ma mère” by Sidney Bechet) is about as sexy as a piece of music can get.

4) Ending of Manhattan Murder Mystery

Sixteen years after Annie Hall, Allen and Diane Keaton still share the same brilliant chemistry together. Keaton hasn’t appeared in one of Allen’s films since Manhattan Murder Mystery, but I keep crossing my fingers, hoping the two will work together one last time before Allen stops making films.

3) “Lobsters” from Annie Hall

While it’s always a cliché to have Annie Hall on any “best” or “top” sort-of list concerning the works of Allen, there is a reason it’s “everyone’s favorite Woody Allen movie,” as Roger Ebert so lovingly put it. Everybody can relate to it. Sure, while you may not have ever made lobsters with your once significant other, at one point we’ve all bonded with a special someone while struggling to perform what should be an easy task.

2) “Attempted Suicide” from Hannah and Her Sisters

It can be said that Allen is obsessed with two things: death, and Groucho Marx. Both of these subjects come together in this wonderful scene from Hannah and Her Sisters. As YouTube user rufus10000 pointed out, it’s pure brilliance how immediately after Allen’s character in the film, Mickey Sachs, states that he needed a moment to “put the world back into rational perspective” following his attempted suicide, a clip is shown from the Marx Brothers’ absurdist comedy Duck Soup. Pure brilliance indeed.

1) “It was one of those great spring days…” from Stardust Memories

Whatever I write about this beautiful scene won’t do it any justice. Nor will it be as beautiful and eloquent as the scene itself. But I might as well give it a shot. Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “Stardust”  in the background, the narrative being read by Allen’s character Sandy Bates, and the fact that the camera doesn’t break from the shot of Charlotte Rampling’s face (who plays Dorrie), are three simple, small things that make this scene absolute perfection. A lot of the beauty found in Allen’s films from Annie Hall to The Purple Rose of Cairo can be attributed to cinematographer Gordon Willis, who also was the cinematographer for The Godfather trilogy.