Read My Lips - 2001

"Don't believe everything you hear."

She is almost deaf and she lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself.

Young secretary Carla(Emmanuelle Devos) is a long-time employee of a property development company. Loyal and hardworking, first to arrive and last to leave, Carla is beginning to chafe at the limitations of her career and is looking to move up. But as a 35-five-year-old woman with a hearing deficiency, she is not sure how to climb out of her humdrum life, though she is confident in her own abilities. Into her life comes Paul Angeli(Vincent Cassel), a new trainee she decides to hire. Paul is 25 years old and completely unskilled, but Carla covers for him when the need arises because of his other qualities - he's a thief, fresh out of jail and very good-looking.

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.

An Officer and a Gentleman - 1982

"In every class, there's always one joker who thinks that he's smarter than me. In this class, that happens to be you. Isn't it, Mayonnaise?"

Dreams of being a Navy pilot prompt Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) to enroll in officer training school, where he runs afoul of a drill instructor (Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr.) who senses the cadet's loner instinct and aims to school him on the importance of teamwork -- or break him in the process. In the meantime, Mayo romances a working girl (Debra Winger), ignoring warnings to steer clear of the local lasses out to bag hotshot Navy flyboys.

It is a Navy tradition for newly-commissioned officers to give a silver dollar to the person who gives them their first salute. In the scene where the new graduates of Foley's class receive their "first salutes," you can see them giving Foley a silver dollar prior to each salute. It is also a tradition for the D.I. to place the silver dollar of his memorable students in his right pocket; you can see that Mayo's dollar is placed in Foley's right pocket, rather than the left pocket as it is for, for example, Ensign Della Serra.

"What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" - 1993

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio. Peter Hedges wrote the screenplay adapted from his 1991 novel of the same name. It was filmed in the Texas cities of Manor, Elgin, and Lockhart.

In a small town of Endora, Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is busy caring for his mentally challenged brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio) as they wait for the many tourists' trailers to pass through town during their yearly camp ritual at a nearby recreational area. His mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates) is morbidly obese after years of depression following her husband's suicide. With Bonnie unable to care for them by herself, Gilbert has taken responsibility for repairing their shanty of farmhouse and looking after Arnie, who has a habit of climbing up the town water tower (like Spider-Man) if he is left unsupervised for too long, while his older sister Amy (Laura Harrington) and younger sister Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt) slave away in the kitchen. The relationship between the brothers is one of care and protection. In order to cope with his frenetic life, Gilbert has taken on a secret love affair with a housewife, Betty (Mary Steenburgen), whilst her insensitive, unsuspecting husband Ken (Kevin Tighe), is fully intent on selling Gilbert insurance for his family. A new chain supermarket has opened, threatening the small Lamson's Grocery store where Gilbert works, as well as threatening all the other small-time businesses in Endora. The chain supermarket stocks all kinds of goods, rendering many of the local shops redundant. This is a key theme in the film - which constantly portrays the futility of goods made with love in light of ever sweeping corporate greed.

Heartbreaker - 2010

If you watch one FOREIGN film with English subtitles watch this amusing romantic-comedy. You won't be sorry. It features Johnny Depp's wife (Vanessa Paradis) who is magnificent in this one. A great film that offers an escape to MONACO, too.

Heartbreaker (French: L'arnacœur) is a 2010 French romantic comedy film starring Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Julie Ferrier and Andrew Lincoln. The bulk of the story takes place in Monaco.

The plot is centered around Alex (Romain Duris), his sister (Julie Ferrier) and her husband (François Damiens), who operate a business designed to break up relationships, but only where the woman is "not knowingly unhappy." The trio concoct elaborate, custom ruses to deceive the women. After each woman has fallen for his act, Alex tells her she has made him come alive again, but that it is too late for him. The women presumably each leave their relationships to seek men who makes them feel as Alex has. They are hired by a wealthy man (Jacques Frantz), who is a florist and possible gangster, to prevent the wedding of his daughter Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) to Englishman Jonathan (Andrew Lincoln).

The problem is that they only have 10 days to do so before the wedding. The task is further complicated because the couple appear to be in love and absolutely perfect for each other. They also could not find the usual "flaws" in the couple that they are used to looking for in couples to break them up. Alex, massively in debt to a loan shark through his own lavish spending on the business, is pressured into putting aside his honourable principles to complete the seemingly impossible job with only five days till the wedding.

The Man In The Moon - 1991

The likeable innocense of Reese Witherspoon shines in this film (her very first film).

The Man in the Moon is a 1991 American drama film, directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Sam Waterston, Reese Witherspoon and Jason London.  It was Mulligan's last film and Waterston's last theatrical movie before he moved to Law & Order, as well as Witherspoon's first film.

The story, set in 1950s Louisiana, tells of a 14-year-old girl named Dani (Reese Witherspoon) who falls in love with a boy three years older than she is, a senior named Court Foster (Jason London). Just as Court begins to reciprocate Dani's feelings, even giving her her first kiss, and their relationship begins to develop, he meets and becomes more attracted to Dani's older sister, Maureen (Emily Warfield). Unbeknownst to Dani, Maureen and Court begin to see each other and fall in love. However Court still cares for Dani, and Maureen loves her sister and neither can bring themselves to reveal the relationship.

Midnight In Paris - 2011

Midnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy-fantasy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure. The protagonist, a screenwriter, is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his fiancée and their divergent goals because of his magical experiences in the city beginning each night at midnight. Produced by Spanish group Mediapro and Allen's Gravier Productions, the film stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni, Adrien Brody and Michael Sheen. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was released in North America in May 2011. The movie has received good reviews and was a global box office success.

Match Point - 2005

Match Point is a 2005 dramatic thriller film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton. The film received critical acclaim, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

When former tennis pro Chris Wilton begins a relationship with shy heiress Chloe Hewett after befriending her brother Tom, he finds his social and financial status vastly improved. However, once he has an affair with Tom’s ex-lover, American actress Nola Rice, he realises that his new, luxurious lifestyle may be threatened. Intensely dramatic!

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.

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.

Interview with the Vampire - 1994

Always a sucker for a good vampire story this is one of my favorites. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are very good, Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst even better. Equally as beautiful as it is dark, this movie should be on everyone's list of movies to see.

A vampire tells his epic life story as Director Neil Jordan's Oscar-nominated tale of bloodsucking immortals moves from 18th century New Orleans to a Grand Guignol theater in Paris to present-day San Francisco to explore betrayal, love, loneliness and hunger. The lives of a trio of vampires -- cavalier Lestat (Tom Cruise), tormented Louis (Brad Pitt) and childlike Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) -- are interconnected for centuries in this adaptation of Anne Rice's romantic horror tale.

Scent of a Woman - 1992

"Just call me Frank. Call me Mr. Slade. Call me... Colonel, if you must. Just don't call me "Sir.""

As a huge fan of Al Pacino I have to include this movie. A very young Chris O'Donnell joins him in a funny and heartfelt film about the characters and their relationship. Also look for a very young Philip Seymour Hoffman as a fellow student of O'Donnell.

Hoping to earn some extra cash during the Thanksgiving holiday, poor prep-school student Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell) agrees to look after blind -- and cantankerous -- Lt. Col. Frank Slade (Al Pacino, in a tour-de-force performance). Though the callow student and jaded colonel are mismatched, their relationship grows as Simms follows Slade around Manhattan on a string of wild escapades, and Slade is unmasked as a sentimental romantic.

Frank's bizarre habit of yelling "hoo-wah!" is an actual United States Army battlecry, although he is saying it wrong. He places far too much of a "W" sound on the second syllable. The real version is closer to "hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-wah" is a military acronym (usually yelled by Drill Sargents to Boots) from the acronym "HUA" which is often pronounced "hoo-ah" or in this case "hoo-wah." HUA stands for "Heard, Understood, Acknowledged." Over the years, in the US Army this phrase has taken on many meanings including "Understood?" "yes" or as a general exclamation of "I'm motivated!"

Elling - 2001

When his mother, who has sheltered him his entire 40 years, dies, Elling, a sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin in his 40s. After two years, the men are released and provided with a state-funded apartment and stipend with the hope they will be able to live on their own. Initially, the simple act of going around the corner for groceries is a challenge. Through a friendship born of desperate dependence, the skittish Elling and the boisterous, would-be lover of women, Kjell Bjarne, discover they can not only survive on the outside, they can thrive. But as their courage grows, the two find oddball ways to cope with society, striking up the most peculiar friendships in the most unlikely places.

The plot is less important than the relationship between the two men, which is frequently very moving (such as the scene when they discover that, although the flat has two bedrooms, they'd still rather share with each other as before) and very funny - Elling’s attempts to use the phone and their eventual method of ‘practice’ are a definite highlight.

There's an awful lot to enjoy here, with some hilarious scenes, perhaps the funniest of which is an outburst at the Poetry Night that Elling plucks up the courage to attend. Also, budding unpublished poets may want to take note of Elling’s unorthodox but effective method of self-publishing…

To sum up, Elling is an enjoyable, moving and frequently funny film that deserves to find as wide an audience as possible. Highly recommended.

Character - 1997

Netflix recommended this film to me based on my love of another and I was pleasantly surprised. Winner of the 1998 Best Foreign Language Film and filmed beautifully this Dutch-Belgian film definitely is one I would watch again.

Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir), the city's most feared bailiff, is discovered with a knife through his heart, and a young, self-taught lawyer (Fedja van Huet) who just passed his exams was the last person to see the man alive. But what was his connection to the dead man? The police are mighty interested to know, and the young barrister is ready to tell the story of a lifetime.

J.W. Katadreuffe is the son of Joba Katadreuffe and A.B. Drevenhaven. Though fully neglected by Joba, Dreverhaven ensures the succesfull career of his son. Mostly unseen, though he sues his son a few times. The son Katadreuffe succeeds, but at great costs.

Joba: Why don't you leave our boy in peace?
Dreverhaven: I'll strangle him for nine-tenths, and the last tenth will make him strong.

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.

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.