Manhattan: Rhapsody in Black and White

Mariel Hemingway and Woody Allen. Photo: United Artists After finishing Manhattan, Woody Allen was desperately unhappy with the results. It went so far that Allen begged United Artists not to…

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 

At thirty, Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is losing hope that she’ll ever meet a man… but then a school teacher (John Corbett) enters her life; the only problem is that…

Titanic: A Wreck Comes Alive

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Photo: 20th Century Fox Twentieth Century Fox wasn’t sure about letting James Cameron make an epic movie about the 1912 sinking of Titanic – especially…

Annie Hall: This Is 40

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen. Photo: United Artists In the film’s first scene, Woody Allen as Alvy Singer addresses his audience, letting us know that he recently turned 40 and…

Downton Abbey: An Empire in Change

Photo: ITV I’ve lost count of how many times various actors have come to my country to promote a new season of Downton Abbey. It hasn’t always been the biggest…

Out of Africa 

In the 1910s, Karen (Meryl Streep) marries a Danish nobleman (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and they move to British East Africa to start a farm; she also befriends a handsome big-game…

The Apartment: Executive Privilege

Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Photo: United Artists When Billy Wilder saw Brief Encounter (1945), where Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard have their rendezvous in an apartment belonging to a…

Miss Julie: A Midsummer Nightmare

Anita Björk and Ulf Palme. Photo: Sandrews In 1888, when August Strindberg offered a Stockholm publisher his new play "Miss Julie", he added a warning: "I ask you not to…

Far from Heaven 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder wasn’t the only one in awe of Douglas Sirk. In this drama, Todd Haynes recreated everything from Sirk's films to perfection. One in particular in fact, All…