A LIST OF MOVIES
At our Information Center "Window on America" you have a possibility to enjoy watching the following American movies:
Crime - Film-Noir - Mystery
1. The Maltese Falcon 1941 (100 min) – 25512. Sunset Boulevard 1950 (drama) (110 minutes) - 2531
3. Strangers on a train 1951 (101 minutes) – 2646
4. The Third Man 1949 (104 minutes) – 2486
5. North by Northwest 1959 (131 minutes) – 2536
6. Vertigo 1958 (romance) (128 minutes) – 2494
7. Psycho 1960 (horror) (109 minutes) - 2519
Documentary
1. Spellbound 2002(1 hour 37 minutes) – 3213
2. It might get loud 2008 (98 minutes) (music)
3. The History Channel (100 minutes) - 2594
4. ACTION (A brilliantly vicious satire of the all-too-well-known banalities of Hollywood) (299 minutes).
Drama Music
1. Amadeus 1984 (160 minutes) (biography) – 24992. The sound of music 1965 (174 minutes) (family) – 2497
3. Fiddler on the Roof 1971 (family) (181 minutes) – 2796-2797
4. CABARET 1972 (124 minutes) - 2798
Comedy Musical Romance
1. Singing in the rain 1952 (103 minutes) – 2540
2. The Philadelphia Story 1940 (112 minutes) – 2532
3. It Happened One Night 1934 (105 minutes) – 2548
4. An American in Paris 1951 (113 minutes) – 2490
5. Bringing Up Baby 1938 (102 minutes) – 2477-2478
Biography Drama
1. GoodFellas 1990 (146 minutes) (crime) – 2502
2. The Pursuit of Happyness 2006 (117 minutes)
3. The Motocycle Diaries 2004 (adventure) (126 minutes) – 3234
4. Bonnie and Clyde 1967 (crime) (112 minutes) – 2533
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007 (crime) (160 minutes) - 3233
6. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio 2005 (99 minutes) – 3175
7. The Whistleblower 2010 (thriller) (112 minutes)
8. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall 1980 (57 minutes) – 3171
9. The Last King of Scotland 2006 (history) (121 minutes) – 3232
10. Born on the FOURTH of JULY (war) (145 minutes) – 3201
11. Lawrence of Arabia 1962 (adventure) (216 minutes) - 2526
Drama Thriller
1. All the King’s men 2006(128 minutes) – 2800
2. Grapes of Wrath 1940 (129 minutes) – 2495
3. Network 1976 (121 minutes) - 2522
4. The Departed 2006 (151 minutes) – 2799
5. Barn Burning TV 1985 (41 minutes) (short family) – 3173
6. The French connection 1971 (104 minutes) (action crime) – 2529
7. Fargo 1996 (crime) (98 minutes) – 2514
8. Jaws 1975 (124 minutes) – 2482, 2483
9. Pulp Fiction 1994 (crime) (154 minutes) - 2537
10. Miller’s Crossing (crime) (115 minutes)
11. Robert Redford The Candidate 1972 (110 minutes) - 2795
12. ICON 2005 (action) (166 minutes)
13. No Country for Old Men (122 minutes) – 2794
14. Rear Window 1954 (romance, mystery) (112 minutes) - 2552
Adventure Drama Western
1. Dances with wolves 1990 (3 hours, 1 minute) – 2524
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 (crime) (110 minutes) – 2484
3. The Horse Whisperer 1998 (romance) (170 minutes) - 2715
4. The searchers 1956 (action) (119 minutes) - 2476
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: the curse of the black pearl 2003 (action, fantasy) (143 minutes) – 2644
6. High Noon (88 minutes) – 2550
7. Shane 1953 (118 minutes) – 2485
8. The Adventures of INDIANA JONES (4 discs) – 2594-2597
9. The UNFORGIVEN 1960 (romance) (121 minutes) – 2542
10. Stagecoach 1939 (96 minutes) - 2500
11. The Perfect Storm 2000 (not western) (130 minutes)
Comedy Drama
1. Election 1999 (103 minutes) – 3176
2. Shakespeare in Love 1998 (romance) (123 minutes) – 2645
3. City lights 1931 (romance) (87 minutes) – 2541
4. Tootsie 1982 (romance) (116 minutes) – 2487
5. Get Shorty 1995 (crime thriller) (105 minutes)
6. Be Cool 2005 (crime) (118 minutes)
7. The Graduate 1967 (romance) (106 minutes) – 2530
8. Modern times 1936 (romance) (87 minutes) - 2538
9. Annie Hall 1977 (romance) (93 minutes) – 2496
10. The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) (adventure) (108 minutes) – 2720
11. Fried Green Tomatoes 1991 (130 minutes)
12. Educating Rita 1983 (110 minutes)
13. The Romantic Englishwoman 1975 (116 minutes)
14. CRUSH 2001 (romance) (112 minutes)
15. Love Actually 2003 (romance) (135 minutes)
16. Juno 2007 (romance) (96 minutes)
17. Dr. Strangelove (95 minutes) – 2473
18. TheApartment 1960(romance) (125 minutes) – 2543
19. MASH 1970 (war) (116 minutes) – 2528
20. SMOKE 1995 (112 minutes)
21. THREE KINGS 1999 (114 minutes)
Comedy Family
1. A Christmas Story 1983 (94 minutes) – 2801, 2802
2. The Russians Are Coming the Russians are coming 1966 (126 minutes) – 2793
3. Some like it hot 1959 (120 minutes) – 2489
4. The princess bride 1987 (adventure) (98 minutes)
5. Big 1988 (drama) (104 minutes)
6. Clockwise 1986 (96 minutes)
7. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia 2005 (380 minutes) – 3240 – 3242
Crime Drama
1. Chinatown 1974 (mystery) (130 minutes) – 2513
2. Citizen Kane 1941 (mystery) (119 minutes) - 2534
3. A town like Alice 1956 (romance) (117 minutes)
4. On the waterfront 1954 (108 minutes) - 2481
5. West side story 1961 (musical) (152 minutes) – 2546
6. On the waterfront 1954 (108 minutes) - 2481
7. West side story 1961 (musical) (152 minutes) – 2546
8. The Departed 2006 (thriller) (151 minutes) – 3235
9. The SHAWSHANK Redemption 1994 (142 minutes)
10. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 (129 minutes) – 2544
11. Rain Man 1988 (133 minutes)
12. The Godfather 1972-1990 (saga - 3 discs) – 2503-2506
13. Air Force One 1997 (action, adventure) (124 minutes) - 2643
Drama War
1. Cold mountain 2003 (romance) (154 minutes) - 2654
2. All Quiet Western Front 1930 (145 minutes) – 2492
3. Patton 1970 (biography) (172 minutes) - 2511
4. Platoon 1986 (action) (120 minutes) - 3204
5. The Best Years of OUR LIVES 1946 (romance) (172 minutes) – 2498
6. BENHUR 1959 (history) (196 minutes) – 2517
7. ROME 2001-2002 (saga – 6 discs) – 3226-3231
8. The bridge on the river KWAI 1957 (161 minutes) – 2545
9. Casablanca 1942 (war) (102 minutes) - 2491
Fantasy Drama
1. Stranger then Fiction 2006 (comedy) (113 minutes)
2. It’s A Wonderful Life 1946 (family) (130 minutes)
3. The NINES 2007 (mystery) (100 minutes) - 2792
4. KING KONG 1933 (horror) (104 minutes) – 2475
5. STAR WARS trilogy 2004 (saga – 3 discs) – 2507-2509
Drama Romance
1. Rebel without a cause 1955 (111 minutes) – 2516
2. Gone with the Wind 1939 (war) (238 minutes) – 2479, 2480
3. A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 (122 minutes) – 2527
4. RENT 2005 (musical) (135 minutes) – 2803, 2804
5. All About Eve 1950 (138 minutes) – 2474
6. A river runs through it 1992 (123 minutes)
7. Sophie’s Choice 1982 (150 minutes)
8. Sins (TV mini-series) 1986 (420 minutes)
9. From Here to Eternity 1953 (war) (118 minutes) – 3207
10. A place in the Sun 1951 (122 minutes) – 2471
11. My fair Lady 1964 (musical) (170 minutes) – 2488
12. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 1967 (108 minutes) - 2535
Scientific fiction
1. Total recall 1990 (action adventure) (113 minutes) – 3174
2. Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind 2004(drama romance)(108 minutes)3172
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 (adventure) (148 minutes) – 2501
4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 (drama) (132 minutes) - 2523
Horror Mystery Thriller
1. Psycho 1960 (109 minutes) - 2519
Cartoons
1. South park: the complete third season 1999-2000 (comedy) (374 minutes)
2. The Muppet Movie 1979 (adventure, comedy, family) (95 minutes) – 2791
3. Family Guy 2001-2002 (Volume two/Season 3) (comedy) (495 minutes) – 3223-3225
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MORE ON:
The Adventures of Huck Finn
An Affair to remember
Air Force One
Ali
All about Eve
All the King’s Men
All the President’s Men (1974)
Humpty Dumpty Cartoon from 1902 Mother Goose story book as seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty
Nixon cartoon from http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/watergate/images/iAmNotaCrook.gif
All the Pretty Horses
All Quiet on the Western Front
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000642-all_quiet_on_the_western_front/
Amadeus
American Graffiti
An American in Paris
Amistad
Antwone Fisher
The Apartment
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apollo 13
Arsenic and Old Lace
A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Ben-Hur
The Best Years of Our Lives
http://www.filmsite.org/besty.html
Big
The Big Chill (1983)
Big Lebowski
The Birth of a Nation
Bonnie and Clyde
Born on the Fourth of July
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
Bringing up baby
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Candidate
Casablanca (1942)
Cats
Chicago
Children of a Lesser God
Chinatown
The Chorus Line
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights
Clockwork Orange
Cold Mountain
The Color Purple
The Conversation
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Dave (1993)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Defense of the Realm
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Departed
Dick Tracy
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Dreamgirls
Easy Rider
E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Election
The English Patient
Erin Brokovitch
Fargo
Father of the Bride
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Field of dreams (1989)
The Firm
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Fourth Protocol
The French Connection
The Gladiator
Glory (1989)
The Godfather (1972)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Goodfellas (1990)
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
The Graduate (1967)
The Grapes of Wrath
The Greatest Man in the World
Grumpy Old Men
The Guard Experience
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Harold and Maude
Hoosiers (1986)
The Horse Whisperer
The Hours
It Happened One Night
It’s a Wonderful Life
Jaws (1975)
The Jazz Singer
The Joy Luck Club
King Kong
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
The Lord of the Rings
Lost in Translation
The Maltese Falcon
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg
The Man that Knew Too Much
The Manchurian Candidate
MASH (1970)
Matilda
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Million Dollar Baby
Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939)
Modern Times
My Fair Lady (1964)
Mystic River
National Lampoon’s Animal House
The Natural
Network (1976)
The Nines
North by Northwest (1950)
North Country
October Sky
Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?
On the Waterfront
Once upon a Time in America
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
The Patriot (2000)
Patton (1970)
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Philadelphia (1993)
The Philadelphia Story
Pirates of the Caribbean
A Place in the Sun
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Platoon (1986)
Pocahontas (1995)
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Rear Window
Relative Values
The Riddle
Remember the Titans (2000)
A River runs Through It (1992)
Rocky (1976)
The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Schindler’s List
Seabiscuit
Shakespeare in Love
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Shrek (2001)
Singing in the Rain
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Some Like It Hot
The Sound of Music (1965)
Solaris
Sophie’s Choice
Stagecoach
Star Wars (1977-1983)
Strangers on a Train
A Streetcar named Desire
Sweet Home Alabama
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Taxi Driver
Thelma and Louise (1991)
This is America, Charlie Brown
13 Days (2001)
Titanic (1996)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Tootsie (1982)
Total Recall
Tortilla Soup
Toy Story
Traffic
The Truman Show
Twelve Angry Men
2001: A Space Odyssey
Unforgiven
Vertigo
West Side Story (1961)
When Harry Met Sally
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Witness for the Prosecution
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Wuthering Heights
Yankee Doodle Dandy
You’ve Got Mail
The List of Documentary Films
America’s Political Parties (2)
The American Revolution (6)
Apollo: Missions to the Moon (7)
Freedom: A History of US (8)
The American Experience. Eleanor Roosevelt (1)
The Statue of Liberty (1)
Not for ourselves alone. Failure is impossible (1)
America’s Canyon Country
America’s Great Northwest
America’s Last Frontier Alaska
Great Indian Leaders
Lewis & Clark (The Journey of the Corps of Discovery) (2)
The Way West (4)
Ken Burns’ America (7)
Ellis Island (3)
The Great War (4)
America 1900 (2)
Surviving the Dust Bowl (1)
Between the Wars (4)
Race for the Superbomb
Vietnam (A Television History) (7)
United Tastes of America (2)
Inside the White House (1)
American Cinema (5)
American Visions (8)
READ MORE ON:
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An American in Paris (1951)
Genres: Musical | Romance
Plot Summary for:
Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is "discovered" by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist, while romantic complications abound. Written by Scott Renshaw
Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam (Oscar Levant) is a struggling concert pianist who is a long time associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary). A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in Jerry more than his art. Jerry remains oblivious to her feelings, and falls in love with Lise (Leslie Caron), a French girl he meets at a restaurant. Lise loves him as well, but she is already in a relationship with Henri, whom she feels indebted to for having saved her family during World War II.
At a raucous masked ball, with everyone in black-and-white costumes, Milo learns that Jerry is not interested in her, Jerry learns that Lise is in love with him, but is marrying Henri the next day, and Henri overhears their conversation. When Henri drives Lise away, Jerry daydreams about being with her all over Paris, his reverie broken by a car horn, the sound of Henri bringing Lise back to him.
Details
Country: USA
Language: English | French | German
Release Date: 11 November 1951 (USA) See more »
Also Known As: Ein Amerikaner in Paris See more »
Filming Locations: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
Technical Specs
Runtime: 113 min
Sound Mix: Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color: Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1LIST OF MOVIES
Format: Dolby, AC-3, Widescreen, Closed-captioned, DVD, Subtitled, Color, Dubbed, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
Run Time: 146 minutes
Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalizes the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous exile under the Witness Protection Program. The director's kinetic style is perfect for recounting Hill's ruthless rise to power in the 1950s as well as his drugged-out fall in the late 1970s; in fact, no one has ever rendered the mental dislocation of cocaine better than Scorsese. Scorsese uses period music perfectly, not just to summon a particular time but to set a precise mood. GoodFellas is at least as good as The Godfather without being in the least derivative of it. Joe Pesci's psycho improvisation of Mobster Tommy DeVito ignited Pesci as a star, Lorraine Bracco scores the performance of her life as the love of Hill's life, and every supporting role, from Paul Sorvino to Robert De Niro, is a miracle.
Directors: George Stevens
Writers: Michael Wilson, Harry Brown, Theodore Dreiser
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: Portuguese, French
Subtitles: English
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: August 21, 2001
Run Time: 122 minutes
George Stevens won an Oscar for his 1951 adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy, though the film seems a little overwrought today and even self-parodying at times. Still, Montgomery Clift's performance as a poor lad so drawn to a rich, beautiful girl (Elizabeth Taylor) that he contemplates killing his lower-class fiancée (Shelley Winters) is powerful, sympathetic, and mesmerizing. Taylor makes a strong impression, but Winters is awfully good in the less-glamorous role. The tone of the film is oppressive--the film doesn't exactly breathe with possibility--but there are lots of good reasons to give this movie a visit.
Directors: Charles Chaplin
Writers: Charles Chaplin, Harry Clive, Harry Crocker
Producers: Charles Chaplin
Format: AC-3, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Silent, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
Studio: Warner Brothers
Run Time: 186 minutes
City Lights is a film to pick for the time capsule, a film that best represents the many aspects of director-writer-star Charlie Chaplin at the peak of his powers: Chaplin the actor, the sentimentalist, the knockabout clown, the ballet dancer, the athlete, the lover, the tragedian, the fool. It's all contained in Chaplin's simple story of a tramp who falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). Chaplin elevates the Victorian contrivances of the plot to something glorious with his inventive use of pantomime and his sure grasp of how the Tramp relates to the audience. In 1931, it was a gamble for Chaplin to stick with silence after talking pictures had killed off the art form that had made him famous, but audiences flocked to City Lights anyway. (Chaplin would not make his first full talking picture until 1940's The Great Dictator.) After all the superb comic sequences, the film culminates with one of the most moving scenes in the history of cinema, a luminous and heartbreaking fade-out that lifts the picture onto another plane. (Woody Allen paid homage to the scene at the end of Manhattan.) This is why the term "Chaplinesque" became a part of the language. --Robert Horton.
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GoodFellas (1990)
Details
Actors: Ray Liotta, Robert De NiroFormat: Dolby, AC-3, Widescreen, Closed-captioned, DVD, Subtitled, Color, Dubbed, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
Run Time: 146 minutes
Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalizes the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous exile under the Witness Protection Program. The director's kinetic style is perfect for recounting Hill's ruthless rise to power in the 1950s as well as his drugged-out fall in the late 1970s; in fact, no one has ever rendered the mental dislocation of cocaine better than Scorsese. Scorsese uses period music perfectly, not just to summon a particular time but to set a precise mood. GoodFellas is at least as good as The Godfather without being in the least derivative of it. Joe Pesci's psycho improvisation of Mobster Tommy DeVito ignited Pesci as a star, Lorraine Bracco scores the performance of her life as the love of Hill's life, and every supporting role, from Paul Sorvino to Robert De Niro, is a miracle.
Description
When Martin Scorsese, one of the world's most skillful and respected directors, reunited with two-time Oscar-winner Robert De Niro in GoodFellas, the result was one of the most powerful films of the year. Based on the true-life best seller Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi and backed by a dynamic pop/rock oldies soundtrack, critics and filmgoers alike declared GoodFellas great. It was named 1990's best film by the New York, Los Angeles and National Society of Film Critics. And it earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Robert De Niro received wide recognition for his performance as veteran criminal Jimmy "The Gent" Conway. And as the volatile Tommy DeVito, Joe Pesci walked off with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Academy Award nominee Lorraine Bracco, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino also turned in electrifying performances. You have to see it to believe it - then watch it again. GoodFellas explores the criminal life like no other movie.
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A Place in the Sun (1951)
Details
Actors: Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Taylor, Keefe Brasselle, Raymond BurrDirectors: George Stevens
Writers: Michael Wilson, Harry Brown, Theodore Dreiser
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: Portuguese, French
Subtitles: English
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: August 21, 2001
Run Time: 122 minutes
George Stevens won an Oscar for his 1951 adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy, though the film seems a little overwrought today and even self-parodying at times. Still, Montgomery Clift's performance as a poor lad so drawn to a rich, beautiful girl (Elizabeth Taylor) that he contemplates killing his lower-class fiancée (Shelley Winters) is powerful, sympathetic, and mesmerizing. Taylor makes a strong impression, but Winters is awfully good in the less-glamorous role. The tone of the film is oppressive--the film doesn't exactly breathe with possibility--but there are lots of good reasons to give this movie a visit.
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City Lights: The Chaplin Collection (1931)
Details
Actors: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers, Al Ernest GarciaDirectors: Charles Chaplin
Writers: Charles Chaplin, Harry Clive, Harry Crocker
Producers: Charles Chaplin
Format: AC-3, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Silent, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
Studio: Warner Brothers
Run Time: 186 minutes
City Lights is a film to pick for the time capsule, a film that best represents the many aspects of director-writer-star Charlie Chaplin at the peak of his powers: Chaplin the actor, the sentimentalist, the knockabout clown, the ballet dancer, the athlete, the lover, the tragedian, the fool. It's all contained in Chaplin's simple story of a tramp who falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). Chaplin elevates the Victorian contrivances of the plot to something glorious with his inventive use of pantomime and his sure grasp of how the Tramp relates to the audience. In 1931, it was a gamble for Chaplin to stick with silence after talking pictures had killed off the art form that had made him famous, but audiences flocked to City Lights anyway. (Chaplin would not make his first full talking picture until 1940's The Great Dictator.) After all the superb comic sequences, the film culminates with one of the most moving scenes in the history of cinema, a luminous and heartbreaking fade-out that lifts the picture onto another plane. (Woody Allen paid homage to the scene at the end of Manhattan.) This is why the term "Chaplinesque" became a part of the language. --Robert Horton.
Description
Talkies were well entrenched when Charles Chaplin swam against the filmmaking tide with this forever classic that's silent except for music and sound effects. The story, involving the Tramp's attempts to get money for an operation that will restore sight to a blind flower girl, provides the star with an ideal framework for sentiment and laughs. The Tramp is variously a street sweeper, a boxer, a rich poseur, and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire. His message is unspoken, but universallya understood: love is blind.
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Some Like It Hot (1959)
Details
Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Pat O'Brien
Directors: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Michael Logan, Robert Thoeren
Producers: Billy Wilder, Doane Harrison, I.A.L. Diamond
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Release Date: May 22, 2001
Run Time: 120 minutes
Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player. (When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant--a spot-on impersonation.) The script by director Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is beautifully measured; everything works, like a flawless clock. Aspiring screenwriters would be well advised to throw away the how-to books and simply study this film. The bulk of the slapstick is handled by an unhinged Lemmon and the razor-sharp Joe E. Brown, who plays a horny retiree smitten by Jerry's feminine charms. For all the gags, the film is also wonderfully romantic, as Wilder indulges in just the right amounts of moonlight and the lilting melody of "Park Avenue Fantasy." Some Like It Hot is so delightfully fizzy, it's hard to believe the shooting of the film was a headache, with an unhappy Monroe on her worst behavior. The results, however, are sublime.
Description
When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) accidentally witness a gangland shooting, they quickly board a southbound train to Florida, disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the twonewestand homeliestmembers of an all-girl jazz band. Their cover is perfect...until a lovelorn singer (Marilyn Monroe) falls for Josephine, an ancient playboy (Joe E. Brown) falls for Daphne, and a mob boss (George Raft) refuses to fall for their hoax! Nominated* for 6 Academy Awards(r), Some Like It Hot is the quintessential madcap farce and one of the greatest of all film comedies (The Motion Picture Guide). *1959: Director, Actor (Lemmon), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography (B&W), Art Direction (B&W), Costume Design (B&W, winner).
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Pearl Harbor (2001)
Details
Actors: Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Studio: Touchstone / Disney
Run Time: 183 minutes
To call Pearl Harbor a throwback to old-time war movies is something of an understatement. Director Michael Bay's epic take on the bombing that brought the United States into World War II hijacks every war movie situation and cliché (some affectionate, some stale) you've ever seen and gives them a shiny, glossy spin until the whole movie practically gleams. Planes glisten, water sparkles, trees beckon--and Bay's re-creation of the bombing itself, a 30-minute sequence that's tightly choreographed and amazingly photographed, sets the action movie bar up quite a few notches. And in updating the classic war film, Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) use that old plot standby, the love triangle--this time, it's between two pilots (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett) and a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) who find themselves stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, during what they thought would be a nice, sunny tour of duty. Then, of course, history intervened.
For the first 90 minutes of the movie, Affleck and Beckinsale find a nice, appealing chemistry that plays on his strengths as a movie star and hers as a serious actress--he gives her glamour, she gives him smarts. Their truncated romance--the beginning of which is told in flashback so we can get right to the point where he has to leave her to go to England--works, thanks to their charm. They're no Kate and Leo from Titanic (a strategy the film strives hard toward), but they're pretty darn adorable in their own right. Hartnett, as the not entirely unwelcome third wheel, squints bravely but makes only a slight dent in the film. Everyone else in Pearl Harbor--from Cuba Gooding Jr.'s brave navy seaman to Jon Voight's able impersonation of FDR--is pretty much a glorified walk-on, taking a backseat to the pyrotechnics and action sequences that keep the three-hour film in fairly constant motion. But when that action does take hold, Pearl Harbor is quite a thrilling ride.
Description
History comes alive in the unforgettable epic motion picture PEARL HARBOR, the spectacular blockbuster brought to the screen by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay. Astounding visual and audio effects put you at the center of the event that changed the world -- that early Sunday morning in paradise when warplanes screamed across the peaceful skies of Pearl Harbor and jolted America into World War II. This real-life tale of catastrophic defeat, heroic victory, and personal courage focuses on the war's devastating impact on two daring young pilots, Ben Affleck (ARMAGEDDON) and Josh Hartnet (BLACK HAWK DOWN), and a beautiful, dedicated nurse, Kate Beckinsale (SERENDIPITY). PEARL HARBOR is extraordinary moviemaking -- a breathtaking reenactment of the "date which will live in infamy" and a heartfelt tribute to the men and women who lived it.
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The Graduate (1992)
Details
Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton
Directors: Mike Nichols
Writers: Buck Henry, Calder Willingham, Charles Webb, Craig Modderno
Producers: Joseph E. Levine, Lawrence Turman
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Run Time: 106 minutes
Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chicness has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch.
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The Big Chill (1983)
Details
Actors: Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline
Directors: Lawrence Kasdan
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Studio: Sony Pictures
Run Time: 105 minutes
Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 big-budget variation on John Sayles's The Return of the Secaucus Seven finds a cluster of old college radicals--who have since gone on to sundry professions and various degrees of materialism--reuniting over the death of a friend. Both playful and thoughtful, the film represents Kasdan (Body Heat) at his most astute. The attractive cast meshes perfectly into a group of characters for which a former closeness is out of synch with their current lives, yet their warmth is enviable and inviting. The script may be a bit too glib, with many one-liners, but it is still a perfectly designed story with telling irony and no little passion.