Max Ophüls is remembered for bringing grace to the tragic melodrama, but among his finest works are a pair of bittersweet collections of romantic tales, viewed through the ironic lens of Ophüls's gliding camera. Le Plaisir is the second of these two, following his masterful roundelay La Ronde, a portrait of romance as a foolish game between deceiving lovers. Le Plaisir, based on the stories of Guy du Maupassant, takes a gentler, more wistful approach to the subject of love and desire through its three tales. Le Masque is the melancholy story of an old man as a veritable dancing wax museum figure hopelessly grasping for his lost youth in a nightly masquerade. La Maison Tellier, "a fairy tale for adults," in the words of the narrator (Jean Servais playing Maupassant), is a delightful tale of a local brothel that closes for a night for a visit to the country, where the ladies have gone to celebrate a young girl's first communion. Jean Gabin is delightful as the charming country bumpkin who plays host to the troupe and becomes sweetly smitten with flirty Danielle Darrieux. The finale, Le Modele, stars Daniel Gélin and Simone Simon as young lovers whose imminent breakup heads toward tragedy, but takes a fateful turn both sad and sweet. The bittersweet satire is lovingly leavened by Ophüls's generosity of character, but a wistful sense of regret hovers over each tale, a weary sadness enriched by wry delicacy and beautiful flowing camera work. -Sean Axmaker.

Herman Raucher's autobiographical (or first person, anyway) coming-of-age tale is set, as the title suggests, among sand dunes and departing GIs. Hermie (Gary Grimes) and his two buddies Oscar (Jerry Hauser) and the nerdy Benjie (Oliver Conant) are spending the summer doing the things preadolescents do: hanging out, eating ice cream, stealing "dirty" books from their parents, and trying unsuccessfully to act manly around the gawky girls they take to the movies. Then Hermie spoils everything by really falling in love, this time with the adorable older woman Dorothy, played by Jennifer O'Neill. Dorothy's husband conveniently leaves for duty overseas, and then, even more conveniently, becomes one of those "we regret" telegrams. Dorothy, desperate for comfort and sweetness, turns to Hermie-and surely makes his summer. The setting and the date give this movie a double helping of nostalgia for anyone who was once an adolescent boy desperately trying to get rid of both his callowness and his virginity. But the slow pace and dreamy atmosphere, courtesy of Robert Mulligan's direction and Michael Legrand's famous score, may give it less appeal to anyone who is still in that situation. -Richard Farr.

Hailed by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu is an undisputed masterpiece of Japanese cinema, revealing greater depths of meaning and emotion with each successive viewing. Mizoguchi's exquisite "gender tragedy" is set during Japan's violent 16th-century civil wars, a historical context well-suited to the director's compassionate perspective on the plight of women and the foibles of men. The story focuses on two brothers, Genjuro (Masayuki Mori) and Tobei (Sakae Ozawa), whose dreams of glory (one as a wealthy potter, the other a would-be samurai) cause them to leave their wives for the promise of success in Kyoto. Both are led astray by their blind ambitions, and their wives suffer tragic fates in their absence, as Ugetsu evolves into a masterful mixture of brutal wartime realism and haunting ghost story. The way Mizoguchi weaves these elements so seamlessly together is what makes Ugetsu (masterfully derived from short stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant) so challenging and yet deeply rewarding as a timeless work of art. Featuring flawless performances by some of Japan's greatest actors (including Machiko Kyo, from Kurosawa's Rashomon), Ugetsu is essential viewing for any serious lover of film. -Jeff Shannon DVD features The Criterion Collection's high standards of scholarly excellence are on full display in the two-disc set of Ugetsu, packaged in an elegant slipcase reflecting the tonal beauty of the film itself, which has been fully restored with a high-definition digital transfer. The well-prepared commentary by critic/filmmaker Tony Rayns combines the astute observations of a serious cineaste (emphasizing a keen appreciation for Mizoguchi's long-take style, compositional meaning, and literary inspirations) with informative biographical and historical detail. In the 14-minute featurette "Two Worlds Intertwined," director Masahiro Shinoda discusses how Mizoguchi's career and films have had a lasting impact on himself and Japanese culture in general. Interviews with Tokuzo Tanaka (first assistant director on Ugetsu) and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa focus more specifically on anecdotal production history Mizoguchi's working methods, including the director's legendary perfectionism regarding painstaking details of props, costumes, and production design. [+]

This lovely, 1991 adaptation of Elizabeth Von Arnim's novel has a superb cast and a tone so mellow you can feel your pulse get slower. Josie Lawrence and Miranda Richardson play a pair of unhappily married women who rent an Italian villa for a month, sharing the rent with a crusty Englishwoman (Joan Plowright) and a lonely aristocrat (Polly Walker). Sun, rest, sinking into the green grass for long naps-they all have a soulful effect on the quartet, and then on the men in their lives who make a surprise visit. Mike Newell (Into the West) directs with seeming effortlessness, and it is impossible not to be swayed by the promise of restoration for these burdened characters-or for anyone alive. Wonderful performances all around, including a particularly sensitive one by Alfred Molina and a very funny one by Jim Broadbent. -Tom Keogh.

Stacey Keach does a star turn as "Papa" Hemingway in this 1988 made-for-television saga, working his way through nearly five on-screen hours of womanizing, drinking, and big-game hunting-and even manages to squeeze in time to write a few canon-bound books. Although director Bernhard Sinkel's epic look at the writer suffers from a lethargic pace and highly suspect (read: glamorized) portrayals of such luminaries as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, the film, based in part on Hemingway's letters, does offer abundant biographical glimpses into Hemingway's fabled history. Keach's portrayal, while well short of inspired, suits the medium, and won him a Golden Globe Award to boot. The film was shot on location around the globe, so Hem enthusiasts will at least be treated to a visual survey of the legendary writer's many habitats. Unfortunately, the extra features on this two-disc set are extraordinarily meager; the "Hemingway Biography" and "Keach on Hemingway" segments are merely a few screens of text outlining a scanty overview of these subjects. Nonetheless, as the only biopic available, Hemingway will no doubt be of interest to insatiable Hemingway and Modern Lit aficionados. But for a livelier, more entertaining look into the writer's life, a beaten paperback copy of A Moveable Feast will do. -Karl Wachter.

The late French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse made this classic, 1956 short work about a lonely little Parisian boy (Pascal Lamorisse) befriended by a large red balloon, which seems to have a will of its own. As with his preceding short, 1952's White Mane, Lamorisse took home a grand prize from the Cannes Film Festival for The Red Balloon, and the latter film also won an Academy Award. There have been some stimulating pieces of film criticism (some pro, some con) written about the aesthetics of this little movie over the years, but there's no question it makes for a touching, allegorical piece always certain to prompt conversations among viewers of any age. -Tom Keogh.

Cartoonist Hal Foster's medieval hero, the Scandinavian Prince Valiant, comes to the screen in all his Dutch-bob-haircut glory in this 1954 film directed by Henry Hathaway (Kiss of Death). Robert Wagner plays the title role and does a bang-up job of it, convincingly portraying the heroic prince as he enters the court of King Arthur (Brian Aherne) in England and becomes (with some tutelage from Sir Gawain, played by Sterling Hayden) a Knight of the Round Table. Determined to restore his dethroned family to their proper seat back home, Valiant takes on the Black Knight (James Mason), who plans to do away with Arthur and then finish his misdeeds back in Scandia. Under such pressure, the prince, quite understandably, falls in love with Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh). Hathaway proves to be the perfect director for this material, as his fluid skill, moderate forcefulness, and adaptability to genre necessities keep the film from teetering too far in the direction of pulp-or self-seriousness. -Tom Keogh.