JULES ET JIM (1962)

Directed by Francois Truffaut

In Paris 1900, two friends, Jules An Austrian, (Osker Werner) and Jim, a Frenchman (Henri Serre) fall in love with the same woman, Catherine (Jeanne Moreau). But Catherine loves and marries Jules. After WWI, when they meet again in Germany, Catherine starts to love Jim. This is the story of three people in love, a love which does not affect their friendship, and about how their relationship envolves with the years.

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

None

ROOM AT THE TOP (1959)

Directed by Jack Clayton

The English factory town is dreary but Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) has landed a job with a future. To have something to do at night he joins a theatrical group. His boss's daughter Susan (Heather Sears) who is playing ingenue roles on stage and in real life. She is attracted to Joe and Joe thinks about how much faster he will get ahead if he is the boss's son-in-law. This plan is complicated by his strong desire to be with an older woman, Alice (Simone Signoret) who also belongs to the theatrical group. She is French and unhappily married. Joe believes he can get away with seeing both women

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay

Won 2, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay

DVD Special Features:

None

CLOSER (2004)

Directed by Mike Nichols

Film based on Patrick Marber's play starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen.
An intriguing story of passion, drama, love, and abandonment involving two couples, which only gets more complicated when the man from the first couple gets acquainted with the woman from the second coupling.

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress

DVD Special Features:

None

THE STING (1973)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by George Roy Hill

When a mutual friend is killed by a mob boss, two con men, the experienced Henry Gondorff aka Shaw (Paul Newman) and the other, a young upstart, Johnny Hooker aka Kelly (Robert Redford) try to get even by pulling off the big con on mob boss, Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Aided by various other "interesting" characters, the story unfolds with several twists and turns and a finale sting operation

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Art/Set Decoration, Best Music/Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Sound

Won 7, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Art/Set Decoration and Best Music/ Original Score

The acclaimed Costume Designer, Edith Head obtained/won the last of her 35 Academy Award Nominations. She won 8 in total

DVD Special Features:

None

None

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

Directed by George Roy Hill

Butch and Sundance (Robert Redford and Paul Newman) are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Best Sound

Won 4, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Original Song

DVD Special Features:

The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

1994 Interviews with cast members:

Paul Newman
Robert Redford
Katharine Ross and Screenwriter, William Goldman

Audio commentary by Director, George Roy Hill, Robert Crawford and Cinematographer, Conrad L. Hall

THE HOURS (2002)

Directed by Stephen Daldry

In 1923, Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is starting to write her novel, 'Mrs. Dalloway,' under the care of doctors and family. In 1951, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is planning for her husband's birthday, but is preoccupied with reading Woolf's novel. In 2001, Clarrisa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is planning an award party for her friend, an author (Ed Harris) dying of AIDS. Taking place over one day, all three stories are interconnected with the novel mentioned before, as one is writing it, one is reading it, and one is living it.

Nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score

Won 1, Best Actress

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Audio Commentary by Director, Stephen Daldry and Novelist, Michael Cunningham

Feature Length Audio Commentary by Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman

Filmmakers Introduction

Four Featurettes:

Three Women
The Minds And Times Of Virginia Woolf
The Music of the Hours
The Lives of Mrs. Dalloway

IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)

Directed by Douglas Sirk

In 1947 at Coney Island, down-on-her-luck actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) and her young daughter Susie (Sandra Dee) meet coloured Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) and her daughter Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner). Annie is desperate for a place to live and offers to work as Lora's maid for food and lodging. Lora's luck begins to change as a result of their meeting and their two stories unfold across the years.

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, both for Best Supporting Actress

DVD Special Features:

None

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955)

Directed by Douglas Sirk

Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, a prosperous suburban New England widow with two college-aged children. Rock Hudson plays Ron Kirby, a nurseryman and gardener. Cary and Ron meet when he's pruning trees in her yard. She becomes intrigued by his free spirit and his romantic life. He falls for her as well and wants to be married. Cary is afraid of the social consequences of marriage to Ron, and she also fears her children's disapproval. Cary is not only older than Ron (at the time the movie was made Jane Wyman was 38 to Rock Hudson's 30) but is also wealthier. Cary's friends and children are snobbish and socially conscious. Ron's friends are eccentric and fun-loving. Cary must choose between love and convention.

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

Behind the Mirror, A Profile of Douglas Sirk featuring
excerpts from a BBC documentary produced and hosted by Mark Shivas

I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING (1945)

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Young Englishwoman, Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) is determined to have the finer things in life, and to that end she plans to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a wealthy, middle-aged industrialist whom she does not love.
En route to the Island of Mull, where her future husband resides, Joan is stranded in a colorful Scottish seacoast town. Inclement weather keeps her grounded for a week, during which time she falls in love with young, insouciant naval officer Torquil McNeil (Roger Livesey). Ignoring the dictates of her heart (not to mention common sense), Joan stubbornly insists upon heading out to sea towards her marriage of convenience, but Mother Nature finally convince her that her future resides on the Mainland.

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

None