Amelie
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Amelie traces the life of Amelie Poulain, a young waitress at the Two Windmills bar in Paris, Audrey Tautou, essentially portrays the young woman in the background of her dysfunctional family, her various hobbies and likes, her way of life, the influence of the people around her and how love manifests in her life. Amelie, as the person she is tries to reason out the happenings around her in her own sense of judgment and decides whether the people around her should be made happy by her. Her takes on life and how she finds love in her life makes for a beautiful movie.
Kill Bill
Quentin Tarantino
One of the finest movies made by the master filmmaker, this revenge saga is about Beatrix Kiddo and how she extracts her revenge. Kiddo, the eternally vengeful bride was portrayed effectively by Uma Thurman, so was Robert Carradine as Bill. The fight sequences are aplenty in this film, each one distinctive. Notable are the black-and-white sequences of Kiddo's horrendous past, her showdown with the crazy 88 and the anime sequences.
Silence Of The Lambs
Jonathan Demme
Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster this is a sure-shot thriller. Be it the compelling gore or the sheer prospect of watching one of history's most psychopathic psychiatrists, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, played to perfection by Hopkins, one is simply awestruck. The slight nasal twang, the haunting way Hopkins calls Clarisse and the way he escapes from his high security prison, and the crude confines of the murderer's dark well in his basement, heighten your fears. Not surprising why it won five Academy awards.
My Cousin Vinny
Jonathan Lynn
Joe Pesci plays the remarkable role of middle-aged, ‘fresh' law graduate Vincenzo LaGuardia Gambini (Vinny) who flies in from Brooklyn with his fiancée, Mona Lisa Vito (played by Marisa Tomei) to help his cousin and his friend, who due to a faux pas get arrested for the murder of a store clerk in Alabama. Judge Chamberlain Haller, played by Fred Gwynne in his last role, presides over the case, determined not to let Gambini have an easy time in his courtroom, and in doing so vies for a memorable performance with Pesci. Marisa Tomei won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Paris Je'taime
Alfonso Cuaron, Gurinder Chadha and others
This film has an ensemble cast of actors ranging from Natalie Portman to Maggie Gyllenhaal in a course of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements with a mélange of directors including Wes Craven, Gurinder Chadha, Alfonso Cuaron, Ethan and Joel Coen, Tom Twyker and Gus van Sant. The stories range from the mundane to the supernatural. From a tourist to a woman with a terminal illness, from a shy Muslim girl to a blind guy dating a struggling actress, this movie traverses religion, culture and borders to make it worth a watch, all so that they meld admirably well, keeping in tune with the general homage to Paris.
Those that almost made it
The Aviator: Martin Scorsese
Wall-E: Pete Docter
Four Rooms: Quentin Tarantino and others
Death Proof: Quentin Tarantino
Duplex: Danny DeVito
The War of the Roses: Danny DeVito
The Last King of Scotland: Kevin MacDonald
(Sanjana Mahesh loves watching Tamil and English films with sad endings. She lives in Chennai.)
