Director Lasse Hallstrom's recipe for Chocolat is bittersweet: a tale of human hope and frailty imbued with no small amount of symbolism. It's a story that requires a deft, sensitive musical touch and Hallstrom has wisely turned again to composer Rachel Portman for the honours. As she did on The Legend of Bagger Vance and her previous, Academy Award-nominated collaboration with ...
Lerner and Loewe's elegant, indestructible musical is one of those rare Broadway triumphs to be transferred to the big screen with practically every note and lyric intact. Warner's plush film version also preserved for posterity the definitive performances of Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins (though Jack Warner originally wanted Cary Grant) and Stanley Holloway as Alfred Dolittle. But if the ...
The screenwriting/directing debut of veteran British stage and screen actor Charles Dance tells of a pair of Cornish spinsters (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith) who discover a charismatic young Polish violin virtuoso castaway (Daniel Bruhl) on the beach below their home. The tale leads inexorably to tender romantic conflicts and a warm concert house finale. Composer Nigel Hess masterfully utilizes his ...