Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film The Sacrifice is a fitting epitaph for a great artist. While it’s not an easy movie to get through, nearly every frame is piece of art, the script is thoughtful, and the performances are universally excellent….
A treasure trove of colors, wonderful camerawork, and great acting, Jean-Pierre Jenuet’s Amélie was the surprise box office hit of 2001. Strong early reviews, unprecedented interest from various distributors around the globe, and a much publicized scandal involving the Cannes…
A sleeper hit in 1981, Arthur grossed nearly $100 million in the U.S. alone, won two Oscars (for best song and supporting actor, John Gielgud) and nominations for star Dudley Moore and original screenplay. For the 2011 remake, Hobson the…
Just seconds into Sharon Maguire’s adaptation of Helen Fielding’s beloved novel, it’s hard to imagine that there was such controversy surrounding the casting of Renée Zellweger as 32-year-old British singleton Bridget Jones. From the moment we see her trudging through…
Long before Disney’s 1991 animated triumph, Jean Cocteau filmed Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete) in 1946, in France. Before the days of CGI, and modern creature makeup, Cocteau simply dazzles. Known primarily as a poet and…
In its long history, India has gone through many changes. In his 1958 film The Music Room, writer/director Satyajit Ray deals with the familiar conflict between the nobility and the unpedigreed rich, between those who dwell in the past and…
Like other films by British writer-director Mike Leigh—Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Vera Drake (2004)—Naked is a tough, unflinching look at class conflict, sexual insecurity, and identity crisis in working class England. Naked is by no means…
Director Gore Verbinski reteams with his Pirates of the Caribbean star, Johnny Depp, for Rango, an animated Western featuring a lizard as its unlikely hero. This wickedly imaginative and original film pays loving tribute to nearly every western master, including…
For fans of war films, Das Boot is an absolute must-see. Here, director Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm, In the Line of Fire) he manages all the facets of the genre perfectly, using visual imagination, and directorial restraint to take…
Lewis Fielding (Michael Caine) is a successful novelist. He and his wife Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) have a young son, a big, beautiful house in the country, and plenty of hired help. They are a couple who appear to have it…