A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)

Directed by George Stevens

A tragic family drama based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser : An American Tragedy which was itself based on the celebrated 1900 murder case of a man named Gillette, a poor relative of a rich family of the same name was convicted of drowning his pregnant working class girlfriend

It starred Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters amongst others

Nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Costume, Best Film Editing, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score

Won 6, Best Director, Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Costume, Best Film Editing, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score

DVD Special features:

A documentary on the legendry director, George Stevens: His Place in the Sun
with contributions from his son, George Stevens Jr, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelly Winters

Interviews on the work of George Stevens with contributions from film makers such as
Robert Wise, Alan J Pakula, Warren Beatty, Fred Zinnemann and others

Feature Length Commentary by George Stevens Jr and Ivan Moffat

CRASH (2004)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Paul Haggis

Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a black police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the distracted district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful black Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more.

The film attempts to explore and challenges your ability to judge books by their covers.

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Original Song

Won 3, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing

In what was considered one of the biggest shocks of the Academy's history, CRASH beat the favourite BROKE BACK MOUNTAIN to the years top prize


DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Commentary by Director/ Co Writer, Paul Haggis, Don Cheadle and Bobby Moresco

"Crash Behind The Scenes" - featurette

CHICAGO (2002)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Rob Marshall

Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is a married chorus girl with hopes of being a headliner in Vaudeville. Velma Kelly (Caterine Zeta Jones) is a former headliner. What do these two have in common? They are both murderesses. Roxie killed her lover when he walked out on her, and Velma killed her husband and sister, who were having an affair. Chicago's newspapers love the nitty-gritty and Velma is at the top of the headlines. But then Roxie comes along and Velma is old news. They find themselves competing for not only the press' attention, but also the focus of their shared lawyer, the suave Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Add to the mix a sob sister, Roxie's hapless husband Amos (John C Reilly), and a warm prison matron who watches out for her girls (if there's something in it for her), and you have Chicago.

Nominated for 13 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Art/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Music/Original Song

Won 6, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Costume Design and Best Editing

DVD Special Features:

Behind the Scene Special

Deleted Musical number "Class"

Audio Commentary with Director and Screenwriter

THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939)

Directed by Raoul Walsh

After the WWI Armistice, Lloyd Hart(Jeffrey Lynn) goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.

Considered one of the best gangster films ever made

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

Documentary, The Roaring Twenties: The World Moves On

Audio Length Commentary by Lincoln Hurst

HABLA CON ELLA (2002)
TALK TO HER

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

After a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno (Javier Cámara) and Marco (Darío Grandinetti), meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia (Rosario Flores), Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia (Leonor Watling), a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director

Won 1, Best Original Screenplay

DVD Special Features:

None

í ÁTAME! (1990)
TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Ricky (Antonio Banderas) is released from a mental hospital, and knows exactly what he wants to do. He hunts down Marina (Victoria Abril), a porn film star he once had sex with, and tries to convince here to be his wife. She is a bit reluctant, so he ties her up... Will this approach endear him to her?

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

Pedro Almodóvar interviews Antonio Banderas

Madrid Premiere party

CARNE TRÉMULA (1997)
LIVE FLESH

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Pizza delivery man Victor(Liberto Rabal) is having an argument with Elena(Francesca Neri), whom he met a few days ago, but she was on heroin then and doesn't want to hear about him. Reacting to the noise, two cops, young David (Javier Bardem) and older Sancho (José Sancho), arrive at the scene, the gun accidentally goes off.. Four years later David is a wheelchair basketball star, he's married to Elena, Victor is released out of prison and their destinies begin to cross again.

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

None

POSSESSED (1947)

Directed by Curtis Bernhardt

A dazed woman (Joan Crawford) walks the streets of Los Angeles looking for a man named David. After collapsing in a diner, she's taken to the psychiatric ward of a nearby hospital. Flashbacks reveal her obsession for David as a result of borderline personality disorder which had lead to murder.

Nominated for 1 Academy Award, Best Actress

DVD Special Features:

WINGS (1927)

THE FIRST WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by William A. Wellman

Jack (Charles 'Buddy' Rogers) works on his sports car and dreams of flying. His neighbor Mary (Clara Bow) is in love with him but he seems not to notice, having been smitten by the fair Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston), but he can't see that Sylvia has eyes only for David (Richard Arlen). The distant drums of war beckon, and Jack and David train to be pilots in the American Expeditionary Corp. Their rivalry soon evolves into camaraderie as they do aerial battle with the Germans in the skies over France. Meanwhile Mary has joined the Women's Motor Corp and despairs that Jack doesn't notice her.

Nominated/Won 2 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Engineering Effects

Wings is the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture

DVD Special Features:

None

MALCOLM X (1992)

Directed by Spike Lee

Biography of Malcolm X, the famous African American leader. Played by Denzel Washington, born Malcolm Little, his father (a minister) was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. He became a gangster, and while in jail discovered the Nation of Islam writings of Elijah Muhammad. He preaches the teachings when let out of jail, but later on goes on a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, there he converts to the original Islamic religion and becomes a Sunni Muslim. He changes his name to El-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz and stops his anti-white teachings, as he realises the error of his mistakes. He is later on assasinated and dies a Muslim Martyr.

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Actor and Best Costume Design

DVD Special Features:

Feature length Commentary by director, Spike Lee, Cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, Editor Barry Alexander Brown and Costume Designer Ruth Carter

The Making of Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary

1972 Feature Length Documentary: Malcolm X

Deleted Scenes

LOVE STORY (1970)

Directed by Arthur Hiller

Harvard Law student/hockey jock, Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'neal) meets Radcliffe music wonk, Jennifer Cavalleri (Ally MacGraw) When the couple decide to get married, Oliver's father (Oliver Barrett III) threatens to disinherit him from the family will, leaving Oliver and Jennifer to start their marriage at rock-bottom. Jennifer and her dad (Phil Cavalleri) do what they can to bring father and son back together, but the two prefer to remain at war with one another. Years go by, and the young couple attempt to have children, only to discover that she is dying....

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score

Won 1, Best Original Score

DVD Special Features:

Love Story: A Classic Remembered

Feature Length Commentary by Director, Arthur Hiller

INDOCHINE (1992)

Directed by Regis Wargnier

Indochina during the 30's. One of the largest rubber-tree plantations is owned by the French colonist Eliane (Catherine Denueve), a proud but imprudent woman. She lives with her father and her native adoptive daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham). At an auction Eliane gets to know the young officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez); after a short affair she refuses to see him again. But in the meantime Camille falls deeply in love with the young man, so Eliane takes the necessary steps to cause a transposition of Jean-Baptiste onto a far island. Though Camille gets married to another guy she goes on a long journey throughout the country in order to find the man she loves.

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Foreign Film and Best Actress

Won 1, Best Foreign Film

DVD Special Features:

None

HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)

Directed by Howard Hawks

Screen adaptation of the Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play "The Front Page" in which Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) has divorced Walter Burns (Cary Grant) and visits his office to tell him that she is engaged to another man and that they are going to get married the day after. Walter Burns can't let that happen and frames the other man, Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), for a lot of stuff getting him into trouble all the time, while he tries to steer Hildy back into her old job as his employee (editor of his newspaper).

Hailed as one of the true gems of Hollywood's most prolific era.

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Audio Commentary by Film Critic and Author, Todd McCarthy

Four Exclusive Featurettes:

Cary Grant: Making Headlines
Rosalind Russell: The Inside Scoop
Howard Hawks: Reporter's Notebook
The Funny Pages

CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1990)

Directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau

A dashing officer of the guard and romantic poet, Cyrano de Bergerac (Gerard Depardieu) falls in love with his cousin Roxane (Anne Brochet) without her knowing. His one fault in his life, he feels, is his large nose and although it may have been a forming influence in his rapier-sharp wit, he believes that Roxane will reject him. He resorts to writing letters to her on behalf of one of his cadets, Christian (Vincent Perez), who is also in love with Roxane but just doesn't know how to tell her. She falls for the poetic charm of the letters but believes that they were written by Christian.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Foreign Film, Best Actor, Best Costume Design, Best Art/Set Decoration and Best Makeup

Won 1, Best Costume Design

DVD Special Features:

THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

The story of King George III (Nigel Hawthorne) of England's slide into insanity, and the political and royal back stabbing which results from his incapacitation. Despite being very amusing at times, this is a sad tale of medical practices in the later 1700s as well as an insight into life inside and around the royaly of the time

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Art/Set Decoration

Won 1, Best Art/Set Decoration

DVD Special Features:

None

THE LADY VANISHES (1938)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Travellers (including Michael Redgrave and Paul Lukas) on a trans-European train are delayed for a night due to bad weather in an unnamed country. The passengers cram into the small village hotel where socialite Iris Henderson (Magareth Lockwood) meets an old governess called Miss Froy (Dame Edith Wiitty). Shortly after the journey restarts, Miss Froy disappears.

Cosidered the best of Alfred Hitchcock's British films

No Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

None

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995) TV MINI SERIES

Directed by Simon Langton

BBC Production of Jane Austen's classic novel about the prejudice that occurred between the 19th century classes and the pride which would keep lovers apart.

In this lavish adaptation of Jane Austen's classical romance, Elizabeth Bennett (Jennifer Ehli) is a strong-willed yet sensible young woman in a well-off but lower class family with five sisters, a long-suffering but loving father and a mother anxious to marry them to wealthy young gentlemen. At a local ball, she encounters one such wealthy young man, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Colin Firth) - and as Mr. Darcy is arrogant, cold and rude, it is hatred at first sight. As her older sister Jane falls in love with Mr. Darcy's best friend Mr. Bingley, and her youngest sister Lydia flirts with anyone in a military uniform, Lizzie finds herself fighting off the attentions of the unctuous Mr. Collins and quite taken by the charming Mr. Wickham - who also happens to be an enemy of Mr. Darcy. However, as the characters succumb in many ways to pride and prejudice, Lizzie learns that not all is quite as it seems...and that Mr. Darcy might not be so disagreeable after all.

Not eligible for Academy Award Nominations

DVD Special Features:

The Making of Pride and Prejudice

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Joe Gillis (William Holden), bankrupt screenwriter, hides from car repossessors in the garage of a deserted-looking mansion which proves to be the grotesque home of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), retired silent screen star. Joe takes refuge there, with a nominal job of rewriting Norma's hopeless 'comeback' screenplay. Weeks pass; feeling more and more like a kept man, Joe grasps at reality in the form of a clandestine friendship with script reader Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), but it's too late

One of the best film's about hollywood ever made, it also stars the acclaimed director, Eric Von Stroheim, as Ms Desmond's Butler, Max von Mayerling

1950 also saw the release of ALL ABOUT EVE, a story about star rivalry in New York's theatreland starring Bette Davis and Ann Baxter amongst others

Nominated for 11 Academy Awards including, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing (Story and Screenplay), Best Scoring (Dramatic/Comedy), Best Art/Set Decoration (Black and White), Best Cinematography (Black and White) and Best Film Editing

All Principal cast were nominated for Academy Awards in the Acting categories and all lost

Either of the heavyweights, Gloria Swanson or Bette Davis (ALL ABOUT EVE) were hotly tipped to win in the best actress category but lost out to the comedy performance of Judy Holliday (BORN YESTERDAY)

Won 3, Best Writing (Story and Screenplay), Best Scoring (Dramatic/Comedy) and Best Art/Set Decoration (Black and White)


DVD Special Features:

The Making of Sunset Boulevard

Feature Length Commentary by author, Ed Sikov

TODO SOBRE MI MADRE (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) (1999)

Directed by Pedro Almodovar

A single mother, Manuela (Cicillia Roth) in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, (Penelope Cruz) a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.

Won 1 Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film (Spain)

DVD Special Features:

None

THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

Directed by John Huston

Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is a partner in a private-eye firm who finds himself hounded by police when his partner is killed whilst tailing a man. The girl who asked him to follow the man turns out not to be who she says she is, and is really involved in something to do with the `Maltese Falcon', a gold-encrusted life-sized statue of a falcon, the only one of its kind.

Nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Writing/Screenplay

DVD Special Features:

None