An Affair to Remember (1957) DVD

A man and a woman have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps her from the reunion, and he fears that she has married or does not love him anymore.

Agora (2009) DVD

In the 4th century A.D., astronomer and philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) teaches her scientific beliefs to a class of male students. Among them is lovestruck slave Davus (Max Minghella), the equally smitten Orestes (Oscar Isaac) and young Christian man Synesius (Rupert Evans). Hypatia dismisses all of their advances, but this romantic drama pales in comparison to a rising battle between Christians and pagans on the streets of soon-to-be war-torn Alexandria.

Paper Heart (2009) DVD

Although skeptical of the concept, actress-comic Charlyne Yi teams up with director Nicolas Jasenovec (Jake M. Johnson) to create a documentary about the meaning of true love. Charlyne and her team tour the country, interviewing newlyweds, longtime couples, children and others about their experiences. Life begins to imitate art when it appears that Charlyne and actor Michael Cera fall in love over the course of filming.

As Good as It Gets (1997) DVD

Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is an obsessive-compulsive writer of romantic fiction who's rude to everyone he meets, including his gay neighbor Simon (Greg Kinnear), but when he has to look after Simon's dog, he begins to soften and, if still not completely over his problems, finds he can conduct a relationship with the only waitress (Helen Hunt) at the local diner who'll serve him.

Stealing Beauty (1996)

When she was 15, pretty but callow Lucy Harmon (Liv Tyler) visited the Tuscan town where her mother once enchanted the local male population. Four years later, in the wake of her mother's suicide, Lucy returns to the village. She plans to write some poetry, learn more about her family history and reunite with a boy she once kissed. Surveying an expansive field of suitors, Lucy finds herself taken with unattainable Alex (Jeremy Irons), as her journey imparts some unexpected lessons about love.

Australia (2008)

With the globe on the brink of World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from Britain to Australia to inspect a cattle ranch she inherited. Reluctantly joining forces with a rugged local known as the Drover (Hugh Jackman), she sets out on a cattle drive across hundreds of miles of harsh terrain to save her ranch. But when they finally reach the town of Darwin, they must contend with the same Japanese bombers that just rained death upon Pearl Harbor.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) DVD

In September 1965, on the fictitious New England island of New Penzance, 12-year-old orphan Sam Shakusky is attending Camp Ivanhoe, a Khaki Scout summer camp led by Scoutmaster Randy Ward. Suzy Bishop, also 12, lives on the island with her parents, Walt and Laura, both attorneys, and her three younger brothers in a house called Summer's End. Sam and Suzy, both introverted, intelligent and mature for their age, met in the summer of 1964 during a church performance of Noye's Fludde and have been pen pals since then. Their relationship having become romantic over the course of their correspondence, they have made a secret pact to reunite and run away together. Sam brings camping equipment, and Suzy brings her binoculars, six books, her kitten, and her brother's battery-powered record player. They hike, camp, and fish together in the wilderness with the goal of reaching a secluded cove on the island. Meanwhile, the Khaki Scouts have become aware of Sam's absence, finding a letter that he left behind stating that he has resigned his position as a Khaki Scout.

Scoutmaster Ward tells the Khaki Scouts to use their skills to create a search party and find Sam.
Eventually, Sam and Suzy are confronted by a group of Khaki Scouts who try to capture them and, during the resulting altercation, Suzy injures the Scouts' de facto leader, Redford, with her scissors and Camp Ivanhoe's dog is killed by a stray shot from a bow and arrow wielded by one of the Scouts. The Scouts flee and Sam and Suzy hike to the cove which they name Moonrise Kingdom. They set up camp and go swimming. Later, while drying off, they begin dancing to Françoise Hardy in their underwear. As the romantic tension between them grows, they kiss repeatedly.

Suzy's parents, Scoutmaster Ward, the Scouts from Camp Ivanhoe, and Island Police Captain Duffy Sharp find Sam and Suzy in their tent at the cove. Suzy's parents take her home and when Sharp contacts the foster parents he is told that they no longer wish to house Sam. He stays with Sharp while they await the arrival of "Social Services" - an otherwise nameless woman with plans to place Sam in a "juvenile refuge" and to explore the possibility of treating him with electroshock therapy.

The Camp Ivanhoe Scouts have a change of heart and decide to help the couple. Together, they paddle to a neighboring St. Jack Wood Island to seek out the help of Cousin Ben, an older relative of one of the Scouts. Ben works at Fort Lebanon, a larger Khaki Scout summer camp located on St. Jack Wood Island and run by Commander Pierce, who is Ward's boss. Ben decides that the best available option is to try to get Sam and Suzy aboard a crabbing boat anchored off the island so that Sam can work as a crewman and avoid Social Services, but before leaving he performs a "wedding" ceremony, which he admits is not legally binding. Sam and Suzy never make it onto the crabbing boat, and instead are pursued by Suzy's parents, Captain Sharp, Social Services, and the scouts of Fort Lebanon under the command of Scoutmaster Ward.

A violent hurricane and flash flood strike only three days after Sam and Suzy first ran away from home and, after many twists and turns, Sharp apprehends Sam and Suzy on the steeple of the church in which they first met. The steeple is destroyed by lightning, but everyone survives. During the storm, Sharp decides to become Sam's legal guardian, thus saving Sam from the orphanage, as well as allowing him to remain on New Penzance Island and maintain contact with Suzy.

At Summer's End, Sam is painting a landscape of Moonrise Kingdom. Suzy and her brothers are called to dinner. On slipping out of the window to join Sharp in his patrol car, Sam tells Suzy that he will see her the following day.

Bitter Moon (1992)

British couple Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona Dobson (Kristin Scott Thomas) are on a Mediterranean cruise ship to Istanbul en route to India. They encounter a beautiful French woman, Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner), and that night Nigel meets her while dancing alone in the ship's bar. Later Nigel meets her much older and crippled American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote), who is acerbic and cynical, having been jaded and a failure as a writer.

Oscar invites Nigel to his cabin where he tells Nigel in great detail how he and Mimi first met on a bus in Paris and fell passionately in love. Nigel relates all to Fiona. Both are appalled by Oscar's exhibitionism, but Nigel is also fascinated by Mimi, who provokes him. Later, Oscar narrates how they explored bondage, sadomasochism, and voyeurism. As a contrast to their sexual adventurousness, we see Nigel and Fiona meeting a distinguished Indian gentleman, Mr. Singh (Victor Banerjee), who is traveling with his little daughter Amrita (Sophie Patel).

Invited by Mimi, Nigel, escaping from a bridge game, goes to meet her in her cabin, but it turns out she and Oscar have played a joke on him. Nigel wants to leave, but another session unfolds, with Oscar describing how their hate/love relationship developed. Bored, he tried to break up, but Mimi begged him to let her live with him under any conditions. He complied, but started to explore sadistic fantasies at her expense, humiliating her in public. When Mimi became pregnant, he made her have an abortion, saying that he would be a terrible father. When he visited her in hospital, he was shocked by her condition and almost relented in his attempts to drive her away. He promised her a holiday in the Caribbean, but he managed to get off the plane just before take off. Mimi departed alone, crying.

Leaving Oscar's cabin, Nigel meets Mimi and they kiss. Afterwards, he finds Fiona in the bar flirting with a young man. She warns Nigel not to stray too far, and that anything he can do, she can do better. Nigel goes to Oscar, who continues his narration. After two years of parties and one-night stands, he drunkenly stepped in front of a vehicle. To his surprise, Mimi came to visit him in the hospital where he was recovering from minor injuries and a broken leg. Mimi shook hands with him, then pulled him out of his bed and left him hanging in his traction device. Having become paraplegic this way, Oscar had no choice but to let Mimi move in with him again and take care of him. She reveled in dominating and humiliating him, seducing men in front of him. When Oscar was desperate and wanted to die, she gave him a gun as a birthday present. Having experienced highs and lows together, they realized they needed each other and actually got married.

Nigel clumsily tries to woo Mimi, encouraged and coached by Oscar. Things come to a head at the New Year's Eve party, when Fiona sees them dance together. Fiona tells him that Oscar had made her come to the party. She goes on to dance erotically with Mimi, cheered on by the other partygoers. A stormy sea interrupts the party and the two women leave together. Nigel goes outside clutching a bottle of liquor and screams his frustration into the wind and waves.

Nigel finds Fiona in Oscar's cabin, sleeping naked side by side with Mimi. Oscar claims the women have had sex together. Enraged, Nigel grabs his throat, but Oscar points a gun at him and he backs off. Oscar shoots the sleeping Mimi several times, then kills himself. While the bodies of Oscar and Mimi are being stretchered off the ship, Fiona and Nigel, shaken, embrace each other. Mr. Singh encourages his little girl to comfort them.

(1960) The Apartment

The Apartment is a 1960 American romantic comedy film that was produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and which stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray.

It was Wilder's next movie after Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, a commercial and critical success, grossing $25 million at the box office. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and won five, including Best Picture. The film was the basis of the 1968 Broadway musical Promises, Promises, with book by Neil Simon, music by Burt Bacharach, and lyrics by Hal David.

 Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drudge at a national insurance corporation in a high-rise building in New York City. In order to climb the corporate ladder, Bud allows four company managers, who reinforce their position over him by regularly calling him "Buddy Boy," to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment for their various extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbors assume that he is a playboy bringing home different women every night.

The four managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) write glowing reports about Bud, who hopes for a promotion from the personnel director, Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake calls Baxter to his office but says that he has found out why they were so enthusiastic. Then he goes on to promote him in return for exclusive privileges to borrow the apartment. He insists on using it that same night and, as compensation for such short notice, gives Baxter two company-sponsored tickets to the hit Broadway musical The Music Man.

After work, Bud catches Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator on whom he has had his eye, and asks her to go to the musical with him. They agree to meet at the theater after she has a drink with a former fling. The man whom she meets, by coincidence, is Sheldrake, who convinces her that he is about to divorce his wife for her. They go to Baxter's apartment as Baxter waits forlornly outside the theater.

Several weeks later, at the company's raucous Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary Miss Olsen (Edie Adams), drunkenly reveals to Fran that Fran is just the latest in a string of female employees whom Sheldrake has seduced into affairs with the promise of divorcing his wife, with Miss Olsen herself being one of them. At Bud's apartment, Fran confronts Sheldrake, upset with herself for believing his lies. Sheldrake maintains that he genuinely loves her but then leaves to return to his suburban family as usual.

Meanwhile, Bud accidentally finds out about Sheldrake and Fran. Heartbroken, he lets himself be picked up by a woman (Hope Holiday) at a local bar. When they arrive at his apartment, he is shocked to find Fran in his bed, fully clothed and unconscious from an intentional overdose of his sleeping pills. He enlists the help of his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), to revive Fran without notifying the authorities and sends his confused bar pickup home. To protect his job, he lets Dreyfuss believe that he and Fran are lovers who had fought, which he took so lightly that he was meeting another woman while she was attempting suicide. This comes as no surprise to Dr. Dreyfuss or his wife, who long assumed Baxter was a womanizing playboy from all the noise coming from his apartment at all hours. Fran spends two days recuperating at his apartment, while Bud tries entertaining and distracting her from any further suicidal thoughts, talking her into playing numerous hands of gin rummy.

Since she has been missing, Fran's brother-in-law Karl Matuschka (Johnny Seven) comes to the office looking for her. She has not been there and neither has Baxter. The previous day, one of the executives had seen Fran in the bedroom when he came to the apartment hoping to borrow it, and mentioned it to the other executives. Resenting Bud for denying them access to his apartment, the executives direct the man there. Baxter again takes responsibility for Fran's actions, and Karl punches him twice in the face. Fran kisses Bud for not revealing her affair with Sheldrake to Karl, and Bud, sensing that she now cares for him, smiles and says the punch "didn't hurt a bit".

Sheldrake rewards Bud with a further promotion and fires Miss Olsen for telling Fran his history of womanizing. However, Miss Olsen retaliates by telling his wife, who promptly throws him out. Sheldrake moves into a room at his athletic club but now figures that he can string Fran along while he enjoys his newfound bachelorhood. When Sheldrake asks Bud for the key to the apartment on New Year's Eve, Bud refuses and quits the firm. That night at a party, an indignant Sheldrake tells Fran about Bud refusing to let Sheldrake use the apartment, especially for bringing Fran there, and then quitting. Fran finally realizes that Baxter is the man who truly loves her. Fran deserts Sheldrake at the party and runs to Bud's apartment.

Arriving at the door, she hears a loud noise like a gunshot. Afraid that Bud has shot himself, Fran pounds on the door. Bud, holding a bottle of overflowing champagne, finally opens the door, surprised and delighted that Fran is there. Bud has been packing for a move to another job and city. Fran insists on resuming their gin rummy game, telling Bud that she is now free as well. When he declares his love for her, her reply is the now-famous final line of the film: "Shut up and deal", delivered with a loving and radiant smile.

(1951) A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 American drama film, with elements of film noir, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 play of the same name. It is the story of a southern belle, Blanche Dubois, who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her aristocratic background seeking refuge with her sister and brother-in-law in a dilapidated New Orleans tenement. The Broadway production and cast was converted to film with only minor changes. True to the play, the film is both lyrical and gritty, with complex and contradictory characters. Chief among these was Blanche Dubois, who has become a legendary and iconic figure in film history.

Under mysterious circumstances, Blanche DuBois, an aging high school teacher, leaves her home in Auriol, Mississippi to travel to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella Kowalski. She arrives on the train and boards a streetcar named "Desire" and reaches her sister's home in the French Quarter where she discovers that her sister and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, live in a cramped and dilapidated two-room apartment in an old New Orleans tenement. Blanche and Stella are all that remain of an old aristocratic family. Blanche discloses that the family estate, Belle Reve, has been lost to creditors, and that she wants to stay with Stella and Stanley for a while. Blanche seems lost and broke, with nowhere to go. Stella welcomes her with an open heart.

From the start, Blanche and Stanley are wary of each other. Blanche has a soft-spoken manner; Stanley is rough and loud. His mere presence seems to threaten her, while her behavior and manner arouse suspicion in him. She is especially adroit at patronizing and criticizing Stella from the start. When interrogated about her past, struggling to be polite, Blanche says that she was married and widowed at a young age. She says that she has taken a leave of absence from her job due to her nerves. To satisfy Stanley's skepticism about the loss of the estate, Blanche hands over her papers pertaining to Belle Reve. But Stanley grabs at some of her private papers that she is holding back, and they cascade to the floor. Weeping, she gathers them all back, saying that they are poems from her dead husband. He defends himself by saying that he was just looking out for his family, and then announces that Stella is going to have a baby.

 
Soon after her arrival, Stanley has a poker night with his friends where Blanche meets Mitch. His courteous manner sets him apart from Stanley's other friends. They like each other right away. This is the start of their romance. Stanley explodes in a drunken rage, striking Stella, and sending his friends running, while Blanche and Stella flee to the upstairs neighbor, Eunice. When his anger subsides, Stanley cries out remorsefully for Stella to come back. "Stella, Stella, hey Stella," he bellows, until she comes down, and Stanley carries her off to bed. In the morning, Blanche tells Stella that she is married to a subhuman animal. In an emotional monologue, she urges her sister to leave Stanley. Stella disagrees with her sister's bluntness and assures Blanche that all is well, and that she does not want to leave.

 
As the weeks pass into months, the tension rises between Blanche and Stanley. But Blanche has hope in Mitch, telling Stella that she wants to go away with him and not be anyone's problem. She is on the verge of mental collapse, anticipating a marriage proposal from Mitch. Finally, he tells her that they need each other and should be together. But Stanley, still skeptical, begins to research her past and discovers a closet full of skeletons. He tells Stella what Blanche has been concealing from them, that she has a reputation for mental instability and that she was fired from her teaching job in Auriol for having sexual relations with a minor and practically run out of town. He then says that Mitch will not be coming around anymore. Stanley has informed Mitch about Blanche's past, and the news of her promiscuity has turned Mitch off from her. Stella erupts in anger that Stanley has ruined Blanche's chances with Mitch. But the fight is cut short, as she tells Stanley to take her to the hospital; the baby is coming.

As Blanche waits at home for news of the baby, Mitch arrives and confronts her with the stories that Stanley has told him. At first, she denies everything. Then, she breaks down in confession, describing, in a lengthy monologue, her troubled past. As she speaks to Mitch, she gives up the Southern belle façade; her voice grows weary and deep; her face becomes drawn and old; she pleads for his forgiveness, but Mitch is hurt and humiliated and rejects her. Blanche starts screaming, and Mitch runs away. Later that night, while Stella's labor continues, Stanley returns from the hospital to get some sleep, only to find Blanche dressed up in a tattered old gown pretending to be departing on a trip with an old admirer. She disdainfully antagonizes him, asserting her sense of superiority over him, spinning tale after tale about her plans for the future. He sees that she is delusional, but he feels no pity for her. Instead, he seeks to destroy her illusions. They become engaged in a struggle that ends in rape.

 
Weeks later, at another poker game at the Kowalski apartment, Stella and her neighbor, Eunice, are packing Blanche's belongings. Stella and Eunice have told Blanche that she is going on a vacation, but, in truth, Blanche is being committed to a mental hospital. She has suffered a complete mental breakdown. She has told Stella what happened, but Stella cannot believe Blanche's story. Stella, under obvious stress, does not know what to do. An older gentleman and lady come to the door; it is the doctor and nurse come to take Blanche away. Blanche does not recognize them and resists going; she collapses on the floor seized with total confusion. Mitch, present at the poker game, breaks down in tears. The doctor approaches and helps Blanche up. He offers his arm gently to her, and she goes willingly with him, saying, "Whoever you are, I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers." As the car drives away with Blanche, Stella takes the baby upstairs to Eunice's, and says she is never coming back to Stanley again.

(1967) Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush is a 1967 British film made based on the novel of the same name by Hunter Davies. It was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France.

The film starred Barry Evans, Judy Geeson and Angela Scoular and was directed by Clive Donner. 
 
The film was released on DVD officially for the first time by the BFI in September 2010 as part of its "Flipside" strand.

Jamie McGregor (Barry Evans) is a virginal sixth-former in a swinging sixties new town, delivering groceries for the local supermarket. However he is more interested in matters sexual and sets out to lose his virginity by attempting to seduce the local girls – Linda, Paula, Caroline, Audrey, and his dream girl Mary.

(1965) Darling

Beautiful but easily bored Diana Scott (Julie Christie) becomes a popular model and actress in London in the 1960s while toying with the affections of two older men, married television newsman Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde) and public relations mastermind Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey). Although Diana is the toast of swinging London, the dark side of fame and fortune begins to take its toll, but it proves harder to escape the mod scene than she expects.

(2009) Bright Star

Bright Star is a 2009 British-French-Australian biographical fiction romantic drama film based on the last three years of the life of poet John Keats and his romantic relationship with Fanny Brawne. It stars Ben Whishaw as Keats and Abbie Cornish as Fanny. It was directed by Jane Campion, who wrote the screenplay inspired by Andrew Motion's biography of Keats; Motion served as a script consultant on the film. The film was in the main competition at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and was first shown to the public on 15 May 2009. The film's title is a reference to a sonnet by Keats titled "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art", which he wrote while he was with Brawne.

 In 1818 Hampstead, the fashionable Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is introduced to poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) through the Dilke family. The Dilkes occupy one half of a double house, with Charles Brown (Paul Schneider)—Keats' friend, roommate, and associate in writing—occupying the other half.

Though Fanny's flirtatious personality contrasts with Keats' notably more aloof nature, she begins to pursue him after she has her siblings, Samuel and Toots, obtain his book of poetry "Endymion". Her efforts to interact with the poet are fruitless until he witnesses her grief for the loss of his brother, Tom. While spending Christmas with the Brawne family, Keats begins to open up to Fanny's advances. Keats begins to give poetry lessons to Fanny, and it becomes apparent that their attraction is mutual. Fanny is nevertheless troubled by Keats' reluctance to pursue her, for which her mother (Kerry Fox) surmises, "Mr Keats knows he cannot like you, he has no living and no income."

It is only after Fanny receives a valentine from Brown that Keats passionately confronts them and asks if they are lovers. Brown, who sent the valentine in jest, warns Keats that Fanny is a mere flirt playing a game. Fanny, hurt by Brown's accusations and by Keats' lack of faith in her, ends their lessons and leaves. It is not until after the Dilkes move to Westminster that spring, leaving the Brawne family their half of the house and six months rent, that Fanny and Keats resume their interaction and fall deeply in love. The relationship comes to an abrupt end when Brown departs with Keats for his summer rental, where Keats may earn some money. Though Fanny is heartbroken, she is comforted by Keats' love letters. When the men return in the autumn, Fanny's mother voices her concern that Fanny's attachment to the poet will hinder her from being courted. Fanny and Keats secretly become engaged.

Keats contracts tuberculosis the following winter. He spends several weeks recovering until spring. His friends collect funds so that he may spend the next winter in Italy, where the climate is warmer. After impregnating a maid, Brown is unable to accompany Keats. Keats manages to find residence in London for the summer, but he is taken in by the Brawne family following an attack of his illness. When his book sells with moderate success, Fanny's mother gives Keats her blessing to marry Fanny once he returns from Italy. The night before he leaves, he and Fanny say their tearful goodbyes in privacy. Keats dies in Italy the following February of complications from his illness, just as his brother Tom did earlier in the film.

In the last moments of the film Fanny cuts her hair in an act of mourning, dons black attire, and walks the snowy paths outside that Keats had walked many times in life. It is there that she recites the love sonnet he had written for her, "Bright Star", as she grieves the death of her lover.

(2002) Frida

Frida is a 2002 American biopic drama film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award-nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera. The movie was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor. It won two Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Best Original Score.

Frida begins just before the traumatic accident Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) suffered at the age of 18 when a trolley bus collided with a motor bus she was riding. She is impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustained plague her for the rest of her life. To help her through convalescence, her father brings her a canvas upon which to start painting. Throughout the film, a scene starts as a painting, then slowly dissolves into a live-action scene with actors.

Frida also details the artist's dysfunctional relationship with the muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). When Rivera proposes to Kahlo, she tells him she expects from him loyalty if not fidelity. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability is one of the reasons that she continues to paint. Throughout the marriage, Rivera cheats on her with a wide array of women, while the bisexual Kahlo takes on male and female lovers, including in one case having an affair with the same woman as Rivera.

The two travel to New York City so that he may paint the mural Man at the Crossroads at the Rockefeller Center. While in the United States, Kahlo suffers a miscarriage, and her mother dies in Mexico. Rivera refuses to compromise his Communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockefeller (Edward Norton); as a result, the mural is destroyed. The pair return to Mexico, with Rivera the more reluctant of the two.

Kahlo's sister Cristina moves in with the two at their San Ángel studio home to work as Rivera's assistant. Soon afterward, Kahlo discovers that Rivera is having an affair with her sister. She leaves him, and subsequently sinks into alcoholism. The couple reunite when he asks her to welcome and house Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush), who has been granted political asylum in Mexico. She and Trotsky begin an affair, which forces the married Trotsky to leave the safety of his Coyoacán home.

Kahlo leaves for Paris after Diego realizes she was unfaithful to him with Trotsky; although Rivera had little problem with Kahlo's other affairs, Trotsky was too important to Rivera to be intimately involved with his wife. When she returns to Mexico, he asks for a divorce. Soon afterwards, Trotsky is murdered in Mexico City. Rivera is temporarily a suspect, and Kahlo is incarcerated in his place when he is not found. Rivera helps get her released.

Kahlo has her toes removed when they become gangrenous. Rivera asks her to remarry him, and she agrees. Her health continues to worsen, including the amputation of a leg, and she ultimately dies after finally having a solo exhibition of her paintings in Mexico.

(1997) Metroland

Metroland is a 1997 British comedy-drama film directed by Philip Saville and starring Christian Bale and Emily Watson. Written by Adrian Hodges, based on the novel Metroland by Julian Barnes, the film is about a man whose calm and predictable life is disrupted by the sudden reappearance after ten years of his best friend, which leads him to remember his carefree youth in Paris, to question some of his lifestyle decisions, and to re-evaluate his life and marriage. Mark Knopfler wrote the score and produced the Metroland soundtrack, which is supplemented by some additional tracks appropriate to the period depicted in the film.

The executive producer Andrew Bendel and director Philip Saville needed 3 songs from the punk era to be included in the live band scenes played by a fictitious group called The Subverts. Danny de Matos and Del Bartle were asked to write the songs to be included in the film. These three particular songs featured in the film (although not included on the Polygram soundtrack) "Amerikkka We Hate You", "Destroy the Hoi Polloi" and "You Destiny" were also produced by Danny de Matos.

In 1977, Chris (Christian Bale) and Marion (Emily Watson) are leading a quiet married life with their child in Eastwood in the London suburbs known as Metroland, the staid commuter region at the end of the London Underground's Metropolitan Line. Their predictable life is disrupted by an early morning phone call from Chris's boyhood friend Toni (Lee Ross), who has returned to England after several years of wandering through Africa, Europe, and the United States as a bohemian poet. Years before, the two shared a dream of fleeing slow suburban death to live in avant-garde splendor in Paris. Toni's return sparks memories in Chris about their wild days in Paris in the late 1960s.

Disillusioned about the lifestyle he's chosen—having abandoned his youthful passion for photography for a steady job as a London banker—Chris takes long walks at night, making lists in his head of things for which he should feel grateful. Feeling that something is missing in his life, Chris sees in Toni the person he could have become—a free spirit living a vagabond's existence without ties or responsibilities. Toni openly looks down on Chris for his acceptance of middle class complacency, a mortgage, and a nine-to-five job. One night, Chris goes to a punk rock club with Toni who gets him stoned on cannabis. Idealising his friend's lifestyle, Chris begs Toni to reveal his secret for happiness, and Toni responds that it's doing what you want, not what others want.

With his dreary and serene marriage, Chris increasingly dwells on the past. He rediscovers naked pictures of his former French girlfriend, Annick (Elsa Zylberstein), and in the coming days he thinks back to 1968 when they were in Paris together. He remembers taking on the personna of a French beatnik with a contempt for all things English. His French fantasy was interrupted when he met Marion, who was holidaying in Paris with some friends. Taken aback by this mature and intelligent Englishwoman, Chris began spending time with her, telling her about Annick and his ambivalent feelings towards England. Unimpressed with his unrealistic dreams, Marion informed him that eventually he would get married because he was "not original enough" to avoid marriage and a conventional future. When Annick learned about his friendship with the Englishwoman, she broke off their relationship.

Back in the present, Chris is unable to get over the feeling that he has surrendered his youth and ideals to a life he once swore he would never lead. One night he attends a party at Toni's girlfriend's house, arriving without his wife. There he hears Toni casually mentioning that his girlfriend just had an abortion, and then sees him flirting with another woman at the party—doing what he wants to do. Later, Chris meets a beautiful woman, Joanna (Amanda Ryan), who invites him to sleep with her. After learning that Toni in fact asked her to sleep with his friend as a way of undermining his marriage, Chris rejects the offer and returns home to Marion.

The next day, Chris comes home from work and finds Toni in the house with Marion. Toni hints that he and Marion had sex, and the two friends get into a fight in the garden. Later, Marion tells him that Toni made a pass at her, but that she rejected him. She tells him that despite all of his talk, Toni is really only jealous of Chris and the life he's chosen. The next day, Toni shows up at Chris' house to say goodbye before headed to Malibu, where he intends to do some screenwriting. He tries to tempt Chris into leaving his life behind and come with him, but Chris refuses, admitting, "I like my life; I'm content." That night, while Chris is on one of his walks, Marion approaches and asks what he would put on the list for "happy". Chris responds, "Happy—if not now, never."

(1999) Dreaming of Joseph Lees

Dreaming of Joseph Lees is a 1999 British romantic drama film directed by Eric Styles and starring Rupert Graves, Samantha Morton and Nicholas Woodeson. It is an adaptation of a story written by Catherine Linstrum set in rural England in the late 1950s. The film was distributed by the Fox Entertainment Group. Samantha Morton's performance in the film won the Evening Standard Award British Film Award for Best Actress.

Set in rural England in the 1950s Eva (Samantha Morton) fantasises about her handsome, worldly cousin Joseph Lees (Rupert Graves), with whom she fell in love as a girl. However, stuck in a closed community she becomes the object of someone else's fantasy, Harry (Lee Ross). When Harry learns that Eva is planning to leave the village in order to live with and look after the injured Lees, he devises a gruesome scheme in order to force her to stay and look after him.

FILM REVIEW; A Love Triangle Ignited By What Might Have Been

By JANET MASLIN

Published: October 29, 1999

Though Samantha Morton proved herself a raw, electrifying actress in ''Under the Skin,'' she now turns up in the kind of tremulously carnal shy-flower role that once would have been played by Sarah Miles. ''Dreaming of Joseph Lees'' casts her as a prim-looking spinster who works at a sawmill and sends a lusty pig farmer named Harry (Lee Ross) in pursuit of her. Harry courts Eva (Ms. Morton) so unabashedly that he makes her blush, which is to say that he gets her attention. Harry's sister teases Eva about this, claiming that Eva is ''lookin' at him like he was burnin' you from the inside out.''

''Dreaming of Joseph Lees'' is set in 1958, when such thoughts qualify as dangerously naughty. And it is shot on the Isle of Man, where lonely, rugged panoramas replete with stone, mud and timber create rebellion-ready mood. So Eva is eventually tempted to flee the household of her stern, disapproving father and move to Harry's house. But as the title suggests, Eva yearns for something more.

Specifically, she thinks about her distant cousin, a geologist who lost a leg while working in an Italian quarry. (The sawmill's way of cutting logs may be an unfortunate metaphor.) She has not seen him since she was a 14-year-old with a schoolgirl crush. Then, at a family wedding, Joseph Lees shows up in the form of Rupert Graves and looks not at all the worse for wear. Unfortunately Joseph is not an option, now that Harry is on the scene.

But Joseph, who sends his cousin books about Italian art, has an undeniable effect on her. ''You and me, my darling, are made for love!'' exclaims Harry, only to have Eva snap ''You and I, Harry.'' Eventually, she and the handsome geologist wind up entwined together, talking about the earth's crust and other matters that are beyond Harry. And Harry begins behaving differently, as if the screenplay (by Catherine Linstrum) had flipped a switch.

As directed by Eric Styles, this earnest first feature pays careful attention to drably authentic details (Harry's sweaters have moth holes) and tells its glumly bodice-ripping tale with somber sensitivity. Ms. Morton succeeds in seeming volatile and alive even when the material is all too strained. Not content with metaphorical import, the sawmill also becomes part of a suicide attempt near the film's shrilly contrived ending. The screenplay asks viewers to believe that a character would willingly get in the way of a whirring blade.

''Dreaming of Joseph Lees'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes sexual situations and implicit gore.

Directed by Eric Styles; written by Catherine Linstrum; director of photography, Jimmy Dibling; edited by Caroline Limmer; music by Zbigniew Preisner; production designer, Humphrey Jaeger; produced by Christopher Milburn; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. At the U.A. Union Square 14, 13th Street at Broadway. Running time: 92 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Rupert Graves (Joseph Lees), Samantha Morton (Eva) and Lee Ross (Harry).