Scholarly interest in issues of national identity and representation has been increasing for years, and cinema is a major resource for that work, as it allows for cross-cultural dialogue and the portrayal of different layers of representation and cultural stereotypes. Beauty and the Beast takes a look at the depictions of Italy and the Italians in British cinema. Elisabetta Girelli draws upon cultural and social history to assess the ongoing representation...

Whether we are trying to impress a date after an art-house film screening or discussing Oscar nominations with friends, we all need ways to watch and talk about movies. But with so much variety between an Alfred Hitchcock thriller and a Nora Ephron romantic comedy, how can everyday viewers determine what makes a good movie? In Talking Pictures, veteran film critic Ann Hornaday walks us through the production of a typical movie-from writing the script...

Americans Hanna and Liv are best friends backpacking in Australia. After they run out of money, they take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called 'The Royal Hotel' in a remote Outback mining town. Soon, Hanna and Liv find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.

Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness), laboratory dishwasher at a textile mill, is secretly at work on the invention of a new fabric that will never get dirty and never wear out. After many trials, the invention succeeds and it is brought to the notice of his employer, who invests money and facilities to develop it. However, when the news of Stratton's invention breaks, industry is threatened with chaos. The trade unions and the mill owners find themselves...

Buster Keaton goes back to school and stages a hilarious send-up of university life in COLLEGE. Keaton stars as Ronald, an idealistic freshman who attends Clayton College in pursuit of higher learning, but finds himself instead embroiled in a war of athletics as he fights for the heart of his beloved coed, Mary. *"Buster on the playing field, failing gloriously at every sport but executing each one beautifully when he dashes to his girl's rescue,...

A brilliant historical satire teeming with inventive flourishes, Buster Keaton's THREE AGES is a silent comedy of truly epic proportions. This clever parody of D. W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE follows Buster's hard-luck romantic adventures throughout world history: form the dawn of man in the Stone Age, through the gladiatorial arenas of Ancient Rome, to the city streets of the American Jazz Era. *"Superb three-part silent comedy." - Daniel Eagan, **Film...

Alec Guinness stars as a mild-mannered transporter of gold bullion who has spent 20 years moving gold bars to banks in an armored truck. One day he simply decides to help himself to a million British pounds' worth of the gold, but to pull off the heist he enlists an old friend who sculpts and manufactures paperweights. Once the gold is hijacked, it's molded into souvenir miniatures of the Eiffel Tower and shipped off to Paris. Panic ensues when six...

During World War I, Scottish soldier Private Plumpick is sent on a mission to a village in the French countryside to disarm a bomb set by the retreating German army. Plumpick encounters a strange town occupied by the former residents of the local psychiatric hospital who escaped after the villagers deserted. Assuming roles like Bishop, Duke, barber, and circus ringmaster, they warmly accept the visitor as their King of Hearts. With his reconnaissance...

Lord Nicholas Dorset (David Warner) and his beautiful wife Britt (Ursula Andress), are a glamorous couple who live completely beyond their means. Their bank manager is Mr. Graham, who envies his customers' wealth. Over the years he has devised a foolproof plan to rob his own bank, and Britt and Nick's desperate financial situation makes them ideal accomplices. "*Mr. Hall has made an intelligent and quietly funny film about three eccentrics, who are...

Three stories about the world of opioids collide: a drug trafficker arranges a multi-cartel Fentanyl smuggling operation between Canada and the U.S., an architect recovering from an oxycodone addiction tracks down the truth behind her son's involvement with narcotics, and a university professor battles unexpected revelations about his research employer, a drug company with deep government influence bringing a new "non-addictive" painkiller to market....