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.

"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.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - 1975

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman and based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs. The film is #20 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. It was shot at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon, which was also the setting of the novel.

Gigot - 1962

This is a personal favorite film that I discovered during my own childhood. It always remained with me as my own personal classic film. Gigot was released in 1962 by 20th Century Fox. The film starred Jackie Gleason and was directed by Gene Kelly.


Gigot (Gleason) is a mute Frenchman living in the Montmartre district of Paris in the 1920s. He makes a hand-to-mouth living as a janitor at his landlady's apartment building. Though treated with condescension by most of his neighbors (and often the butt of practical jokes), he is much loved by the local children and by animals, whom he often feeds. He seems content with his life, though he has one strange passion: he attends every local funeral, whether or not he knew the departed, marching and crying along with the other mourners.


One can currently watch this entire film via YOUTUBE.com over 11 separate segments. Gleason had conceived the story himself years earlier and had long dreamed of making the film. He wanted Orson Welles as director, and Paddy Chayefsky as screenwriter. Though Welles was an old friend, the board at Fox rejected him as being an overspender. Gene Kelly was selected as a compromise. Chayefsky was not interested and John Patrick, writer of Teahouse of the August Moon was signed instead.


The film was shot on location in Paris. Most of the production crew and cast were French, some spoke no English. Gleason bore with this in two ways: Kelly spoke French, and Gleason's character had no lines, being mute.


Gleason was extremely proud of the film, which earned one Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Score. Gleason received a story credit and a music credit. On the other hand, according to the book, The Films of Gene Kelly, by Tony Thomas, Kelly himself said that the movie "had been so drastically cut and reedited that it had little to do with my version".


Gigot bears many similarities to the short story "Gimpel the Fool" written by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Children of the Century - 1999 (French)

This is the true story of the tumultuous affair between two French literary icons George Sand (played by actress Juliette Binoche) and poet Alfred de Musset (played by Benoit Magimel). You can get it on NetFlix and 'don't worry' it has English subtitles. The French title is "Les Enfants du Siècle".


The story begins as George Sand quits her marital home and arrives in Paris with her two children. Meanwhile the young poet and dandy Alfred de Musset is busy making a name for himself both as a womaniser and a talented poet and critic. Sand and Musset first meet at a literary dinner and quickly recognise in each other a like minded love of literature. At first their relationship remain platonic, but soon the pair embark on a tumultuous affair that will lead them to Venice and the creation of their finest works of literature.


I loved the 'back in time' history related to this love story. The music, costumes and cinematography make it a BEST IN FILM choice. I have stayed at the Hotel Danieli a few times, so it was a thrill to see the Venice scenes (not to mention the delights of Paris).


The film was shot on location in Paris, Nohant and Venice from August to December 1998. In an interview with The Irish Times entitled "Playing with Sand", Diane Kurys (the film Director) revealed that she was shooting in the actual rooms Sand and Musset had occupied in the Hotel Danieli, while Juliette Binoche revealed that Sand's estate had loaned the production some of her possessions including a sapphire ring and jewel-encrusted dagger. When asked her inspiration for the film, Kury mentioned that Musset's account of the affair in his book La Confession d'un Enfant du Siècle was her starting point. Binoche said that her attraction to the part was due to "Sand's combination strengths and weaknesses".