7.2

The Young Victoria

2008, UK, USA

• Actors: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Thomas Kretschmann, Mark Strong, Jesper Christensen, Harriet Walter, Jeanette Hain, Julian Glover, Michael Maloney, Michiel Huisman, Genevieve O'Reilly, Rachael Stirling, Morven Christie, Josef Altin, Tom Brooke, Michaela Brooks, Grace Smith, Sophie Roberts, Charlie Clarke, Robert Cambrinus, Tom Fisher, Shaun Dingwall, Alice Glover, David Horovitch, Jo Hartley, Bernard Lloyd, Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis
• Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
• Director(s): Jean-Marc Vallée
• Available languages:
  • English English.

Dominated by her possessive mother and her bullying consort, Conroy, since childhood, teen-aged Victoria refuses to allow them the power of acting as her regent in the last days of her uncle, William IV's rule. Her German cousin Albert is encouraged to court her for solely political motives but, following her accession at age eighteen, finds he is falling for her and is dismayed at her reliance on trusty premier Melbourne. Victoria is impressed by Albert's philanthropy which is akin to her own desire to help her subjects. However her loyalty to Melbourne, perceived as a self-seeker, almost causes a constitutional crisis and it is Albert who helps restore her self-confidence. She proposes and they marry, Albert proving himself not only a devoted spouse, prepared to take an assassin's bullet for her, but an agent of much-needed reform, finally endorsed by an admiring Melbourne.

  7.6

Babel

2005, France, USA, Mexico

• Actors: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam, Peter Wight, Harriet Walter, Trevor Martin, Matyelok Gibbs, Georges Bousquet, Claudine Acs, André Oumansky, Michael Maloney, Dermot Crowley, Wendy Nottingham, Henry Maratray, Linda Broughton, Jean Marc Hulot, Aline Mowat, Liliane Escoza, Lynsey Beauchamp, Michel Dubois, Shirley Dixon, Patrick Lebre, John O'Mohoney, Mary Mitchell, Edward Lyon, Robert Fyfe, Abdelaziz Merzoug, Omar El Mallouli, El Hassan Ait Bablal, Sfia Ait Benboullah
• Genre: Drama
• Director(s): Alejandro González Iñárritu
• Available languages:
  • English English.

4 interlocking stories all connected by a single gun all converge at the end and reveal a complex and tragic story of the lives of humanity around the world and how we truly aren't all that different. In Morocco, a troubled married couple are on vacation trying to work out their differences. Meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd. A girl in Japan dealing with rejection, the death of her mother, the emotional distance of her father, her own self-consciousness, and a disability among many other issues, deals with modern life in the enormous metropolis of Tokyo, Japan. Then, on the opposite side of the world the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's 2 children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico, only to come into trouble on the return trip. Combined, it provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of seemingly random people around the world and it shows just how connected we really are.

  7.6

Notes on a Scandal

2005, UK

• Actors: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Tom Georgeson, Michael Maloney, Joanna Scanlan, Shaun Parkes, Emma Kennedy, Syreeta Kumar, Andrew Simpson, Philip Davis, Wendy Nottingham, Tameka Empson, Leon Skinner, Bill Nighy, Juno Temple, Max Lewis, Debra Gillett, Barry McCarthy, Julia McKenzie, Adrian Scarborough, Jill Baker, Diana Berriman, Alice Bird, Benedict Taylor, Miranda Pleasence, Jonathan Speer, Stephen Kennedy, Derbhle Crotty, Catherine Drew, Anne-Marie Duff
• Genre: Drama
• Director(s): Richard Eyre
• Available languages:
  • English English.

The bitter, cynical and lonely Barbara Covett is a tough and conservative teacher near to retirement that is loathed by her colleagues and students. In the loneliness of her apartment, she spends her spare time writing her journal, taking care of her old cat Portia and missing her special friend Jennifer Dodd. When Sheba Hart joins the high-school as the new art teacher, Barbara dedicates her attention to the newcomer, writing sharp and unpleasant comments about her behavior and clothes. When Barbara helps Sheba in a difficult situation with two students, the grateful Sheba invites her to have lunch with her family. Sheba introduces her husband and former professor Richard Hart, who is about twenty years older than she; her rebellious teenager daughter Polly; and her son Ben that has Down's Syndrome. Barbara becomes close to Sheba, but when she accidentally discovers that Sheba is having an affair with the fifteen year-old student Steven Connolly, Barbara sees the chance to manipulate and get closer to Sheba, hiding the secret from the school headmaster. When Portia dies and Sheba does not stay with Barbara in the veterinary office to see Ben in a theater play, Barbara plots a Machiavellian revenge against Sheba, creating a scandal and consequent turmoil in their lives.

  7.7

Hamlet

1995, UK, USA

• Actors: Riz Abbasi, Richard Attenborough, David Blair, Brian Blessed, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Briers, Michael Bryant, Peter Bygott, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Charles Daish, Judi Dench, Gérard Depardieu, Reece Dinsdale, Ken Dodd, Angela Douglas, Rob Edwards, Nicholas Farrell, Ray Fearon, Yvonne Gidden, John Gielgud, Rosemary Harris, Charlton Heston, Ravil Isyanov, Derek Jacobi, Rowena King, Jeffery Kissoon, Sarah Lam, Jack Lemmon, Ian McElhinney
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
• Director(s): Kenneth Branagh
• Available languages:
  • English English.

Hamlet, son of the king of Denmark, is summoned home for his father's funeral and his mother's wedding to his uncle. In a supernatural episode, he discovers that his uncle, whom he hates anyway, murdered his father. In an incredibly convoluted plot--the most complicated and most interesting in all literature--he manages to (impossible to put this in exact order) feign (or perhaps not to feign) madness, murder the "prime minister," love and then unlove an innocent whom he drives to madness, plot and then unplot against the uncle, direct a play within a play, successfully conspire against the lives of two well-meaning friends, and finally take his revenge on the uncle, but only at the cost of almost every life on stage, including his own and his mother's.

  7.2

Looking for Richard

1995, USA

• Actors: Penelope Allen, Gordon MacDonald, Madison Arnold, Vincent Angell, Harris Yulin, Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Timmy Prairie, Landon Prairie, Kevin Conway, Larry Bryggman, Kevin Spacey, Estelle Parsons, Winona Ryder, Phil Parolisi, Bruce MacVittie, Paul Guilfoyle, Richard Cox, Julie Moret, Frederic Kimball, Daniel von Bargen, James Colby, Ira Lewis, Aidan Quinn, Neal Jones, Luke Toma, André Sogliuzzo, Marlon Pollick, F. Murray Abraham, Hayley Barr
• Genre: Documentary, Drama
• Director(s): Al Pacino
• Available languages:
  • English English.

Director Al Pacino juxtaposes scene's from Richard III, scenes of rehearsals for Richard III, and sessions where parties involved discuss the play, the times that shaped the play and the events that happened at the time the play is set. Interviews with mostly British actors are also included, attempting to explain why American actors have more problems performing Shakespearean plays than they do.