Bovie Movie

A W. Somerset Maugham novel was the source for the fair-to-middling Greta Garbo vehicle The Painted Veil. In a situation comparable to the plotlines of most of her silent films, Garbo is lovelessly married to Herbert Marshall, but carries a flaming torch for George Brent. (Also harking back to Garbo’s silent days is the fact that neither one of the men in her life is particularly interesting!) Marshall, a brilliant physician, is compelled to go into the interior regions of China to quell a cholera epidemic. He knows that Garbo has been having an affair with politician Brent, and chivalrously gives her the choice of remaining with Brent or accompanying him. Fearing a scandal, Brent bids farewell to Garbo. Once they’re in the midst of the epidemic, Garbo tirelessly works by her husband’s side; eventually she falls in love with him for the first time. Seriously injured in a peasant uprising, Marshall hovers near death. Brent reappears, offering to take Garbo back with him. She refuses, electing to stay with her husband no matter what the future brings. Among the supporting players in The Painted Veil are Warner Oland and Keye Luke, one year away from their memorable pairing in Fox’s Charlie Chan films.

Following the phenomenal success of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Anthony Hopkins returns as brilliant madman Hannibal Lecter in this thriller based on the novel in which author Thomas Harris introduced the character. Will Graham (Edward Norton) is an FBI agent with a rare gift for tracking serial killers who brought Hannibal Lecter to justice; however, his confrontation with Lecter proved to be a bloody, near-death experience, and afterward Graham retired from the Bureau, moving to Florida to spend his time with his wife, Molly (Mary-Louise Parker), and their son. However, a particularly grisly killer is on the loose, and Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel), Graham’s one-time mentor at the Bureau, asks him to return to duty to find him. The “Tooth Fairy” is a vicious murderer who kills entire families at once, covering the eyes of his victims with bits of a shattered mirror. Graham finds he needs help putting together the pieces of the “Tooth Fairy” case, and he calls upon Lecter looking for advice. Lecter, at once vaguely helpful and self-serving, as usual, offers scraps of information to Graham which help him zero in on the killer. But Lecter knows more than he’s telling; the “Tooth Fairy” is actually Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes), a troubled and withdrawn man who admires Lecter’s violent panache and corresponds with him. Dolarhyde works at a film processing lab, where one of his co-workers, a blind woman named Reba McClane (Emily Watson), seems to be quite attracted to him. As Dolarhyde wrestles with both his murderous impulses and his feelings for McClane, Lecter plays Graham and Dolarhyde against one another so that, as the FBI agent comes closer to catching “the Tooth Fairy,” Dolarhyde moves in on his next victim — Graham’s family. Red Dragon marked the second time Harris’ novel of the same name had been brought to the screen; five years prior to The Silence of the Lambs, Michael Mann adapted the book for the screen as Manhunter, which starred William Petersen as Graham and Brian Cox as Lecter.

Ridley Scott directed this epic-scale historical drama inspired by the events of the Crusades of the 12th century. Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a humble French blacksmith who is searching for a reason to go on after the death of his wife and children. Balian is approached by Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), a fabled knight who has briefly returned home after serving in the East. Godfrey informs Balian that he is his true father, and urges the blacksmith to join him as he and his forces journey to Jerusalem to help defend the holy city. Balian accepts, and he and Godfrey arrive during the lull between the Second and Third Crusades, in which the city is enjoying a fragile peace. Both Christian and Muslim forces are temporarily in retreat, thanks to the wisdom of the Christian monarch King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), his second-in-command Tiberias (Jeremy Irons), and Muslim potentate Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Violent agitators on both sides are foolishly eager to end the peace in a bid for greater power, and Saladin bows to pressures from Muslim factions; Godfrey is one of a handful of brave knights who has thrown his allegiance behind Baldwin IV and his community of diversity, and Balian joins him as they use their skills as warriors in a bid to build a lasting peace. Kingdom of Heaven also stars Eva Green as the princess Sibylla, David Thewlis as Hospitaler the priest, and Brendan Gleeson as Reynald.

In this darkly comic drama, Edward Norton stars as a depressed young man (named in the credits only as “Narrator”) who has become a small cog in the world of big business. He doesn’t like his work and gets no sense of reward from it, attempting instead to drown his sorrows by putting together the “perfect” apartment. He can’t sleep and feels alienated from the world at large; he’s become so desperate to relate to others that he’s taken to visiting support groups for patients with terminal diseases so that he’ll have people to talk to. One day on a business flight, he discovers Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charming iconoclast who sells soap. Tyler doesn’t put much stock in the materialistic world, and he believes that one can learn a great deal through pain, misfortune, and chaos. Tyler cheerfully challenges his new friend to a fight. Our Narrator finds that bare-knuckle brawling makes him feel more alive than he has in years, and soon the two become friends and roommates, meeting informally to fight once a week. As more men join in, the “fight club” becomes an underground sensation, even though it’s a closely guarded secret among the participants. (First rule: Don’t talk about fight club. Second rule: Don’t talk about fight club.) But as our Narrator and Tyler bond through violence, a strange situation becomes more complicated when Tyler becomes involved with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), whom our Narrator became infatuated with when they were both crashing the support-group circuit. Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club was directed by David Fincher, who previously directed Pitt in the thriller Seven.