- Las Vegas, 21 January: Col. Tom Parker, a shadowy figure who was born in Breda, Holland and managed Elvis Presley throughout his career -- appearing as a "technical advisor" on the King's films -- dies at 87 from complications from a stroke. Parker took between 25% and 50% of Presley's earnings as commission, an amount many considered ridiculously high. "I sleep very good at night," he once said. "When they've done all they can with him, they start picking at me."
- Park Cities, 26 January:
 The 1997 Sundance Film Festival concluded today and the following prizes were awarded: Grand Jury Prize winners -- Sunday (dramatic) and Girls Like Us (documentary); Filmmakers Trophy -- In the Company of Men (dramatic) and Licensed to Kill (documentary); Director's Award -- Morgan J. Freeman for Hurricane (dramatic) and Arthur Dong for Licensed to Kill (documentary); Audience Award -- Hurricane and Love Jones (dramatic) and Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End (documentary); Cinematography Award -- Enrique Chediak for Hurricane (dramatic) and Christine Choy for My America... or Honk if You Love Buddha (documentary); Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award -- James Lasdun and Jonathan Nossiter for Sunday; Short Film -- Man About Town by Kris Isaacson; Special Recognition -- Thérèse DePrez for the production design of Going All The Way, Parker Posey for acting in The House of Yes, and Kirby Dick for the direction of Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. The festival awarded its Tribute to Independent Vision Award to Tim Robbins.
 - New York, 31 January: Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman, which had been shown at the Boston and Toronto Film Festivals last year, premieres nationally today. Guest, former "Saturday Night Live" comedian and Spinal Tap member, creates the ultimate parody of small-town dramatics. Corky St. Claire (Guest), an overwhelming drama director hiding out in Blaine, Missouri, thinks he has found the vehicle to put him back on Broadway: the city's 150th anniversary play, Red, White, and Blaine. As rehearsals start, we learn of the town's history ("the stool capital of the world") including a brush with a UFO. The mockumentary follows the various townsfolk wishing for stardom: Parker Posey as a Dairy Queen clerk, Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard as stage-struck travel agents, Matthew Keeslar as the town's bad boy, and Eugene Levy (who co-wrote the film with Guest) as a dentist who dreams of glory on the stage. The film is a hoot from beginning to end, and be sure to watch the closing credits.
- New York, 31 January:
 Star Wars again? Yes. George Lucas and the folks at 20th Century Fox have actually released a slightly different film this time. Although Lucas re-released the film in 1978, 1979, 1981 and again in 1982, this 20th-anniversary theatrical rerelease, in which Lucas personally remastered the image and sound quality of his baby, promises to be as mega-successful as the original. Other revisions are more obvious, if hardly radical. Lucas enhanced several special effects with updated computer technology, and the creatures that populate Mos Eisley's spaceport -- though meticulous -- are aesthetically superior improvements. Fox will re-release The Empire Strikes Back next month and Return of the Jedi is scheduled for a March re-release.
 - Los Angeles, 16 February: Two days after her birthday benefit, actress Elizabeth Taylor checked into a hospital for surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. The tumor was detected by an MRI brain scan during Taylor's annual physical on 3 February. Experts say hospitalization for such surgeries usually ranges from three to five days. The surgery was originally planned for 10 February, the day after an AIDS fund-raiser celebrating Taylor's 65th birthday, but was postponed because she still had the flu. Taylor, who won Academy Awards for Butterfield 8 in 1960 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966, has suffered from a series of health problems over the decades and has been operated on a reported 40+ times. The Pantages Theatre benefit on 9 February -- "Happy Birthday, Elizabeth -- A Celebration of Life" raised more than $1 million for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which distributes money for research and treatment.
- New York, 28 February:
 Much anticipated by an already primed fan base, Smilla's Sense of Snow, based on a much-praised 1992 bestseller by Peter Høeg, is a film of moody power and boundless mystery in its first half, but it becomes an overblown, conspiracy-laden schlock thriller in its second. Julia Ormond stars as the half-Inuit, Greenland native of Høeg's book, a loner who is supported by an emotionally ambivalent father (Robert Loggia) in Copenhagen. Apparently perceived as a troublemaker who sees secret plots everywhere, Smilla finds herself largely alone in an effort to discover what really happened to a six-year-old Inuit boy who fell (or jumped) off the roof of her apartment building. Somewhat aided by an ambiguous neighbor (Gabriel Byrne), Smilla investigates a connection between the child's death and the misdeeds of a mining company, a story hook that conveniently ratchets up the action but quickly dissipates the more compelling, introspective intrigue of the film's beginning. Ormond is fascinating, somehow more beautiful than usual through her emphasis of her character's destabilizing conflicts (isolation and a possibly unhinged intelligence). But she isn't done any favors by Ann Biderman's unreliable script or by the usually superb Danish director Bille August's chronic problems working in English-language films.
 - New York, 28 February: Based on a memoir by former undercover cop Joe Pistone (whose daring and unprecedented infiltration of the New York Mob scene earned him a place in the federal witness protection program), Donnie Brasco is like a de-romanticized, de-mythologized version of The Godfather. It offers an uncommonly detailed, privileged glimpse inside the world of organized crime from the perspective of the little guys at the bottom of Mafia hierarchy rather than from the kingpins at the top. Donnie Brasco is not only one of the great modern-day gangster movies to put in the company of The Godfather films and GoodFellas, but it is also one of the great undercover police movies -- arguably surpassing Serpico and Prince of the City in richness of character, detail, and moral complexity. Donnie (Johnny Depp, a splendid actor) is practically adopted by Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), a gregarious, low-level "made" man who grows to love his young protg like a son. (Pacino really sinks into this guy's skin and polyester slacks, and creates his freshest, most fully realized character since his 1970s heyday.) As Donnie acclimates himself to Lefty's world, he distances himself from his wife (a terrific Anne Heche) and family for their own protection. Almost imperceptibly his sense of identity slips away from him. Questioning his own confused loyalties, unable to trust anybody else because he himself is an imposter, Donnie loses his way in a murky and treacherous no-man's land. The film is directed by Mike Newell, who also headed up Four Weddings and a Funeral and the gritty, true crime melodrama Dance with a Stranger. -- Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
- London, 11 March: Paul McCartney is knighted. Named on the Queen's 1996 New Year's Honours List, his investiture took place today at Buckingham Palace. Sir Paul reports that the other surviving Beatles call him "Your Holiness."
 - Los Angeles, 24 March:
 It looks like 1996 can truly be called "The Year of the Indepedents," since not one major Hollywood studio was responsible for making, or releasing, the films that swept the highest-profile awards at this year's 69th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Miramax (still considered an indie operation despite its recent acquisition by Disney) took top honors with The English Patient, Best Picture winner, along with Best Director for Anthony Minghella, Best Cinematography for John Seale and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche, plus 5 other awards. All in all, The English Patient won 9 of its 12 nominations. The Best Acting awards went to Geoffrey Rush for Shine (Fine Line) and Frances McDormand for Fargo (Gramercy). Cuba Gooding Jr. won Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire (Sony/TriStar). One of the major emotional moments of the evening came when former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, suffering from Parkinson's disease, came to the stage with fellow champion George Foreman after the Oscar® for Best Feature Documentary went to When We Were Kings, a film that depicts the 1974 Ali-Foreman championship bout in Zaire. Kolya, the first film from the Czech Republic nominated by the Academy, was voted the year's Best Foreign Language Film. Unlike years past when the Academy scorecards were dotted with towering studio names like MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., Fox, Universal and Columbia, this year's victors were from predominantly indie organizations, and adamantly proud of it. A new Oscar era has begun.
- Paris, 26 March:
 Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli are teamed in Raoul Ruiz's new film, Généalogies d'un crime (Genealogies of a Crime), which goes into release today. At her son's funeral, Solange (Deneuve), a lawyer famous for losing hopeless cases, agrees to defend René (Melvil Poupaud), her son's age, accused of murdering his wealthy aunt, Jeanne (also played by Deneuve), who's part of the Franco-Belgian Psychoanalytic Society, known for odd views and methods. She reads Jeanne's journal, documenting René's criminal tendencies. Solange believes him innocent, manipulated into the murder or framed. Odd psychiatrists turn up, including Georges Didier (Piccoli), who runs FBPS, and his rival, Christian (Andrzej Seweryn), who believes crime originates in a story's taking hold of a person. Critics complain that the film is emotionless and talky, and should be viewed only to observe Deneuve's ageless beauty.
 - Los Angeles, 16 April: Arnold Schwarzenegger is recovering from heart surgery today to replace a damaged aortic valve. The actor is in stable condition, his spokeswoman said. His doctors expect a full recovery, according to a statement yesterday from publicist Catherine Olim, and he will not have to change his lifestyle or take heart or blood medication. Although the news of the surgery prompted speculation that the five-time Mr. Universe had damaged himself with steroids, the official statement made it clear that the problem with his heart was a congenital one. He apparently chose to have the surgery now, during a lull in his acting schedule. "I've never felt sick or had any symptons at all, but I knew I'd have to take care of this condition sooner or later," Schwarzenegger said in the statement. "I said to the doctors, 'Let's do it now while I'm young and healthy.' They agreed this was the way to go." He is 49. Schwarzenegger says he will rest until May. That's when he is scheduled to begin the press junket for Batman and Robin, in which he stars as the nefarious Mr. Freeze. A spokesperson for the American Heart Association says that it wouldn't be "unreasonable" for Schwarzenegger to be up and ready by the end of May, especially because he is quite fit. However, she cautions the movie star to be sensitive to any heart changes, eat well and exercise regularly. And noted cigar-chomper Arnold will have to cut out tobacco, Butler noted.
- Los Angeles, 30 April:
 In the tradition of films about filmmaking, Irma Vep takes its own special place among such films as Fellini's 8½ and Truffaut's Day for Night. A has-been director decides to remake the silent French serial film Les Vampires starring a Hong Kong action film superstar. The production is falling behind schedule and its star, Maggie Cheung (who plays herself), finds herself an outsider with the film's crew save for Zoé, a woman costumer (Nathalie Richard) who has a crush on her. René the director (Jean-Pierre Léaud) cast Maggie after viewing one of her many martial-arts fantasy films. Although he finds her perfect for the part of the jewel thief that Musidora played in the original Les Vampires, the rest of the crew cannot see the reasons for casting Maggie beyond her beauty and how she looks in her tight-fitting latex costume. René's vision is soon lost on everyone and he suffers a mental breakdown. The film is reassigned to José (Lou Castel), a seemingly more commanding director (although he takes the job because his welfare is about to run out), whose first decision is to fire Maggie. Irma Vep is presented as a comedy, but at its heart lies an examination of the art and craft of filmmaking. In a clever turn, Maggie creeps around her hotel getting into character, in essence remaking Irma Vep for real-life director Olivier Assayas. Assayas wrote the film in 10 days and shot the film in a month after meeting Maggie Cheung at a film festival -- a fascinating case of life imitating art... or is it the other way around? -- Shannon Gee, Amazon.com
 - Paris, 13 May: With La Femme défendue (The Banned Woman), director and male lead Philippe Harel has successfully pulled off a risky technique in the way in which he filmed this love story between Muriel (Isabelle Carré), a twentysomething young woman, and a 39-year-old married man -- Harel focuses in great detail on the woman's face and gestures and tells the story from the literal point of view -- of vision -- of the man. There are only two brief scenes in which the face of the man is shown in a mirror. Little white lies and clandestine meetings build into a full-fledged affair in which a movement of the lips, a glance in a certain direction speak as loudly as a written sign. The woman interacts with the camera and with her lover in such a way that neither exist without her, and what seems to be at first her reaction to the man she comes to love begins to evolve into her reaction to the timidity of the man -- a subtle but telling difference. Carré plays the young woman with an intensity and emotional range that works well with the unblinking eye of the camera. -- Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
 - Cannes, 18 May:
 Abbas Kiarostami's Ta'm e guilass (A Taste of Cherry) and Shohei Imamura's Unagi (The Eel) shared the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Ta'm e guilass, produced in Iran, tells the story of middle-aged Mr.Badii (Homayon Ershadi), who is planning to commit suicide and desperately seeks anyone to assist him -- he has already dug out the grave in the mountains, but the assistant will have to bury him after he does the deed. He asks a Kurd soldier and an Afghan seminarian, but each of them has a reason to refuse. Finally he finds an old Turkish taxidermist (Abdoirahman Bagheri), who has a sick son and previously attempted suicide himself, and he agrees to assist Badii. In Imamura's Unagi, white-collar worker Yamashita (Koji Yakusho) finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away; he suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko (Misa Shimizu), who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.
The Festival jury, presided over by Isabelle Adjani and including Tim Burton, Li Gong, Mike Leigh, Michael Ondaatje and Mira Sorvino, awarded its Grand Prize to Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, the highest honor ever accorded a Canadian film. Best actor honors went to Sean Penn for Nick Cassavetes' She's So Lovely, and England's Kathy Burke won best actress for her performance in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth. Best director was Kar Wai Wong for Cheun gwong tsa sit (Happy Together) from Hong Kong. The festival awarded Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman its Palm of Palms, and Egyptian director Youssef Chahine received the 50th Anniversary Prize Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of work.
- New York, 19 May:
 In the low tradition of knockoff horror flicks best seen (or not seen) on a drive-in movie screen, Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park (1993) is a poorly conceived, ill-organized film that lacks story and logic. Screenwriter David Koepp strings along a number of loose ideas while Jeff Goldblum returns as Ian Malcolm, the quirky chaos theoretician who now reluctantly agrees to go to another island where cloned dinosaurs are roaming freely. Along with his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) and daughter, Malcolm has to deal with hunters, environmentalists, and corporate swine who stupidly bring back a big dino to Southern California, where it runs amok, of course. Spielberg doesn't seem to care that the pieces of this project don't add up to a real movie, so he hams it up with big, scary moments (with none of the artfulness of those in Jurassic Park) and smart-aleck visual gags (a yapping dog in a suburb mysteriously disappears when a hungry T-rex stomps by). A complete bust. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
 - Paris, 28 May: One of the sweetest films to emerge from Europe in years, Alain Berliner's Ma vie en rose (My Life in Pink) is the story of an innocent little boy, Ludovic (played with noncloying directness by Georges Du Fresne), who wants to be a girl. Convinced that he's the product of misplaced chromosomes (he imagines the mix-up in one of many delightful daydream sequences), he sets about righting the mistake by wearing dresses and high heels and experimenting with lipstick and makeup. The otherwise friendly suburban neighborhood becomes horrified by the gender confusion, though tellingly the cruelest blows come not from the teasing classmates but intolerant adults: one scene recalls the torch-and-pitchfork angry villagers from a Frankenstein movie. Ludo tries hard to be butch, but he can't deny his nature, especially when he meets a kindred spirit: a little girl who gladly trades her dress for his pants and shirt. This bittersweet mix of innocent fantasy and childhood cruelty has its moments of sadness and crushing misunderstandings, but the overall tone is loving, filled with tenderness and culminating in acceptance and togetherness. As the family stumbles and struggles to come to terms with Ludo, they find something special within him, an innocent conviction so powerful and pure that it's infectious. Ludo may not grow up to become a girl as he hopes, but his belief is so strong it's hard to deny him the possibility. This films reminds us that, to a child, anything is possible. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
- New York, 20 June:
 Following Val Kilmer's portrayal of the caped crusader in 1995's Batman Forever, the fourth Batman feature, Batman & Robin directed by Joel Schumacher, stars George Clooney under the pointy-eared cowl, with Chris O'Donnell returning as Robin the Boy Wonder. This time the dynamic duo is up against the nefarious Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who is bent on turning the world into an iceberg, and the slyly seductive but highly toxic Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), who wants to eliminate all animal life and turn the Earth into a gigantic greenhouse. Alicia Silverstone lends a hand as Batgirl, and Elle McPherson plays the thankless role of Batman/Bruce Wayne's fiancée. A sensory assault of dazzling colors, senseless action, and lavish sets run amok, this Batman & Robin offers an overdose of eye candy, but it is strictly for devoted Bat-o-philes. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 20 June: Holy counterprogramming, Batman! -- it looks like audiences have already grown a little weary of dinosaur attacks, mad bombers, and George Clooney in latex. One of the best romantic comedies to come out so far in the 1990s, My Best Friend's Wedding not only gives Julia Roberts a delightful vehicle for her crowd-pleasing comeback, but it further distinguishes itself by avoiding the conventional plotting of the genre. Julia plays a prominent Chicago restaurant critic whose best friend (Dermot Mulroney) is a former lover from her college days with whom she'd made a binding pact: if neither of them were married by the age of 28, they'd marry each other. Just when they're about to reach the deadline of their agreement, Mulroney arrives in Chicago to introduce Roberts to his seemingly perfect fiance (Cameron Diaz) and announce their wedding in just three days. That leaves the shocked Julia with just three short days to sabotage the wedding and marry the man she now realizes she's loved all along. With potential heartbreak waiting in the wings, she'll either get what she wants or pay the price for her selfish behavior, and Ronald Bass's cleverly constructed screenplay keeps us guessing to the very end. Rupert Everett deserves rave reviews for his scene-stealing performance as Robert's gay friend who goes along with her scheming (but only so far), and even as she makes her character's needy desperation disarmingly appealing, Roberts wisely allows Diaz to capitalize on her charming time in the spotlight. As the romantic outcome remains uncertain, the viewer is held in a state of giddy suspense, and director P.J. Hogan pulls off some hilarious scenes (like a restaurant full of people singing the Dionne Warwick hit "I Say a Little Prayer") that could easily have fallen flat in the hands of a less talented filmmaker. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 2 July:
 Men in Black, an imaginative summer comedy from director Barry Sonnenfeld, is a lot of fun, largely on the strength of Will Smith's engaging performance as a brash NYPD detective who becomes Agent J, the rookie partner of secret Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) assigned to keep tabs on Earth-dwelling extraterrestrials. There's lots of comedy to spare in this bright film, some of the funniest stuff found in the margins of the major action. (A scene with Smith's character being trounced in the distance by a huge alien while Jones questions a witness is a riot.) The inventiveness never lets up, and the cast -- including Rip Torn as the MiB's boss Chief Zed, and Vincent D'Onofrio doing frighteningly convincing work as an alien occupying a decaying human -- hold up their end splendidly. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
 - New York, August 1: Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men goes into national release today. Already honored at several film festivals, including prizes at Deuville, Edinburgh, New York Film Critics Circle and Sundance, LaBute's indie concerns two bored businessmen, exiled to a remote company outpost on a six-week business trip, who decide to enliven their visit by romancing a deaf woman (Stacy Edwards) and then savagely dumping her. Slimy Chad (Aaron Eckhart) convinces schlumphy Howard (Matt Molloy) to take part in the vicious scheme by framing it as an act of revenge against uppity womankind, but it quickly becomes apparent that he harbors some even more sinister motives. What might have been a simple exploration (some, no doubt, would say reiteration) of straightforward misogyny is elevated by the remarkable performance of Eckhart; at once charming and nauseating, his fascinating interpretation of pure competitive evil dominates the film. LaBute's intelligent script is somewhat reminiscent of Whit Stillman's darker moments (minus the collegiate cleverness and zany warmth), and his direction, while rarely visually impressive, does connote the hellish impersonality of corporate interiors with chilling success. The director-screenwriter deserves additional plaudits for resisting both the tidal pull toward poetic justice and the temptation to draw either of his main characters as even slightly sympathetic. A study in ugliness, a rubbernecker's delight, a time bomb. -- Miles Bethany, Amazon.com
- New York, 13 August:
 From the UK comes The Full Monty, a small film with a huge heart. (The title is a British slang phrase meaning "the whole thing." According to screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, US studio executives found the title perplexing since nobody in the film is named Monty.) The story concerns a group of unemployed Yorkshire steelworkers' (Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson and Paul Barber) hopes to replenish their empty wallets and boost their flagging morale by following in the footsteps of the Chippendale's strippers. These guys are hardly what you would think of as buff, and few can even dance. They simply take these problems in stride, because these are men with a plan -- displaced, unemployed, and feeling suffocated by the women in their lives, they just want to earn a little respect. The dialogue and interaction between these men will have you screeching with laughter, but of equal importance is their sense of camaraderie and caring. First-time director Peter Cattaneo is a name to watch for; he easily conveys the sheer humanity of these people in their small town with their sad stories and irresistible sense of optimism. Incidentally, the six leads in the film did in fact perform a full-frontal strip-tease in front of 400 extras. Cattaneo described it as "a one-take deal". -- Rochelle O'Gorman
 - London, 5 September: Mrs. Brown is a romantic drama in the "Masterpiece Theater" vein. This John Madden film looks at the relationship between Queen Victoria and John Brown, a commoner who, though a servant, becomes her closest friend and confidant. As such, he proves the catalyst to bring her back into public life and out of her private mourning for the late Prince Albert. But the closeness of their friendship sets tongues wagging about the impropriety of what appears to be an affair between queen and commoner (an issue the film never directly addresses). The film's charm lies in the flinty give-and-take between the wonderfully starchy Judi Dench as Victoria and the robust Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, here playing it straight as a strong-willed Scot who comes to enjoy the power he wields by virtue of having the queen's ear. Antony Sher is also striking as Prime Minister Disraeli, in a performance that all but shimmers with unspoken malice. -- Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
- Toronto, 13 September: The Hanging Garden, directed by Thom Fitzgerald, received the People's Choice Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. The Metro Media Award was shared by two American films, Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential. The Hanging Garden also shared the Best Canadian First Feature Film award with Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. The International Critics' Award went to Carine Adler's Under the Skin (UK), featuring Samantha Morton, Claire Rushbrook and Rita Tushingham, for its daring examination of grief, its intimacy with a young woman tossed between her love and resentment for her dead mother and living sister, and the energetic intensity of its direction.
- New York, 19 September:
 In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, L.A. Confidential is the real thing -- a gritty, sordid tale of sex, scandal, betrayal, and corruption of all sorts (police, political, press -- and, of course, very personal) in 1950s Hollywood. Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson's screenplay is actually based on several titles in James Ellroy's series of chronological thriller novels (including the title volume, The Big Nowhere, and White Jazz) -- a compelling blend of L.A. history and pulp fiction that has earned it comparisons to the greatest of all Technicolor noir films, Chinatown. Kim Basinger is outstanding in her portrayal of a conflicted femme fatale; unfortunately, her male co-stars are so uniformly fine that they may cancel each other out with the Academy voters: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and James Cromwell play LAPD officers of varying stripes. Pearce's character is a particularly intriguing study in Hollywood amorality and ambition, a strait-laced "hero" (and son of a departmental legend) whose career goals outweigh all other moral, ethical, and legal considerations. If he's a good guy, it's only because he sees it as the quickest route to a promotion. Excellent supporting work is also offered by Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin and Gwenda Deacon. -- Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
- New York, 23 September: Even if the movie Casablanca is one of your favorites, you probably missed the news that Murray Burnett has died at age 87. And if you don't know who Murray Burnett is, maybe you're not a true Casablanca fan after all. Here's looking at the man who started it all -- more than 50 years ago -- when he co-wrote a play called Everybody Comes To Rick's.
 - Los Angeles, 10 October: Already successful with festival audiences in Toronto and New York during the last month, Boogie Nights opens nationally. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, whose only previous feature credit is 1996's critically accalaimed Sydney (renamed Hard Eight), Boogie Nights is a re-written and expanded version of the the film he made on video when he was only 17, "The Dirk Diggler Story" (1988). In Anderson's new film, Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a young man working in a night club, is discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who soon puts Eddie, renamed Dirk Diggler, and his "talent" on the top of the porn industry. But when the 80s arrive, Dirk and his colleagues in the porn industry have to cope with a new era, as well as the baggage they bring with them from the 70s. And the cast is one of the great ensembles of the 90s; in addition to Walhberg and Reynolds, Julianne Moore (as Amber Waves), Heather Graham (as Rollergirl), William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Don Cheadle, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ricky Jay all turn in outstanding performances.
- Paris, 15 October:
 Release here of Youssef Chahine's al-Massir (Destiny), which had been shown to acclaim at the Cannes, Montréal and New York film festivals earlier this year. The story of this romantic, musical, and dramatic film is set in the 12th century in Arab-ruled Spanish province Andalusia, where famed philosopher Averroes (Nour El-Sherif) is appointed grand judge by the caliph, and his liberal court judgments are not liked by everyone. The caliph's political rivals, centered around the leader of a fanatical Islamic sect, force the caliph to send Averroes into exile, but his ideas keep on living thanks to his students. This is a wonderful movie on tolerance. Chahine shows how the powers of dance, happiness and erudition oppose the dark forces of obscurantism and fanatism. Not only is the movie never rhetorically boring, but it is full of joy and music, making one feel like dancing. Definitely a masterpiece from a filmmaker at the height of his powers.
 - New York, 24 October: Release of Gattaca, which was shown at last month's Toronto Film Festival. Confidently conceived and brilliantly executed, audiences and critics are applauding the film's originality. It is certain to be recognized as one of the most intelligent science fiction films of the 1990s. Andrew Niccol, the talented New Zealander in his feature film writing and directing debut, depicts a near-future society in which one's personal and professional destiny is determined by one's genes. In this society, "Valids" (genetically engineered) qualify for positions at prestigious corporations, such as Gattaca, which grooms its most qualified employees for space exploration. "In-Valids" (naturally born), such as the film's protagonist, Vincent (Ethan Hawke), are deemed genetically flawed and subsequently fated to low-level occupations in a genetically caste society. With the help of a disabled "Valid" (Jude Law), Vincent subverts his society's social and biological barriers to pursue his dream of space travel; any random mistake -- and an ongoing murder investigation at Gattaca -- could reveal his plot. Part thriller, part futuristic drama and cautionary tale, Gattaca establishes its social structure so convincingly that the entire scenario is chillingly believable. With Uma Thurman as the woman who loves Vincent and identifies with his struggle, Gattaca is both stylish and smart, while Jude Law's performance lends the film a note of tragic and heartfelt humanity. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 7 November:
 In the first and finest Robocop movie, director Paul Verhoeven combined near-future science fiction with a keen sense of social satire -- not to mention enough high-velocity violence to satisfy even the most voracious bloodlust. In Starship Troopers, Verhoeven and RoboCop cowriter Ed Neumeier take inspired cues from Robert Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel to create a special-effects extravaganza that functions on multiple levels of entertainment. The film might be called "Melrose Place in Space," with its youthful cast of handsome guys and gorgeous women who look like they've been recruited (and in some cases they were) from the cast of "Beverly Hills 90210." Viewers might focus on the incredible, graphically intense action sequences (definitely not for children) in which heavily armed forces from Earth go to off-world battle against vast hordes of alien "bugs" bent on planetary conquest. The attacking bugs are marvels of state-of-the-art special-effects technology, and the space battles are nothing short of spectacular. But Starship Troopers is more than a showcase for high-tech hardware and gigantic, flesh-ripping insects. Recalling his childhood in Holland during the Nazi occupation, Verhoeven turns this epic adventure into a scathingly funny satire of fascist propaganda, emphasizing Heinlein's underlying warning against the hazards of military conformity and the sickening realities of war. It's an action-packed joy ride if that's all you're looking for, but Verhoeven has a provocative agenda that makes Starship Troopers as smart as it is exciting. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
 - New York, 21 November: Having made the film festival circuit (Cannes, Locarno, Taiwan, Toronto, New York), and quite successfully it should be added, Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (French title: De beaux lendemains) has been released in theaters. In synopsis The Sweet Hereafter may sound like a devastatingly unpleasant downer, but don't be discouraged. The real subjects of this luminous picture (adapted by Egoyan from Russell Banks' novel) are hope and renewal -- avoiding the cheap emotions suggested by those clichéd terms. Like other Egoyan films (Exotica, for one), it's an intriguing sort of mystery, a puzzle in which the big picture is not revealed until the very last piece is in place. A metropolitan attorney (Ian Holm) travels to a small British Columbian town where 14 children have been killed in a school bus accident to prepare a class-action suit. With sensitivity and empathy, he approaches relatives with promises that the suit will give focus and closure to their grief. And as he investigates the circumstances of the accident, he not only uncovers a few local secrets, but dredges up some painful pieces of his own past. Slowly, deeper mysteries are revealed -- eternal mysteries at the very heart of human nature: Who is to blame for a tragedy like this? And why do people feel such a need to assign blame? Is that how they give meaning to otherwise inconceivable events? How does one reassemble a shattered life? The Sweet Hereafter is too honest to offer bromides, but it shows how a few people struggle, as best they can, to answer these questions for themselves. -- Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
- New York, 26 November:
 Perhaps the Alien films are like the Star Trek movies: The even-numbered episodes are the best ones. Certainly this film (directed by French stylist Jean-Pierre Jeunet and premiered in Paris on 6 November) is an improvement over Alien3, with a script that breathes exciting new life into the franchise. This chapter is set even further in the future, where scientists on a space colony have cloned both the alien and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who died in Alien3; in doing so, however, they've mixed alien DNA with Ripley's human chromosomes, which gives Ripley Clone #8 surprising power (and a bad attitude). A band of smugglers comes aboard only to discover the new race of aliens -- and when the multi-mouthed melonheads get loose, no place is safe. But, on the plus side, they have Ripley as a guide to help them get out. Winona Ryder is on hand as the smugglers' most unlikely crew member (with a secret of her own), but this one is Sigourney's all the way. -- Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
 - Paris, 3 December: Regarde la mer (See the Sea) is less than an hour long, but offers a full study in quiet menace. A mother (Sasha Hails) and her infant daughter are vacationing at a lonely seaside resort. As they doze on the beach, backpacker Tatiana (Marina de Van) silently watches them from a cliff top and soon the trouble begins. Regarde la mer is all the creepier because it never leaves the realm of reality. Director François Ozon is beautifully restrained -- he keeps the tension rising without ever going overboard or driving his characters into caricature. It's the tiny things that Tatiana does that give you the shivers. -- Ali Davis, Amazon.com
- Washington, DC, 4 December:
 Steven Spielberg's most simplistic, sanitized history lesson, Amistad, explores the symbolic 1840s trials of 53 West Africans following their bloody rebellion aboard a slave ship. For most of Schindler's List Spielberg restrained himself from the sweeping narrative and technical flourishes that make him one of our most entertaining and manipulative directors. Here, he doesn't even bother trying, succumbing to his driving need to entertain with beautiful images and contrived emotion. He cheapens his grandiose motives and simplifies slavery, treating it as cut-and-dry genre piece. Characters are easy Hollywood stereotypes -- "villains" like the Spanish sailors or zealous abolitionists are drawn one-dimensionally and sneered upon. And Spielberg can't suppress his gifted eye, undercutting normally ugly sequences, such as the terrifying slave passage, which is shot as a gorgeous, well-lit composition. At its core, Amistad is a traditional courtroom drama, centered by a tired, clichéd narrative: a struggling, idealistic young lawyer (Matthew McConaughey) fighting the crooked political system and saving helpless victims. Worse yet, Spielberg actually takes the underlying premise of his childhood fantasy, E.T. and repackages it for slavery. Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), the leader of the West African rebellion, is presented much like the adorable alien: lost, lacking a common language, and trying to find his way home. McConaughey is a grown-up Elliot who tries communicating complicated ideas such as geography by drawing pictures in the sand or language by having Cinque mimic his facial expressions. Such stuff was effective for a sci-fi fantasy about the communication barriers between a boy and a lost alien; here, it seems like a naïve view of real, complex history. -- Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
- Malibu, 8 December:
 Robert Downey Jr.'s legal troubles continue. Municipal Judge Lawrence Mira has sentenced him to six months in jail for violating his probation, which was revoked in October due to the actor's continued drug use. Downey's problems began on 23 June last year when he was stopped for speeding and arrested for driving drunk and being in possession of Mexican black tar heroin, crack, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver in his pickup truck. A few weeks later, on 20 July, Downey broke into a Malibu home and fell asleep on a child's bed. When he was arrested for trespassing, Downey claimed his limo driver dropped him off at the wrong address. The next month, given a suspended prison sentence of 3 years, and granted probation with requirements of random drug testing and remanded to a secure drug rehabilitation center. Since the actor failed to meet the requirements of his probated sentence, Judge Mira imposed the 180-day jail sentence.
 - Santa Monica, 9 December: Actor Christian Slater has been sentenced to three months in jail, and 36 months probation, for assaulting his girlfriend and a police officer as well as cocaine abuse on 11 August. Before police arrived, an intoxicated Slater was said to be running through the halls half-naked and that he engaged in a heated argument with his girlfriend and punched her in the face. When the party host tried to play peacemaker, Slater also slugged him in the gut. He later admitted to police that he had been "drinking for days" and was on heroin and cocaine. He was arrested at that time by Los Angeles police and charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of battery. Slater's sentence also included mandatory in-patient rehab, $1,300 in restitution, an AIDS test and year-long treatment for batterers. This is not Slater's first brush with the law. He was arrested in West Hollywood in 1989 after allegedly leading sheriff's deputies on a car chase. At that time, a police spokeman's said Slater crashed into a telephone pole, kicked a cop after getting out of his car, and then tried to escape over a fence. He was charged with evading police, driving under the influence, assault with a deadly weapon {his cowboy boots} and driving with a suspended license. Then, in 1994, Slater was picked up at New York's JFK Airport after trying to enter the terminal while packing a 9mm pistol. Coincidentally, the actor's latest film, Very Bad Things, is about a party gone way wrong.
- New York, 12 December: The New York Film Critics Circle announces its awards for the films of 1997. Best film winner is L.A. Confidential, for which Curtis Hanson also wins best director and shares the screenplay award with Brian Helgeland; Peter Fonda is best actor for Ulee's Gold; Julie Christie is best actress for Afterglow; supporting acting awards go to Burt Reynolds for Boogie Nights and Joan Cusack for In & Out; best cinematographer is Roger Deakins for Kundun; Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap & Out of Control wins best documentary; best foreign language film is Ponette; and the best first film award goes to Neil LaBute for In the Company of Men.
- Los Angeles, 14 December:
 When the theatrical release of James Cameron's Titanic was delayed this year from July to December, media pundits speculated that Cameron's $200 million disaster epic would cause the director's downfall, signal the end of the blockbuster era, and sink Paramount Studios as quickly as the ill-fated luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Some studio executives were confident, others horrified, but the clarity of hindsight has turned Cameron into an Oscar-worthy genius, a shrewd businessman, and one of the most successful directors in the history of motion pictures. The film has become a bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon, making a global superstar of Leonardo DiCaprio, and should gross in the hundreds of millions if multiple viewings by teenage girls are any indication. Titanic has all the ingredients of a blockbuster (romance, passion, luxury, grand scale, a snidely villain, and an epic, life-threatening crisis), but Cameron's alchemy of these ingredients has proved more popular than anyone could have predicted. His stroke of genius was to combine absolute authenticity with a pair of fictional lovers whose tragic fate would draw viewers into the heart-wrenching reality of the Titanic disaster. As starving artist Jack Dawson and soon-to-be-married socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have won the hearts of viewers, and their brief but never-forgotten love affair provides the humanity that Cameron needed to turn Titanic into an emotional experience. Present-day framing scenes (featuring Gloria Stuart as the 101-year-old Rose) add additional resonance to the story, and although some viewers proved vehemently immune to Cameron's manipulations, few can deny the production's impressive achievements. Although some of the computer-generated visual effects look artificial, others -- such as the sunset silhouette of Titanic during its first evening at sea, or the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull -- are state-of-the-art marvels. In terms of sets and costumes alone, the film is never less than astounding. More than anything else, however, the film's overwhelming popularity speaks for itself. Titanic is an event film and a monument to Cameron's risk-taking audacity, blending the tragic irony of the Titanic disaster with just enough narrative invention to give the historical event its fullest and most timeless dramatic impact. This film is an epic love story on par with Gone With the Wind, and like that earlier box-office phenomenon, it's a film for the ages. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- Chicago, 18 December:
 Chris Farley, the rotund (5'8", 296 lbs.) "Saturday Night Live" and comic film actor who idolized John Belushi (who died at 33) and John Candy meets the same end as his heroes -- dying young. Farley is found dead at age 33 in his Chicago apartment, the victim of an accidental overdose of opiates and cocaine.
- Los Angeles, 31 December: With the unprecedented success of James Cameron's Titanic drawing people into movie theaters in droves, studios have used the last week of 1997 to open their "A-list" films. Recent release dates include Kevin Costner's The Postman (Warner Bros.), Martin Scorsese's Kundun (Touchstone), James L. Brooks' As Good As It Gets (Columbia TriStar), Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog (New Line), Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (Miramax) and the multi-national An American Werewolf in Paris (Buena Vista) -- all on Christmas Day. The next day saw the American release of Alain Berliner's Ma vie en rose (France) and Alan Rudolph's Afterglow (UK), both released by Sony Pictures Classics. And Jim Sheridan's The Boxer (MCA/Universal), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda (Fox Searchlight), with Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett, both slipped under the Oscar® deadline wire by opening here on New Year's Eve.
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27 January - London, England, 
16 December - Burbank, CA, 
