Tous les Matins du Monde

Tous les Matins du Monde (1991) starring Jean-Pierre Marielle, Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Guillaume Depardieu. French film (in French, with English subtitles) about the relationship between two 17th-century musicians who specialized in playing the viol. The movie was a smash hit in France, but I fear it loses somewhat in the translation. Plus, the only music on the soundtrack is cello music, which I've never particularly cared for. It's a very well made film, about a subject that doesn't much interest me. If you love cello music and don't mind reading subtitles, this movie may very well be for you. Grade: B

To Sir, with Love

To Sir, with Love (1966) starring Sidney Poitier. Mr. Thackery (Poitier) takes over a teaching position in an unruly East London high school, gradually wins the respect and love of his students. Poitier, of course, is outstanding, but the script leaves a little to be desired in terms of believability. Title song is repeated three times, to great effect. (English subtitles are offered, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+

Torrid Zone

Torrid Zone (1940) starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Andy Devine. Light-hearted, lightweight movie takes place in the tropics, where Cagney plays a banana plantation manager who desperately wants to go back to the states, while Sheridan stars as a nightclub singer who wants to continue traveling south to try her luck in South America. Naturally, they fall in love. While Cagney tries to move bananas, an outlaw named Rosario tries to push the plantation off the land and reclaim it for the original inhabitants. The film doesn't take much of anything seriously, and gives the impression of having been tossed off in a couple of weeks in 1940 to fulfill the need for movies to play in the theaters. It's not bad. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

Torment

Torment (1944) starring Mai Zetterling, Stig Jarrel, Alf Kjellin. Strange Swedish film which has as its chief recommendation the fact that the screenplay marked Ingmar Bergman's debut. In the movie, a schoolboy (Kjellin) gets involved with a tobacco-shop girl (Zetterling), and somehow his sadistic Latin teacher (Jarrel) is involved with her. I found the film very odd, with a Swedish sensibility which didn't translate very well into English. (It's in Swedish, of course, with English subtitles.) Grade: B

Footnote

Footnote (2011) starring Schlomo Bar-Abba, Lior Ashkenazi, Alisa Rosen, Alma Zak. Israeli film, nominated for best foreign language Academy Award, involves a father and son who both work in an extremely narrow field of Talmudic scholarship. The father does obscure and extremely detailed research, while the son writes popular books and has been very successful. The crux of the film comes when the father is accidentally informed that he has won a prestigious award which, in fact, should have been awarded to his son. The movie is both a drama and a comedy, since it has moments of high humor, and at the same time plumbs the depths of the human soul. I felt that there was some loss due to translation from Hebrew to English, but when it was over I felt as if I had seen a masterpiece. (The film is in Hebrew with English subtitles.) Grade: A

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) starring Martin Balsam, Soh Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten, Tatsuya Mihashi, E. G. Marshall, James Whitmore. The events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 are told from both the American and Japanese points of view. Mistakes both large and small made by both sides are shown, and the tension builds very effectively. The attack itself is shown at length and with Oscar-winning special effects. This is a deeply affecting, very well made motion picture. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-

Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy (2000) starring Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Lesley Manville, Eleanor David, Ron Cook, Timothy Spall. In 1884, famed composers Gilbert and Sullivan (Broadbent and Corduner) come to a creative impasse. The logjam is broken when the idea for The Mikado comes to Gilbert. This movie is a delight to watch, with many fine small touches that make the Victorian setting come alive. It brings to life two men who were great celebrities in their time, and whose work is still performed. It shows us a very thin slice of Victorian life and times, and what it might have been like to live during that time and perhaps go to the theater. (The English subtitles are good, although they are hard to find and at times hard to read.) Grade: A-

Topkapi

Topkapi (1964) starring Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov. A ragtag band of would-be thieves plot to steal the Topkapi emerald, which is set in a dagger in a museum in Turkey. Their criminal plan is meticulously planned and executed, but of course there is a catch. Ustinov won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Arthur Simpson, a "schmo" who is recruited into the plan at the last minute. The whole movie is kept light and funny, and the actual caper is very entertaining. (No subtitles, but closed captions are available.) Grade: B+

Friends with Kids

Friends with Kids (2011) starring Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Kristen Wiig, Megan Fox, John Hamm, Maya Rudolph, Chris O'Dowd. Two platonic friends (Scott, Westfeldt) see what being parents has done to their married friends, and decide to have a baby together -- but without the commitment of marriage. They both go on to date other people, but are obviously in love with each other. This movie, which should be funny, has few laughs -- in fact I don't remember cracking a smile. It's all so earnest, the nastiness between their friends is so hurtful, the confrontation with their married friend (Hamm) on the skiing trip is so vicious, that it's really hard to like this film. Though I admit I was moved when they finally got together (oops, hope I didn't spoil the ending!), the romance of the moment was somewhat spoiled when he declared his love by saying "I want to fuck the shit out of you." Does that pass for love talk these days? It didn't turn me on. (The disc offers optional English subtitles and closed captions.) Grade: B-

Topaz

Topaz (1969) starring John Forsythe, Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Pretty lame entry from Hitchcock has Forsythe as American spy and Stafford as French spy; they uncover early indications of Cuban missile crisis in 1962. A lot of the action takes place in France, as Stafford tries to sniff out upper-level Soviet spy ring called Topaz. Unfortunately, Hitchcock makes no effort to make us feel like the French speak French, and it gives the film an inauthentic feel. That, plus the weak script and wishy-washy ending left me feeling cheated. (The film on disc has good subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C+

Tootsie

Tootsie (1982) starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Bill Murray. Brilliant comedy in which an unemployed actor (Hoffman) finds that he becomes a better man after he poses as a woman to get a role. Lange is radiant as the actress he falls in love with, and Garr is hilarious as his longtime friend who doesn't know that he's playing a woman on TV. The acting is uniformly good and the script is full of great dialogue. This movie is a winner from beginning to end. (Subtitles in English are available, and closed captions are also offered.) Grade: A

Tom Brown's Schooldays

Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) starring John Howard Davies. In Victorian England, young Tom Brown (Davies) is sent off to boarding school, where he soon learns he must deal with the bully Flashman. Other stuff goes on in the movie, but the confrontation and ultimate showdown with Flashman is the central story line. It's a rather well directed and acted film, for all its being somewhat dated. (Closed captions are included, but are at times very hard to read.) Grade: B

Tomorrow

Tomorrow (1972) starring Robert Duvall, Olga Bellin. Simple Mississippi handyman (Duvall) meets an abandoned pregnant woman (Bellin), takes her in and falls in love with her. After her baby is born, he vows to her that he will raise it as his own. Based on a Faulkner story, this is a movie that tells a quiet tale, building slowly to a highly impactful finale. Even though it has no subtitles or closed captions, I was able to follow it closely and found it sadly moving. Spoiler alert: There is no happy ending. Grade: B+

To Live

To Live (1994) starring Ge You, Gong Li. Spanning three decades -- the '40s, '50s and '60s -- this movie tells the story on one family in China and how they cope with continuous historic changes. First comes the Communist revolution in 1949, then the Great Leap Forward in 1958, then the Cultural Revolution in 1969. Always in the background is Mao Zedong, their beloved leader. I found the film quite moving, especially Gong Li's performance, although it was Ge You who won the Best Actor laurels at Cannes. (In Chinese, with English subtitles.) Grade: A-

Together

Together (2002) starring an all-Chinese cast. A teenage boy and his father travel to Beijing, where the father is determined that his son Chun will become a violin prodigy. But the boy, who has become interested in girls, can't decide whether he wants to be truly serious about the violin or not. (In Chinese, with English subtitles.) Grade: B+

Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story (1953) starring Chisu Ryu, Chisko Higashiyama. An elderly Japanese couple go to visit their grown children in Tokyo. All of the children have busy lives, and can spare little time to entertain their parents, who soon decide to leave and go back home. This is a sad movie, but a great example of the art of filmmaking. The commentary included on the disc states that it is one of the greatest films of all time, but you will have to judge that for yourself. (In Japanese with English subtitles. The subtitles are very hard to read at times.) Grade: B+

To Hell and Back

To Hell and Back (1955) starring Audie Murphy. Based on his autobiography, this movie tells the story of U.S. war hero Audie Murphy, who plays himself. Murphy served in World War II, and was the most decorated soldier in American history, winning every medal the United States could bestow, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. Amazingly enough, his Army career ended when he was wounded at the age of 19. He later went on to star in a series of B-grade Westerns, even though he was not much of an actor. The combat scenes in this film are interesting, and it shows commendable respect for Murphy's comrades who died while fighting alongside him. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are offered on the DVD, but not closed captions.) Grade: B

To Have and Have Not

To Have and Have Not (1944) starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan. Directed by Howard Hawks. Casablanca wanna-be is notable as Bacall's film debut. Bacall and Bogie fell in love both on- and off-screen in this wartime drama, which has Bogart playing boat owner Harry Morgan, who gets involved with the Free French in Martinique in 1940. Brennan is a standout as Morgan's always-drunk friend, Eddie, a good man in spite of himself. (The DVD offers English subtitles, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

To Catch a Thief

To Catch a Thief (1955) starring Cary Grant, Grace Kelly. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Interesting Hitchcock concoction, set on the French Riviera, with Grant as a reformed jewel thief formerly known as "The Cat," and Kelly as a rich American visiting France with her mother. Naturally, they fall in love. At the time of filming, Grant was about 50, Kelly 26. The dialogue is a bit stilted at times, but the movie still has that Hitchcock touch, which makes it worth watching. The French scenery is a big plus. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B+