Since there are hundreds of actors working in film today, what is it that makes a select few of them so popular and captivating to audiences? In short, how does one try to explain the unique essence of a movie star?

That question has become a surprisingly difficult one to answer in present times, considering the dubious accomplishments of those who have achieved enough fame, industry and clout to gain the impressive designation of "star."

After the recent blockbuster "Sweet Home Alabama" became the second consecutive romantic-comedy smash for Reese Witherspoon, the young actress was referred to in the entertainment press as not just a new icon but "the next Julia Roberts." Witherspoon can be either astoundingly good ("Election") or nails-on-the-chalkboard irritating ("The Importance of Being Earnest") as an actress, but, for me, she is too transparent and indistinct to qualify as a bona fide star. But what is more troubling about her new career path is that Roberts, her designated forebear, represents the sorry state of stardom in contemporary film, so someone arriving on the scene as a shrewdly calculated carbon copy comes off as more than a little pathetic. With the notable exception of "Erin Brockovich," in which director Steven Soderbergh tapped into an unexpected reserve of flinty, no-nonsense humanity within the actress, Roberts has always seemed insufferably bland and inaccessible. Her near-deity position with the public remains a mystery.

Another example of the present-day movie-star confusion can be found in the upcoming "The Truth About Charlie." A remake of Stanley Donen's wonderfully zesty 1963 caper "Charade," this movie sees Thandie Newton and Mark Wahlberg follow in the estimable footsteps of Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. There has been a lot of juvenile whining about the former Marky Mark taking on a role once occupied by Grant, and the naysayers are right about one thing: Since Wahlberg clearly lacks the debonair charm of the classic matinee idol, his casting is highly incongruous. What Wahlberg detractors overlook, however, is that what holds the actor back from becoming a star —his naturalistic, junior league Robert De Niro intensity — simultaneously makes him one of the finest talents of his generation (and, yes, I can say that with a straight face). He can't be a star for the same reason that Nicolas Cage, no matter how hard studios try, can never be one: He infuses even the shallowest material with such dark complexity that his greatness ends up being oddly inappropriate. 

Movie stars always possess a laid-back confidence that allows them to coast through a bad project on the strength of their appeal. This is not to say that "coasting" is the most desirable goal for performers, and it would also be easy, and nearly accurate, to say that no one needs stars as long as there are actors as skilled and professional as Cage and Wahlberg around.

But while I do have a soft spot for the numerous, more recognizably human actors out there (for example, I make it a mission to see any movie co-starring William H. Macy or Julianne Moore), I must also profess a weakness for being pulled into a performance by the sheer magnetism of a star's personality.

Plus, it was once easy to identify the characteristics that would propel an actor to mythical status. An even balance between mega-watt screen presence and convincing dramatic ability was what cemented celebrity, and it used to be in satisfyingly large supply.

When Grant and Hepburn played games of trust and attraction in "Charade," they did so with comedic precision and vibrant chemistry. When James Dean yelled "You're tearing me apart!" in "Rebel Without a Cause," we felt his alienated angst with piercing pain. When Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart came together for "The Philadelphia Story," probably my favorite screwball romance, sparks really flew.

So, if Roberts and her automaton ilk pose a threat to movie-star legitimacy, is there anyone upholding the tradition established by greats such as Grant, Dean and the Hepburns?

Well, I can think of two up-and-coming actors who have that potential, but have yet to break through to the mainstream.

One is Colin Farrell, who first came to attention in Joel Schumacher's gritty boot-camp drama "Tigerland." By example, Farrell brought such a compelling energy and focus to his role in that film as a defiant soldier who can see no place for himself in the Vietnam campaign, as to virtually define the term "star-making performance." Unfortunately, "Tigerland" never opened anywhere outside of New York and Los Angeles, thereby limiting the actor's exposure. He gained a wider following this summer in his supporting role as a Justice Department go-getter in "Minority Report," expertly sparring with Tom Cruise. Let's hope his leading role in this fall's "Phone Booth" delivers on his immense promise.

One of the few actresses working today who I literally can not take my eyes off of is Cate Blanchett. She seems to glow with a hypnotic irridescence, and she has displayed incredible range as an actress. So far, she has been more of an art-house draw, but if she started doing larger scale movies (not counting her "Lord of the Rings" appearance, which, though radiant as expected, amounted to a glorified cameo), she would likely bring fresh class and elegance to them. And as the underrated "The Gift" demonstrated, she can definitely carry a genre film.

Whether actors such as Farrell or Blanchett can expand their fan base remains to be seen, but I can say that I would much rather see their names in lights than a gaggle of generic pretty women.

Film columnist Brett Buckalew may be reached at (213) 740-5645 or [email protected].

The Napster music service he created may be dead, but Shawn Fanning's movie career is thriving. At an age when most people are getting a life, Mr. Fanning, 21 years old, just sold the rights to his life story to MTV, the Viacom Inc. cable music channel said last week. MTV plans to produce a movie, scheduled to be released next year, that will follow the tumultuous career arc that turned Mr. Fanning from the teenage programmer who created Napster in his dorm room at Northeastern University to the shaven-head symbol of the recording industry's fears about music piracy. Filmmakers are discussing the possibility of Mr. Fanning playing himself, but they haven't made any final casting decisions, says Maggie Malina, vice president of original movies at MTV. 

Mr. Fanning has another Viacom cinematic turn in the works -- a cameo appearance in "The Italian Job," a Paramount Pictures remake, currently in production, of a 1969 caper that starred Michael Caine. In the new version of the movie, which stars Mark Wahlberg, a character played by actor Seth Green claims to be the real inventor of Napster, while Mr. Fanning plays the impostor who stole Napster's code and credit for creating the service, a Paramount spokesman says. 

Mr. Fanning, who couldn't be reached for comment, has time to spend on his new activities these days. All of Napster's employees were laid off last month, the company's creditors are taking bids for its assets and Mr. Fanning is unemployed. Despite his Hollywood dealings, Mr. Fanning still has Silicon Valley on the mind: He said recently that he is considering possibilities for new technology start-ups. 

The Austin Film Festival and the Austin Film Society will present Jonathan Demme's latest, The Truth About Charlie, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at the Paramount.

I was hesitant to ask Jonathan Demme why he decided to make The Truth About Charlie, his contemporary take on Stanley Donen's 1963 Charade, a widely adored romantic thriller that stars Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Walter Matthau. The original oozes with such sexual chemistry and Hitchcockian twists that it would be a fairly impossible movie to outdo and, worse, might seem like a desecration. And Demme is such an original filmmaker that it would be preposterous to think of him trolling the past for story ideas to borrow. So I stammer out something about this "re-imagining" of a classic -- "or whatever word of the week you want to use," Demme genially interrupts. 

"The fact of the matter is The Truth About Charlie is a remake," the director plainly states. "When you take an old movie and you do a new version of it, you've remade that movie. You may have changed it a lot. We changed it, I think, an awful lot, though we hung on to the spirit of the original, which is what made me want to do it in the first place." 

Demme has been making films for nearly 30 years in a wide-ranging career that has included early efforts for the Roger Corman school of cheap and quick filmmaking (Crazy Mama, Caged Heat) to an Oscar win for directing The Silence of the Lambs to guiding a treasured American novel to screen (Toni Morrison's Beloved) to filming political and musical documentaries (Haiti Dreams of Democracy, Stop Making Sense). His work is marked by the lively spirit and warm humanism that suffuses everything he does, and his career is distinguished by an ability to move back and forth between the worlds of studio and independent filmmaking. Explaining his attraction to The Trouble With Charlie Demme offers, "After three pictures of relative heaviness -- Beloved, America's tormented racial history; Philadelphia, people with AIDS fighting injustice; The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster trying to save the life of another young woman -- I think I was in the mood to do something lighter." 

Okay, but still, why remake Charade? It's not enough for Demme to say that The Truth About Charlie is "the same, just very, very different." So he begins to describe what a great actress he believes Thandie Newton to be, even though she's so often cast in the role of an "outsider," be it in Demme's Beloved or Bertolucci's Besieged, or miscast as an odd action figure as in Mission Impossible II. 

"I became really buzzed by the idea of making a very contemporary movie, with Thandie right up front playing a very contemporary young woman -- not an outsider, but what she really is: a charming, engaged, funny, deep, brilliant, adorable person of the 21st century. And when I saw Charade again, it struck me as a great Thandie Newton vehicle. So I called up Universal and asked if they'd be interested in a remake and they said yes. Then I made the important call, which was to Stanley Donen, asking how he'd feel about it. And he was really gracious and generous. And he said, 'You know, I'd enjoy seeing your remake of Charade. Go ahead.'" 

I had expected some kind of answer about the timelessness of Charade's themes of trust and deceit -- not this business about Thandie Newton. Demme is equally enthusiastic about his movie's co-star Mark Wahlberg. "I think it's a very different part from anything we've seen Mark in so far. The part really takes advantage of Mark's edginess and dark side, and then he's got this other preposterously sweet side. He had to stretch out and play about three or four different guys within this one guy. In the original, Audrey Hepburn takes one look at Cary Grant and that's it. She just wants to get into bed with him. What I wanted to do here was play this so that Wahlberg falls head over heels for Thandie, but ... cannot be straight with her; he's in a tough spot because he's falling in love with this enchanting young woman but circumstances make it hard for him to be real upfront with her." 

Will love strike twice? Austinites will be among the first to decide when Demme appears at the Paramount on Wednesday, Oct. 9, for an advance screening sponsored by the Austin Film Festival and the Austin Film Society. 

October 4, 2002: [...]

The Truth About Charlie, Academy Award-winner (The Silence of the Lambs) Jonathan Demme's new film, will be screened at the Paramount as kind of an unofficial kickoff for AFF. There are still some tickets left for the screening, which benefits the Austin Film Society and the AFF's Kids 'N' Film program (in which my son has participated); call the Paramount or Star Tickets for details. 

Read Marjorie Baumgarten's interview with Jonathan Demme this issue ("Something Wild," p.51) to get some background on the film (this is a teaser for a longer interview that will run when the film opens). The Truth About Charlie is a remake of Stanley Donen's classic Charade, which stars Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and Walter Matthau. Demme's effort -- beer, back streets, and sleazy tango bars to Donen's champagne and palaces -- stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Robbins, and the truly marvelous Thandie Newton. 

I've read a lot of crap on the fanboy Web sites about this movie, chiding Demme for remaking a classic and complaining that Mark Wahlberg is no Cary Grant. This misses the point. Demme is a filmmaker with impeccable credentials; he obviously didn't remake this classic to cash in on any built-in audience identification, in the manner of a Charlie's Angels, Scooby-Doo, or Mission Impossible. He commented to me that if he were doing a faithful remake, he would have cast George Clooney in the Grant role, ô la Ocean's Eleven. Charade is clearly a film he has thought about and admired a lot, and took it as a filmmaking challenge to riff on its thematic, visual, and narrative territory. 

It is difficult today to realize how sophisticated and witty a thriller Charade was when it was released in 1963, and the impact it had on the audience. Often misremembered as an Alfred Hitchcock movie, though it is more loving to its characters than any Hitch film, Charade was startlingly sophisticated. A ballet of double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses, nothing in the film is as it seems, and nobody, except Hepburn's character, is who you are led to believe they are. I saw it at a movie theatre in Lakewood, New Jersey, where we used to spend summers at my grandmother's house. I remember it as one of those film experiences where you walked out of the theatre and the world looked different and the air smelled different than when you entered. It wasn't just a good movie, it was fresh and remarkable. Donen was an American director who made almost European films (Two for the Road) before most of us had seen anything but American works. Although older than I, Demme had the same experience. 

Watching the film a couple of years ago, he began to think about remaking it, as much to give Thandie Newton a star-making showcase as for any reason, he claims in the Baumgarten interview. I think it was more than that. Charade is all about meaning and mystery, a perfect metaphoric vehicle for modern times. Demme has remade it for a more densely cynical and far less naïve time, though the new effort is just as joyous. Imagine a musician being criticized for reworking and rethinking a favorite song. Here we have a cinematic master reimagining a classic, moving in the opposite direction from its debonair hipness to a streetwise maze of complex morality. 

Ultimately, though complicated, Charade was simple. The Truth About Charlie is never simple and always surprising. After the seriousness of The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Beloved, this is a return to the sly, culture-loving wit of such Demme works as Citizens Band, Melvin and Howard, and Something Wild. Marge asked if I would compare it to The Last Embrace, a faux-Hitchcock work and notable Demme failure. Charlie is so much more fun, loving, playful, visual, and optimistic. Sure, it nods toward Donen and Hitchcock (deceit and confusion being the territories that master owns), but this is pure Demme. It's not just that he loves all the characters (think of how Robert Altman usually has disdain for all his), nor just his passion for the Paris of both the imagination and film history; it is his sense of filmmaking as an inherently redeeming act. One of the fanboy complaints is that the film lacks the sparkling dialogue of Donen's work. Were they asleep watching it? In a recent New Yorker review of Sunshine State, David Denby complained that writer/director John Sayles didn't trust the camera, so he had characters and dialogue spell out everything. Demme is a director deliriously wedded to the camera: This is a film of puns, wit, and style, commenting on our morally and ethically challenged times, but more often than not, it is the cinematic texture that is so explosively sophisticated. What a pleasure it is to watch a filmmaker who so completely trusts his work and world.

A couple of years ago, Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Beloved) invited his friend Thandie Newton (Beloved, Mission: Impossible II) to his house and showed her the 1963 Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn classic Charade. "He's like, 'Wouldn't you be great in that role?' " Newton recalls. "Six months later he said, 'I'm gonna write the movie.' " The remake-Demme's first screenwriting credit in 26 years-adheres to the original in that it features a woman who returns to her Paris home to find that her husband, Charlie, has been murdered, and her bank account emptied. A mysterious American (Wahlberg) helps her elude an assortment of villains who believe she still has a big chunk of her husband's fortune. But the differences between the two films are many and varied, adding up to an almost New Wave take on the 40-year-old story. "Paris is [now] a much more overtly diverse city," says Demme, who used a handheld camera and shot some sequences (in which the characters' inner thoughts are revealed)digitally. "We really played to that, in casting and in locations, and very much in music also." (The film features French rock and rap, as well as a reggae number penned and sung by the director's late nephew, Ted Demme.) Still, there was room for one old-fashioned twist-or rather, tango. "I was such a goody-two-shoes on that," says Newton, a trained dancer. "We had all these tango rehearsals, and after the first session, I'm like, 'I can do it! It's fine.' And then Mark was chugging away for weeks trying to get it right. He can kick my ass, but I can kick his ass in tango." 

Talk about sexy couples! CHARLIZE THERON and MARK WAHLBERG are teaming up for 'The Italian Job,' a remake of the classic '60s heist movie that starred MICHAEL CAINE. Our own MARIA MENOUNOS caught up with the two Hollywood stars on the set of their new film, shooting in Los Angeles and later in Venice, Italy.

The original 'Italian Job' featured a memorable car chase with Mini Cooper racers (also featured prominently in the recent 'Bourne Identity') during a huge, fabricated traffic jam. The new film's producers have 31 production versions of the 2002 Mini Coopers on set, although you'll only see three of them racing through the streets of Los Angeles. 

"What we're doing is keeping the Minis, the character names -- that whole aspect of having a fun ride is still completely in there -- but the story and the motivation and why all of this is taking place is for completely different reasons," explains Charlize. "When you're doing a remake, especially something like this that is such a cult classic in Europe, it's nice to give people the elements they loved in the original but then spice it up with something that they don't expect." 

There's plenty of spice on the set of the new movie, which reunited Charlize and Mark for the first time since 'The Yards.' Also featured in the cast are EDWARD NORTON, DONALD SUTHERLAND, MOS DEF ('Showtime'), JASON STATHAM ('The Transporter') and SETH GREEN, many of whom are doing the driving stunts themselves. 

"Charlize and Mos and Mark and Jason," says Seth, "they've all learned how to do emergency brake slides and controlled 360's -- those cars are fun." 

In fact, when Maria visited the set, Charlize was doing her own stunt-driving in a cherry-red Mini -- in flip-flops! "I always drive barefoot," the South-African born actress explains. "It's just a thing with me, even when I was rehearsing and learning how to drive, they all laughed at me. I live in flip-flops -- my feet don't really like to be confiined in anything. I feel safer when I can feel my feet are on top of the pedals and not underneath." 

'The Italian Job' won't steal into theaters until next summer, but in the meantime, you can catch Charlize on the big screen in 'Trapped' and Mark in 'The Truth About Charlie,' opening in theaters October 25. 

Loews Cineplex Entertainment, New York City, reteams with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for the second "Spotlight on the Cure" program. Throughout October, Loews hosts an eBay auction of popcorn buckets designed by celebrities like Conan O'Brien and Courtney Cox Arquette, with proceeds going to the Dallas-based foundation. A portion of the sales from Loews' "Pink Ribbon Concession Package" popcorn and candy combo and the "Pink Ribbon Package" (two adult tickets, popcorn, and a soda for $19.99) will go to the foundation. Radio PSAs support at Loews Web site enjoytheshow.com. 

Loews is also partnering with "Self" magazine for a pre-release screening of Universal Pictures' "The Truth About Charlie" Oct. 24. Enjoytheshow.com visitors can pick up free passes, and 10 percent of all concession sales go to the Komen Foundation. Marinelli Communications, New York City, handles with p.r. via DL Blackman, also New York City. 

This year, as with most other movie years, the studios have saved most of the best for last: their biggest and most ambitious films, their most lavish and prestigious projects. And there is a special look about the last months of 2002, which include a dream project from Martin Scorsese ("The Gangs of New York"), a film landmark from Roman Polanski ("The Pianist") and the second chapters of two ongoing movie monoliths ("The Lord of the Rings" and the "Harry Potter" series). 
All release dates are subject to change.

10 to watch (mainstream)

1. "The Four Feathers" (Director: Shekhar Kapur. With Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Kate Hudson). A.E.W. Mason's 1902 novel -- a classic "pukka sahib" adventure story set in North Africa -- has been filmed many times, most notably by the Korda brothers in 1939. But this version is different, boasting spectacular visuals and a unique point of view. Director Kapur ("Bandit Queen," "Elizabeth") is Indian rather than British -- and he brings out a tragic sense in this oft-told tale of a seeming coward (Ledger) redeeming himself. (Sept. 20) 

2. "Punch-Drunk Love" (Director: Paul Thomas Anderson. With Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman). An honest-to-God American art film starring Adam Sandler? Despite "Little Nicky," "Mr. Deeds" and other recent cinematic felonies, "Sandman" (Jack Nicholson's nickname for him) came out a winner with this bizarre, unnerving dark comedy about pudding, frequent flier miles, a nasty minor gangster ( Hoffman) and an unlikely romance between a hot-tempered but repressed Angeleno (Sandler) and a businesswoman of mystery (Watson). (Oct. 18)

3. "Frida" (Director: Julie Taymor. With Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Edward Norton, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas). Reportedly a smash at the Venice Film Festival, this biopic of Mexican rebel-painter Kahlo -- with Hayek as Frida and Molina as her selfish genius-lover Diego Rivera -- has an incredible subject and, thanks to director Julie (the stage show "The Lion King") Taymor, a feverish dreamlike style. (Nov. 1)

4. "The Truth About Charlie" (Director: Jonathan Demme. With Thandie Newton, Mark Wahlberg, Tim Robbins). A remake of "Charade" by Demme, a brilliantly offbeat genre moviemaker who's been very serious in the past decade ("Philadelphia," "The Silence of the Lambs"). The original -- the sparkly 1963 Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn-Walter Matthau Parisian-set comedy-romance-thriller, directed by Stanley Donen -- is probably untoppable (especially with Wahlberg subbing for Grant). But Newton, of Demme's underrated "Beloved," is a very interesting choice as a new Audrey. It's also a crackling good yarn. (Oct. 25)

5. "Far from Heaven" (Director: Todd Haynes. With Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert). Haynes stumbled badly last time out (with the limply pretty glam-rock saga, "Velvet Goldmine") but this '50s-style melodrama, inspired by Douglas Sirk's classic 1955 Rock Hudson-Jane Wyman forbidden-love romance "All That Heaven Allows" (already remade by the late R. W. Fassbinder as "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul"), has been hailed as an instant classic by some early viewers. It sounds like "Safe," but intellectually and dramatically safer -- and more elegant. (approximately Nov. 8) 

6. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (Director: Peter Jackson. With Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen). The second part of what already looks to be one of the great movie fantasy sagas of all time. Since this section and Part Three, were filmed before last year's knockout Part One was released, there's little chance of complacency or higher expectations hurting it. We know by now that New Zealand's horrormeister Jackson has been faithful and prodigally imaginative in his approach to J.R.R. Tolkein's world of Hobbits and high adventure. (Dec. 18)

7. "Catch Me if You Can" (Director: Steven Spielberg. With Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken, Amy Adams). For all the flash and scintillation of his Philip Dick-derived "Minority Report," Spielberg's second movie of 2002 looks like the one that critics and Oscar voters might most appreciate: the real-life tale of brashly over-reaching teenage con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. and his dad ( Hanks). (Dec. 25) 

8. "About Schmidt" (Director: Alexander Payne. With Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates). A tremendous performance by Nicholson -- as an elderly retiree and widower who embarks on a voyage of self-discovery driving a trailer to his daughter's dubious wedding ceremony -- anchors this fierce-and-gentle comic--dramatic road movie. That was the genre that made Jack in the '60s and early '70s (with "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces") and this film is a worthy successor -- though the '70s film it most recalls is Paul Mazursky and Art Carney's "Harry and Tonto." (Dec. 27) 

9. "Gangs of New York" (Director: Martin Scorsese. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson.) It's been the subject of much delay, much controversy and some horrendous pre-release gossip. But I saw about an hour at Cannes of this longtime Scorsese dream project -- a 19th Century epic about the New York Irish street gangs -- and it looked absolutely stunning: visually ravishing, dramatically explosive and stormily exciting. "The Age of Innocence" meets "Mean Streets?" Perhaps. (Dec. 25) 

10. "The Pianist" (Director: Roman Polanski. With Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay.) This annihilating true-life tale of a young Jewish pianist (Brody), trapped in Warsaw during the Holocaust, is every bit as emotionally powerful and evocative as the similar "Schindler's List" (a project which Polanski -- a Krakow Jew, who lived through some of these events -- might have directed). The highly deserving Palme D'Or winner at the last Cannes Film Festival, it's one of the great films of the year, by any measure. (early January) 

Foreign or art house

1. "Spirited Away" (Director: Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese). The anime fantasy blockbuster, from the maker of "Princess Mononoke." (Sept. 20) 

2. "Bowling for Columbine" (Director: Michael Moore. With Charlton Heston, U.S.). Moore's scathing Cannes prize-winning documentary about gun control and gun culture. (October; will be part of the Chicago International Film Festival Oct. 4-18) 

3. "Talk to Her" (Director: Pedro Almodovar. With Geraldine Chaplin, Spanish). From the auteur of "All About My Mother," another strange domestic drama: the meeting of two men whose lovers are in a coma. (Dec. 25)

4. "Lawrence of Arabia" (Director: David Lean). The great 1962 historical adventure, beautifully restored in 70 MM. (Sept. 20)

5."Russian Ark" (Director: Alexander Sokurov, Russian). An amazing feat of technical bravura: a hallucinatory cultural history of the last century shot in one incredible long-take in Russian's Hermitage Museum. (October) 

6. "All or Nothing" (Director: Mike Leigh. With Timothy Spall, British) Another searing Leigh portrayal of the modern British underclass: as always, brilliantly acted. (early November) 

7. "Seven Samurai"(Director: Akira Kurosawa. With Toshiro Mifune). A new print of an ageless classic by cinema's master of action. Also re-released: Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" and "The Hidden Fortress." (Nov. 8)

8. "Songs from the 2nd Floor" (Director: Roy Andersson, Swedish). A memorably odd, dark comedy shot in bizarre one-take tableau scenes that linger in the mind like surreal album photos. (Nov. 1)

9. "In Praise of Love" (Director: Jean-Luc Godard). Both radical and elegiac, this vintage Godard about politics and memory mixes black-and-white and color, polemics and poetry. (Oct. 18)

10. "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" (Director: Shohei Imamura). A playful erotic shocker by a filmmaker who has never lost his capacity to outrage. (Sept. 27)

The season at a glance

Trying to sum up an entire movie season, when you've only seen a handful of the films, is something of a fool's errand; one thing the movies almost always supply is a big surprise or two. But, if the fall and winter of 2002 are rich in anything, it's spectacle and adventure films.

Strengths: The "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" series, both of which offer their second installments, are already proven commodities: We know they'll be at least rich in visual bravura and high-style effects. "The Four Feathers," in its early screenings, has been almost as impressive, high-adventure moviemaking on a grand scale. On a more serious level, Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" is a landmark feat of historical filmmaking, a brilliant, annihilating evocation of life during the Holocaust and Martin Scorsese's "The Gangs of New York,"set in 19th Century New York City, looks as if it could be one as well. 

Weaknesses: As usual for the past two decades, the weaknesses seem to be in the areas of serious drama and intelligent adult comedy: two genres that used to flourish in American studio films but now are often ignored in Hollywood. That was a lack especially underscored in 2002, when we lost one of great Hollywood moviemakers, who was master of both types: Billy Wilder.