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![]() “Introducing Audrey Hepburn” reads an opening credit. Yes, the elfin Screen Queen made her debut as a fairytale Princess in Roman Holiday, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar — a splash for the ages! One of the best RomComs ever, Roman Holiday enchants to this day, utterly charming begi…
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Moviestar Princess wearing Edith Head
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![]() Essential though Patton may be – as war movie, as American history, as biopic – it’s not the epochal statement the Academy thought they were canonizing with seven Oscars in 1971, including Best Picture. Back then Frances Ford Coppola’s script seemed subversive, undermining American militarism …
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If I had my way, I'd meet Rommel F2F.
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![]() A pre-sexual revolution Italian trifle, Matrimonio All’Italiana packs a considerevole punch 50 years on. Consider Sophia Loren – in her prime. Screen sirens come no hotter or more joyous. Marcel…
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Sophia Loren's Filumena, fully grown
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![]() Deeply, floridly Italian, Malèna is a sumptuous WWII find, a Sicilian movie extraordinaire and a devastating depiction of Italian machismo reacting to the hottest signorina since Sophia Loren. Monica Belluci plays the title character, a gorgeous war bride living in a small Sicilian town, bro…
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where Malèna went, the town followed
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![]() The only smile triggered by Jason Bourne comes after the very long end credits, where the fine print under a “Green is Universal” logo brags about how this steroidal killfest used Sustainable Filming Practices. So let’s get this straight. After the private jets used by Matt Damon and his large …
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Mighty Matt rocks his upside-down grin.
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![]() A new addition to the canon of great mafia movies, Gomorra entertainingly details the mundane savagery and sociopathic activities of Italy’s oldest organized crime organization. Darkly funny, Gomorra brings to life Roberto Saviano’s hugely important book…
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Camorra Country: Cancer @ the heart o...
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![]() Hail the maximum sword and sandal movie. Gladiator tells a relatively unadorned story stupendously well. Its great star – Russell Crowe – fights above his weight class, delivering a superman performance while hewing to his characteristically understated readings. Highly watchable then and … |
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![]() The best Bond? Hardly, notwithstanding its haughty reputation and terrific title. Connery’s in rare form, granted. However the Bond girls are … who are they again? Former beauty queen Daniela Bianchi and a pair of Gypsies. Hardly Ursula Andress, Halle Berry or Jane Seymour. The übervi…
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Connery & Miss World Runner-Up
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![]() More than just the chariot race, Ben-Hur virtually defines big screen epic. At three and a half hours, it’s a lot of movie, full of bravura performances, grand visuals, and tasteful religious symbolism. One of only three movies to win 11 Oscars,1 it deserves the acclaim that accompanies the…
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Ben-Hur: This, in widescreen Technico...
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