Rain Man - 1988

"What you have to understand is, four days ago he was only my brother in name. And this morning we had pancakes."

Winner of both an Academy Award and the Golden Globe for best picture this film is a heartwarming look at family and how two brothers suddenly brought together by life's circumstances save each other.

Fast-talking yuppie Charlie Babbitt is forced to slow down when he meets a brother he never knew he had, an autistic savant named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman, in an Oscar-winning role) who's spent most of his life in an institution. When their wealthy father dies, leaving everything to Raymond, Charlie takes his unusually gifted older brother on a life-changing cross-country odyssey that neither is likely to forget.

Dustin Hoffman was originally supposed to play Charlie, but he wanted to play Raymond. Raymond was also supposed to be mentally retarded, but Hoffman changed it to an autistic savant.

Holds the unique distinction of being the only film to have won the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear and a best picture Academy Award.

A Single Man - 2009

Fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut and financed by himself, this is a film with beautiful cinematography and an oscar worthy cast.

It's November 30, 1962. Native Brit George Falconer, an English professor at a Los Angeles area college, is finding it difficult to cope with life. Jim, his personal partner of sixteen years, died in a car accident eight months earlier when he was visiting with family. Jim's family were not going to tell George of the death or accident let alone allow him to attend the funeral. This day, George has decided to get his affairs in order before he will commit suicide that evening. As he routinely and fastidiously prepares for the suicide and post suicide, George reminisces about his life with Jim. But George spends this day with various people, who see a man sadder than usual and who affect his own thoughts about what he is going to do. Those people include Carlos, a Spanish immigrant/aspiring actor/gigolo recently arrived in Los Angeles; Charley, his best friend who he knew from England, she who is a drama queen of a woman who romantically desires her best friend despite his sexual orientation; and Kenny Potter, one of his students, who seems to be curious about his professor beyond English class

Amelie - 2001

Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Its original French title is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain meaning "The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain". Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a shy waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation. The film was an international co-production between companies in France and Germany.
Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards; it won four César Awards (including Best Film and Best Director), two BAFTA Awards (including Best Original Screenplay), and was nominated for five Academy Awards.
Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had grown up isolated from other children. After the death of her mother and her father's subsequent withdrawal, she developed an unusually active imagination to ward away the feelings of loneliness. Now at the age of twenty-three, Amélie is a waitress at The Two Windmills, a small café in Montmartre that is staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics. Having spurned romantic relationships following a few disappointing efforts, she finds contentment in simple pleasures and letting her imagination roam free.
On 31 August 1997, Amélie, shocked upon hearing the news of Princess Diana's death on television, drops a bottle cap that knocks into a bathroom wall tile and loosens it. Behind the tile, she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier. Fascinated by this find, she resolves to track down the now adult man who placed it there and return it to him, making a promise to herself in the process: if she finds him and it makes him happy, she will devote her life to help bring happiness to others.
In his DVD commentary, Jeunet explains that he originally wrote the role of Amélie for the English actress Emily Watson; in the original draft, Amélie's father was an Englishman living in London. However, Watson's French was not strong, and when she became unavailable to shoot the film, owing to a conflict with the filming of Gosford Park, Jeunet rewrote the screenplay for a French actress. Audrey Tautou was the first actress he auditioned having seen her on the poster for Venus Beauty Institute. The filmmakers made use of computer-generated imagery and a digital intermediate. The studio scenes were filmed in the Coloneum Studio in Cologne (Germany). The film shares many of the themes in the plot with second half of the 1994 film Chungking Express.

Evening - 2007

Evening is a deeply emotional film that illuminates the timeless love which binds mother and daughter -- seen through the prism of one mother's life as it crests with optimism, navigates a turning point, and ebbs to its close. Two pairs of real-life mothers and daughters -- Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer -- portray, respectively, a mother and her daughter and the mother's best friend at different stages in life.

The cool thing is that Claire Danes (Ann Grant) ends up marrying actor Hugh Dancy (Buddy Wittenborn) in real-life (two years later) in France in 2009.

Evening is a 2007 German-American drama film directed by Lajos Koltai. The screenplay by Susan Minot and Michael Cunningham is based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. The film alternates between two time periods, the 1950s and the present.

The original screenplay, as was the novel, was set in Maine, but according to the commentary on the DVD release of the film, director Lajos Koltai was so taken with the Newport house found by his location scouts he opted to change the setting. Tiverton and Providence, Rhode Island, Greenwich Village, and the Upper West Side of Manhattan also were used for external scenes.

The song "Time After Time" Ann sings for Lila at the wedding was written in 1947 by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. The song "I See the Moon" she later sings to her daughters is based on a traditional nursery rhyme.

The film is markedly different from the book, which was much darker and nihlistic; whereas the film presents a love story between Harris and Ann, the book portrayed Harris as a callous womanizer with whom Ann became obsessed. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to telling the stories of Ann's three doomed marriages, each of which failed, in part, because of Ann's destructive infatuation with the absent Harris. Harris himself is presented as an enigmatic and unsympathetic character who carries on multiple affairs during the course of the wedding night, intent on returning home to marry his fiancee. The film grossed $12,406,646 in the US and $478,928 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $12,885,574. It should be seen by more people. It's an excellent, heartwarming story that reveals much romance and a bit of drama and tragedy.

Secretary - 2002

I was blown away when I first saw this film. It just caught me so off-guard. I was so suprised by some of the scenes. I just didn't expect it. The film has always stuck with me as original and avante garde (ahead of its time). It has an odd mix of drama with comedy. Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance is superb.


Secretary is a 2002 independent drama film directed by Steven Shainberg. It stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee Holloway and James Spader as E. Edward Grey. The film is based on a short story from Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill.


Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the socially awkward and emotionally sensitive youngest daughter of a dysfunctional family, adjusts to normal life after having been hospitalized following an incident of dangerous self-harm. She learns to type, starts to date an acquaintance from high school named Peter, and begins to work as a secretary for an eccentric attorney, E. Edward Grey (James Spader), who hires her despite her stilted social skills and unprofessional appearance.


Though at first Grey appears highly irritated at Lee's typos and other innocuous mistakes, it soon becomes apparent that he is sexually aroused by her submissive behavior. After he confronts her about her propensity for self-injury and commands that she never hurt herself again, the two embark on a very different sorty of relationship. Lee experiences a sexual and personal awakening, and she falls deeply in love.


Many changes were made from Mary Gaitskill's original short story, which had to be significantly expanded and given greater depth in order to be made into a feature-length film. On the small scale, individual lines were changed, such as the protagonist's use of "I'm so stupid" in one instance becoming a fantasy-sequence cry of "I'm your Secretary," which the director thought far more "celebratory." Additionally, the ending of the story was changed to give a more positive outcome to the relationship. Steven Shainberg stated that he wished to show that BDSM relationships can be normal and was inspired by My Beautiful Laundrette which he feels normalized gay relationships for audiences in the 1980s.

Somewhere In Time - 1980

Is time travel possible? When you see this romantic drama you will wish it was possible.

Somewhere in Time is a 1980 romantic science fiction tragedy film directed by Jeannot Szwarc. It is a film adaptation of the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay. The film stars Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright, and Bill Erwin.

Reeve plays Richard Collier, a playwright who becomes smitten by a photograph of a young woman at the Grand Hotel. Through self-hypnosis, he travels back in time to the year 1912 to find love with actress Elise McKenna (portrayed by Seymour). But her manager William Fawcett Robinson (portrayed by Plummer) fears that romance will derail her career and resolves to stop him.

The film is known for its musical score composed by John Barry. The eighteenth variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini also runs throughout the film.

In the novel, Richard travels from 1971 to 1896 rather than 1980 to 1912. The setting is the Hotel del Coronado rather than the Grand Hotel. Unlike in the movie, he is dying from a brain tumor, and the book ultimately raises the possibility that the whole time-traveling experience is merely a series of hallucinations. The scene where the old woman hands Richard a pocket watch (which an older version of himself had given to her) does not appear in the book. Thus, the ontological paradox generated by this event (that the watch was never built, but simply exists eternally) is absent. In the book, it is two psychics, not William Fawcett Robinson, who anticipate Richard's appearance. And Richard's death at the end is brought about by his tumor, not heartbreak.

Although this movie was well received during its previews, it was widely derided by critics upon release, and it underperformed at the box office. In 2009, in an interview with WGN America, Jane Seymour stated "It was just a little movie...The Blues Brothers came out the same week and it was a $40 million budget, so Universal didn't really support it. There was also an actors strike, so Chris [Reeve] and I weren't allowed to publicise it. And they barely put it out because I don't think anyone really believed in it."

However, Somewhere in Time was popular in China and Hong Kong, where it played in theaters for over a year and was later re-released. It was also a big success in Brazil and still remains very popular. It has since earned a large and loyal following in later years, and the movie is now regarded by many to be a "cult classic."

The Exorcist - 1973

You will find no horror movies in my personal collection and this movie is why. Often called the scariest movie ever made, it is the ultimate tale of good vs. evil. Deeply disturbing, Christian evangelist Billy Graham claimed an actual demon was living in the celluloid reels of this movie.

Upon its initial theatrical release the film affected many audiences so strongly that at many theaters, paramedics were called to treat people who fainted and others who went into hysterics.

Made for $10.5 million and grossing $350 million worldwide, this film, if adjusted for inflation would be the top grossing R-rated film of all time.

When movie actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) begins to suspect that an evil spirit is possessing her young daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), she calls in two priests (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) to try and exorcise the demon against frightening and formidable odds. Writer William Peter Blatty scored an Academy Award for his big-screen adaptation of his own novel; the film also won an Oscar for Best Sound.

The Reader - 2008

"Societies think they operate by something called morality, but they don't. They operate by something called law.
8000 people worked at Auschwitz. Precisely 19 have been convicted, and only 6 of murder.
The question is never "Was it wrong", but "Was it legal". And not by our laws, no. By the laws at the time." Professor Rohl

What happens when the person who changed your life is placed on trial for war crimes? What do you do when you know a secret that could save their life and they don't want it exposed?

Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

Based on Bernhard Schlink's best-seller.

Romantics Anonymous (Les Emotifs Anonymes) - 2011

What happens when a man and a woman share a common passion? They fall in love. And this is what happens to Jean-René, the boss of a small chocolate factory, and Angélique, a gifted chocolate maker he has just hired. What occurs when a highly emotional man meets a highly emotional woman? They fall in love, and this is what occurs to Jean-René and Angélique who share the same handicap. But being pathologically timid does not make things easy for them. So whether they will manage to get together, join their solitudes and live happily ever after is a guessing matter.


This was one of the French/Belgium films I screened at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2011. It's a great romantic comedy that made me smile, laugh...and it has a lot of familiar anectdotes. Excellent.


If you like chocolate or 'desserts' you'll love the sweetness of this film.

Boy A - 2007

A great film I had never heard of, this is a story about the past coming back to haunt.

After spending most of his life in prison for a murder he committed as a child, a young man (Andrew Garfield) is returned to society, where a dedicated caseworker (Peter Mullan) helps him start a new life under a new identity, Jack Burridge. When he lands a job and falls in love, things seem to be taking a positive turn for Jack. But his new existence hangs by a thread, as he discovers when one simple act threatens to expose him.

Told in flashback, the secrets of "Boy A" are revealed in bits and pieces. The reality of who Jack is becomes more powerful and painful as the film progresses. Garfield is so charismatic, and his Jack so incredibly sympathetic

Andrew Garfield can next be seen in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man as Peter Parker/Spider-man

Saturn in Opposition - 2007

This film is about the love, relationships and familial bonds that true friendships are made of. Anyone can find themselves in this movie. The ensemble cast is believable and wonderful.

This film focuses on contemporary 30- and 40-somethings trying to make sense of their lives in an age in which the old certainties have disappeared. While having dinner at the home of Lorenzo (Luca Argentero) and his lover, Davide (Pierfrancesco Favino), a close group of gay and straight friends reminisce about the past and take stock of their lives, until an unexpected tragedy begins tearing their relationships apart.

The Lives of Others - 2007

The East German secret police (Stasi) employed a network of 100,000 staff and 200,000 informants to spy on it's own citizens. This film shows the effects of this invasion of privacy on both parties. A very good movie worthy of the Academy Award it received for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set in 1980s East Berlin, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's debut feature provides an exquisitely nuanced portrait of life under the watchful eye of the state police. When a successful playwright and his actress companion become subjects of the Stasi's secret surveillance program, their friends, family -- and even those doing the watching -- find their lives forever changed.

Bent - 1997

When my friend told me about this movie I had no idea. This movie moved me in so many ways. Clive Owen is incredible. Also look for Mick Jagger, Jude Law and the always amazing Ian McKellen.

A Berlin man is caught up in the Nazi hysteria during World War II in this drama based on the play by Martin Sherman (who also wrote the screenplay). After being forced to kill his lover, he's placed in a concentration camp and lies to get himself classified as Jewish rather than gay. But several rule-breaking incidents and his love for a fellow male prisoner bring him to admit his true nature

The Namesake - 2006

In the year 2000 I read a book by author Jhumpa Lahiri who won a Pulitzer-Prize for her short story collection called INTERPRETER OF MALADIES. I didn't read her second book called THE NAMESAKE but I heard about the film release in 2003 and I was sure to be one of the first at the box-office to see it.


Jhumpa Lahiri originally wrote THE NAMESAKE as a novella that was published in The New Yorker Magazine and it was later expanded to a full length novel. It explores many of the same emotional and cultural themes as her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies. The movie vesrion of The Namesake succeeds in doing the same as it examines the conflicts between two very different cultures. It's a GREAT movie that I highly recommend for everyone.

The Legend of 1900 - 1998

I found this film as a fan of Tim Roth, the piano music made me watch it, both were worth it. Watch it if for no other reason but the piano duel. Amazing.

Raised aboard an ocean liner after being abandoned there as an infant, 1900 (Tim Roth) becomes a virtuoso piano player who learns about the outside world only through interactions with passengers, never setting foot on land, even for the love of his life. Years later, the ship may be destroyed, and a former band member fears that 1900 may still be aboard, willing to go down with the ship in this compelling drama from director Giuseppe Tornatore.

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me - 2003

A moving story of perseverance and hope. A must see in the feel good department.

After escaping from a Siberian labor camp in the wake of World War II, German soldier Clemens Forell (Bernhard Bettermann) makes his way toward his wife and children, traveling more than 8,000 miles over the course of three long years to reach his final destination. Hardy Martins directs this critically acclaimed adaptation of the best-selling book by Josef Martin Bauer, a true story of survival and courage.

C.R.A.Z.Y. - 2005

This movie was crazy good. Both a coming of age and a coming out movie that fed me the full range of human emotion. The father/son relationship in this film is dealt with in a very honest and heartfelt way.

There are five boys in the Beaulieu family -- Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary and Yvan. But Zac (played by Emile Vallee and Marc-Andre Grondin) is the only one who's gay. That's why growing up in Montreal alongside his heterosexual brothers and his strict, emotionally distant father (Michel Cote) proves especially challenging for the blossoming outsider, who finds solace in the music of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.