Crash
(Screened Saturday January 3, 8.30pm)WATCH IT NOW
Director: Paul Haggis
Starring: Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle
What's it about?In this 2004 drama, which was nominated six times at the Academy Awards and won three awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Editing, conflict and racial tensions engulf the lives of initially complete strangers: a white couple who get car-jacked by two African-Americans, an African-American couple who are humilated by policemen, an Iranian small business-owner adopts measures to ensure his own safety and a pair of detectives are called to investigate a shooting crime. A tragic car accident will change their lives forever.
The Hours
(Screened Saturday January 10, 8.30pm)WATCH IT NOW
Director: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep
What's it about?Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, The Hours employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, Mrs. Dalloway, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning three different eras, during one day, the film focuses on the parallel lives of three women joined in their depression, alienation, and search for love. Nicole Kidman gives here one of her best performances portraying Virginia Woolf, and subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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Watch interview with Stephen Daldry and Nicole Kidman
Cold Mountain
(Screened Saturday January 17, 8.30pm)WATCH IT NOW
Director: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jude Law
Available after broadcast on SBS On Demand
What's it about?In this epic war drama, Ada (Nicole Kidman), the daughter and of a minister, and Inman (Jude Law), a Confederate soldier, pine for one another while he's off taking part in the Civil War. Meanwhile, the death of Ada's father leaves her destitute and she it takes the intervention of a pragmatic young woman named Ruby (Renee Zellweger, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Support Role) to give her the strength to go on. The stellar cast also includes Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Donald Sutherland.
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Watch interview with Anthony Minghella and Nicole Kidman
Misery
(Screened Saturday January 24, 8.30pm)WATCH IT NOW
Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth
Available after broadcast on SBS On Demand
What's it about?In the horror movie based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, successful writer Paul Sheldon gets badly injured in a car accident on his way home from a retreat where he's just finished his new book. He's rescued by a former nurse, Annie Wilkes, who brings him to her remote house in the mountains to care for him. Annie happens to be his biggest fan, and when she learns that he's killed off the heroin of his novel, she is well intent on making him pay for it. Kathy Bates won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Actress for her chilling portrayal of Annie Wilkes.
The English Patient
(Screened Saturday January 31, 9.30pm)WATCH IT NOW
Director: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche
Available after broadcast on SBS On Demand
What's it about?Have a box of tissues (and chocolates) at the ready when watching The English Patient, as you may well melt into a sobbing mess by the end of this epic saga. This powerful romantic drama received universal acclaim at the time of his release in 1997 and won an impressive nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. It follows four people at the end of WWII in 1945, who take refuge in an abandoned monastery in Tuscany to heal their wounds. One of them, a mysterious English patient who suffers from serious burns, starts revealing his dramatic past to the young nurse attending to him.
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Watch interview with director Anthony Minghella
