- Los Angeles, 10 January: Director Norman Jewison (Moonstruck) will receive an honorary Academy Award at the Oscar® ceremony March 21. It'll be his first.
- Los Angeles, 11 January:
 Filmmaker James Cameron might have been overstating things a bit when he proclaimed himself King of the World while collecting 14 Oscars® for Titanic last year. But now, at least, you can call him the real King of All Media. After already breaking box-office and music-chart records in '98 (can't forget about that soundtrack and Celine Dion's heart going on and on), 20th Century Fox and Paramount's joint effort did something in the home video market many in the Industry didn't think possible -- it has eclipsed Disney's The Lion King as the No. 1 selling videotape of all time. Released in September, the Leonardo DiCaprio- and Kate Winslet-starrer now has combined worldwide video sales of 57 million copies (that's the Hollywood Reporter's figure; Daily Variety puts it at 58 million). Any way you look at it, that's at least $1 billion in sales. The Lion King's worldwide video sales are estimated to be somewhere between 55 million to 56 million, according to the Reporter. Full story.
 - Los Angeles, 16 January: It's supposed to be an honorary Oscar® for lifetime achievement, but for legendary film and stage director Elia Kazan, the trophy he's picking up March 21 will mark a sort of Hollywood redemption. In 1952, Kazan -- director of such classics as On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, and several Tennessee Williams-penned Broadway productions -- was subpoenaed for testimony by Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee and given the hardest of choices: rat on his friends and save his career, or face the infamous Hollywood Blacklist. Kazan, of course, chose the former, informing on eight of his old friends from New York's renowned Group Theater -- including playwright Clifford Odets and actress Paula Strasberg. And although Kazan -- himself once a Communist Party member -- was able to continue his magnificent work, helming not only Waterfront, but East of Eden and A Face in the Crowd before the decade was through, he would later face his own kind of blacklisting. For years, Kazan's actions have sparked protest and scorn in Hollywood. As recently as two years ago, he still had enough detractors to keep the Los Angeles Film Critics Association from honoring his life's work. And in 1989, when the American Film Institute's board convened to decide whether he should get a Lifetime Achievement Award, discussions ended bitterly. The ice finally broke January 7, thanks to an impassioned speech to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences by the director's longtime pal, actor Karl Malden. Full story.
- Salt Lake City, 21 January: Robert Redford's 15th edition of the Sundance Film Festival opens tonight in Salt Lake City (next door to Utah base, Park City) with the premiere of iconoclast Robert Altman's new comic-drama, Cookie's Fortune, starring Glenn Close. Through January 31, the indie mecca -- easily the most important U.S. fest on a very, very crowded calendar -- will be the setting for big dreams (definitely) and big deals (possibly). -- Full story.
- Madrid, 22 January:
 Premiere of Manuel Gómez Pereira's Entre las piernas (Between Your Legs), starring Victoria Abril, Javier Bardem and Carmelo Gómez. Miranda (Abril) is a crew member of a nightly radio program. She and her husband Felix (Gómez), a cop, are parents of a girl. Miranda's daily dog walking strolls are excuses to pursue sexual encounters with men, whom she readily discards afterwards. In order to deal with her sex addiction, she signs up for therapy. Also in the group is Javier (Bardem), a successful scriptwriter and producer who is a phone sex junkie. The two misfits hit it off and a steamy affair ensues. But things get a little complicated when Javier finds out that this phone sex trysts have been secretly taped and being distributed all over Madrid, and that his ex-wife is living with his business partner. And, while investigating a murder case, Felix discovers Miranda's affair with Javier. Pereira's film smacks of Hitchcock -- the same everyday beginning that spins the characters farther into physical and psychological turmoil. Even the score reminds one of Bernard Herrmann!
 - Paris, 3 February: In Vénus beauté (institut), the carefully unattached existence of working girl Nathalie Baye is suddenly upended when lovesick hunk Samuel Le Bihan introduces himself: "My name is Antoine and I love you." Set in a cute glass storefront with a neon pink and blue façade that could have sprung from a Jacques Demy musical, this bittersweet romantic drama was written for the arresting Baye, who plays a middle-aged "girl" in a uniquely Parisian beauty shop that specializes in facials, body treatments, massages, and emotional confession. Her coworkers, young, sweetly guileless brunette cutie Audrey Tautou and gloomy twentysomething Mathilde Seigner, are like glimpses into her past lives, one full of hope and giddy optimism, the other turned resentful from disappointment. She clings to the girly camaraderie and workaday autopilot of her job while her "patronne" (the incomparable Bulle Ogier) nudges her toward responsibility. Writer-director Tonie Marshall has a marvelous feeling for the women who work and visit the place, though her soulful bohemian artist Le Bihan is defined by little more than good looks, shaggy charm, and a kind of reckless attraction. The film is at its best with the women: the easy by-play and guarded emotions of the shopgirls, the often uncontrolled outbursts of the offbeat and oddball clients, and especially the haunted and lonely performance from Baye, who warily creeps out of her shell for another chance at intimacy. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
- Paris, 10 February:
 The sublime Fin août, début septembre (Late August, Early September), a story of a quartet of Parisian adults (young and not so young) grappling with love, indecision, and crises of confidence, is not titled for a time of year but for a feeling, a tone, and a sense of passage. Self-conscious, shy writer Mathieu Amalric is fast approaching 30 and furiously second guessing every step he makes. He's broken it off with delightfully gawky yet graceful Jeanne Balibar and is in the midst of an affair with the wild Virginie Ledoyen, a sexy, young, sweet-and-sour girl with the temper of a diva. François Cluzet, a cult author with a teenage girlfriend, is the old man of the bunch and an uncomfortable mentor to Amalric. Shooting with a restless camera that bobs around searching for a better look, and fading out of scenes before they end, as if life continues on past our privileged peek, Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) has an unusual and unique style. It's like he catches his characters off guard, capturing moments of hesitation and discomfort, when the social front can't quite hide their fears and frustrations. All the better to appreciate their little triumphs. Not much really "happens" in the drama, but the quirky Assayas beautifully captures a portrait in messy emotions, inarticulation, and contradiction with modesty and sympathy. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
- New York, 27 February: Tom Hanks has been named Box Office Star of the Decade by movie exhibitors. His 1990s flicks (all 12 of them) have grossed $1.38 billion.
 - Paris, 3 March: For Philippe Garrel, the theme of his latest film, Le Vent de la nuit (Night Wind), is time, and the people who want it to stand still. Daniel Duval is an artist at the end of his rope; his "shadow" is Xavier Beauvois, a shallow, inquisitive young man involved in a dead-end affair with an increasingly forlorn Catherine Deneuve. Against this emotionally volatile ménage à trois, Garrel poses the ravishing beauty of the world: the pleasure of soaring down the Autobahn, or cruising through the lush Italian countryside in a red sports car. Or of feeling the "night wind" of the title in your skin and bones. Deneuve, in another extraordinary performance, is the flame that lights up Garrel's sad, majestic poem of despair. A great actress, at the absolute peak of her powers, filmed by a great director, in a film of tragic beauty.
- New York, 5 March:
 US release of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Cockney boys Tom, Soap, Eddie, and Bacon are in a bind; they owe seedy criminal and porn king "Hatchet" Harry a sizable amount of cash after Eddie loses half a million in a rigged game of poker. Hot on their tails is a thug named Big Chris who intends to send them all to the hospital if they don't come up with the cash in the allotted time. Add into the mix an incompetent set of ganja cultivators, two dimwitted robbers, a "madman" with an afro, and a ruthless band of drug dealers and you have this astonishing movie from the UK. Before the boys can blink, they are caught up in a labyrinth of double-crosses that lead to a multitude of dead bodies, copious amounts of drugs, and two antique rifles. Although some comparisons may be drawn between Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino, it would be unfair to discount the brilliant wit of the story and the innovative camerawork that the director brings to his debut feature. Not since The Krays has there been such an accurate depiction of the East End and its more colorful characters. Indicative of the social stratosphere in London, Ritchie's movie is a hilarious and at times touching account of friendships and loyalty. The director and his mates (who make up most of the cast) clearly are enjoying themselves here. This comes across in some shining performances, in particular from ex-footballer Vinnie Jones (Big Chris) and an over-the-top Vas Blackwood (as Rory Breaker), who very nearly steals the show. Full of quirky vernacular and clever tension-packed action sequences, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a triumph -- a perfect blend of intelligence, humor, and suspense. -- Jeremy Storey, Amazon.com
 - Paris, 10 March: Release of Gabriel Aghion's Belle maman (Beautiful Mother), a screwball comedy that erupts out of love's unlikely collisions and intersections: during Antoine's wedding ceremony -- he's decided to finally make an honest woman of pregnant girlfriend Séverine (Mathilde Seigner) -- his gaze falls on an extraordinarily beautiful older woman, Léa (Catherine Deneuve), and he (Vincent Lindon) is instantly smitten bigtime. Of course, it goes without saying that Léa is Séverine's mother! But what do you expect from a family of lawyers? Though she has a Caribbean boyfriend (Idris Elba), Léa seems to have some kind of yen for Antoine... Director Aghion brings this comic stew to a boil by sending all the players off to the Bahamas to celebrate the 70th birthday of Séverine's grandmother (Line Renaud), an acid-tongued lesbian with a taste for cigars. Also starring the redoubtable Jean Yanne, Belle maman is a genuinely funny film, with some of the most outrageous characters since La Cage aux folles, plot and subplot are intertwined with surreal scenes of decadent Parisian life (ever been to a wedding reception in the gents' toilet where the bride's grandmother and her deranged girlfriend are smoking dope and cracking blue jokes?) leading to a final scene of almost Arcadian symbolism. This film has all the elements to make it a blockbuster with French audiences.
 - Los Angeles, 14 March:
 Two veteran character actors known for their quirky screen personas had to go to court to settle the half-million-dollar question of who pulled a knife on whom 30 years ago. Back in 1994, Dennis Hopper went on the "Tonight Show" and told Jay Leno a story about the casting of Easy Rider in the late '60s. Rip Torn was up to play a tuned-out lawyer -- the role that eventually launched Jack Nicholson's career -- in the anti-Establishment biker classic. Hopper said he rejected Torn for the part after Torn pulled a knife on Hopper while the two were eating dinner. Not so, said Torn, who claimed it was Hopper who pulled a blade on him. He sued Hopper for defamation of character in Los Angeles Superior Court. Torn -- who had a B-grade career before landing the Emmy-winning role of producer Artie on the "Larry Sanders Show" -- also contended Hopper's comments cost him $260,000 in 1994 because no one would hire him while he was on hiatus from the Garry Shandling series. The two actors agreed to let a retired judge arbitrate the case, which began last December. Court records show the actors had completely different recollections of what happened at a Manhattan restaurant in either late 1967 or early 1968 (it was the '60s, after all, so it's a wonder anyone remembered anything). Witnesses backed up Torn's version. In the end, retired Judge Campbell Lucas sided with Torn, saying Hopper -- who's alternately played psycho criminals (Speed, Waterworld) or flat-out weirdos (Blue Velvet, River's Edge) -- was not a credible witness. "The court accepts Torn's testimony that Hopper pulled the knife," the judge said. In a decision that became official last week and was announced Thursday, Lucas awarded Torn $300,000 for loss of income and $175,000 for emotional distress. Hopper's attorneys have objected to the judge's findings, claiming his award was "grossly excessive." Hopper can appeal the ruling. -- Marcus Errico, E! Online
- Boston, 18 March: Don't eat yellow snow. And don't inhale Hollywood snow, either. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that the polyethylene fibers used to make movie snow can cause a lingering cough and runny nose.
- Los Angeles, 18 March: Copyright infringement, there's the rub. Shakespeare in Love is the latest popular film to become the subject of a lawsuit claiming portions of its story were taken illegally from another writer's work. On Tuesday, popular mystery writer Faye Kellerman filed suit against the producers of Shakespeare in Love -- up for 13 Academy Awards Sunday night -- claiming their story of the Bard falling for an engaged woman with a thing for men's clothes was derived from her 1989 novel, The Quality of Mercy. -- Full story.
- New York, 19 March: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, the star couple who successfully sued a London tabloid last year and saw a paparazzo who snooped on their cel phone conversations plead guilty to federal wiretapping charges last week, are now primed to take the Star and National Enquirer to court. A statement jointly released Friday by the Cruises' publicist, Pat Kingsley, and Warner Bros., producer of the couple's much ballyhooed Eyes Wide Shut, describes the pair as "totally astonished at the completely false stories" in the two tabloids. -- Full story.
- New York, 19 March: A gown worn by Elizabeth Taylor to the 1969 Academy Awards was the prize catch at an Oscar®-dress charity auction Thursday in New York, selling for $167,500.
 - Los Angeles, 21 March:
 (BBC) The Oscar® for Best Picture of 1998 has unexpectedly been awarded to Shakespeare in Love, beating the highly touted Saving Private Ryan. In a night of high achievement for British films, the Elizabethan period drama took seven awards. The other six were for Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress for Judi Dench, Best Costume Design, Score and Art Direction. World War II epic Saving Private Ryan came second in the award tally with five statuettes, followed by Italian picture La Vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful) with three. Including one award each for Elizabeth and Gods and Monsters, the British contingent in Hollywood took nine Oscars®. In a shock result, the Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni won the Best Actor award for his role in La Vita è bella, beating strong favourite Tom Hanks. In the process, he becomes the only foreign man ever to win a Best Actor Oscar® for a performance in a foreign language film. Gwyneth Paltrow, in floods of tears, picked up the Best Actress award. Making a traditional Oscar® acceptance speech, she bravely attempted to speak through a torrent of emotion and thanked an unending list of people including family and friends. Equally as delighted as Paltrow, but without the sobbing, Benigni said he had used up all his English receiving the award for best foreign film and so he did not know what to say - "my body is in tumult". "I don't really deserve this but I hope to win some other Oscars®," he said as he claimed the film's third of the night. Judi Dench was the first British nominee to win one of the Oscars® as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. Dame Judi said she was very moved by the award but felt that "the best bit of the Oscars® is getting a nomination." Referring to the short amount of time her character spent on screen in the film, which had 13 nominations in all, she said: "I feel I only deserve a little bit of him after only being on screen for eight minutes." Steven Spielberg's World War II epic Saving Private Ryan started strongly, picking up three statuettes in technical categories. Benigni, the exuberant Italian actor/director who is the toast of Hollywood, was ecstatic at winning the best foreign film category. When the announcement was made, Benigni leapt from seat to seat, arms above his head, towards the stage before finally jumping up the steps to receive the award from Sophia Loren. "I have the Oscar® but I want you Sophia," he said. "I feel I want to dive into this ocean of generosity, this hailstorm of kindness and gratitude." Thanking his parents he said: "They gave me the best gift -- poverty."
There was a note of controversy when veteran director Elia Kazan was given his Lifetime Achievement Award. Several big names, including Steven Spielberg, refused to join the standing ovation for the man who "outed" colleagues and friends as communists in 1952. The evening kicked off with all its customary glitz and glamour hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. At the start of the ceremony she appeared on stage in full make-up dressed as Queen Elizabeth I - the first of many costume changes for the queen of the comic one liner. Veteran actor James Coburn won best supporting actor for his performance in Affliction. Coburn said: "I have been doing this for a long time, but I guess I have finally got one right. Some you do for money and some you do for love - and this one was for love."
- Los Angeles, 23 March: Actor-turned-director Ron Howard to do the wet-hands-in-cement thing at Hollywood's historic Chinese Theatre today.
- New York, 31 March:
 By following up their debut thriller Bound (1996) with The Matrix, the codirecting Wachowski brothers -- Andy and Larry -- have annihilated any suggestion of a sophomore jinx, crafting one of the most exhilarating sci-fi/action movies of the 1990s. Set in the not too distant future in an insipid, characterless city, we find a young man named Neo (Keanu Reeves). A software techie by day and a computer hacker by night, he sits alone at home by his monitor, waiting for a sign, a signal -- from what or whom he doesn't know -- until one night, a mysterious woman named Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) seeks him out and introduces him to that faceless character he has been waiting for: Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). A messiah of sorts, Morpheus presents Neo with the truth about his world by shedding light on the dark secrets that have troubled him for so long: "You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." Ultimately, Morpheus illustrates to Neo what the Matrix is -- a reality beyond reality that controls all of their lives, in a way that Neo can barely comprehend. Neo thus embarks on an adventure that is both terrifying and enthralling. Pitted against an enemy that transcends human concepts of evil, Morpheus and his team must train Neo to believe that he is the chosen champion of their fight. With mind-boggling, technically innovative special effects and a thought-provoking script that owes a debt of inspiration to the legacy of cyberpunk fiction, this is much more than an out-and-out action yarn; it's a thinking man's journey into the realm of futuristic fantasy, a dreamscape full of eye candy that will satisfy sci-fi, kung fu, action, and adventure fans alike. Although the film is headlined by Reeves and Fishburne--who both turn in fine performances--much of the fun and excitement should be attributed to Moss, who flawlessly mixes vulnerability with immense strength, making other contemporary female heroines look timid by comparison. And if we were going to cast a vote for most dastardly movie villain of 1999, it would have to go to Hugo Weaving, who plays the feckless, semipsychotic Agent Smith with panache and edginess. -- Jeremy Storey, Amazon.com
 - New York, 2 April: Dedicated fans of Robert Altman will want to check out Cookie's Fortune, a drowsy Southern comedy, which is shot through with the director's feel for location and his musical sense of storytelling. Non-Altman fanatics might want to tread more carefully. The film begins beautifully, as handyman Willis (CharlesÊS. Dutton) staggers home from a blues club in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. In the wee hours of a warm night, he has an affectionate chat with elderly matriarch Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt (the grand Patricia Neal) and the gentle history of their friendship is sketched in a few brief exchanges. Soon enough, Cookie has checked out of this world to join her dear departed husband, prompting her nieces to make the suicide look like a murder --- to protect the dubious family name, of course. They are the local drama diva (Glenn Close), a Scarlett O'Hara in her own mind, and her dreamy sister (Julianne Moore), who ain't quite right in the head. Will Willis be blamed for the murder? Will the inheritance go to the nieces? Will Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell find a place to express their lust? None of these questions is especially burning, and Altman doesn't seem terribly anxious about the answers. Instead, he aims for a particular kind of laid-back quirky southern comedy, unevenly filtered through his screen of sour irony. Like a jazzman blowing improv, some of this works and some of it doesn't. Speaking of music, the film boasts a nifty R&B soundscape devised by former Eurythmics man David Stewart, with a boost from blues belter Ruby Wilson. -- Robert Horton, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 6 April: Julia Roberts, the movies' most bankable actress is being asked to prove her worth against the Star Wars maelstrom, with Universal Pictures moving up the release of her new comedy to within firing distance of Rebellion forces. Notting Hill, starring Roberts and Hugh Grant, now will open May 28, the studio announced Monday -- three weeks earlier than originally planned and only nine days after Episode I: The Phantom Menace blasts off. -- Full story.
- Sacramento, 8 April: A proposed California law that would make it harder to, say, cast a dead Humphrey Bogart in your movie, cleared another legislative hurdle Monday.
- New York, 26 April: New York's favorite multihyphenate, Woody Allen, and wife Soon-Yi Previn have been spotted around town with a new toddler, according to reports in local newspapers. No immediate word on whether the 5-month-old girl, Bechet Dumaine Allen, was adopted by the Oscar®-winning director-writer-actor-neurotic and his wife; however, Soon-Yi had not appeared pregnant in recent sightings or photos, the New York Daily News says. When confronted by a Daily News reporter, all Allen would say was, "We're just very pleased." -- Full story.
- Los Angeles, 4 May: Disney CEO Michael Eisner finally took the stand Tuesday in the case pitting him against former coworker Jeffrey Katzenberg. And the Los Angeles highrise-cum-courtroom where the case is being litigated was far from the happiest place on Earth. During questioning by Katzenberg's lawyer, Bert Fields, who earlier alleged his client was cheated out of millions in bonuses because of Eisner's "personal animus" toward Katzenberg, the Disney CEO was asked if he "hated" Katzenberg. The answer was yes. Eisner admitted to saying something of that nature to Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter to the autobiography Eisner released last year, Work in Progress. Fields continued, asking Eisner if his exact words were, "I think I hate the little midget." "You are getting into areas that are ill-advised... and not in your client's best interest," a testy Eisner replied. -- Full story.
- Los Angeles, 4 May:
 Stephen Sommers' new film, The Mummy premieres today. If you're expecting bandaged-wrapped corpses and a lurching Boris Karloff-type villain, then you've come to the wrong movie. But if outrageous effects, a hunky hero, and some hearty laughs are what you're looking for, this version of The Mummy is spectacularly good fun. Yes, the critics have called it "hokey," "cheesy," and "pallid." Well, the critics are unjust. Granted, the plot tends to stray, the acting is a bit of a stretch, and the characters occasionally slip into clich, but who cares? When that action gets going, hold tight -- those two hours just fly by. The premise of the movie isn't that far off from Universal's 1932 original, which was directed by Karl Freund. Egyptologist and general mess Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) discovers a map to the lost city of Hamunaptra, and so she hires rogue Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) to lead her there. Once there, Evelyn accidentally unlocks the tomb of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a man who had been buried alive a couple of millennia ago with flesh-eating bugs as punishment for his love affair with the pharaoh's girlfriend. The ancient mummy is revived, and he is determined to bring his old love back to life, which of course means much mayhem (including the unleashing of the 10 plagues) and human sacrifice. Despite the rather gory premise, this movie is fairly tame in terms of violence; most of the magic and surprise come from the special effects, which are glorious to watch, although Imhotep, before being fully reconstituted, is, as one explorer puts it, rather "juicy." Keep in mind this film is as much comedy as it is adventure -- those looking for a straightforward horror pic will be disappointed. But for those who want old-fashioned eye-candy kind of fun, The Mummy ranks as one of choicest flicks of 1999. -- Jenny Brown, Amazon.com
 - New York, 7 May: In Election, which goes into general release today, Matthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the 30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily fluids. -- Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 13 May: Christopher Reeve wants to make one thing perfectly clear. Unfortunately. "Recent media reports have either stated or created the impression that I am now able to walk," the paralyzed Superman star said in a statement today. "...This is not the case." The rumor mill kicked into high gear Wednesday when cable's ZDTV unveiled footage of the actor on a treadmill. Although the pictures clearly showed Reeve strapped into a harness and aided in his movement others, buzz had it that the disabled star was walking for the first time since a 1995 riding accident. Today, Reeve said nothing has changed where his legs are concerned: "I am completely paralyzed from the rib-cage down." But the crusading celeb says he is enrolled in "cutting-edge" treadmill therapy that allows him to step at speeds up to 4 mph. "Wearing a parachute harness and suspended by overhead cables, I stand on a treadmill," Reeve said. The actor has vowed to walk by the time he's 50. He's 47 now. -- Joal Ryan, E! Online
- New York, 19 May:
 "I have a bad feeling about this," says the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Ewan McGregor) in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as he steps off a spaceship and into the most anticipated cinematic event... well, ever. He might as well be speaking for the legions of fans of the original episodes in the Star Wars saga who can't help but secretly ask themselves: Sure, this is Star Wars, but is it my Star Wars? The original elevated moviegoers' expectations so high that it would have been impossible for any subsequent film to meet them. And as with all the Star Wars movies, The Phantom Menace features inexplicable plot twists, a fistful of loose threads, and some cheek-chewing dialogue. Han Solo's swagger is sorely missed, as is the pervading menace of heavy-breathing Darth Vader. There is still way too much quasi-mystical mumbo jumbo, and some of what was fresh about Star Wars 22 years earlier feels formulaic. Yet there's much to admire. The special effects are stupendous; three worlds are populated with a mlange of creatures, flora, and horizons rendered in absolute detail. The action and battle scenes are breathtaking in their complexity. And one particular sequence of the film -- the adrenaline-infused pod race through the Tatooine desert -- makes the chariot race in Ben-Hur look like a Sunday stroll through the park.
Among the host of new characters, there are a few familiar walk-ons. We witness the first meeting between R2-D2 and C-3PO, Jabba the Hutt looks younger and slimmer (but not young and slim), and Yoda is as crabby as ever. Natalie Portman's stately Queen Amidala sports hairdos that make Princess Leia look dowdy and wields a mean laser. We never bond with Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan's day is yet to come. Jar Jar Binks, a cross between a Muppet, a frog, and a hippie, provides many of the movie's lighter moments, while Sith Lord Darth Maul is a formidable force. Baby-faced Anakin Skywalker looks too young and innocent to command the powers of the Force or wield a lightsaber (much less transmute into the future Darth Vader), but his boyish exuberance wins over skeptics. Near the end of the movie, Palpatine, the new leader of the Republic, may be speaking for fans eagerly awaiting Episode II when he pats young Anakin on the head and says, "We will watch your career with great interest." Indeed! -- Tod Nelson, Amazon.com
 - Cannes, 23 May:
 The jury at the Cannes Film Festival, presided over by Canada's David Cronenberg and made up of America's Holly Hunter and Jeff Goldblum, Australia's George Miller, Italy's Maurizio Nichetti, Sweden's Barbara Hendricks, and France's Dominique Blanc, André Téchiné and Yasmina Reza, recognized the truly international nature of this year's event. It awarded the Palme d'Or for features to the French-Belgian co-production Rosetta, by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne; Émilie Dequenne shared the Best Actress award for her performance in their film. The top award for short films went to Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby's When the Day Breaks (Canada). Grand Prizes went to L'Humanite (France) by Bruno Dumont (for which Emmanuel Schotté and Séverine Caneele were awarded the Best Actor and Actress prizes) and the short films So-Poong (The Picnic) (South Korea) and Stop (France). The Jury Prize was awarded to Manoel de Oliveira's A Carta (The Letter) (Spain-France-Portugal). Spain's Pedro Almodóvar was selected as Best Director for Todo sobre me madre (All About My Mother). Other award highlights included Best Screenplay to Aleksandr Sokurov (Molokh, Russia), and a Prix de la jeunesse to Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez for The Blair Witch Project (US).
- New York, 4 June:
 Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club, already the winner of several awards at international film festivals, opens nationwide today. In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. When Cooder returned to Havana in 1998 to record a solo album by 72-year-old vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, filmmaker Wenders was on hand to document the occasion. Wenders splits the film between portraits of the performers, who tell their stories directly to the camera as they wander the streets and neighborhoods of Havana, and a celebration of the music heard in performance scenes in the studio, in their first concert in Amsterdam, and in their second and final concert at Carnegie Hall. The songs are too often cut short in this fashion, but Buena Vista Social Club is not a concert film. Wenders weaves the artists' biographies with a glimpse of modern Cuba remembering its past, capturing a lost culture in music that is suddenly, unexpectedly revived for audiences in Havana and around the world. Wenders makes his presence practically invisible, as if his directorial flourishes or off-screen narration might deflect attention from the artists, who do a fine job of telling their own stories through interviews and music. It's a loving portrait of a master class in Cuban music, with a vital cast of aging performers whose energy and passion belie their years. A secondary benefit is its allowing American audiences, long denied access to Castro's "workers' paradise," a look at the effect of 40 years of communist rule on the island that lies 90 miles off our shores. Since 1959, we have witnessed the tide of Cuban immigration; by watching the backgrounds in Wenders' film, we get an glimpse of what they are emigrating from. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 16 June:
 As part of its ongoing national effort to lead the nation to discover and rediscover the classics, the American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the 50 greatest American screen legends -- the top 25 women and top 25 men -- naming Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart the number one legends among the women and men. The preeminent national organization dedicated to advancing and preserving the moving image arts, AFI revealed the list on a three-hour CBS television special last night hosted by Shirley Temple Black, who was named among the greatest legends. Following Hepburn in the top 10 among the female legends, in order, were: Bette Davis (#2), Audrey Hepburn (#3), Ingrid Bergman (#4), Greta Garbo (#5), Marilyn Monroe (#6), Elizabeth Taylor (#7), Judy Garland (#8), Marlene Dietrich (#9) and Joan Crawford (#10). Following Bogart in the top 10 among the male legends, in order, were: Cary Grant (#2), James Stewart (#3), Marlon Brando (#4), Fred Astaire (#5), Henry Fonda (#6), Clark Gable (#7), James Cagney (#8), Spencer Tracy (#9) and Charles Chaplin (#10). Shirley Temple Black was #18.
AFI defines an "American screen legend" as an actor or a team of actors with a significant screen presence in American feature-length films whose screen debut occurred in or before 1950, or whose screen debut occurred after 1950 but whose death has marked a completed body of work. The list was selected by leaders from the American film community, including artists, historians, critics and other cultural leaders, who chose from a list of 250 nominees in each gender category, as compiled by AFI historians. The list is the centerpiece of AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, part of AFI's continuing celebration of 100 years of American movies, which began last year with AFI's list of the 100 greatest films. Last year's AFI list led to a national dialogue about American film history, a 1,600 percent rise in video rentals of the number one film, Citizen Kane and the theatrical re-release of many films on the list. "AFI hopes this list will spark a renewed interest in the screen icons and classic movies that create AmericaÕs great film heritage," said AFI Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg. "AFI certainly expects this list to ignite passions, spark debate and invite criticism, all of which we welcome as a means of engaging the nation in a discussion of American movie history and bringing movie fans back to the classics." -- AFI.com (Use this link to view the full AFI list of the top 50 stars.)
- Los Angeles, 25 June: According to a study published Friday by the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America, so-called "runaway productions"-- that is, American-developed film and television projects filmed abroad, particularly in Canada, to save money -- cost the United States upwards of $10 billion in lost revenue last year alone. -- Full story.
- Los Angeles, 9 July:
 Anyone who's watched just about any teenage film knows that the greatest evil in this world isn't chemical warfare, ethnic cleansing, or even the nuclear bomb. The worst crime known to man? Why, virginity, of course. As we've learned from countless films--from Summer of '42 to Risky Business -- virginity is a criminal burden that one must shed oneself of as quickly as possible. And while many of these films have given the topic a bad name, American Pie quietly sweeps in and gives sex some of its dignity back. Dignity, you may say? How can a film that highlights intercourse with fruit pies, premature ejaculation broadcasted across the Internet, and the gratuitous "gross-out" shots restore the dignity of a genre that's been encumbered with such heavyweights as Porky's and Losin' It? The plot may be typical, with four high school friends swearing to "score" by prom, yet the film rises above the muck with its superior cast, successful and sweet humor, and some actually rather retro values about the meaning and importance of sex. Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Eddie Kaye Thomas make up the odd quartet of pals determined to woo, lie, and beg their way to manhood. The young women they pursue are wary girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid), choir girl Heather (Mena Suvari), band geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), and just about any other female who is willing and able. Natasha Lyonne as Jessica is the general adviser to the crowd (when Vicky tells her "I want it to be the right time, the right place," Jessica responds, "It's not a space shuttle launch, it's sex"). The comedic timing hits the mark -- especially in the deliberately awkward scenes between Jim (Biggs) and his father (Eugene Levy). And, of course, lessons are learned in this genuinely funny film, which will probably please the adult crowd even more than it will the teenage one. -- Jenny Brown, Amazon.com
- New York, 13 July:
 Eyes Wide to Shut, starring Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and his wife Nicole Kidman, premieres today. It is the last film from Stanley Kubrick; the enigmatic director died just weeks after the final editing. In the film, Dr. William Hartman (Cruise) gains entry to a sinister masked orgy in a country house by giving the doormen a password he has acquired by dubious means. The uninvited doctor is admitted to a scene of men in capes and women wearing little but high heels, thongs and masks. Betrayal of the secrets of the gathering could result in death, it is darkly hinted. While security for Eyes Wide Shut has not been quite on this scale and death does not necessarily await those wrongly admitted to the inner circle, efforts have been made to keep the plot under wraps until the opening. So is the secrecy protection of the film's integrity or subtle hype for a wobbly product? We meet the doctor and his wife (Kidman) as they dress for an evening out at a glossy New York party thrown by a wealthy consort with a taste and the money for beautiful young women who can't handle their drugs. There, the tipsy Mrs. Hartman is approached by a persistent eastern European Lothario while two dizzy models try to tempt Dr. Bill upstairs. Back home, Mrs. Hartman talks of an imagined infidelity and interrogates her husband about whether he lusts after his patients. When he is called out to a dying patient he finds a beautiful and emotionally hungry daughter. He is propositioned by an amenable prostitute and the underage daughter of a costume shop owner. The film hinges on the sort of solemn orgy scene familiar from the 1970s. Everyone must wear a mask. Everyone must know the password. Is a sacrifice planned? The doctor's Yellow Cab waits outside with the meter ticking. Sex, jealousy, fidelity, betrayal, and masks are the themes.
Kubrick has had his triumphs (2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove...) his controversies (A Clockwork Orange), and his less successful adventures (Barry Lyndon). Admirers may see Eyes Wide Shut, based on a 1920 Viennese novel, as the "haunting Masterpiece" of the publicity material. Detractors may look for references in the earlier works from the likes of Nagisa Oshima (Ai no corrida) and Nicolas Roeg (Bad Timing). Eyes Wide Shut has been promoted as the film of the decade that would take our understanding of sexuality further. It doesn't. There is always a risk with films featuring masks that there is nothing underneath. During filming Harvey Keitel was replaced by Sydney Pollack, while Jennifer Jason Leigh was replaced by Marie Richardson despite having shot all her scenes. -- Duncan Campbell, Britmovie
- New York, 30 July:
 The Blair Witch Project goes into general release today. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and honored at Cannes in May, the film has created quite a buzz. It tracks the doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend of the Blair Witch. After filming some local yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch herself), the three, led by Heather (something of a witch herself), head into the woods for some on-location shooting. They're never seen again. What we see is a reconstruction of their "found" footage, edited to make a barely coherent narrative. After losing their way in the forest, whining soon gives way to real terror as the three find themselves stalked by unknown forces that leave piles of rocks outside their campsite and stick-figure art projects in the woods. (As Michael succinctly puts it, "No redneck is this clever!") The masterstroke of the film is that you never actually see what's menacing them; everything is implied, and there's no terror worse than that of the unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing -- and the shaky, motion-sickness-inducing camerawork -- you'll be rewarded with an oppressively sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the monstrous hype, The Blair Witch Project remains a genuine, effective original, especially considering its $40,000 budget. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
- Philadelphia, 2 August:
 The Sixth Sense premieres here today. This third feature by M. Night Shyamalan sets itself up as a thriller, poised on the brink of delivering monstrous scares, but gradually evolves into more of a psychological drama with supernatural undertones. Many critics faulted the film for being mawkish and New Age-y, but no matter how you slice it, this is one mightily effective piece of filmmaking. The bare bones of the story are basic enough, but the moody atmosphere created by Shyamalan and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto made this one of the creepiest pictures of 1999, forsaking excessive gore for a sinisterly simple feeling of chilly otherworldliness. Bruce Willis is in his strong, silent type mode here, and gives the film wholly over to Haley Joel Osment, whose crumpled face and big eyes convey a child too wise for his years; his scenes with his mother (Toni Collette) are small, heartbreaking marvels. And even if you figure out the film's surprise ending, it packs an amazingly emotional wallop when it comes, and will have you racing to watch the movie again with a new perspective. You may be able to shake off the sentimentality of The Sixth Sense, but its craftsmanship and atmosphere will stay with you for days. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
- Beverly Hills, 24 August: Conspiracy-minded director Oliver Stone today agreed to enter a drug-treatment program as part of a plea-bargain deal over a controlled-substance rap. In exchange for the clinic pledge, Beverly Hills prosecutors apparently agreed to drop felony drug charges facing Stone. If the Oscar®-winning filmmaker successfully completes the program, two remaining misdemeanor charges for drunken driving will be erased from his record. Full story.
- New York, 24 August: The English language-dubbed version of the Oscar®-winning La Vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful) will premiere tonight in a free, public screening in New York City's Bryant Park.
- Paris, 1 September:
 Regis Wargnier's Est-Ouest (East-West) is a turbulent romance set against the political backdrop of post-World War II Russia. The story revolves around a man, a woman, a child -- and another man. Shortly after the war, Alexei (Oleg Menshikov), his wife, Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire), and their son travel to Russia from France to make a new life for themselves. But they quickly find that the situation in Alexei's homeland isn't quite as advertised and that they can't leave. Sacha (Sergei Bodrov Jr.) is a young athlete who lives in the same overcrowded apartment complex. Like Marie, he wants to escape, while Alexei decides to make the best out of an awful situation. Inevitably, Marie and Alexei grow apart as Sacha and Marie grow close, but one of these characters is harboring a secret that won't be revealed until the end. The film does double time as a thriller in that, at any time, any of these characters could be imprisoned or killed -- including French actress Gabrielle (Catherine Deneuve, star of Wargnier's Oscar®- winning Indochine). She befriends Marie during a tour of Russia and offers to help her and Sacha make their getaway. At its worst, Est-Ouest threatens to strain credibility, but Wargnier's assured direction and the sympathetic performances he elicits from his cast make for a believable and compelling drama. -- Kathy Fennessy, Amazon.com
 - Paris, 4 September: In Une liaison pornographique (An Affair of Love), Nathalie Baye ("She") and Sergi López ("He") are lonely lovers who meet through an ad in a singles magazine for anonymous sex and fall in love. Frederic Fonteyne's tender portrait of a brief affair is framed in flashback: the two lovers recall their relationship for an unseen interviewer (a technique that recalls Ingmar Bergman's Vargtimmen and Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives), putting on a tough, scarred front that hides their regret. In the flashbacks, however, Fonteyne captures a sense of discomfort and anticipation in their first meeting that turns relaxed and passionate as their relationship deepens. Baye's nervous smiles become genuine and joyful as she grows more confident in López 's company, and he nicely straddles the line between nonchalant openness and emotional defensiveness. Fonteyne's naturalistic style is broken only for the almost surreal vision of the hotel where they meet: they pass through a hellish crimson hall before entering their room, a cool blue sanctuary -- a heaven on the other side of purgatory. Despite its ironic title that translates to A Pornographic Affair, the film is a sensitive, delicate portrait of fragile souls who allow self-doubts and second guesses get in the way of their own honesty. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
- Toronto, 9 September:
 A lot of hip, old friends are returning to the film festival that helped boost their careers, as the 24th Toronto International Film Festival kicks off tonight. This is the film festival that vitually discovered hot young directors like Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), Gregg Araki (The Living End), Steven Soderbergh (sex, lies and videotape) and Kevin Smith (Clerks) and those four are returning with new films this year-- Felicia's Journey, Splendor, The Limey and Dogma respectively. This is where Kevin Spacey debuted the first movie he directed, Albino Alligator, and introduced Skeet Ulrich to the world. Now, Spacey returns as the lead in American Beauty and Ulrich stars in Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil. Back in 1992, relatively unknown actors Stephen Rea and Forest Whitaker promoted a secretive project called The Crying Game, and their careers took off when the buzz erupted from this festival. Today, Whitaker is touting his role in a Jim Jarmusch film (Ghost Dog) and Rea stars in three films in the festival (Guinevere, I Could Read the Sky, The Life Before This). Seven years ago, only hardcore indie fans knew who Tim Roth was when he came out from England to give interviews for Reservoir Dogs -- but the buzz that launched Quentin Tarantino helped Roth land the directing deal for the film he's now bringing to the festival, a gritty family drama called The War Zone. And native son Jason Priestley is bringing his documentary directorial debut, Barenaked in America, about the Canadian pop band Barenaked Ladies, who will also be partying with him during the festival.
This festival is a true film lover's festival, and regular attendees include Ethan Hawke, Denzel Washington, Danny DeVito, Aidan Quinn and Ben Stiller, who will all be out this year to promote their own projects and will likely be spotted sneaking into screenings when they're not giving interviews or taking meetings. But this year's lineup is also attracting a few big stars who wouldn't normally go out to a festival to drum up support for their movies. Bruce Willis, Annette Bening, Ralph Fiennes, Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Elton John and Robin Williams are all scheduled to attend, and will schmooze it up at some of the lavish parties being held on the rooftops of hotels, in warehouses downtown and along the waterfront of Lake Ontario. They'll all be jostling to get into 18 theaters where 26,571 minutes of film will unspool from 52 countries around the world. Of the 319 movies being screened, 144 are making their world or North American premieres. -- Michael Szymanski, E! Online
- New York, 15 September:
 American Beauty premiered in Los Angeles on 8 September, and it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival last Saturday night. Today, it opens in a release limited to Los Angeles and New York City. From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, the film moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism -- like Sunset Boulevard's Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave. It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence. Credit another big-screen newcomer, English theatrical director Sam Mendes, with expertly juggling these potentially disjunctive elements into a superb ensemble piece that achieves a stylized pace without lapsing into transparent self-indulgence. Mendes has shrewdly insured his success with a solid crew of stage veterans, yet he's also made an inspired discovery in Bentley, whose Ricky Fitts becomes a fulcrum for both plot and theme. He also elicits uniformly excellent supporting performances from Chris Cooper and Allison Janney as Ricky's parents, Peter Gallagher as Carolyn's competitor/lover, and Scott Bakula and Sam Robards as the gay neighbors. Cinematographer Conrad L. Hall's sumptuous visual design further elevates the film, infusing the beige interiors of the Burnhams' lives with vivid bursts of deep crimson, the color of roses -- and of blood. -- Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
- Paris, 22 September:
 The only thing more outrageous than French novelist George Sand's torrid love affair with the decadent author Alfred de Musset and her affinity for wearing men's clothing, was the content of her writing. Though Sand (otherwise known as the Baroness Dudevant) smoked cigars and cross-dressed, it was the boldness of her writing on issues such as the abstinence of marriage and women's frigidity that most contributed to the scandalous reputation she earned in French literary circles. When she met Alfred de Musset, the most gifted poet of his generation, the two quickly became a public cause celèbre while their work would go on to become some of the finest examples of 19th century romanticism. Diane Kurys' Les Enfants du siècle (Children of the Century) recounts the true tale of the tumultuous love affair between these two French literary icons, novelist George Sand (Juliette Binoche) and poet Alfred de Musset (Benoît Magimel). But their affair falls apart during an excursion to Venice, where Musset is distracted by drugs and Sand by a handsome doctor.
- Los Angeles, 6 October: Looks like the folks from "60 Minutes" won't be previewing the unflattering new movie about them. The film in question, Disney's The Insider, tells how "60 Minutes" shelved a controversial true story about a tobacco-industry whistle-blower. Based on a Vanity Fair article, the movie stars Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, the fired Brown & Williamson exec who spills his guts to Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer), and his producer, Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino). But the usually unyielding newsmag is forced to drop the story because CBS honchos fear it could spur a lawsuit that would have threatened the network's pending sale. Only after the betrayed Wigand's story leaks out does "60 Minutes" air a watered-down version of his interview. -- Full story.
 - Paris, 6 October: Who but the French could conceive of the first Viagra comedy? And who but veteran filmmaker Claude Berri could transform this thoroughly modern tale into such a delight? In La Débandade, Berri casts himself as Claude, a later middle-aged art dealer who, while happily married to his second wife (Fanny Ardant), feels that his own sexual performance is... well... weakening. A round of consultations with a noted sex expert follows, until he learns through a friend of a new miracle drug for problems such as his that's being hawked by a former U.S. presidential candidate. As the drug is as yet unavailable in France, he's off in the company of his beautiful young assistant to Switzerland where he hopes to find out if it really works. There's laughter galore in La Débandade, but Berri also makes this lovely film work as a touching investigation into the vagaries of love and growing older. The terrific cast includes Alain Chabat, Claude Brasseur and François Berléand.
- New York, 8 October:
 Steven Soderbergh latest film, The Limey, was first shown at Cannes this past spring, then premiered in France in August. The film was shown at last month's Toronto International Film Festival, and it begins a limited release in the US today. In Soderbergh's film, an extremely volatile and violent ex-con (Terence Stamp), fresh out of an English prison, goes to L.A. to try to learn who murdered his daughter. However, he quickly finds that he is completely out of place with no understanding of the culture he finds. His investigations are helped by another ex-con (Luis Guzman). Together they learn that his daughter had been having an affair with a record producer (Peter Fonda), who is presently having an affair with another young woman (Amelia Heinle). An aging actress (Lesley Ann Warren), who also knew his daughter, forces him to look at his own failures as a father. The movie does focus on the drama of the situation and the inter-relationships of the characters and seldom slips into an action piece. -- John Sacksteder, IMDb
 - New York, 11 October: David Lynch's latest film, The Straight Story starring Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek, premieres today, then goes into limited release next week. With this movie, Lynch offers an uncharacteristically straightforward and warmly sentimental approach to his material, based on a true story, about an elderly man's journey to reconcile with his brother. Alvin Straight (Farnsworth) is an ailing widower in his early 70's who lives in Laurens, Iowa with his daughter, Rose (Spacek), who is mildly retarded and has a speech defect. Alvin doesn't trust doctors, despite suffering from emphysema and a bad hip. Alvin learns that his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke and may not have long to live. Alvin and Lyle haven't spoken in 10 years, which Alvin says is mainly a matter of pride and alcohol; Alvin wants to clear his slate with his brother before it's too late. However, Lyle lives in Wisconsin, and Alvin has little money, no car, and no driver's license. He does, however, have a riding lawn mower, and so Alvin hops on board and heads northeast to Wisconsin, hoping to make it while there's still time. Along the way, Alvin makes new friends and refuses to give up on his journey, despite frequent mechanical breakdowns. Lynch's direction, Freddie Francis' cinematography, and -- above all -- the performances of the excellent cast make this road movie for the AARP set a must see. -- Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Los Angeles, 15 October:
 David Fincher, the director of 1995's Se7en and 1995's The Game, has a new feature that goes into general release today. Fight Club is based on the debut novel by recent University of Oregon graduate Chuck Palanhiuk about a confused young man in the not too distant future (Edward Norton). With no family or close friends, he frequents cancer and disease support groups as a way to bond with others, pretending to be terminally ill or feigning various other infirmities to fit in. Sick of his dead end, white bread, white collar corporate career and disgusted with the empty consumer culture that his generation has been doomed to inherit, he and a very devious friend named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) create a new club where young men come to relieve their frustrations by beating each other to a pulp. The popularity of this club grows exponentially, and eventually some very profound rules are created to govern it. Because one of those rules is no more than 50 people to a fight club, soon new fight clubs are popping up everywhere and spread across the nation. Tyler Durden, the fight club's founder, quickly becomes a cult hero of epic proportions, a new messiah for a dead generation. While all this is happening, the nameless, narrating main character manages to get involved in a love triangle with Tyler and a girl named Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) who seems to have an endless supply of ex-boyfriends just as screwed up as he is.
 - New York, 22 October: Already shown at the Venice, Toronto and New York film festivals, Kimberly Peirce's feature directing debut, Boys Don't Cry, goes into limited release today. Based on actual events, it recounts the story of Brandon Teena, the popular new guy in a tiny Nebraska town. He hangs out with the guys, drinking, cussing, and bumper surfing, and he charms the young women, who've never met a more sensitive and considerate young man. Life is good for Brandon, now that he's one of the guys and dating hometown beauty Lana (Chloë Sevigny). However, he's forgotten to mention one important detail. It's not that he's wanted in another town for GTA and other assorted crimes, but that Brandon Teena is actually a woman named Teena Brandon (Hilary Swank). When Brandon's best friends make this discovery, his life eventually is ripped apart by betrayal, humiliation, rape, and murder.
- Los Angeles, 29 October:
 Having premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, Being John Malkovich goes into limited release today. While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, this film is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze (in his feature directing debut) and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The puppeteer's working as a file clerk on the 7-½ floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious coworker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely recognizable Cameron Diaz), and a business scheme to capitalize on the thrill of being John Malkovich, and you've got a movie that just gets crazier as it plays by its own outrageous rules. Malkovich himself is the film's pièce de résistance, riffing on his own persona with obvious delight and -- when he enters his own brain via the portal -- appearing with multiple versions of himself in a tour-de-force use of digital trickery. Does it add up to much? Not really. But for 112 liberating minutes, Being John Malkovich is a wild place to visit. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 2 November: War epic Saving Private Ryan makes its DVD debut, Steven Spielberg's first major release on the digital format.
- Paris, 3 November:
 A critical and commercial success in France, Solveig Anspach's new feature, Haut les coeurs! (Chin Up!) is a life-affirming study of one woman's inner strength. Emma is expecting her first child when she learns she must terminate the pregnancy because she is suffering from breast cancer. When a second doctor advises her that the baby will not be harmed by the cancer treatment, she prepares for a challenge that she must face for her child and herself. A moving and vital drama about the realities of life and death, portrayed with a refreshing lack of melodrama. The film captures the complex emotional and ethical struggles faced by so many women, expressed through the subtle, strong performance of Karin Viard.
- New York, 3 November: M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense has passed Jaws to become the 12th highest-grossing film of all time in North America -- $260.1 million and still counting.
 - New York, 5 November: As revisionist history, Michael Mann's intelligent docudrama The Insider is a simmering brew of altered facts and dramatic license. In a broader perspective, however, the film (cowritten with Forrest Gump Oscar®-winner Eric Roth) is effectively accurate as an engrossing study of ethics in the corruptible industries of tobacco and broadcast journalism. On one side, there is Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), the former tobacco scientist who violated contractual agreements to expose Brown & Williamson's inclusion of addictive ingredients in cigarettes, casting himself into a vortex of moral dilemma. On the other side is "60ÊMinutes producer" Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), whose struggle to report Wigand's story puts him at odds with veteran correspondent Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) and senior executives at CBS News. As the urgency of the story increases, so does the film's palpable sense of paranoia, inviting favorable comparison to All the President's Men. While Pacino downplays the theatrical excess that plagued him in previous roles, Crowe is superb as a man who retains his tortured integrity at great personal cost. The Insider is two movies -- a cover-up thriller and a drama about journalistic ethics -- that combine to embrace the noble values personified by Wigand and Bergman. Even if the details aren't always precise (as Mike Wallace and others protested prior to the film's release), the film adheres to a higher truth that was so blatantly violated by tobacco executives seen in an oft-repeated video clip, lying under oath in the service of greed. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- London, 9 November: British censors are cutting two super-violent scenes from Brad Pitt's Fight Club to prepare it for a U.K. release on 21 November.
- New York, 9 November: "I'm very happy it went into the toilet," said "60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt on The Insider's box-office fizzle, in the New York Daily News.
- Paris, 10 November:
 One of the most promising talents to have emerged from French cinema in the nineties, Cédric Klapisch ventures boldly into new territory with his most recent film, Peut-être (Perhaps). It's New Year's Eve, 1999, and a young couple, Arthur (Romain Duris) and Lucie (Géraldine Pailhas), are off to millennial revels as they ponder their future. She wants to have a child; he's not certain he could handle it. Later that evening, as the party grows wilder, Arthur starts to explore the attic spaces of their host's Parisian townhouse, and suddenly finds himself in Paris, 2075. Full of imaginative effects and a startling vision of future landscapes, Peut-être for all its technical wizardry never loses sight of the emotional issues at the core of the film. With a wonderful, surprising performance by Jean-Paul Belmondo.
- Beverly Hills, 10 November: The Beverly Hills outlet of Christie's auction house is planning to put on the block next Thursday the Oscar®: that Herman J. Mankiewicz won in 1941 for his screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941). Today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times reported that the statuette, consigned from the Mankiewicz family, is estimated to be worth between $200,000 and $300,000. Although nominated in nine categories, the Academy Award for Best Screenplay was the film's only prize at the ceremony in 1942.
 - New York, 13 November: John Lasseter and his gang of high-tech creators at Pixar create another entertainment for the ages that premieres today. Like the few great movie sequels, Toy Story 2 comments on why the first one was so wonderful while finding a fresh angle worthy of a new film. The craze of toy collecting becomes the focus here, as we find out Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is not only a beloved toy to Andy but also a rare doll from a popular '60s children's show. When a greedy collector takes Woody, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) launches a rescue mission with Andy's other toys. To say more would be a crime because this is one of the most creative and smile-inducing films since, well, the first Toy Story. Although the toys look the same as in the 1994 feature, Pixar shows how much technology has advanced: the human characters look more human, backgrounds are superior, and two action sequences that book-end the film are dazzling. And it's a hoot for kids and adults. The film is packed with spoofs, easily accessible in-jokes, and inspired voice casting (with newcomer Joan Cusack especially a delight as Cowgirl Jessie). But as the Pixar canon of films illustrates, the filmmakers are storytellers first. Woody's heart-tugging predicament can easily be translated into the eternal debate of living a good life versus living forever. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
- New York, 17 November:
 Washington Irving's tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman gets a few new twists in Sleepy Hollow, a screen adaptation directed by Tim Burton. In this version, Crane (Johnny Depp) is a New York City detective whose unorthodox techniques and penchant for gadgets make him unpopular with is colleagues. He is sent to the remote town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of bizarre murders, in which a number of people have been found dead in the woods, with their heads cut off. Local legend has it that a Hessian ghost rides through the woods on horseback, lopping off the heads of the unsuspecting and unbelieving. Ichabod refuses to believe in this legend, convinced that there must be a logical explanation for the murders. In time, Ichabod becomes smitten with a local lass, Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), who is the sweetheart of the burly Brom Bones (Casper Van Dien), and he becomes determined to capture the murderer to prove his bravery and win her heart. Christopher Walken, Jeffrey Jones, and Christopher Lee highlight the supporting cast; Lee's appearance is particularly apt, since Burton has cited the Hammer films of the 1960s as a major influence in making this film. Andrew Kevin Walker and Tom Stoppard contributed to the screenplay. -- Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Lincoln, 7 December: A Nebraska judge orders Richardson County to pay $17,360 to the mother of murdered Boys Don't Cry subject Teena Brandon. The court blames the county for not offering protective custody following her 1993 rape.
- Los Angeles, 7 December: A Directors Guild of America study says fewer minorities and women are working behind the cameras at studios and major production companies. Full story.
 - Los Angeles, 8 December:
 Two films that illustrate the different paths stories can take to the screen premiere today. Girl, Interrupted (a German-US co-production, released by Columbia), is based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir and bears inevitable resemblance to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and pale comparison to that earlier classic is impossible to avoid. The mental institution settings of both films guarantee a certain degree of déjà vu and at least one Oscar nomination (in this case, Angelina Jolie), since playing a loony is any actor's dream gig. Unfortunately, director James Mangold seems to have misplaced the depth and delicacy of his underrated debut, Heavy, despite a great deal of earnest effort by everyone involved. It's easy to see why Winona Ryder chose to star in (and executive-produce) this nearly worthy adaptation of Kaysen's book, since it's a strong vehicle for female casting and potent drama. Mangold certainly got the former; whether he succeeded with the latter is not so clear.
With Magnolia (released today by New Line), writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson follows his critical and commercial breakthrough Boogie Nights with a wildly ambitious story of lives intertwining on a single day in California's San Fernando Valley. Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), a successful producer of television game shows, left his wife when she contracted cancer to marry the younger and more beautiful Linda (Julianne Moore). Now, Earl has cancer himself, and Linda spends her day fetching medicines and trying to deal with the imminent death of her husband, whom she has only now come to love. Earl asks his nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to arrange a meeting with his estranged son, Frank Mackey (Tom Cruise), known for his self-help program "Seduce and Destroy," in which he preaches the importance of male sexual prowess; he cared for his mother after Earl left her, and he has no desire to see his father again. Magnolia reunites much of the cast and crew of Boogie Nights and features eight original songs by singer/songwriter Aimee Mann and a musical score by Jon Brion.
- New York, 10 December:
 "The book was better" has been the complaint of many a reader since the invention of movies. The Green Mile, Frank Darabont's second adaptation of a Stephen King prison drama (The Shawshank Redemption was the first), is a very faithful adaptation of King's serial novel. In the middle of the Depression, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) runs death row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Into this dreary world walks a mammoth prisoner, John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) who, very slowly, reveals a special gift that will change the men working and dying (in the electric chair, masterfully and grippingly staged) on the mile . As with King's book, Darabont takes plenty of time to show us Edgecomb's world before delving into John Coffey's mystery. With Darabont's superior storytelling abilities, his touch for perfect casting, and a leisurely 188-minute running time, his movie brings to life nearly every character and scene from the novel. Darabont even improves the novel's two endings, creating a more emotionally satisfying experience. The running time may try patience, but those who want a story, as opposed to quick-fix entertainment, will be rewarded by this finely tailored tale. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
 - New York, 10 December: Shown at the Venice, Toronto, AFI and Taipei film festivals, Lasse Hallström's latest film, The Cider House Rules, opens in Los Angeles and New York today. John Irving scripted this screen adaptation of his 1985 novel. Set during World War II, it concerns Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), an orphan who spent most of his childhood at the St. Cloud Orphanage in rural Maine, where he grew up under the strong but affectionate care of Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine). Larch has passed along his medical education to Homer, and the young man helps the doctor care for abandoned children and the newborn babies of unwed mothers; however, Homer refuses to assist Larch with the illegal abortions that he performs on the side; Homer has moral objections to abortion, while Larch believes in the rights of the individual and sees it as his duty to keep women in need away from dangerous incompetents. Wally Worthington (Paul Rudd), an air-force pilot, brings his girlfriend Candy (Charlize Theron) to St. Cloud for an abortion, and Homer decides to go with them when they leave, hoping to see the world; however, the three end up going no further than the state line, where Wally's mother (Kate Nelligan) runs an apple orchard and cider mill, and Candy's family traps lobsters. When Wally ships off to battle, Homer grows closer to Candy, and the two fall in love. But their idyllic life at the cider mill is interrupted when Rose Rose (Erykah Badu), a field worker at the orchard, becomes pregnant and her father, cider-house foreman Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo), turns out to be the father of her unborn child. This news coupled with the death of Dr. Larch, forces Homer to take a long look at both his moral principles and his future. -- Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Paris, 15 December:
 A stunningly taut feature debut for Hélène Angel, awarded the Golden Leopard for Best Film at the 1999 Locarno International Film Festival, Peau d'homme cœur de bête (Skin of Man, Heart of Beast) chronicles the simmering tensions that threaten to erupt when a man (Bernard Blancan) returns to his family clan after a 15-year absence. No one quite knows where he's been -- some say the Foreign Legion, others prison -- but that air of mystery only makes him more appealing to his five-year-old niece, Aurélie (Cathy Hinderchied). Yet Aurélie's slightly older sister (Maaike Jansen) instantly mistrusts this stranger, resenting not only his intrusion into her summer holidays but also suspecting he will soon upset the delicate balance that is her family life. According to Angel, "When I look at childhood, it seems like such a distant time. Making films, especially this first one, is a way of trying to recapture this distant time, this primitive world," and indeed, few films have more effectively expressed the pleasures and terrors of a child's point of view.
- Los Angeles, 15 December: The Directors Guild of America removes the late D. W. Griffith as the namesake of its prestigious lifetime achievement award because its Birth of a Nation namesake isn't looking too politcally correct these days.
 - New York, 16 December: Mike Leigh's latest film, Topsy-Turvy, went into limited release in the US yesterday, and the New York Film Critics Circle has already named it Best Film of the year 1999. Noted for intimate character studies created in collaboration with his actors, director Leigh makes a dramatic change of pace with this biography of comic opera composers W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) is an easily angered but otherwise emotionally remote lyricist who works in collaboration with composer Sullivan (Alan Corduner), a genial and fun-loving sort who feels unsatisfied writing light operettas and longs to work with more serious material. While Sullivan is having a creative crisis, Gilbert is facing a failing marriage to Lucy (Lesley Manville), who loves her husband even if he can't return her affections. When G&S suffer their first failure, both men are depressed, and Sullivan announces that he's giving up operetta for good. However, a visit to an exhibit of Japanese art sparks an idea in Gilbert, and soon he and Sullivan are hard at work on what will become one of their greatest successes, The Mikado. Much of the film is devoted to the staging of this classic, with Shirley Henderson, Dorothy Atkinson, Martin Savage, Timothy Spall, and Kevin McKidd as members of the operetta's cast. In September, Broadbent won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. -- Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Los Angeles, 17 December:
 Stuart Little, a live-action version of E.B. White's novel doesn't have quite the magic of, say, Toy Story. Instead of entertainment the whole family can be enthralled with, it is squarely aimed, and successfully so, at the 4- to 10-year-old watcher. Does this make it a bad family film? Not in the slightest. The gee-whiz visual effects (created by original Star Wars wizard John Dykstra) and the film's ebullient wholesomeness make this a welcome addition to this year's list of holiday films. In E.B. White's world, it's hardly surprising that human parents would adopt "outside their species." The smooth-talking mouse Stuart (voiced by Michael J.ÊFox) seems the perfect new child for parents Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie, especially with an adorable wardrobe of very small sweaters and pants. Harder is fitting in with the Little's family cat, Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane, who also deftly voiced Timon in director Rob Minkoff's last feature, The Lion King). The simple story deals with Stuart trying to fit in with his new life, including big brother George (Jerry Maguire's scene-stealing Jonathan Lipnicki). And of course there's an adventure when Snowbell's schemes lead Stuart into true danger, in the form of the devious plans of an alley cat named Smokey (voiced by Chazz Palminteri). Brisk -- 85 minutes -- amusing, and tolerably cute, Stuart Little stands tall. Two curios: The effects are so cleanly done that we could call Stuart the first successfully computer-animated actor, and the screenplay was cowritten by M. Night Shyamalan, who made bigger waves this year writing and directing The Sixth Sense. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 25 December:
 This Christmas Day sees the release of a number of major films, as studios race to beat the end-of-the-year deadline to be considered for Oscar® for 1999. Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes is based on the best selling memoir by Irish expat Frank McCourt and features Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle. It follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends it on drink.
 Considered by many to be Shakespeare's worst play, Titus Andronicus is a bloodthirsty tragedy full of villainous heroes and bottomless revenge -- hardly the stuff of big-screen directorial debuts, it would seem. Yet Julie Taymor dives headfirst into moviemaking with Titus, a spectacular adaptation that manages to find beauty and humor in the piles of carnage. Taymor, who won a Tony for her Broadway production of The Lion King, throws all her theatrical sensibilities at the story -- armies are exquisitely choreographed, blood is shed so beautifully that it hardly seems real, and characters are costumed in symbolic combinations of ancient Roman and 20th-century garb. She plays up the dark comedy at every opportunity, lending a carnival flavor to the story's most gruesome moments. Excellent performances from Anthony Hopkins (whose deranged Titus is more than a little reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter), Jessica Lange, and the supporting cast help make the endless treachery credible.
 Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley is set in the 1950s. Manhattan lavatory attendant, Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), borrows a Princeton jacket to play piano at a garden party. When the wealthy father of a recent Princeton grad chats Tom up, Tom pretends to know the son and is soon offered $1,000 to go to Italy to convince Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) to return home. In Italy, Tom attaches himself to Dickie and to Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow), Dickie's cultured fiancée, pretending to love jazz and harboring homoerotic hopes as he soaks in luxury. Besides lying, Tom's talents include impressions and forgery, so when the handsome and confident Dickie tires of Tom, dismissing him as a bore, Tom goes to extreme lengths to make Greenleaf's privileges his own.
- London, 30 December: George Harrison was hospitalized today after an intruder broke into his home and stabbed him in the chest. He is in stable condition. His wife, Olivia, was hit on the head. British reports identify the assailant as Michael Abram, a Liverpool man purportedly obsessed with The Beatles. "He hates them and even believes they are witches," his mother told reporters. Full story.
- Hollywood, 31 December: The force was definitely with the movie industry in 1999. With the help of blockbusters like Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, box-office receipts passed $7 billion, breaking records for the eighth year in a row. Totals for 1999 surpassed last year by 8 percent and a whopping 17 films broke the $100 million barrier, with some powerhouse hits like Phantom Menace, Toy Story 2 and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me doubling, tripling and even quadrupling the coveted number. Thanks to Toy Story 2, the big winner of the year was the otherwise ailing Disney. Though the company's theme park and TV ventures have been less than stellar, the Mouse House garnered about 17 percent of the total movie market. "It's nice to finish with such a strong kick," Disney distribution chief Chuck Viane told Daily Variety. "When you're playing trailers on the front of successful films, it definitely helps." Warner Bros. and Universal rolled in at Nos. 2 and 3, with 14 and 13 percent of the market, respectively. Last year's Titanic winner Paramount slipped from No. 2 to No. 4, though Ashley Judd's surprise hit Double Jeopardy pulled a hefty $113 million in for the studio. Perhaps the biggest stories of the year, however, were the surprise hits. The unprecedented success of summer horror hits The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense shocked studio execs when they easily breezed by the $100 million mark. Overall, Hollywood grossed a record $7.49 billion, easily beating 1998's $6.95 billion. The industry's one red flag was that there were actually fewer movie admissions this year -- 1.47 billion compared to 1.48 billion in '98. It's higher ticket prices (surprise!) that account for the bigger box-office take. -- Julie Keller, E! Online
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7 February - Woodland Hills, CA, 
