Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera

Based on Bram Stoker's classic 1897 novel, this film from Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter James Victor Hart offers a full-blooded portrait of the immortal Transylvanian vampire. The major departure from Stoker is one of motivation as Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) is motivated more by romance than by bloodlust. He punctures the necks as a means of avenging the death of his wife in the 15th century, and when he comes to London, it is specifically to meet heroine Mina Harker (Winona Ryder), the...

Soviet director Dziga Vertov 's experimental film grew out of his belief, shared by his editor, Elizaveta Svilova (who was also his wife), and his cinematographer, Mikhail Kaufman (also his brother), that the true goal of cinema should be to present life as it is lived. To that end, the filmmakers offer a day-in-the-life portrait of a city from dawn until dusk, though they actually shot their footage in several cities, including Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa. After an opening statement, there are no words...

March 31, 2005: This was the first Japanese, samurai-era film I had ever seen, and let me say that I was just overwhelmed by everything about it. The sense of drama, the beauty of the sets, the scale of the action sequences, and by how deeply the actors got into their characters, kudos to Kurosawa, no doubt. Romanticized as I'm sure this type of film is (much like our cowboy movies), I was so impressed that I watch Kagemusha four or five times each year, (while drinking sake, of course...