POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - I knew nothing about Angel Eyes when I went to a preview screening except that it starred Jennifer Lopez as a police officer and Jim Caviezel as a mysterious stranger who comes into her life. I was expecting the typical fare of a deranged looney stalking...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - If a man can truly be rehabilitated, is the death penalty justified? That’s the question at the heart of The Widow of Saint-Pierre, Patrice Leconte’s compelling period film based on a true story. The film offers a haunting exploration not...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Despite Geoffrey Rush’s breathtaking performances, he has yet to achieve leading man status. In The Tailor of Panama, John Boorman’s stylish and agile adaptation of John Le Carré’s spy thriller, Rush gives another thrilling performance...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - The Taste of Others refers not to how people taste (which would make for a tasty little film in and of itself), but to their powers of discrimination, as in “he has no taste.” Agnes Jaoui’s engaging French comedy is about people who...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - You have to be in the right mood for an Ingmar Bergman film—a quiet, contemplative mood, free of distractions—or you can easily lose patience with his austere meditations. His writing takes you deep into the interior landscape of characters,...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - When I was in London a few years ago, Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary was all the rage. All of my single friends loved this book about a slightly overweight “singleton” who smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish and had...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Ilike that little Davie Spade. He’s like some child actor from the ’40s all grown up. His smart aleck “Hollywood Minute” was one of the funniest segments on Saturday Night Live. Like so many SNL-ers, he took his modicum of fame...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - You know the Cold War is long over when a major American studio releases a film about a Soviet war hero. Paramount’s riveting Enemy at the Gates is told from a Soviet perspective, directed by a French filmmaker, and stars British actors. Its story...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Beautiful blonde fräuleins point out the sites while whiskered men in feathered hats and Lederhösen hoist steins of beer. “Willkommen!” The promotional film welcomes the world to the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The cheery optimism...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - The celebrated Czech writer Milan Kundera once said that without censorship he couldn’t have written what he did. Oppression gave life to his works. Though Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas never publicly made such an admission, he likely could have...