SUMMER CLASSICS!

Director: Anthony Harvey

Screenplay: James Goldman, based on his play

Cast: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Jane Merrow, Nigel Stock, Kenneth Griffith

In its simplest terms the film is about a family getting together at Christmas and squabbling amongst themselves. But this is no ordinary family as it delves back into 12th century British history and dissects the poisonous relationships between King Henry II (Peter O'Toole), his wife Queen Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn) and their three sons - Richard (Anthony Hopkins in one of his first big screen appearances), Geoffrey (John Castle) and John (Nigel Terry). Also invited into the fray are the young King Phillip II of France (Timothy Dalton) - the son of Eleanor's ex-husband (King Louis VII) by his third wife and a former lover of Richard - and Alais (Jane Merrow) - daughter of Eleanor's ex-husband by his second wife, and Phillip's half sister who is betrothed to Richard but is mistress to Henry.

A convoluted set of relationships which, during the gathering, explodes into a potpourri of scheming, lying and manipulation as each character tries to safeguard their position. Although the play's title refers to the King it is the Queen who gets the best lines and Katharine Hepburn gleefully runs with it parrying with everyone around, a perpetual smile on her face, as she knocks off the witty dialogue and at the same time letting slip her vulnerability which she mostly keeps masked. Her main battle is with her husband, who has had her imprisoned for the last ten years but has allowed her out of prison during the holiday season to discuss passing on the realm to one of their sons. She favors the brave soldier, Richard, while he favors the younger son John who he knows is an incapable coward. Geoffrey, the middle son, is like his mother - a cold, calculating schemer devoid of love from both his parents and willing to sell everyone around him to stay alive. Despite all their animosity towards each other the Royal couple deep down still love each other but have reached a stage in their lives when all the scheming and betrayals through the years have usurped the true love each had for the other. It's now come down to the matter of trying to survive through all the games being played around them.

Harvey superbly handles his cast and successfully opens up the play with many scenes set in the open countryside, on the river, on hilltops and on the beach. Mostly the drama takes place inside the imposing walls of the dank, dark filthy castle. Extremely literate film with a wonderful cast and production values.

SUMMER CLASSICS!

Director: Charles Laughton

Screenplay: James Agee, based on the novel by Davis Grubb

Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, Don Beddoe, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, Gloria Castillo

Mesmerizing, horrific fairy tale with striking cinematography, haunting music, and storytelling which incorporates allusions to everything from the Bible to Hansel & Gretel to Huckleberry Finn, providing viewers with a great deal to ponder and discuss.

A psychopathic killer (Robert Mitchum), masquerading as an itinerant preacher during the Great Depression, has married a succession of women, taken their money, and killed them. Soon after arriving in a rural town he marries a widow (Shelley Winters) whose husband hid $10,000 from a robbery before he was arrested and executed for murder. The only people who know where the money is hidden are the widow's young children who swore to their father never to tell the money's location. But their new stepfather is going to make them talk even if it means he has to torture them. Coming to the rescue of the children is a no-nonsense farm woman (Lillian Gish) who with her shotgun becomes the children's protector.

The film's style weaves between harsh reality and lyrical realization, though it leans towards the latter. The Depression-era story is odd, but sadly believable (it was based on real events). The telling is often strange and unexpected with its style going back to silent films, but the subject matter - sexual repression, religious hypocrisy, child abuse - was too hot and downbeat for the times and the film flopped during the repressed 1950s. Subsequently the film was re-evaluated and is now considered to be a masterpiece. This was the only film actor Charles Laughton directed.

SUMMER CLASSICS!

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenplay: John Steinbeck & Jo Swerling

Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee

Academy Award Nominations: Best Director, Original Story, Cinematography

Made during WWII the film has many elements of propaganda as did most films coming out of Hollywood during the war years. However, what makes it highly original is the concept of the story being set entirely on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. And like all films by Hitchcock this too is a murder-mystery but set in the confines of a small space.

When a British Merchant ship and a German U-boat sink each other in the Atlantic Ocean several British and American civilians find themselves stuck on a lifeboat. The passengers pull on board a German survivor from the sunk U-boat and debate if he should be thrown back into the sea or allowed to sit with them in the lifeboat. The majority of the survivors vote that he should be allowed to remain on board. Soon things go missing, their water supply is sabotaged and some passengers mysteriously fall overboard. Is there a murderer on board? Can the German man be trusted?

The film caused controversy because the film glorifies the German character while denigrating the American and British characters. Hitchcock responded to the criticism by explaining that the film's moral was that the Allies needed to stop bickering and work together to win the war. The film is now viewed more favorably and has been listed by several modern critics as one of Hitchcock's most underrated films. Also receiving rave reviews was stage star Talllulah Bankhead as the sophisticated but acid-tongued journalist who bit by bit loses her glamour as the story progresses.

Director: Sabiha Sumar

Screenplay: Sabiha Sumar & Paromita Vohra

Cast: Kirron Kher, Arshad Mahmood, Salman Shahid, Shilpa Shukla, Sarfaraz Ansari, Tanveer Ahmad, Zaheer Ahmed

Locarno Film Festival: Best Film / Best Actress (Kirron Kher)

A stirring and sad film about the rise of fundamentalism in1979, leading to intolerance, violence, and the reassertion of patriarchal control of women.

Middle-aged widow (Kirron Kher) gets by on her late husband’s pension and by teaching the Quran to young girls. Her 18-year-old son, Saleem (Aamir Malik), is a handsome, loafer who scoots off for secret rendezvous with his sweetheart, Zubeida (Shilpa Shukla), a teen from a much richer family. Nagged by Zubeida to get a job, Saleem drifts into the circle of some Islamic fundamentalists, joins their cause, and is soon harassing Sikhs who’ve been given permission to enter the country as pilgrims. The son's fundamentalist friends hear that his mother still has Sikh sympathies, and they pressure him to get her to publicly re-state her faith in Islam. However, flashbacks to the violent Partition hint that the boy's mother is hiding a secret even he doesn’t know.

The film is a strong indictment of the intolerance and the abuse of women caused by religious differences. It helps us to better appreciate the vulnerability of women during times of political crises ...

Director: Hany Abu-Assad

Screenplay: Hanu Abu-Assad, Bero Beyer & Pierre Hodgson

Cast: Lubna Azabel, Hamza Abu-Aiaash, Kais Nashif, Lutuf Nouasser, Ali Suliman, Mohammad Bustami, Ahmad Fares, Waleed On-Allah

Academy Award: Nomination for Best Foreign Film

Tense, thoughtful and emotional drama that is as absorbing as it is relevant.

Inside the mind of a Palestinian suicide bomber is this story which involves two days in the lives of Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), two Palestinians, garage mechanics and best friends, who are recruited to cross into Israel and blow themselves up. This thoughtfully constructed film attempts to examine why people would be driven to such extremes. The two men are not shown as fanatics. They prepare for their task as one would prepare for any difficult assignment. The organization that supports them provides training, encouragement, praise, shaves and haircuts, suits and ties, a ceremonial dinner, and a chance to make videos that will be shown on television.

Despite the grim nature of the story, the screenplay finds room for moments of black humour. Instead of a penetrating psychological study, the film is fashioned as a thriller. Conviction mingles with vacillation, and once an unexpected hitch in the suicide plan arises, all bets are off. The film continues to twist and turn until the very end, keeping us guessing as to what the would-be martyrs will do. Ultimately action speaks louder than words, even for men who walk softly but carry big sticks of dynamite.

Director: Wong Kar-Wei

Screenplay: Wong Kar-Wei

Cast: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Siu Ping-Lam, Tung Cho "Joe" Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen, Man-Lei Chan

Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor - Tony Leung

Visually beautiful and emotionally moving film about an understated romance. The film provides profound and moving reflections on life's fundamentals as it takes on the themes of love, betrayal, loss, missed opportunities, memory, the brutality of time's passage and loneliness.

In 1962 British Hong Kong, Shanghai expatriates, a journalist (Tony Leung), and a secretary (Maggie Cheung) at a shipping company, rent rooms in adjacent apartments. Each has a spouse who works and often leaves them alone on overtime shifts. Although they are initially friendly to each other they grow closer as they realize that their spouses are having an affair. As time passes, they acknowledge that they have developed feelings for each other but are forced to keep their relationship platonic in order to do the 'correct thing'.

Stylish and very moving film is sumptuously mounted with gorgeous cinematography, sets and costumes. Both stars give superb performances in a film of stolen glances and fleeting touches, as they both master this quiet and chaste dance.

Director: Dino Risi

Screenplay: Dino Risi, Ettore Scola & Ruggero Maccari

Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Spaak, Claudio Gora, Luciana Angiolillo, Linda Sini, Franca Polesello

David Di Donatello Award: Best Actor (Vittorio Gassman)

An Italian road movie about an unlikely friendship that develops after a chance encounter between a liberal man (Vittorio Gassman) and a conservative law student (Jean-Louis Trintignant).

Like a whirlwind the student's entire life is transformed as they both go on this impromptu frantic journey with their contrasting personalities and outlooks on life, leading to a number of fascinating conversations, as the two traverse the roads of Italy. The stunning historic architecture of Rome and the scenic vistas of the countryside roads act as a delightful backdrop which the director exploits to its full potential, painting a magical picture of an enticing part of Italy.

The charming comedy is the personification of the Swinging Sixties as the pair indulge in fun involving bars, the beach and a bevy of beautiful women. Also like many great comedies, there is a tragic undercurrent to the story that adds depth to its humour as the senseless decadence reaches a heart-stopping climax. The film is shot entirely on location and without the use of back projection which provides a sense of immediacy and realism to the story.

Director: Santosh Shivan

Screenplay: Cathy Rabin

Cast: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Jennifer Ehle, Leopold Benedict, John Standing, Lal, Dr. Ambikathmajan, Lakshmi Krishnamurthy

Awards: Houston Film Festival: Best Theatrical Feature

The story, set in Kerala - South India - during the British Raj, is a dispassionate study of how power, when threatened, ruthlessly exercises its prerogatives.

Henry Moore  (Linus Roache),  an English tea planter in southwestern India during a time of mounting resentment towards British rule, has borrowed heavily to finance the building of a road for the fantastically lucrative spice trade. He has his faithful ''man'', an educated Indian  (Rahul Bose),  well read and devoted, whom he treats as a friend but up to a point. He also has a mistress. Unbeknownst to his wife  (Jennifer Ehle) , he has become involved with the housemaid  (Nandita Das) . He says he loves her and she, wed to a man in the village, risks everything to carry on the affair, but when two boys playing in the woods spot the adulterers, a series of tragic events are set in motion.

The luscious scenery, shot by director-cinematographer Santosh Sivan is gorgeous to behold as his camera captures stunning images of mist rising from tea plantations and angry villagers marching with torches. The film is fervently acted with Nandita Das providing a powerful, emotional force.

Director: John Curran

Screenplay: Ron Nyswaner, based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham

Cast: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Juliet Howland, Toby Jones, Ian Renwick, Diana Rigg, Maggie Steed, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Sihan Cheng, Yu Xia, Lu Yan

Awards: Spirit Award Nominations: Best Actor (Edward Horton), Best Music Score

W. Somerset Maugham's classic story about a mismatched couple during the 1925 cholera epidemic in China was first filmed in Hollywood with the great Greta Garbo. This third film version brings a modern sensibility and more realism to the tragic story.

On a brief trip to London, an earnest, bookish bacteriologist (Edward Norton) is dazzled by a bored socialite (Naomi Watts). He proposes marriage, she accepts and after a romantic honeymoon in Venice they end up at a medical post in Shanghai where he is stationed in a government lab studying infectious diseases. The couple is ill-suited and she is much more interested in the social life of the British expatriates. When she embarks on an affair with a married British vice consul (Liev Schreiber) her husband threatens divorce for adultery unless she accompanies him to a remote area of China where he has volunteered to treat victims of a cholera epidemic. The story deals in the ways in which marriage in ruins is slowly and inexorably repaired as two disappointed individuals struggle in an alien and dangerous environment to find common ground and the love that has so far eluded them.

The film is shot on stunning locations in China with sumptuous cinematography, exquisite period detail and a rousing score accompanying this romantic but tragic love story.

Bruno Antony thinks he has the perfect plot to rid himself of his hated father, and when he meets tennis player Guy Haines on a train he thinks he's found the partner he needs to pull it off. His plan is relatively simple: Two strangers each agree to kill someone the other person wants gone. For example, Guy could kill his father and he could get rid of Guy's wife Miriam, freeing him to marry Anne Morton, the beautiful daughter of a U.S. Senator. Guy dismisses it all out of hand, but Bruno goes ahead with his half of the "bargain" and disposes of Miriam. When Guy balks, Bruno makes it clear that he will plant evidence to implicate Guy in her murder if he doesn't get rid of his father. Guy had also made some unfortunate statements about Miriam after she had refused to divorce him. It all leads the police to believe Guy is responsible for the murder, forcing him to deal with Bruno's mad ravings.