The End of the Affair
USA, 105 minutes
Director Neil Jordan's (The Crying Game) rendering of Graham Greene's novel is the finest depiction of the struggles between love and duty. Ralph Fiennes stars as the jealous novelist who falls passionately in love with a married woman (Julianne Moore) and whose poetic narration describes the unraveling of the affair. Stephen Rea also stars.

The Emperor and the Assassin
China, 160 minutes
Chen Kaige's (Farewell My Concubine) new film tells the epic story of a king who possesses an idealistic vision but falls victim to the trappings of power and ambition. Set in China during the third century BC, this grand tale is opulent and breath-taking in its detail and cinematography. Gong Li and Zhang Fengyi star.

Magnolia
USA, 179 minutes
Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore star in Paul Thomas Anderson's (Boogie Nights) latest, a comedy drama of characters struggling against a lack of love. At the center is Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), a man coming to terms with his life; the one thing he wants is to see his estranged son. Through a collusion of coincidence, chance and divine intervention, in a series of comic and poignant vignettes, things in the world will be put right.

Titus
USA, 166 minutes
Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor (The Lion King) brings Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus to the screen starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. The great Roman general, returning home victorious from a long war, celebrates with a ritual sacrifice of the eldest son of the Goth Queen, Tamora. But when the corrupt emperor takes Tamora as his new queen, a tale of double revenge begins.

Topsy - Turvy
England, 159 minutes
Award-winning writer/director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) creates a lively period romp with this entertaining, witty Victorian-era film. For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan have delighted London audiences, but their latest work is receiving lukewarm press. Mired at a creative impasse, the men can barely converse. Sparked by a Japanese cultural exhibit, Gilbert conceives The Mikado. The concept encourages Sullivan, and the production comes together…which is when the truly hard work begins.

Mansfield Park
England, 99 minutes
Fanny Price has been treated like a servant ever since she arrived at Mansfield Park. Now she's falling for her one constant companion. When visitors from London throw everything into disarray, it seems that there is no hope for Fanny. Then an unspeakable scandal erupts, deciding everyone's fate. A fine cast, including Harold Pinter and Frances O'Connor, bring Jane Austen's tale of manners and morals to life.

The Third Miracle
USA, 114 minutes
In this provocative mystery, a priest (Ed Harris) investigating the life of a possible saint faces temptation as he falls in love with her often profane daughter (Anne Heche). Part unconventional detective story, part inner sanctum court room thriller and part star-crossed romance, The Third Miracle is a spellbinding and sensual inquiry into the crossroads of faith and reality. Armin Mueller-Stahl (Jakob the Liar) also stars.

All About My Mother
Spain, 101 minutes
Losing her loving son, Manuela begins a quest to find his wayward father. En route she encounters and nurses back to sanity several varieties of wounded women. Pedro Almodovar's (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) affection for his subject has never been more fervent and is fully realized by the extraordinary performances of the strong female cast. Winner of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.

Felicia's Journey
USA, 114 minutes
Seventeen and pregnant, Felicia goes in search of her lover and is found instead by Joseph Ambrose Hilditch (Bob Hoskins) whose kindness masks a serial killer. But Hilditch has no conscious awareness of his crimes; like Felicia, he doesn't see his true self. Director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) deftly takes a murder-thriller and crafts a seamlessly elegant tale of innocence, abduction and redemption.

Angela's Ashes
USA, 145 minutes
In 1935, when it was more common for Irish families to leave their famine-stricken country for America, the impoverished McCourt family did the reverse. This adaptation of Frank McCourt's award-winning autobiography recounts a childhood tale of poverty and struggle with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness. Emily Watson (Hilary & Jackie) and Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty) star.

Being John Malkovich
USA, 112 minutes
Spike Jonze makes his feature directorial debut with this outrageous comedic fantasia. A gifted street puppeteer, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is nonetheless coming up empty-handed. With no other prospects, Craig takes a job as a filing clerk. After losing a folder behind his filing cabinet, he moves the latter to reveal a secret passageway. There he finds a portal into the head of John Malkovich! Cameron Diaz also stars.

Tumbleweeds
USA, 100 minutes
When yet another "husband" turns abusive, the brassy Mary Jo (Tony Award-winner Janet McTeer) and her feisty daughter hit the road, the one place they truly call home. They end up in a sleepy beach town where Mary Jo finds a job and Ava gets a taste of what it is to be like any other girl her age. Director Gavin O'Connor has crafted a moving and eloquent mother-daughter tale teeming with a healthy dose of laughter, tension and spontaneity.

Holy Smoke!
USA, 114 minutes
Jane Campion (The Piano) returns to her uniquely inventive visual style and provocative themes in this frank look at the struggle between the sexes. Kate Winslet stars as a 20-year-old Australian who has joined a cult in India. Incensed, her parents hire P.J. Waters (Harvey Keitel), an American "exit counselor" to bring her back to earth. But when the two square off, they use every weapon they've got, including sex.

Sweet and Lowdown
USA, 95 minutes
Woody Allen returns with a period movie in beautiful color showing the adventures of a wild and eccentric jazz guitar genius in the 1930's. Sean Penn stars as Emmet Ray, a bombastic, self-centered extrovert with an ego a mile high, who takes us through a series of hilarious and harrowing events as he clashes with lovers (including Uma Thurman), musicians, and gangsters in a comic and touching farce of his own crazy making. John Waters also stars.

Simpatico
USA, 106 minutes
Lies and hidden corruption seep to the surface in this adaptation of Sam Shepard's play. Handsome millionaire Lyle Carter (Jeff Bridges) seems to have it all: a beautiful wife (Sharon Stone), a sprawling estate and an empire of breeding and training thoroughbreds. Then Carter receives a call from an old friend (Nick Nolte), and a dark event from the past threatens to destroy his current success.

The Cider House Rules
USA, 129 minutes
This adaptation of John Irving's best-selling novel tells the story of Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), a child raised and mentored by his orphanage's doctor (Michael Caine) who taught Homer everything about medicine and a little bit less about right and wrong. This is the classic story of one man's extraordinary journey: leaving home, finding love, and finding his place in the world.

The Legend of 1900
USA, 119 minutes
An extraordinary fable of a virtuoso musician born at sea, Legend tells the story of a boy's journey to manhood, never having stepped foot on dry land. Tim Roth stars as the prodigious piano player who spends his days entertaining the world, one boatload at a time. Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) brings us this fairy tale for the millennium

Ride With the Devil
USA, 133 minutes
Ang Lee (The Ice Storm) paints the most divisive times in American history in admirably expressive shades of blue and gray. In 1861, miles from the official military campaigns of the Civil War, childhood friends Jake (Tobey Maguire) and Jack Bull (Skeet Ulrich) join the pro-Southern Bushwhackers. When the seasons change and the battles intensify, the young men reach turning points in both their lives.

Diamonds
USA, 91 minutes
Feisty at 80 despite a recent stroke, Harry (Kirk Douglas) is faced with the prospect of being sent to a retirement home by his family. Instead of giving into a sheltered life, Harry convinces his son Lance (Dan Aykroyd) and grandson Michael to join him in search of thirteen long-lost diamonds. Lauren Bacall also stars in this touching, comic adventure.

Girl, Interrupted
USA, 121 minutes
This is the moving true story of Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), whose prescribed "short rest" becomes a strange, unknown journey over a year at a renowned mental institution. Kaysen questions the boundaries of freedom and confinement, friendship and betrayal and madness and sanity at a time, the late 1960's, when it seemed the whole world might be going crazy. The film also stars Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave and Angelina Jolie.