THE DEPARTED (2006)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Martin Scorcese


In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leodardo Dicaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy-and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing

Won 4, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing

After 5 Nominations for Directing and 2 for Writing, Martin Scorcese finally received the long denied Academy Award for Best Director.

It was also the first time a Scorcese directed film will win the Academy Award for Best Picture

DVD Special Features:


Two Documentaries:

Crossing Criminal Cultures

Stranger Than Fiction:

Additional Scenes Cut from the Movie

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)

Directed by Elia Kazan

Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following World War Two, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is the story of Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a fragile and neurotic woman on a desperate prowl for someplace in the world to call her own. After being exiled from her hometown of Auriol, Mississippi for seducing a seventeen-year-old boy at the school where she taught English, Blanche explains her unexpected appearance on Stanley (marlon Brando) and Stella's (Kim Hunter), Blanche's sister doorstep as nervous exhaustion. This, she claims, is the result of a series of financial calamities which have recently claimed the family plantation, Belle Reve. Suspicious, Stanley points out that "under Louisiana's Napoleonic code what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband." Stanley, a sinewy and brutish man, is as territorial as a panther. He tells Blanche he doesn't like to be swindled and demands to see the bill of sale. This encounter defines Stanley and Blanche's relationship. They are opposing camps and Stella is caught in no-man's-land. But Stanley and Stella are deeply in love. Blanche's efforts to impose herself between them only enrages the animal inside Stanley. When Mitch -- a card-playing buddy of Stanley's -- arrives on the scene, Blanche begins to see a way out of her predicament. Mitch, himself alone in the world, reveres Blanche as a beautiful and refined woman. Yet, as rumors of Blanche's past in Auriol begin to catch up to her, her circumstances become unbearable

Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Art/ Set Decoration (Black and White), Best Costume Design (Black and White), Best Scoring of a Comedy or Dramatic Picture and Best Sound Recording

Won 4, Best Actress, Best Supprting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Art/Set decoration (Black and White)

Created Oscar history winning three of the four acting nominations, the only film to have done since

Widely tipped to sweep the board at the Academy Awards that year, Streetcar lost its nominations for Best Director and Picture, the former was won by George Stevens for A PLACE IN THE SUN and the latter by the musical, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Commentary by Karl Malden and Film Historians, Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young

Marlon Brando Screen Test

Profile on Director, Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey

Five Documentaries:

A Streetcar on Broadway,
A Streetcar in Hollywood,
Censorship and Desire,
North and the Music of the South
An Actor Named Brando

TWO WOMEN (LA CIOCIARA) (1960)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica

Cesira (Sophia Loren) and her 13-year-old daughter, Rosetta (Eleonara Brown), flee from the allied bombs in Rome during the second world war. They travel to the village where Cesira was born. During their journey and in the village, the mother does everything to protect Rosetta. However, on one occasion they both get raped by soldiers hiding in a church. This cruel event is too much for the always powerful fighting Cesira and she suffers from a breakdown. During their stay in the village, a young intellectual, Michele (Jean Paul Belmondo) falls in love with Cesira who does not know how to reply to the advances of such a gentleman

Nominated/Won for 1 Academy Award, Best Actress

Sophia Loren made Academy history as the first perfomer to win an Oscar for a none english speaking part.

To date there have only been two others, Robert De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for THE GODFATHER PART 2 in 1974 and Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for 1998's LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

DVD Special Features:

None

A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Ron Howard

At Princeton University, John Nash (Russell Crowe) struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today.

Nominated for 8 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Makeup and Best Original Score

Won 4, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Commentary by Director, Ron Howard

Feature Length Commentary by Screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman

GASLIGHT (1944)

Directed by George Cukor

In London, at Thorton Square 9, the prima donna Alice Alquist is strangled and her famous jewels miss. Her young niece Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is sent to Italy to study music and the house stays empty. Ten years later, Paula decides to get married with the older pianist Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), who convinces her to move back to the old address in London. When they arrive, Paula finds a letter from a mysterious and unknown Sergis Bauer, making Gregory upset. He psychologically begins to torture Paula and she has a nervous breakdown, insecurity and memory problems. When the Scotland Yard policeman Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) sees Gregory Anton [the couple] in a tourist place, he immediately recognizes Gregory [he see Paula who reminds him of her aunt; he does not know Gregory] and decides to investigate and find evidences to connect Gregory with the unsolved murder, while Paula is being driven mad and menaced of being interned in an asylum by her husband.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing (Screenplay) and Best Art/Set Decoration (Black and White)

Won 2, Best Actress and Best Art/Set Decoration (Black and White)

DVD Special Features:

None