Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi. Benigni enchanted audiences around the world with this multi-Oscar-winning tale, in which the human spirit triumphs over adversity during the Holocaust. In Italian with English audio & subtitles. 1997 Actors: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano, Sergio Bini Bustric Directors: Roberto Benigni Writers: Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami Producers: Agnès [...]

Starring: Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos Directed by: Alfonso Arau Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes Release year: 1993 Studio: Lionsgate Based on the best-selling novel by Laura Esquival, this internationally popular romantic fable from Mexico centers on a young woman who discovers that her cooking has magical effects. The tale’s heroine, Tita, is the youngest of [...]

Actors: Judith Brown, Roberta Collins, Jennifer Gan, Pam Grier, Bernard Bonnin Directors: Gerardo de Leon Writers: David Osterhout, James H. Watkins Producers: Ben Balatbat, Cirio H. Santiago, Roger Corman

Actors: Jill Lansing, Stuart Taylor, Zalman King, Cathy Worthington Directors: Irvin Berwick, Earl Barton

Possessed-car suspensers can be surprisingly effective and frightening. Unfortunately, this movie is a fairly low-budget effort, offering up many standard suspense techniques that were pretty shopworn even in 1980. The end result is a film that is predictable, and has few if any real chills. Notable only as one of Joseph Cotten’s last films. Actors: [...]

The Pom Pom Girls, AKA Palisades High: 1976, Joseph Ruben. Actors: Robert Carradine Directors: Joseph Rubin

Criterion #77: … And God Created Woman. The astounding success of Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman revolutionized the foreign film market and turned Brigitte Bardot into an international star. Bardot stars as Juliette, an 18-year-old orphan whose unbridled appetite for pleasure shakes up all of St. Tropez; her sweet but naïve husband Michel (Jean-Louis [...]

Criterion #98: L’Avventura. A girl mysteriously disappears on a yachting trip. While her lover and her best friend search for her across Italy, they begin an affair. Antonioni’s penetrating study of the idle upper class offers stinging observations on spiritual isolation and the many meanings of love. Actors: Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari, Dominique [...]

Criterion 5: The 400 Blows. François Truffaut’s first feature, The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups), is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut’s life-long cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel, The 400 Blows sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own difficult childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, petty crime, and a friendship. [...]

Criterion 329: Lacombe, Lucien.