Don't know if you use that expression in english "cult shots"... just thought you could give us some links here
And here's my first contribution with this shot that wasn't in WTM : http://whatthemovie.com/shot/41481 (Changing my uploading style ? Don't worry I have not given up with my puzzle shots... :P)
Hi LordMyst, to me it is cult since I remembered that shot (main character versus cobra) long after I saw the movie... But it's true that doesn't make it "cult" automatically... I guess it can be by the number of people for whom it speaks to. And sometimes it's the the snapshot which is cult (since it's quite unique everytime), but the shot itself, and of course by extention the scene and the movie...
I thought cult films were films which had a very small, but obsessive fanbase, much like a "cult" religion. Films like Troll 2, Plan 9, Eraserhead etc.. Granted over time some of these movie transcend cult status and become actual classics (blade runner / dune etc) but the majority of them stay in their little niche, with a small band of almost religious fans.
I would say the couple of pictures linked are kind of pop-culture icons, which is the opposite of cult :) Perhaps its a "lost in translation" thing but thats what it means in the UK anyway.
my contribution of a "cult shot" for me : http://whatthemovie.com/shot/41183, a recent shot by toffetomas which is awesome, and a cult film IMO.
I think the word Cult is used differently in France, I also had this problem before. When I was talking about Cult, it simply meant a memorable moment or movie and often movies that many people knew. But it is true, cult means a movie that not so many people know but created a sort of fanaticism among the group. Alejandro Jodorowsky's movies are good examples :)
The typical example of cult movie in France is http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0073629/ which can be watched every saturday night at 10 pm in the same small theater of the "quartier latin" in Paris almost since its release in 1975 ! People come here wearing the same costumes than in the movie. And when it rains water or rice on the screen, it is also raining on the audience. Sometimes people also play the exact scenes beyond the screen. A must see :)
It's probably a translation thing. In sweden cult is used in the context that it's an old movie most people should have seen, e.g. "omg, haven't you seen the Godfather?! It's a cult movie!"