ELIZABETH (1998)

Directed Shekhar kapur

A film of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a strongand successful monarch in 16th century England

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Best Original Dramatic Score

Won 1 - Best Makeup

DVD Special Features :

Interviews with cast and crew
Behind the scenes, the making of Elizabeth

MYSTIC RIVER (2003)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Based on the best selling novel by Dennis Lehane, which tells the story of Childhood friends Jimmy Marcus (Sean Penn), Sean Devine ( Kevin Bacon) and Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) reunite following the death of Jimmy's oldest daughter, Katie (Emily Rossum).

Sean's a police detective on the case, gathering difficult and disturbing evidence; he's also tasked with handling Jimmy's rage and need for retribution.

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director
Won 2, Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins)

Made Academy history by being only the first time that the top two male leads won Oscars from the same film without that film winning Best Director and/or Best Picture

It is also the first movie to win the Academy's "Best Actor" and "Best Supporting Actor" category since Ben-Hur (1959) and only the fourth film to have done so in the Academy's history.
The others were:
Going My Way (1944) - Best Actor (Bing Crosby) and Best Supporting Actor (Barry Fitzgerald)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Best Actor (Federic March) and Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell)
Ben Hur (1959) - Best Actor (Charlton Heston) and Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith)

DVD Special features:

Two Making of Documentaries: Mystic River, Beneath the Surface and Mystic River, From Page to Screen

The Charlie Rose interviews with Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins

SUSPICION (1941)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant, it tells the story of a woman who thinks her husband is trying to kill her

Nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture

Won 1, Best Actress

Joan Fontaine is the only Actor or Actress to have won an acting Academy Award in a film directed by the great cinematic icon, Alfred Hitchcock

DVD Special Features:

None

ALL THE KINGS MEN (1949)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Robert Rossen

A film about how power corrupts.

The story of the rise of politician Willie Stark(Broderick Crawford) from a rural county seat to the spotlight. Along the way, he loses his initial innocence, and becomes just as corrupt as those who he assaulted before for this characteristic. Also included is the romance between one of his "right hand women" and the up-and-coming journalist who brings Stark to prominence.

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director

Won 3, Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress

DVD Special Features:

None

CHINATOWN (1974)

Directed by Roman Polanski

Los Angeles detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman claiming to be a Mrs. Mulwray to spy on her husband. Shortly after Gittes is hired, the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Duanawy) appears in his office threatening to sue if he doesn't drop the case immediately. Gittes pursues the case anyway, slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy centering on water management, state and municipal corruption, land use, real estate, and involving at least one murder. All under the mastermind of Noah Cross (John Huston)

It is now heralded as one of best films made in the 1970s

Nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and 7 others

Won 1, Original Screenplay.

Timing probably worked against it, a stronger contender that year was The Godfather, Part 2 (the eventual winner)

DVD Special Features:

25th Year Anniversary Retrospective Interviews with

Roman Polanski
Robert Towne and
Robert Evans..... on the scripting and shooting of the film

CABARET (1972)

Directed by Bob Fosse

About life in and out of the Kit Kat club in decadent 1931 Weimer, Berlin.
It starred amongst others Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles, Michael York and Joel Grey as the
master of ceremonies

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and 7 others

Won 8, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Best Art/Set Decoration and Best Sound

Cabaret was only the second film to win the highest number of Academy Awards in one year, without winning Best Picture. The first was DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) and the most recent is THE AVIATOR (2004)

DVD Special Features:

Two documentaries, The 1997 documentary, A Legend in the Making and the 1972 documentary, The Recreation of an Era

DAS BOOT (1981)

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

Highly acclaimed German submarine war film where the hunters become the hunted

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Cinematography, Best film Editing, Sound and Sound Effects Editing


DVD Special Features

Director's commentary soundtrack
Extended trailer on the Making and Restoration of Das Boot - Director's cut

MILDRED PIERCE (1945)

Directed by Michael Curtiz

The Story of a doting mother/housewife,left by her cheating husband, beomes a career woman to look after her family to the disapproval of her ungrateful/status conscience daughter

She would do anything for the love of that daughter,Veda - Marry a man she did not love for his family name and take the rap for a murder she did not commit

After being an MGM star in the 1930s,Joan Crawford's career was in decline when she screen tested made a comback with PIERCE by delivering a tour de force performance earning herself the first and only win of three nominations in her career

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture,Actress and Original Screenplay

Won 1 - Best Actress

DVD Special Features includes a Documentary narrated by Oscar winner, Angelica Huston on the life and career of the ultimate movie star, Joan Crawford

THE LAST EMPEROR (1987)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

Was nominated 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and 6 others

Won all 9, one of only three films in Academy history to have had a clean sweep in it's year.
The other two were GIGI (1958) and the recently lauded,THE LORD OF THE RINGS - THE RETURN OF THE KING (2004)

Like those other films, none of it's nominations were in the Acting categories

DVD Special Features:

None

THE GOOD,THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)

Directed by Sergio Leone

Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach.

With lots of plot twists and turns, told against the backdrop of the American Civil War, it is the tale of three gunmen who set out to find a hidden fortune

No Academy Award nominations

DVD Special Features:

Two documentaries, the first on the style of Sergio Leone with contributions from Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and the writer/film critic, Richard Schickel

The second is a Documentary "The Man Who Lost the Civil War"

Also present are deleted and restored scenes from the original Italian Release

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by William Friedkin

Gritty police drama portrays two tough New York City cops trying to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. An interesting contrast is established between 'Popeye' Doyle, a short-tempered alcoholic bigot who is nevertheless a hard-working and dedicated police officer, and his nemesis Alain Charnier, a suave and urbane gentleman who is nevertheless a criminal and one of the largest drug suppliers of pure heroin to North America. During the surveillance and eventual bust, Friedkin provides one of the most gripping and memorable car chase sequences ever filmed.

Nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture Best Actor and Best Director

Won 5, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing

One of only a handful of thrillers to win best picture

DVD Special Features:

2 Feature Length Audio Commentaries by the film's director, William Friedkin,Gene Hackman andRoy Scheider

Two Documentaries:

The Poughkeepsie Shuffle for the BBC

The Making of the French Connection

KLUTE (1971)

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

A Spellbinding love Story/thriller set in 1970s New York City about a prostitute being stalked and
the detective assigned to her case played by Donald Sutherland

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards,Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay
Won 1, Best Actress, Jane Fonda

DVD Special Features:

Shooting KLUTE in New York City

TRAFFIC (2000)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Intertwining vignettes frame this tale of America's escalating War on Drugs. Ohio Supreme Court judge Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) has been appointed the nation's Drug Czar, his new position made more daunting by the discovery that his teenage daughter Caroline is a heroin addict. Meanwhile, DEA agents Montel Gordon and Ray Castro are pursuing Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta Jones), wife of jailed kingpin Carlos Ayala, as she seeks to the control the business that her husband had kept hidden from her. South of the Border, duplicious local constable Javier Rodriguez is fighting the battle with his own jaded, questionable ethical code.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Film Editing
A rare dual nomination in the director category for Steven Soderbergh (for directing ERIN BROCKOVICH)
Won 4, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Film Editing

Viewed as one of the most realistic Film about the Drugs Wars/Social use recently made.
With a stellar ensemble cast, it was in stiff competition with the other two nominees for
the Best Picture of 2000 - GLADIATOR AND ERIN BROCKOVICH

DVD Special features contain a brief Making of the film featurette containing interviews by cast members including Michael Douglas, Benecio Del Toro and Catherine Zeta Jones

TAXI DRIVER (1976)

Directed by Martin Scorcese

A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as nighttime taxi driver in a city whose perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out.

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Score

Taxi was probably considered too dark for the taste of Academy voters at the time

Martin Scorcese's modern masterpiece and made even more famous by the fact that the would be-Assassin of President Reagan claimed to her done his deed out of love for Jodie Foster (one of the co-stars in the film)

Has attained cult status as one of the best contemporary films ever made

Described by one review as "Pivotal,disturbing and endlessly watchable"

The Score by the late Bernard Herrmann (who died at the completion of this score) is one of the best ever recorded for a film

DVD Special Features

A feature length making of Taxi Driver documentary with interviews with the director and Screenwriter Paul Schrader,actors including Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro, Cybil Shepherd, Harvey keitel, Peter Boyle and Albert Brooks

MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY (1935)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Frank Lloyd

Nominated for 8 Academy Awards
Won just one, for Best Picture

This 1935 version starred Charles Laughton (Captain William Bligh) and Clark Gable( Lt. Fletcher Christian) is easily the best of the bunch and as a testament to it's fame, has had two remakes made

The second, also called MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY was directed by Lewis Milestone and Carol Reed(uncredited) in 1962 with Trevor Howard ( Captain Bligh) and Marlon Brando as the adversary, Lt. Fletcher Christian.

It was also nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture,but won none

The latest remake titled BOUNTY (1984) starred Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh with Mel Gibson as Lt. Christian
No Academy Award Nominations or Awards.

Special Features - Vintage documentary about Pitcairn Islandas it stands today (the final place where Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers settled)

Short clip of the 1936 Academy Awards Ceremony. BOUNTY was announced best picture of the year

GLADIATOR (2000)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Ridley Scott

A Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes back to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge

The film that brought back the Greco/Roman toga epic

Nominated for 12 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Special Effects, Best Costume Design, Best Art and Set Decoration, Best Editing, Best Original Score and Best Original Screenplay.

Won 5 including Best Picture, Best Actor, Costume Design, Special Effects and Best Sound

Was honoured in a highly competitive year. Other contenders/winners included CROUCHING TIGER,HIDDEN DRAGON,ERIN BROCKOVICH AND TRAFFIC - each came away with major wins apart from Best Picture

DVD special Features

Feature length Making of the film documentary with interviews with the director,Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe,among others

Also contains the Making of the Music for the film
Production diary by Spencer Treat Clark who plays the little boy, Lucius

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards
Won 2 - Best Picture and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story

In my opinion,this is one of those times when the Academy's choice for the year does not hold up.
How SHOW could have picked up Best Picture over HIGH NOON (nominated in 7 categories including Best Picture) is anyone's guess

It is possible that the Studio System (was coming into it's climax in the early 1950s) helped Cecil B. DeMille's pet project prevail over the others

My opinion is that it was a safe family movie about art and work that touched a 1950s nerve. It was certainly less controversial than HIGH NOON which had the McCarthysim subtext and was had it's screenplay adapted by Carl Foreman (one of the blacklisted members of the Hollywood community)

Special Features - None

THE RED SHOES (1948)

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressbuger

Under the authoritarian rule of charismatic ballet impressario Boris Lermontov, his proteges realize the full promise of their talents, but at a price - utter devotion to their art and complete loyalty to Lermontov himself

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best picture and (then described as) Best Writing (Motion Picture)
Won 2, Best Art - Set Decoration, Color and Best Music Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

A Powell and Pressburger Classic. described as one of the most innovative and beautiful works of the cinema.

DVD Special Features:

Documentary profile of the Red Shoes including interviews with renowned Cinematographer, Jack Cardiff - Recipient of the Honorary Academy Award(2000)

Considered a daring lift for the Post WW2 cinema era.

Innovative technic used has often been cited by contemporary filmmakers such as Spielberg,Coppola and Scorcese as having a strong on their work

Was not well received at first due to it's dark content. Ballet was regarded at an aspirational art form
not suited to be dealt with in such a shocking and tragic way as shown by TRS. Even the tragic accident at the end of the film - the vivid imagery of the bloodied stockings by our heroine was considered too shocking for young viewers.

GRAND HOTEL (1932)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Edmund Goulding

One of the first starry cast ensemble films set in Berlin's plushest, most expensive hotel where in the words of Dr. Otternschlag "People come, people go. Nothing ever happens."

The cast includes Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Wallace Berry, Joan Crawford amongst others

Nominated/Won the Academy Award for Best Picture
The first and only film to have a sole nomination and only win in this category

DVD Special features:

The Making of Documentary
Checking out : Grand Hotel
Brief Notes - A brief informative narrative on the transfer to broadway and then to film of the Vicki Baum novel - Menschem in Hotel financed by MGM under the production of Irving Thalberg.

OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934)

Directed by John Cromwell

Abandoning artistic ambitions, sensitive and club-footed Philip Carey(Leslie Howard) enrolls in medical school and falls in love with illiterate waitress Mildred Rogers(Bette Davis)

Nominated for 1 (write-in) Academy Award Best Actress

Word is that she won her first Academy Award the following year (DANGEROUS) due to this oversight

DVD Special Features:

None