Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Right around the time of his break with Mia Farrow, Woody Allen began a journey down a new path. It was a journey that earned many new detractors. He had been a filmmaker that kept people happy and comfortable by doing the same thing again and again. Losing that stable, working relationship with Farrow and entering into a new one with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn caused an uproar. Fans could no longer see him in the same way, and his public persona -- which had been so inextricably entwined with the onscreen one -- soon became tarnished. read more...

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• Love Story ▶ Yes please
• Funny ▶ Yes please
• Carnality ▶ Strong animal desire, hunger or desperation
• Production Level ▶ Polished
• Overall Depth ▶ Deep or penetrating

The Apartment (1960)

With The Apartment, Billy Wilder somehow took a story about infidelity and suicide and made it into a comedy. It runs a little long, and it strays off the path from time to time, but one look at Jack Lemmon's office building, with its endless rows of desks and fluorescent lights (borrowed from King Vidor's superb 1928 The Crowd), will hook you. And the rest of the movie rarely lets go. read more...

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• Love Story ▶ Yes please
• Funny ▶ Yes please
• Moralistic ▶ Yes please
• Production Level ▶ Polished
• Originality ▶ Stories I know and love

Modern Times (1936)

That in itself is not such a big deal now that just about anyone can get their mug on some second-rate reality show. But Chaplin went one further: he did it with consummate artistry and poetry. read more...

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• Love Story ▶ Yes please
• Funny ▶ Yes please
• Brainy ▶ Don't make me think
• Sympathetic ▶ I want to know or care about the characters
• Moralistic ▶ Yes please

Roman Holiday (1953)

No one in movie history made a debut quite like Audrey Hepburn. She was barely detectable in movies like The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) before she got her big break in William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953) playing a princess on a goodwill tour. Her screen charm and presence were unequalled in history by all but a handful of movie stars. And in playing the role of a princess, she became one and won an Oscar for Best Actress. read more...

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• Love Story ▶ Yes please
• Tear Jerker ▶ Yes please
• Funny ▶ Yes please
• Sympathetic ▶ I want to know or care about the characters
• Moralistic ▶ Yes please
• Rules ▶ Rigid or strongly constrained
• Production Level ▶ Polished
• Originality ▶ Stories I know and love

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Ernst Lubitsch's masterpiece (remade in 1998 as You've Got Mail) takes place in a Hungarian shop during the Christmas holiday. Times are tough and the workers are intimidated by their stern boss Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan). So when Alfred Kralik (Jimmy Stewart) and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) become secret pen-pals -- unbeknownst to each other -- they must deal with more than a few obstacles to find true love. This might be Lubitsch's gentlest work: sweetness mixed with a genuine sadness. Stewart and Sullavan are wonderful, and Warners' DVD presents them in a beautiful black-and-white DVD transfer. read more...

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• Love Story ▶ Yes please
• Funny ▶ Yes please
• Sympathetic ▶ I want to know or care about the characters
• Romantic Love ▶ Happily ever after
• Moralistic ▶ Yes please
• Production Level ▶ Polished
• Originality ▶ Stories I know and love