List: Women’s History Month Movies

Posted on March 9, 2012 at 3:57 pm

For Women’s History Month, try some of these feature films about women of extraordinary courage, intelligence, determination, and achievement.

1. Erin Brockovich Julia Roberts won an Oscar for this story about a clerk in a law firm who helped win the largest toxic tort settlement in U.S. history for the people who had been damaged by inappropriately and illegally disposed chemicals.

2. Norma Rae Sally Field won an Oscar for this story based on union organizer Chrystal Lee Jordan.

3. The Miracle Worker Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke both won Oscars for this story of two extraordinary women, teacher Annie Sullivan and her deaf and blind student Helen Keller.

4. A League of Their Own While the men were at war for a brief time in the 1940’s there was a women’s professional baseball league and this is their story.

5. Funny Girl Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for playing Fanny Brice, one of the most popular performing artists of the early 20th century.

6. The Rosa Parks Story Angela Bassett stars as the woman whose refusal to give up her seat on the bus began the Civil Rights movement.

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List: Movies for Your Valentine

Posted on February 13, 2012 at 4:08 pm

Some of my favorite movie romances are just right for Valentine’s Day. Cuddle up with your valentine and a bowl of popcorn and enjoy these movies about how love makes us crazy and immeasurably happy at the same time.

1. Moonstruck Cher won an Oscar as the bookkeeper who has given up on love until she meets the brother of her fiance, who tells her:

Love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and *die*.

2. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet find that they really don’t want to forget each other, no matter how painful love can be.

3. You’ve Got Mail This third version of the story of a couple who are at war in person, not realizing that they are tender lovers through the mail, updates the story to the computer age. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have so much chemistry on screen that we know from the first moment what it will take them the whole movie to discover — they are meant to be together. Be sure to watch the earlier versions, The Shop Around the Corner with James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan and the musical In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

4. The Philadelphia Story On the eve of her wedding, socialite Tracy Lord’s ex-husband shows up with a couple of journalists and we get to watch three of the greatest stars in Hollywood history sort out their affections. This movie has everything: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart (who won an Oscar), George Cukor as director, wit, heart, and romance and an important lesson about how sometimes it is not about falling in love but recognizing that we have already fallen.

5. To Have and Have Not As tough guy Humphrey Bogart meets the even-tougher Lauren Bacall (only 19 years old when this was filmed), we get to see the real-life romantic sparks that gave the on-screen love story some extra sizzle. Watch her tell him how to whistle.

Celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday

Posted on February 12, 2012 at 8:00 am

Celebrate the birthday of our 16th President with some of the classic movies about his life. Ahead of us this are are the Steven Spielberg epic, based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field, which will be out in December, and possibly “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,” based on the best-seller and scheduled for June.

Young Mr. Lincoln Directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda, this is an appealing look at Lincoln’s early law practice and his tragic romance with Ann Rutledge. Particularly exciting and moving are the scenes in the courtroom as Lincoln defends two brothers charged with murder. Both have refused to talk about what happened, each thinking he is protecting the other, and Lincoln has to find a way to prove their innocence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcuUvtenx6w&feature=related

Abe Lincoln in Illinois Raymond Massey in his signature role plays Lincoln from his days as a rail-splitter to his law practice and his debates with Stephen Douglas. Ruth Gordon plays his wife, Mary.

Gore Vidal’s Lincoln Sam Waterston and Mary Tyler Moore star in this miniseries that focuses on Lincoln’s political strategies and personal struggles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxrbIcXBYyY

Sandburg’s Lincoln Hal Holbrook plays Lincoln in this miniseries based on the biography by poet Carl Sandberg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_669ER2Gt34

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List: Amnesia Movies

Posted on February 8, 2012 at 10:58 pm

In honor of this week’s romantic, fact-based movie, “The Vow,” here are some of my favorite movies featuring memory loss. You know what I’m going to say — the characters may lose their memories, but these movies are unforgettable.

I Love You Again William Powell and Myrna Loy made 10 films together. The best remembered are the delightful “Thin Man” series but my favorite is this neglected gem about a prim, dull man who is hit on the head and discovers that he is a slick con man who lost his memory and somehow found himself married and living in a small town. Witty, charming, and wise.

Unknown White Male Amnesia is such an inherently gripping plot line that there are more movie characters (and soap opera!) with amnesia than real patients. But this is a documentary about a real-life case, made by a director who was once a friend of the subject.

Dead Again Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed this mystery about a detective (Branagh) trying to discover the truth about a woman (Emma Thompson) who cannot remember her past.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind This fabulously imaginative and deliciously loopy romance is about a couple who consult a firm that erases memories of bad romances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnSgSe2GzDc

Memento A damaged man must surround himself with reminders to track down the person who killed his wife.

Random Harvest This deeply romantic film from the author of “Lost Horizon” and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” has Ronald Coleman as a soldier who loses his memory and falls in love with a singer played by Greer Garson. They are exquisitely happy until a tragic loss leads him to remember his old life and forget all about her. She applies for a job as his secretary to be close to him and he hires her without knowing they were once in love.

Runners-up: 50 First Dates, The Bourne Trilogy, Overboard, Total Recall, The Notebook

What am I….forgetting?

A Birthday List for Charles Dickens

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 8:00 am

Happy 200th birthday, Charles Dickens!

In honor of the birthday of one of the greatest novelists of all time, Masterpiece on PBS has announced two new series based on Dickens novels: A new “Great Expectations” miniseries starring Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham begins April 1 and “The Mysteries of Edwin Drood,” based on Dickens unfinished last book begins on April 15.

Now is a great time to catch up on the books and watch some of the dozens of movies they inspired. Dickens books are gloriously cinematic, filled with rich detail, fascinating characters, and brilliant dialogue. I’ve already written about my favorite versions of A Christmas Carol. Some of the best adaptations of other Dickens books include:

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Roger Rees stars in this stunning Royal Shakespeare Company version of Dickens’ story of a poor brother and sister making their way despite the cruelty of their rich and powerful uncle. This is a nine-hour version of the live performance that mesmerized audiences in London and New York. There is also a 2003 movie version with Charlie Hunnam, Jamie Bell, Anne Hathaway and Nathan Lane.

Great Expectations An orphan with a mysterious benefactor loves a girl who has been trained never to love. The David Lean-directed version with John Mills and Jean Simmons is hauntingly beautiful. Simmons later starred as the elderly Miss Havisham in a 1991 miniseries. And there is a new version coming out later this year with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham-Carter.

Great Expectations A stylish modern-day version stars Gwenyth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke.

Bleak House The BBC miniseries about a decades-long lawsuit that destroys a family stars Gillian Anderson as the chilly but mysterious Lady Deadlock.

A Tale of Two Cities “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” It was the time of the French revolution and in this version Ronald Coleman unforgettably explains, “It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”

David Copperfield W.C. Fields plays the ever-in-debt, ever-optimistic Mr. Micawber in this sumptuous and exquisitely cast MGM version of Dickens’ autobiographical novel.

Oliver! A best picture Oscar winner, “Oliver!” is a glorious musical adaptation of Dickens’ story about an orphan taken in by a thief. Disney also did an animated version with animals called Oliver and Company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw_ETnxuBys