An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.
Director:
Phyllida Lloyd
Stars:
Meryl Streep,
Jim Broadbent,
Richard E. Grant
Two documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.
Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim follows Al Gore on the lecture circuit, as the former presidential candidate campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of global warming and calls for immediate action to curb its destructive effects on the environment.
Biopic of the iconic French singer Édith Piaf. Raised by her grandmother in a brothel, she was discovered while singing on a street corner at the age of 19. Despite her success, Piaf's life was filled with tragedy.
Director:
Olivier Dahan
Stars:
Marion Cotillard,
Sylvie Testud,
Pascal Greggory
A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".
Director:
James Marsh
Stars:
Philippe Petit,
Jean François Heckel,
Jean-Louis Blondeau
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
Director:
Bennett Miller
Stars:
Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Clifton Collins Jr.,
Catherine Keener
A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.
Director:
Tony Gilroy
Stars:
George Clooney,
Tilda Swinton,
Tom Wilkinson
The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.
In New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.
Diana the 'People's Princess' has died in a car accident in Paris. The Queen and her family decide that for the best, they should remain hidden behind the closed doors of Balmoral Castle. The heartbroken public do not understand and request that the Queen comforts her people. This also puts pressure on newly elected Tony Blair, who constantly tries to convince the monarchy to address the public.Written by
Film_Fan
Tony Blair, who claimed he had never seen the movie, was suspected of stealing from the movie when he wrote his autobiography, "A Journey." In the scene where he and the queen meet for the first time, Elizabeth says, "You are my tenth Prime Minister, Mr. Blair. My first, of course, was Winston Churchill." Peter Morgan has said that he completely made up the dialogue for the scene, but it is unlikely he guessed such a specific line exactly right. See more »
Goofs
The Queen says that Tony Blair is her tenth Prime Minister. While he was the tenth person to be PM during her reign, he was actually her eleventh PM as Harold Wilson had two separate spells in office. (The counting of US Presidents always regards Grover Cleveland's non-consecutive terms as if they were two different Presidents, so the same logic ought to apply to Wilson.) See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Reporter:
After weeks of campaigning on the road, Tony Blair and his family finally strolled the few hundred yards to the polling station this election day morning. Amongst the Labour faithful up and down the country, there is an enormous sense of pride in Mr. Blair's achievements, and the confidence that he is about to become the youngest prime minister this century.
See more »
THE QUEEN seems like one of those biographical features that would be difficult to hold anyone's interest - on the surface, without the benefit of knowing much about the content. Queen Elizabeth II is not exactly a figure who generates anything but a response of boredom, so flat and uninteresting is her persona. But enter Helen Mirren, one of the finest actresses on the screen today, and this potentially boring potentate becomes a vibrantly detailed and fascinating portrait of a queen at odds with the times. It is a staggering achievement.
Director Stephen Frears, using a superb script by Peter Morgan, details the time from the election of Labor Party Prime Minister Tony Blair (a brilliant Michael Sheen) to that momentous international outpouring of grief and love that followed the tragic death of Princess Di in 1997, showing the bifurcation of response between the Royals and the People as represented by Blair. Instead of the insensitive cold figure that the world witnessed as QE II, Mirren shows us that the woman who is Queen actually had feelings for her grandchildren, a respect for her station as royalty, and was gradually responsive to the cry of the people via Blair's influence, allowing the world to pay proper tribute to a heroine. The ogres in the Balmoral Castle were in fact Prince Phillip (James Cromwell) and the Queen Mum (Sylvia Syms) abetted by the very proper Robin Janvrin (Roger Allam) and the wishy washy Prince Charles (Alex Jennings).
The entire production is beautifully filmed with the use of clips from Princess Di's life (and death) instead of creating an actress role to portray her - a very wise choice. The musical score by Alexandre Desplat is superb (with a little help from Verdi's 'Libera Me' as sung by Lynn Dawson and the BBC chorus for the funeral portion). But indeed the accolades go to Helen Mirren in an Oscar worthy performance - with the very strong counterbalance by Michael Sheen. An excellent film about a moment no one will ever forget. Grady Harp
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THE QUEEN seems like one of those biographical features that would be difficult to hold anyone's interest - on the surface, without the benefit of knowing much about the content. Queen Elizabeth II is not exactly a figure who generates anything but a response of boredom, so flat and uninteresting is her persona. But enter Helen Mirren, one of the finest actresses on the screen today, and this potentially boring potentate becomes a vibrantly detailed and fascinating portrait of a queen at odds with the times. It is a staggering achievement.
Director Stephen Frears, using a superb script by Peter Morgan, details the time from the election of Labor Party Prime Minister Tony Blair (a brilliant Michael Sheen) to that momentous international outpouring of grief and love that followed the tragic death of Princess Di in 1997, showing the bifurcation of response between the Royals and the People as represented by Blair. Instead of the insensitive cold figure that the world witnessed as QE II, Mirren shows us that the woman who is Queen actually had feelings for her grandchildren, a respect for her station as royalty, and was gradually responsive to the cry of the people via Blair's influence, allowing the world to pay proper tribute to a heroine. The ogres in the Balmoral Castle were in fact Prince Phillip (James Cromwell) and the Queen Mum (Sylvia Syms) abetted by the very proper Robin Janvrin (Roger Allam) and the wishy washy Prince Charles (Alex Jennings).
The entire production is beautifully filmed with the use of clips from Princess Di's life (and death) instead of creating an actress role to portray her - a very wise choice. The musical score by Alexandre Desplat is superb (with a little help from Verdi's 'Libera Me' as sung by Lynn Dawson and the BBC chorus for the funeral portion). But indeed the accolades go to Helen Mirren in an Oscar worthy performance - with the very strong counterbalance by Michael Sheen. An excellent film about a moment no one will ever forget. Grady Harp