The freeze-frame technique has been overused to the point of
cliche, to be
sure, but I remember well the very first one I ever saw. It was at the end of
Elvira Madigan, a 1967 Swedish film directed by Bo Widerberg and starring Pia Degermark as a tightrope walker (really) who falls in love with a soldier in 19th century Sweden. Their doomed affair has tragic consequences, which is where the freeze-frame comes in.
The love theme was Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. It made the charts as "The Theme from Elvira Madigan."
The whole thing impressed me so much I married the girl I took. I think we went Dutch.