Inspired by Valentine's Day I wondered what people's favorite romantic movies might be.
And ....are the best romances the ones that are happy and gay like Roman Holiday or do they need a little hardship to really move you Vertigo.
These are just some classics that spring to mind at the moment. I will try to make a list with some newer ones as well.

LONDON (Reuters) January 29th 2010

Elizabethan theater-goers chomped on an exotic array of foods while enjoying the latest plays of the day, new evidence found at the sites of Shakespearean playhouses in London suggests.

Archaeologists say choice Tudor snacks included oysters by the cartload, crab and other shellfish like mussels, whelks and periwinkles.
Dried raisins and figs, hazelnuts, plums, cherries and peaches were also consumed in great quantities, according to experts who excavated The Rose and The Globe theatres on the south bank of the River Thames.
Baked blackberry and elderberry pies and sturgeon, common in British waters at the time, were also popular with the masses who packed the playhouses.

New published research also suggests that the theater diet varied along social and class lines.
Commoners, referred to then as "groundlings or stinkards" who paid just a penny to stand in the yard or pit regularly chomped on oysters.
"Oysters were in fact the staple diet of the poor, right up to the Victorian period, and certainly we find oyster shells by the thousand on nearly every archaeological site we do," said senior Museum of London archaeologist Julian Bowsher who excavated the two theater sites.

The gentrified classes, who paid more to sit on cushions in the galleries, were more likely to have munched on crab and sturgeon, he said.
Sturgeon may well have been slightly more expensive than other fish at the time.
"Underneath the gallery seating, we found fragments of crab which could also have been more costly."

There is evidence the better-off could also afford to snack on imported foods like peaches and dried fruits.

Museum of London Archaeology has published the findings in a book of the excavations, which began in 1988, called: "The Rose and the Globe: Playhouses of Shakespeare's Bankside, Southwark."

Authored by Bowsher and fellow archaeologist Pat Miller, it contains decades of research on all aspects of the playhouses from superstructure to dress accessories of the classes who attended.

The Rose was originally built in 1587 as a 14-sided polygon where many of Christopher Marlowe's plays, including "Doctor Faustus" and "The Jew of Malta," were first performed.

The Globe, home to many of Shakespeare's plays, was first built in 1599 by the Bard's playing company, burned down in 1613, was rebuilt in 1614 and, like all other London theatres, was closed down by the Puritans in 1642.

A modern reconstruction was opened in 1997.

Martin Scorsese has been honored at "The 67^th Annual Golden Globe^® Awards" on January 17 with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field." The award is voted by the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Scorsese received two Golden Globe Awards for "Best Director of a Motion Picture"; for "The Departed" and "Gangs of New York." He received five additional Golden Globe nominations, including four as Best Director ("Casino," "Age of Innocence," "Goodfellas," and Raging Bull") and one for Best Screenplay for "Goodfellas" (with Nicolas Pileggi).

Which of his movies do you think is best? Take a look at the overview first.

I haven't been able to post this before but since nobody else did I would like to draw your attention to the Honorary Award that was given to Lauren Bacall by The Academy on November 14, 2009 in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures.

Try and see her in some of the film noir's she stars in like The Big Sleep or Key Largo if you haven't or if you did, see it again.

Today we commemorate two classic American actors on their birthdays: Montgomery Clift and Rita Hayworth

Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 - July 23, 1966)

The release of Red River (1948) made him an overnight sensation and instant star. He embodied a new type of man on screen, the beautiful, sensual and vulnerable man that seemed to appeal to women and men alike.

Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 - May 14, 1987)

It is said that Rita was a shy, quiet and unassuming person; only when the cameras rolled she turned on the explosive sexual charisma that in Gilda (1946) made her a superstar.

They may have historical inaccuracies but don't the sets, the costumes and the magnificent sceneries make up for that?

The actors all seem to fit their roles like gloves. Romy Schneider as Sissi the young empress, Vilma Degischer  as Sofia her headstrong mother-in-law.
Magda Schneider, who is Romy Schneider's real life mother as well, Gustav Knuth as Maximilian, both warm and sympathetic parents. And Erich Nikowitz as the funny deaf and dumb Franz Karl.

There are three Sissi films:

* Sissi (1955)
* Sissi — die junge Kaiserin (1956) (Sissi — The Young Empress)
* Sissi — Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) (Sissi — Fateful Years of an Empress)

Almost every year around Christmas and New Years the three films are shown on Austrian, German, Dutch, Belgian and French TV. A condensed version dubbed in English was published in 1962 under the title Forever My Love, and in 2007, the three German films were released with English subtitles as The Sissi Collection.

Schneider apparently loathed the role, claiming, "Sissi sticks to me like porridge (Griesbrei).

 Later she was able to achieve a sort
 of satisfaction, appearing as a much
 more realistic and  fascinating
 Elisabeth in Luchino Visconti's
 Ludwig, a 1972 movie about
 Elisabeth's cousin, Ludwig II of
 Bavaria.
 A portrait of herself in this film was
 the only one of her roles Schneider
 displayed in her home.

Today, October 10th, 38 years ago in 1971 - "Upstairs, Downstairs" premiered on TV.

Upstairs, Downstairs, originally produced in England by Sagitta Productions for London Weekend Television (LWT),  became one of the most popular programs in the history of Masterpiece Theatre on the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and was beloved throughout much of the world. The series presents the narrative of the upper class Bellamy family and their servants during the urbulent first fourty years of the 20th  century in Britain. Their stories, focused individually  but always illustrative of complex and intertwined relationships, unfold chronologically, highlighting members of both the upstairs biological family and the downstairs "work family" of servants.

The series accurately represented and mirrored the societal milieu of its time and has been greatly acclaimed for  the producers' and authors' meticulous attention to accurate period detail. Historical events served as the context  for the characters' situations and actions in a narrative that carried them from 1903 Edwardian England, through World War I and the political upheavals of the twenties, to a conclusion set soon after the stock market crash at  the summer of 1930.

Upstairs, Downstairs is one of the highest rated programs in the history of PBS. The series has been syndicated to both commercial and non-commercial stations in America and is one of the most successful and watched dramatic series in television history. It is estimated that approximately one billion people in over 40 countries have enjoyed Upstairs, Downstairs and the series is still in active syndication.

I have bookmarked a link to a fansite that gives an incredible amount of information, pictures and sound clips on this series. Thank you Steve at updown.org.uk.

There are actors and actrices who are constantly casted for the same kind of character. They either fit their role because it gets close to their own real life character or they only play that one type of character very well.

There are also actors and actrices who can create an entirely different look and play an entirely different character. I find their change of appearance most fascinating.
Lets have a look at Ingrid Bergman, one of my favorites. She has plaid the part of:
- an elderly plain looking strong minded politician (the part of Golda Meir in A woman called Golda)
- a stumpy missionary prone to fits of religious apoplexy (Greta Ohllson in Murder on the orient express)
- a snobby aristocrat (Marquess Charles Printo in The Yellow Rolls Royce)
- a frightened and insecure princess (Anastacia)
and so the list goes on.

Another one of my favorites is Jack Nicholson. 
- a grumpy retired man (About Schmidt)
- a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer (Melvin Udall in As good as it gets)
- a slow but very much in charge hit-man (Charley Partanna in Prizzi's honor)
- crazy in Coockoo's nest and the Shining

Recently I had to point out to a friend that Colin Farrell playing the part of Alexander the Great is the same actor who plays the lead part as the slick publicist in Phone Booth.

Edward Norton can play a convincing alter boy in Primal Fear as well as a murdering neo-nazi in American History X.
Hellen Mirren holds my attention as the 16th century Elizabeth I, as well as the 20th century Elizabeth II in The Queen, as Det. Supt. Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect and as a housekeeper in Gosford Park.
And how about Rowan Atkinson in his different types of Blackadder compared to his character of mr. Bean.

Some good examples in a variety of characters but still in many cases you would probably say that it is a typical performance by that one actor or actress.