Sophie's Choice

Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Casts: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol
1982

Meryll Streep received an Academy Award for her portrayal of Sophie Zaistowska in this drama set in in 1947 post world war II. Kevin Kline plays her lover, Nathan. The story revolves around Sophie's struggle as a Polish-Catholic immigrant in the U. S. who had survived the Nazi concentration camp. The lovers' drama unfolds through the observation of a friend and would-be writer, Stingo (Peter MacNicol). As the trio grows closer, Stingo discovers the hidden truths that they harbor, resulting in a narrative that is both captivating and moving.

Undoubtedly, Meryll was the perfect choice for Sophie. Her performance as Sophie Zawistowska was ranked #3 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time!

Awards:
1982 Academy Best Actress
1982 LA Film Critics Association Best Actress
1982 National Board of Review of Motion Picture Best Actress
1982 New York Film Critics Circle Best Cinematography
1982 New York Film Critics Circle Best Actress
1983 Golden Globe Best Actress (in Drama)

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

Director: Shohei Imamura
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baisho, Mansaku Fuwa
2001

Warm Water Under A Red Bridge focuses on the troubles of a Japanese "everyman" who finds a new life with an unusual woman in a small fishing village.

This romantic comedy tells the story of a salary man who has been laid off from his job at an architectural firm in Tokyo and is undergoing marital difficulties. When his old friend dies, he travels to the small fishing town of Tokoyama to find a treasure that the old man had hidden in a house there decades before. He does not find what he expects, but takes a job with local fishermen and becomes romantically involved with a woman with an exaggerated proclivity towards female ejaculation.

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (赤い橋の下のぬるい水, Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu?) was the last feature film by director Shōhei Imamura.

The Birth of a Nation

1915

Directed by D.W. Griffith

Starring Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish

A pivotal moment in Film history. Birth of a Nation was the first important feature length film. After Birth, nothing was the same: not the way the audiences watched movies, not the ways filmmakers created them.

The film tackled the sensitive issues towards black slaves. This was ciriticized by modern audiences and was picketed. Despite protests, Birth sold more tickets than any other movie, a record that stood for decades, and President W. Wilson famously compared it to "history written in lighting". That judgment has lasted.

It remains to this day one of the most shown most controversial films ever made. None-the-less it also remains a visionary film that still merits examination. And Griffith remains one of the cinemas greatest directors.

Il Mare (The Sea, Siworae)

Directed by Lee Hyun-seung
2000
Starring Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Jung-Jae

Il Mare (시월애, Siworae) means 'The Sea' in Italian, and is the name of the seaside house which is the setting of the story. The Korean title, siworae is the Korean pronunciation of Hanja "時越愛," meaning "time-transcending love." The two protagonists both live there two years apart in time, but are able to communicate through a mysterious post box. The film was remade by Warner Brothers starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves and released in 2006 as The Lake House. The movie was also famous for its heavy product placement of Louis Vuitton's Taiga Cassiar Backpack which the main heroine carried with her throughout the entire movie.

Brokeback Mountain

Directed by Ang Lee
2005
Starring:Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams

Ang Lee's adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's story Brokeback Mountain stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as young cowboys named Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Each of them is hired to corral sheep on the title location and they soon bond very closely. Their platonic relationship explodes into a physical one, but eventually the two are separated when their job comes to an end. Although the two follow different life paths -- one becoming a father of two and the other marrying into a successful business -- they have a reunion years later. Each is affected profoundly by the rekindling of their old feelings for each other. Those feelings lead each to consider what continuing their hidden relationship would cost them. The screenplay was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

It so sad that Heath Ledger, the lead actor of the movie went ahead at a very early age of 28 when he was found dead in a Manhattan apartment yesterday, January 22, 2008.

Y tu Mama Tambien

Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
2001
Starring: Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, Maribel Verdu

The lives of Julio and Tenoch, like those of seventeen-year old boys everywhere, are ruled by raging hormones, intense friendships, and a headlong rush into adulthood. Over the course of a summer, the two best friends, while living out a carefree cross-country escapade with a gorgeous older woman, also find connection with each other, themselves and the world around them. Just days after the boys trade heartfelt good-byes with their sexy, young girlfriends who are headed to Italy for summer vacation, their attention is diverted by Luisa, a stunning twenty-eight year old Spaniard. At a family wedding in Mexico City, the boys awkwardly flirt with Luisa, who is married to a distant cousin of Tenoch’s. Fueled by alcohol and her beauty, the boys invite Luisa to accompany them on a road trip to a remote beach with the romantic name of Boca del Cielo -- Heaven’s Mouth -- neglecting to mention that they wouldn’t know where to find it, even if it actually did exist. Luisa humors the boys, but not without first fueling their vivid imaginations. A few days later, Luisa, receives some heartbreaking news and, needing a change of scenery, tracks down the boys and accepts their offer. The unlikely trio hits the road, their destination not so much Boca del Cielo as that seductive and mysterious place where innocence, sexuality, and friendships collide.
As the saying goes, you never really know someone until you travel with him. With the car closing in upon them, Julio and Tenoch are forced to reveal to each other sides of their personalities they had never before even dared to explore. Though best friends for years, the boys realize they had often taken each other for granted, not seeing the person in front of them as more than a façade or an attitude. Luisa is the catalyst of self-discovery. Her presence brings out the best – and the worst – in the two friends. At times a sexy seductress, at other times the maternal figure each of the friends is lacking, Luisa, too, finds out what is important to her. As the road leading to the elusive Boca del Cielo becomes more desolate and inhospitable, the protagonists find there is no escape from a confrontation with their innermost demons and desires. -- © IFC Films

Gone With the Wind

Directed by Victor Fleming
1939
Starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard

Scarlett O'Hara is in love with drippy Ashley Wilkes, and is devastated when he announces that he plans to marry his cousin Melanie. She pleads with Ashley to marry her instead, but then, on the first day of the Civil War, she meets mercurial Rhett Butler. A man to match her strength of character and romantic desires, Butler changes the course of her life. Despite hunger, and the burning of Atlanta, Scarlett survives the war and its aftermath, but ultimately loses the only man she really loved.

This is by far the best movie ever made. I love the way it compliments the attributes of the South while shining light on the less pleasant things of war. The classic love story was beautifully portrayed by Vivein Leigh and Clark Gable. I recommend everyone watch this movie at least once in their life for it will truley stay with you for a lifetime. (read more...)

Saw this movie again today while waiting for the coming of the new year (with my whole family). It's really a masterpiece. For lovers of soap operas - it's a perfect 10!

Awards:
1939 Academy 1939
- Best Actress Vivien Leigh
- Best Art Direction Lyle R. Wheeler
- Best Color CinematographyRay Rennahan, Ernest Haller
- Best Director Victor Fleming
- Best Editing Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom
- Best Picture
- Best Screenplay Sidney Howard
- Best Supporting Actress Olivia De Havilland, Hattie R. McDaniel
- Honorary and Other Awards William Cameron Menzies
1939 Film Daily 10 Best Films
1939 New York Film Critics Circle Best Actress
1939 New York Times 10 Best Films
1940 National Board of Review Best Actress
1988 Library of Congress U.S. National Film Registry
1988 American Film Institute 100 Greatest American Movies

Jane Eyre

Directed by Robert Stevenson
1944

Starring:
Orson Welles
Joan Fointane
Elizabeth Taylor

Orson Welles has to be the most interesting film artist of the past 100 years, and here's why: not only did he make what is considered the greatest movie of all time (Citizen Kane) as well as eleven other amazing films, but also he left twice that many puzzles for film buffs and historians to tackle. Jane Eyre (1944) was Welles' third completed film after Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Officially, Welles starred as Rochester, but did not direct or write.

Based on Charlotte Bronte's gothic romance, the film begins when young Jane (the extraordinary Peggy Ann Garner) departs the company of her evil auntie (Agnes Moorehead) for an equally awful orphanage. There she briefly befriends Helen Burns (an uncredited, astonishingly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor), but suffers under the tyrannical Henry Brocklehurst (Henry Daniell). When she comes of age (now played by Joan Fontaine) she takes a job as a governess to little Adele (Margaret O'Brien, also in Meet Me in St. Louis), working for the mysterious, brooding Rochester. She finds herself drawn to him, despite his odd behavior and mixed messages.

Credited director Robert Stevenson (who went on to become one of Disney's top men, making Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Mary Poppins and many others) gives the production a touch of class, even if the performances don't always appear to be on the same page. Welles brings a large theatricality to his role, and O'Brien is a delightful little ham, while Fontaine tries to hide her beauty behind a "mousy" façade (something she was also asked to do in Rebecca four years earlier). The standout is easily Peggy Ann Garner, whose extraordinarily unguarded face gives the young Jane a beautiful soul. Stevenson also chooses to film actual printed passages from the novel, accompanied by narration. Another clue that Welles didn't actually direct the film is that the dialogue sounds like normal, Hollywood talk (everyone speaks in turn) rather than Welles' trademark overlapping dialogue. Indeed, it's difficult to watch the film without considering aspects of authorship, but if you can, there's a very good film underneath.

Tabu (A Story of the South Seas)

Directed by F.W. Murnau
Casts: Matahi, Anne Chevalier, Ah Fong
1931

Tabu was filmed in Tahiti, the story of a fisherman who falls in love with a beguiling woman who has been forbidden to men. German Expressionist director F.W. Murnau's last film is one of the most gorgeous black & white films ever made. Pioneering documentarian Robert Flaherty (NANOOK OF THE NORTH) co-directed the film, which won the Academy Award for "Best Cinematography."

Awards:
1930-31 Academy, Best Cinematography
1931 National Board of Review, Best Picture
1993 Library of Congress, U.S. National Film Registry

Casablanca

Directed by Michael Curtiz
1942
Starring:Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid

One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), Rick's café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and his wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us," she says to Rick. He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide