American Graffiti - 1973

Love when that girl says, "He's so boss." Too funny. American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford. Set in 1962 Modesto, California, American Graffiti is a study of the cruising and rock and roll cultures popular among the post–World War II baby boom generation. The film is a nostalgic portrait of teenage life in the early 1960s told in a series of vignettes, featuring the story of a group of teenagers and their adventures within one night. The genesis of American Graffiti was in Lucas's own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. He was unsuccessful in pitching the concept to financiers and distributors but finally found favor at Universal Pictures after United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Paramount Pictures turned him down. Filming was initially set to take place in San Rafael, California, but the production crew was denied permission to shoot beyond a second day. As a result, most filming for American Graffiti was done in Petaluma. American Graffiti was released to universal critical acclaim and financial success, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Produced on a $775,000 budget, the film has turned out to be one of the most profitable movies of all time. Since its initial release, American Graffiti has garnered an estimated return of well over $200 million in box office gross and home video sales, not including merchandising. In 1995, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film culturally significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

La Femme Nikita - 1990

Before there was Lisbeth Salenger (a la the Stieg Larsson books) there was Nikita. She had all the fire that Lisbeth had. When I read the Stieg Larsson books this is who I imagined. See the French version (NIKITA) in English subtitles. You won't be disappointed. A thrill ride of a film.

Nikita (1990) is a French thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson; it was released in the US as La Femme Nikita. The film is about a young criminal who is recruited to work for French intelligence. Two television shows were later based on the film.

Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a teenage junkie who participates in the robbery of a pharmacy owned by the parents of a fellow junkie. The robbery goes awry, erupting into a gunfight with local police, during which her cohorts are killed. Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she murders a policeman. Nikita is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder and is sentenced to death by lethal injection.

In prison, she is executed, but awakens in a nondescript room. A well-dressed but hard-looking Bob (Tchéky Karyo) enters and reveals that, although officially dead and buried after execution, she is in the custody of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), the French intelligence agency. She is given a choice of becoming an assassin or actually occupying "row 7, plot 30"[4] (her fake grave). After some resistance, she chooses the former and proves to be a talented killer. One of her trainers, Amande (Jeanne Moreau), transforms her from a degenerate drug addict to a femme fatale; Amande was also rescued and trained by the DGSE.

Her initial mission, killing a diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping back to the Centre, is the film's highlight; she graduates and begins life as a sleeper agent in Paris with her boyfriend Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a man she meets in a supermarket and who knows nothing of her real profession.

Her career as an assassin goes well until a document-theft in an embassy goes awry, requiring the ruthless Victor "The Cleaner" (Jean Reno) to destroy the mission's evidence and all corpses. Victor is wounded and dies; and Marco eventually discovers Nikita's secret life. Upon discovering that she abandoned the service, Bob meets with Marco, and they both discuss and decide what is best for Nikita.

Summer Of 42 - 1971

Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming of age drama film based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of how Raucher, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island, off the coast of New England, embarked on a one-sided romance with a woman, Dorothy, whose husband had gone off to fight in World War II.

The film was directed by Robert Mulligan, and starred Gary Grimes as Hermie, Jerry Houser as his best friend Oscy, Oliver Conant as their nerdy young friend Benjie, Jennifer O'Neill as Hermie's mysterious love interest, and Katherine Allentuck and Christopher Norris as a pair of girls whom Hermie and Oscy attempt to seduce. Mulligan also has an uncredited role as the voice of the adult Hermie. Maureen Stapleton (Allentuck's real life mother) also appears in a small, uncredited voice role (calling after Hermie as he leaves the house in an early scene, and after he enters his room in a later scene).

Raucher's novelization of his screenplay was released prior to the film's release and became a runaway bestseller, to the point that audiences lost sight of the fact that the book was based on the film and not vice-versa. Though a pop culture phenomenon in the first half of the 1970s, the novelization went out of print and slipped into obscurity throughout the next two decades until a Broadway adaptation in 2001 brought it back into the public light and prompted Barnes & Noble to acquire the publishing rights to the book.

Swing Kids - 1993

The Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg (St. Pauli) and Berlin. They were composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but some apprentice workers as well. They sought the British and American way of life, defining themselves in swing music and opposing the National-Socialist ideology, especially the Hitlerjugend.


The music and dance in this film is really wonderful. It's only when the real-life drama starts that one wishes they could dance and hear the music once again. GREAT movie!


Swing Kids, the film, was produced in 1993, directed by Thomas Carter and starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Kenneth Branagh. The runtime is approximately 112 minutes. The film is considered as being part of the Lindy Hop revival of the 1980s and 1990s. The soundtrack includes a combination of swing music and the film's score.

Get Real - 1998

Get Real is a 1998 British drama film directed by Simon Shore, based on the play What's Wrong With Angry? by screenwriter Patrick Wilde. The plot is about gay teenager Steven Carter's coming out to the world. The film was shot in and around Basingstoke, England.

The film ranked number 34 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

The film was well-received by many critics, and subsequently nominated for eight awards, and won six, including the British Independent Film Award 1999.