Five leading ladies are competing for the Oscar for best actress in a leading role. All have offered weighty performances but some are a cut above.

In "My Week with Marilyn," Michelle Williams captivates as Marilyn Monroe.

The film chronicles one week in the Hollywood icon's life while she filmed the musical “The Prince and the Showgirl” with Laurence Olivier in England.<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

The story is told from the perspective of assistant producer Colin Clark, who falls in love with the charismatic but mentally-fragile Monroe.

Williams exudes energy and sexuality while capturing Monroe's vulnerability.

But that might not be enough.

In "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Rooney Mara delivers a compelling performance as Lisbeth Salander, a punk computer hacker who helps journalist Mikael Blomkvist search for a woman who's been missing in Sweden for 40 years.<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

Salander has suffered abuse from men.

Mara turns her into a dysfunctional but brilliant investigator who spares no one.

Fury drives and empowers her.

Mara earned the nomination, but Lisbeth Salander is an unsavory character and could cost Mara the award.

Glenn Close, nominated for her performance as Albert Nobbs, could face similar challenges in the Oscar race.<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

Nobbs, a woman disguised as a man seeking a better life in male-dominated 19th century Ireland, is awkward and pathetic.  

Many say Glenn Close offers the performance of a lifetime.

But she is up against formidable opponents.

Meryl Streep, for one. She offers an intimate portrait of the aging Margaret Thatcher.<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

Streep gives us a frail old woman trying to keep her dignity while battling dementia and, in flashbacks, the harsh and unyielding leader of a nation.

Streep masters Thatcher’s mannerisms and intonations for the role and the resemblance is uncanny.

Her character carries the film.

Streep has won two Oscars - the last one 30 years ago - and has been nominated another 17 times.

Many feel she is long overdue for a third.  

But her Oscar-worthy performance as "The Iron Lady" may not prevail because of our antipathy toward the real character she portrays.

Her strongest competition could come from Viola Davis, who plays Aibileen Clark in "The Help."<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

She's an African-American maid who risks her life to help publish her story and that of other black maids working for white families in 1960s Mississippi.   

Davis delivers a gut-wrenching performance as the all-suffering black woman who raises white children while her own grow up alone.

If she nabs the award on Oscar night, she won't be standing alone.

She would validate all of the African-American maids who toiled for whites.

And that might be difficult for the motion picture academy to overlook.

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In The Descendants, a bittersweet family drama directed by Alexander Payne, George Clooney plays Matt Smith, a successful lawyer who finds himself at life's crossroads.

After a boating accident, his wife is in a coma and is to be taken off life support. Overnight, Matt becomes a single parent to his two daughters. As if that is not enough, he finds out that before the accident his wife was cheating on him.

In portraying Matt, Clooney loses his Hollywood persona. Matt is frumpy, and he's awkward with his kids and everyone else around him. He appears lost as he tries to make sense of what is happening to him.  

With six Oscar nominations and one Oscar award under his belt, Clooney represents the status quo in Hollywood, but in a good way. He's as attractive as he is talented.

However, his performance as Matt King is reminiscent of Ryan Bingham, the driven businessman dealing with loneliness and middle age that Clooney played in Jason Reitman’s 2009 drama Up in The Air.

Clooney received a nomination for that role but did not win the Oscar. So, the question is will he get an Oscar this time around for a similar performance.

Oscar nominee Jean Dujardin does something quite different.  He offers a tour de force performance as George Valentin, a 1920s silent movie star who loses fame and fortune with the advent of the "talkies."

In The Artist, by Michel Hazanavicius, Dujardin exudes star power. His elegance, expressiveness and infectious smile represent what was alluring in silent films. Dujardin could reap the Oscar unless voters opt for the more wholesome and down to earth character of Los Angeles gardener Carlos Calindo, played by Mexican actor Demian Bichir in the drama A Better Life.

Carlos Calindo is an illegal alien and a devoted father. He wants a better life for his son.

Bichir offers a multilayered performance tackling a subject that speaks to many.

But, as the underdog among the contenders, an award for Bichir would be a surprise.

The Academy's voters could instead be swayed by the all-American character of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland As baseball team, played by Brad Pitt in Moneyball.

Pitt gives a solid performance as the man who employs unorthodox methods to build a baseball team headed for the play-offs.

But the deck could be stacked against him. There's also Gary Oldman, who towers over Pitt in a fine-tuned performance as super spy "Smiley" in the thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

But Gary Oldman's British reserve could alienate voters in the Academy, who might feel that his character is too arcane for the American palate.

All bets are on George Clooney's name in that famous envelope or maybe Monsieur Dujardin.  For sure, Oscar night will be interesting this time around.

Five-time Oscar winner John Williams composed the music for "War Horse," one of the five nominees for best score.<!--IMAGE-->

Williams garnered another best score nomination for "The Adventures of Tintin," an animated blockbuster based on a Belgian comics series.

For Daniel Carlin, chairman of the film scoring department at the Berklee College of Music, nail biting excitement is the key to Tintin’s success.

“John is a master at the use of space," Carlin says. "He'll leave a bit of a hole for the sound of gunshot or a hit to a face or a crash, and then he’ll come in with a statement rather than, as many composers do, try to compete with the sound. I personally felt that "Tintin" was a more successful score than "War Horse."<!--IMAGE-->Alberto Iglesias composed the score for "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

For Rivers, the artful way that Iglesias conveyed Cold War suspense and intrigue is what earned him his Oscar nomination. “I think he does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere.”

Sometimes, highbrow musical ideas can be used to good effect by Hollywood, as in the case of "Hugo."

Film composer Wendy Blackstone has scored for eight Oscar nominees over the years. She hears echoes of minimalism in Howard Shore’s score for “Hugo,” an adventure drama about a boy living in a Paris train station.<!--IMAGE-->

“It has repetitive clauses in it that give a lulling kind of center to it which we can attribute to Terry Riley, Philip Glass and these forerunners of that kind of music," Blackstone says.

Whatever the composer's style, it must always serve the director’s vision.

“There are moments when the music can shine," Blackstone says. "But then there are moments when it should be out of the way and felt not heard."

Many critics believe French composer Ludovic Bource is the odds-on favorite to win best score for “The Artist.” It’s a mostly silent film, set during the late 1920s and early '30s, when silent films were giving way to the talkies.

Bource's score runs the emotional gamut.<!--IMAGE-->
For Berklee's Daniel Carlin, "The Artist" is a film composer's dream.

“I mean there are plenty of people that would have done this project for free if they'd been given the opportunity. You are not worried about dialogue or train wrecks or gunshots or door slams or car squeals. None of that stuff," Carlin says. "But it also makes one fully exposed. It doesn’t leave much room for error or padding. And I felt that this composer did a very diligent job of not taking shortcuts, of giving every scene its due, of somehow staying within that period without making it sound like we are listening to old music.”

All of the nominees will have to wait until Feb. 26, to learn who will score the “Best Score” Oscar.

"I just want to say that the stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of color or women. It is all of our burden. All of us," Davis stressed. "And we absolutely - I don't care how ordinary you may feel - all of us can inspire change …every single one of us. Thank you."

Their success at the SAG awards makes Davis and Spencer favorites to win those same honors at the Oscars.  Awards analysts see the best actress category as a tight race between The Help star and Meryl Streep for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

Davis says it's gratifying because she knew that many black Americans today might be offended by the role these women were forced into by the realities of 50 years ago.

"It's very difficult because I thought 'do I want to play a character that could be viewed as so subservient?' But I see her as more than that," explained Davis. "This is all we were back then. Every once in a while you had someone who broke the norm, but you were maids …you were in subservient roles."

The struggle for civil rights is certainly a factor in the story, but Spencer says The Help is about much more.

"The civil rights movement is basically the backdrop. It's not about race. It is about relationships and empowerment. It's about doing what is right," Davis said.

Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis find out if they have also won Oscars when Hollywood's top honors are presented on February 26.

Martin Scorsese's 3D adventure movie "Hugo," a fantasy tribute to French film pioneer George Melies, leads the list with 11 nominations, including one for Best Director, numerous technical categories and the most coveted of all, Best Picture of the Year.

Actress and previous Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence announced the top category.

"The films selected as best picture nominees for 2011 are  "War Horse," "The Artist," "Moneyball," "The Descendants," "The Tree of Life," "Midnight in Paris," "The Help," "Hugo" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

"The Artist," a French-made black-and-white silent film about old-time Hollywood, has 10 nominations, including writing and directing for Michel Hazanavicius, Best Actor for its star Jean DuJardin and Best Supporting Actress for co-star Berenice Bejo, who expresses the sentiment heard most often.

"Just being nominated is already an honor and already unbelievable," she said.

The nominees are chosen by peer groups within the 6,000-member Academy, comprised of men and women who work as actors, writers, directors, composers and various other filmmaking crafts.

While it's politically correct to protest the competitive aspect of the awards, Best Actress nominee Viola Davis says it's nice to be recognized.

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"You always want your work to be acknowledged," she said. "I can't do it in the room or in front of the mirror in my bathroom. I do it for the appreciation and enjoyment of an audience, so it means a lot."

Davis' performance in "The Help," about black maids working for white families in the south in the 1960s, puts her in the running for Best Actress alongside Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady;" Michelle Williams in "My Week With Marilyn;" Glenn Close for "Albert Nobbs" and Rooney Mara as "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."

Best Actor nominees are DuJardin in "The Artist;" George Clooney for "The Descendants;" Brad Pitt for "Moneyball;" Gary Oldman for "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and Mexican actor Demian Bichir for "A Better Life."

Films from Belgium, Canada, Poland, Israel and Iran are competing for Best Foreign Language Film.

Veteran Hollywood executive Brian Grazer, who will produce this year's Oscar telecast, sees no clear front-runner.

"I'm a little bit surprised and excited that a big Hollywood movie, 'Hugo,' got 11 nominations; and I think that it's a very unpredictable race that's going to happen right now," he said.

Winners of the 84th annual Academy Awards will be revealed in the global telecast from Hollywood on Feb. 26.

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," the Academy-award nominated drama by filmmaker Stephen Daldry, is based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. The story, though rooted in the September 11 tragedy, does not focus on the event. It follows an 11-year-old boy who suffers from the loss of his father at the World Trade Center.

Oskar Schell cannot comprehend why the person he loved most died on the morning of September 11.  

An intellectually-gifted child, Oskar also has symptoms of Asperger's syndrome and is fearful of the world. But he finds shelter in his father's presence. Together they solve historical puzzles or go on imaginary expeditions.

Thomas Schell, portrayed by Tom Hanks, spent endless hours helping Oskar ease into the outside world. When he dies, Oskar cannot let

"To prolong the contact that he had with his father, who is now no longer living, he goes to his closet that hasn't been touched in a year and finds, oddly enough, a key inside a vase that is sitting up on the top shelf," says Hanks. "And that key has the name Black attached to it. And he is convinced that Black is the name of somebody who had some connection with his father."

Oskar, played by newcomer Thomas Horn, visits hundreds of New Yorkers.

"He goes to all the people named Black in New York City," Horn says, "all the five boroughs, and tries to find out what the key means."

Oskar is accompanied by an old man who rents a room in his grandmother's apartment. The role is played by Max von Sydow, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

"It is a story about 9/11 and it's an important story about someone who chooses a therapy to come over all the shock without knowing that it is a therapy," he says.  

Director Stephen Daldry makes 9/11 personal through the pain of Oskar and the Schell family. Actress Sandra Bullock, who portrays Oskar's mother, says the story is based on accounts of real people who lost loved ones in the attacks.

"We were able to have access to phone messages that those people that were left behind received from the people who were in the tower," Bullocks says. "The thing I was most amazed by was that, at that moment when I think the person realized they were not going to make it, they left messages of hope and love and affection."

Though an American story, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is a New York tale, about a community forever bound by a shared experience of historic proportions.

And it's about accepting that people are not always in control, that events don’t always make sense.  

Stephen Daldry's film meanders, but the stellar cast, starting with young Thomas Horn, as well as the weighty nuances, make this a must-see film.

Hollywood seems to agree. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is contending for an Oscar, the entertainment industry's highest honor. It's nominated for Best Picture.

Watch a Related Report by Kane Farabaugh:

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The radio banter between the pilots may sound familiar to fans of the "Star Wars" movies. Producer George Lucas adapted World War II lingo and swagger to his famous space saga.

Red Tails has long been a dream project of his, but after more than 20 years of trying to convince studios to make it, he spent $58 million of his own money on production and another $35 million to get it distributed to theaters. Lucas disagreed with the arguments from Hollywood executives that Red Tails would not find an audience.

"Just like Star Wars, it's a big action picture, lots of dogfights, lots of excitement. But it's basically about a bunch of kids that went through an amazing journey and all came out heroes."

Co-star David Oyelowo explains that, while the characters are fictitious, they are all based on the real pilots and their accomplisments.

"What they did was dramatic enough that we didn't have to change it that much,"  Oyelowo says.

Oyelowo admits that growing up in England he had never heard of the "Tuskegee Airmen." On the other hand, American actor Terrence Howard, who plays the squadron commander, says he did know about their heroism under fire.

"I had no idea that they were everyday people. You hear about the "Tuskegee Airmen" - the Red Tails - and they seemed like a very select, legendary group. But we meet them when they were human and flesh and blood before they became legendary," Howard says.

A handful of surviving "Tuskegee Airmen" were advisors on the film, including retired doctor Roscoe Brown.

"Since we've been trying to do this for 65 years, we're really gratified that at last it has happened," says Brown. "And because of Red Tails people will know about us that didn't know before."

The Red Tails flew thousands of sorties in 1944 and '45 and became one of the most highly decorated units in American military history. The film, directed by Anthony Hemingway, is a dramatized version of their story, but the combat exploits it depicts are based on true events.

"Especially, thank you very much to Alexander Payne who makes wonderful films and is a great friend," Clooney said. "I thank you very much for this."

Meryl Streep took home best actress in a dramatic film for playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Best actress in a comedy film went to Michelle Williams for her portrayal of a screen legend in My Week With Marilyn.

"Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for putting in my hands the same award that Marilyn Monroe herself won over 50 years ago. I am honored," Williams said.

Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris took best screenplay. Scorcese got best director for his ambitious "Hugo." And Spielberg accepted best animated feature for The Adventures of Tin Tin.

"Wow, thank you very much Hollywood Foreign Press. This is fantastic," said director Steven Spielberg as he accepted his award.

The Golden Globe for best foreign language film went to the Iranian drama A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi.

"It's an award that was chosen by critics and critics are not easy people to please," he noted. "This will most likely cause more audiences to be found for this movie in the world."

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association also gives out awards for television programs and performances, but the film categories get the most attention as one of the first salvos in the barrage of award shows leading up to Hollywood's top annual honors, the Oscars, presented in February.  

Photo Gallery: Golden Globe Awards

"I fight for a living and I think every fighter probably watches action films and they think about what they would have done and what is realistic," Carano says. "What I'm bringing to it is just whatever I can to give these fights my own flavor and my own personality."

Channing Tatum plays a fellow secret operative and says he had to battle his own upbringing to do the visceral fight scenes with Carano.

"I grew up in the South and you don't hit women. You don't curse at them, yell at them or anything," he explains, [and] I had to smash a ketchup bottle on her face. It was so alarming to see a beautiful girl sitting across from me and I just couldn't physically do it. She had to make fun of me and challenge my manhood to be able to do it. Then I finally did and realized I made a huge mistake because I did it too hard and her face came back like that and I was, like, 'uh-oh.'"

But Ewan McGregor, who co-stars as her character's duplicitous boss, says the men quickly realized Carano's skill would make fight scenes appear realistic to the film audience without actually harming her opponents …that is, her fellow actors.

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"We were in very safe hands with Gina because she is so precise," McGregor explains. "I didn't feel that it was ever an issue to be worried or hurt. The only time I did get hurt is when I accidentally punched Gina in the head and she came straight up to me and said 'are you okay?' I was trying to be very [tough] and said I'm fine, but my hand was [hurting]. She didn't feel a thing."

Gina Carano says she hopes to find more film roles as she moves on from her fighting career. Haywire also features Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas.

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The film opens in divorce court with Nader, a bank employee, and his estranged wife Simin, a doctor, appearing before a judge.

Simin is filing for divorce because she wants to leave the country. Simin feels if they left, life would improve for them and their daughter Termeh.  But Nader refuses to go.  He says he needs to tend to his father who suffers from Alzheimer's.  We watch the couple's strained faces as they argue their case. We don't see the judge. In a sense, we are the judge.  

Although the court refuses to grant the divorce, Nader and Simin agree on an informal separation. In Simin's absence, Nader hires a working class woman to help look after his father. The woman is negligent, and Nader's dad has a near fatal accident. Nader gets into an argument with the caretaker.

The argument escalates, and Nader pushes the woman out of the house. The caretaker files a complaint against Nader. She tells the court she was pregnant and claims she lost the baby because of Nader shoved her. Nader says he had no idea the woman was pregnant.

The cast of characters is caught in a web of deception and despair.  Peyman Moaadi plays Nader, a decent but stubborn man who sees his world crumbling around him.

Termeh, 11, played by the director's daughter, Sarina Farhadi, offers a heartbreaking performance as the innocent girl who lies to keep her family together.  Sareh Bayat interprets the caretaker, a deeply pious working-class woman who distorts the truth for money.

Asghar Farhadi's drama offers up a society where lying is a sin, but its people are forced to bend the truth to overcome dubious court rulings, religious codes of ethics and day-to-day misery.

"I just wanted to tell a story about human beings from all sides and how war affects them," explains Jolie.

Her visits to refugee camps and war zones as United Nations goodwill ambassador motivated Jolie to research and write the script about the systematic rapes and murders during the Bosnian conflict.

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"When I started to look into it and I traveled to the region, I felt that I should have known more. This was in my generation and how do I not know enough? And why did it take us so long? Then at some point there was this script and it just sat on my desk for a while until Brad saw it one day and convinced me to show it to somebody and try," Jolie says.

'Brad,' of course, is her husband and fellow celebrity, Brad Pitt. Concerned that it might appear to be a Hollywood star's 'vanity' project, Jolie kept her name off the script that was initially sent to cast members like Zana Marjanovic, who plays Ajila.

"I think, first of all, that it's a very truthful representation of Bosnia. I am from a mixed marriage," notes Marjanovic.  "A lot of my friends are. And it's about all these beautiful things that could have happened between these people and the war made it impossible. That's actually my personal feeling toward the country where I was born and where I live now."

Serbian actors play the militia men who brutalize their Muslim women captives. Goran Kostic co-stars as Danijel, the troubled commander and Ajila's lover. He says his character does not represent all Serbians.

"The guilt is individual. We can not possibly blame a side and say all of the Serbs are the same or vice versa. I think everybody understands the nature of conflict, that no side is a clean side or the 'right' side. But we as artists have a duty to criticize ourselves, and I would expect that other artists from different groups in different countries would have the same strength and courage to criticize themselves."



In The Land of Blood and Honey is not the only cinematic portrayal of brutality against women during the Bosnian War. As If I Am Not There is based on a novel by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic. It was made into a film by Irish writer-director Juanita Wilson.

"I think there are so many people living with the devastating consequences that it will take a long time for it to heal," Wilson says, "but I firmly believe that telling stories is a really important part of healing and until people have that voice and can portray what has happened to them, that there never will be any understanding between any of us on this planet."

Like Wilson, Jolie hopes her film can help bring understanding.

"I hope it brings dialogue in the region and around the world …and that people remember this time," Jolie says. "Many people who have seen the film said to me 'I feel ashamed' and there are many people who should."

Angelina Jolie's In The Land of Blood and Honey is currently at American theaters. Juanita Wilson's As If I Am Not There is Ireland's submission for this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

<!--IMAGE-LEFT--> "The most important thing about this character for me was to make him as real and as believable as possible," Craig says. "Obviously, there is another person I play who would deal with it in a different way. It's not that I was ever thinking about that, but I wanted to put the reality into this. He gets shot at and he runs away, screaming, like anybody else would. It's what I love about this character and this relationship that he has with Salander. He doesn't have to prove he's a man. He doesn't have to go around beating his chest and he's very happy to fall into this relationship where she is literally wearing the trousers."

Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was created in the original Swedish film (and its two sequels) by Noomi Rapace. This time Lisbeth is played by American actress Rooney Mara who says she tried to keep her portrayal from being influenced by either that version or the image readers of the books may have.

<!--IMAGE-LEFT--> "To be honest, I didn't really think much about what other people imagined it to be. I just used what I imagined it to be," Mara explains. " I had read all three books and had a really clear picture of who this girl was. I didn't really think much about what other people thought of her."

Director David Fincher first worked with Mara in his Oscar-nominated film from last year, The Social Network (she was the girlfriend who breaks up with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the beginning of the film). Returning to a genre that won him acclaim with thrillers like Seven, The Fight Club and Zodiac, Fincher says he was more interested in the people.

"The mystery of this movie wasn't that interesting to me. You know, Nazis, serial killers and the evil that people do in their basements with power tools. First and foremost, I was more interested in the people, front and center," Fincher says.

If audiences are as intrigued by the Dragon Tattoo characters as he is, Fincher hopes to translate the other two books in the "Millennium Trilogy" into new films.

Hollywood's finest offerings often appear during the holiday season. This year, one of them is Michel Hazanavicius' "The Artist," a black-and-white homage to the silent films of the 1920s.

"The Artist," a silent film itself, is a romantic story that reflects the sensibilities of that era. It has garnered praise from critics and audiences and is considered a frontrunner for an Oscar.

George Valentin, a 1920s Hollywood star, is riding high in silent films. He and his sidekick, a little dog, have charmed America.

His fans cluster around to get a glimpse of him - among them, Peppy Miller, a young extra, who rubs shoulders with him at a public event.

The publicity gets Peppy a big break - a job as a dancer in one of Valentin's films. But it's the talkies that make Peppy famous. Unfortunately, the new technology brings George Valentin, who discovered her, a reversal of fortune. Unable to find his own voice, Valentin fades into the background. His fans abandon him and so does his wife.

French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius says "The Artist" is a love story and moral tale about fame and its pitfalls. But, most importantly, it's a story that reflects the legendary Hollywood of the 1920s and 30s.

"I really tried to find the American spirit of the story because the story takes place here in Hollywood," he says, "and I really wanted to respect the way to shoot it but also the way to think it. How the characters are, what they can do. There is no nudity, there is no violence."  
The filmmaker creates an uplifting tale about love, loyalty and perseverance. George Valentin's story, as portrayed by French actor Jean Dujardin, is intertwined with the heroine’s, Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo.

Miller’s star-power rises as Valentin’s fades. Dujardin offers a nuanced performance as a self-centered but fundamentally honorable Valentin, whose pride prevents him from accepting help. Dujardin's expressive interpretation of the silent film star is as enchanting during Valentin's rise as it is heart-breaking during his fall.

Dujardin says old Hollywood actors inspired his performance. "Douglas Fairbanks. I watched a lot of Douglas Fairbanks movies. Gene Kelly for his smile, his energy, Vittorio Gassman for his physicality, Clarke Gable for his mustache."

Actress Berenice Bejo, the real-life wife of director Michel Hazanavicius, shines as the effervescent, charming Peppy Miller. The starlet is in love with Valentin and it pains her to see him falter. She is determined to get him back on his feet, and eventually, saves his life.

During the shooting in Los Angeles, Bejo transformed herself into a 1930s Hollywood star.

"It gave an authenticity to be where the movie takes place," Bejo says. "Driving down the Hollywood hills and going to the studios, passing the gate as Peppy is doing in the movie, couldn't be more perfect than that."  

"The Artist" received six Golden Globe nominations and is expected to be nominated for an Oscar. Ironically, the film did not initially receive support from producers and investors, who, according to Hazanavicius, felt skittish about investing in a silent film in the 21st century.

The film moves effortlessly. Dujardin’s grace and infectious smile speak a thousand words without a sound. “The Artist” revives the iconic silent film as an intricate and eloquent form of dramatic art. Who needs dialogue and sultry scenes when all is said in a glance?

Kwan made her acting debut in 1960, in "The World of Suzie Wong." She was one of the first Asian actors to star in a Hollywood film.<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

"When I started out, it was really just the beginning of producers realizing, 'Hey, we’d better use an Asian to play an Asian role,'" Kwan says. "Because in the old days, Asians were played by Caucasians, Caucasian actors."

A year later, Kwan went on to star in the hit musical, "Flower Drum Song." She played Linda Low, a nightclub singer and dancer.

"I loved 'Flower Drum Song' because it was the first film made with an all Asian cast in a huge Hollywood film."

These days, Kwan says, Asians are still not getting enough substantial roles. But as more writers, directors and producers of Asian Pacific ancestry continue to work in the film industry, that's changing.<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

"We’re in a lot better place and we’ve got a ways to go," says Hollywood film producer Chris Lee, pointing out how different the situation is today compared to 50 years ago.

For example, in the 1961 movie, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," starring Audrey Hepburn, Mickey Rooney, a white actor, played her Japanese neighbor. And many of the Asian characters in the movies back then reflected negative stereotypes.

"If you think back to some of the traditional ways that Asians have been portrayed on the screen - "Breakfast at Tiffanys," "Sixteen Candles" - Asian characters tended to be joke characters," Lee says. "They tended to be comedic characters at best, but very often actually, the butt of the jokes."  

As the war in Vietnam escalated in the 1960s and 70s, Kwan says roles for Asian actors declined. The situation began to change after the fighting ended, and as major feature films from China and other parts of Asia began appearing in U.S. theaters. Americans got used to seeing Asians in leading roles on the silver screen, and that helped Asians in Hollywood.

"What's happened today, is we actually have heroic figures," Lee says. "We actually have characters that are fully developed."

He believes a number of films, from "The Joy Luck Club" in 1993 to 2002's "Better Luck Tomorrow," helped pave the way.

There are more good roles for Asian Pacific Americans - mainly in television.

Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim both star in the new "Hawaii Five-0" on CBS.

"The simple fact of the matter is, there are fewer jobs for Asian American actors than there are for Caucasian actors," Kim says. "So to have a role like this one, I think is a huge step forward." <!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

Mark Dacascos is also a regular member of the cast.

"I’m Japanese and Irish from my mother’s side, and Chinese, Spanish, Filipino from my father’s side. Initially, I wasn’t Asian enough, I wasn’t white enough, I wasn’t Hispanic enough," he says, recalling the difficulties he encountered at the beginning of his career. "So it was very difficult. Now, more people of diverse backgrounds are becoming writers and producers. It is opening up a lot more than it has been."

While these industry insiders say more should be done to advance Asian Pacific Americans both in front of and behind the camera, the younger generation isn’t waiting. Some are bypassing the gatekeepers in Hollywood, starring in their own videos for the Internet and YouTube, and connecting with a worldwide audience.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

"Guiness was the face of Smiley for many. Other people have played Smiley, but he was considered the definitive performance of it," Oldman notes. "It was a dragon to slay in my head. They are big shoes to walk in."

The fit seems to be just right in the judgment of usually harsh British critics. The Guardian's Phillip French writes: "Oldman gives us a Smiley equal to Alec Guiness in a triumphant adaptation." The actor says he is pleased that it does not try to oversimplify the novel's intricate plot or turn it into a breathless, mindless action flick.

"I would like to think that people are ready for it," Oldman says. "I am tired of being assaulted at the cinema with images and sound where I want a nap afterwards. I find movies too loud and too dumb."

Gary Oldman was born and raised in London. He leaned toward music as a teenager, but studied acting at university and had a successful stage career for almost a decade. Film roles followed and his standout portrayal of rocker Sid Vicious in the 1986 drama "Sid and Nancy" got Hollywood's attention.

He has played presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in "JFK," the iconic vampire in Bram Stoker's Dracula and police commissioner Gordon in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

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Oldman says he likes complicated characters like Smiley, but often he's cast in more flamboyant roles.

"You are at the mercy of the imagination of the people that are casting you," he explains. "So you can get into the situation that I think all actors have suffered from at one point or another where you feel that you are typecast. I've played a lot of characters, but I did a couple of films with Luc Besson that are cartoonish and much bigger than life, and that's what you get known for."

Fortunately, Oldman has been able to overcome that typecasting, and he is often cited as a major influence by rising young stars like Daniel Radcliffe, who worked with him in the Harry Potter films.

Oldman appreciates the compliments. He says his own career was influenced by those who came before.

"There's Gielgud, Olivier, Richard Burton and Albert Finney and all those people, and it's a chain. You are links in a chain and now you see Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling, a new breed of talent that I think are the 'real deal.' You get a feeling that it's not about celebrity or vanity. They're real actors that are coming through," Oldman says.

With Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy now in theaters, Gary Oldman is already talking about playing Smiley again if more of LeCarré novels are filmed. Meanwhile, he's finishing up one more turn as Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises coming out next year. After that, he promises to retire the character.

"I have been an avid consumer of young adult literature since I was one, and I was always interested in the fantasy world created in those novels," Cody says. "The idea of somebody whose priorities were completely screwed up who wanted to live in that world, even though it's completely unattainable, was intriguing to me."

MAVIS "You can come to the city with me like we always planned."
BUDDY "Mavis, I'm a married man."
MAVIS "I know. We can beat this thing together."

Charlize Theron is lewd, crude and thoughtless as Mavis, and she says those unsavory aspects made the character appealing to her.

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"What I liked when I read Diablo's script was the idea of a woman who is dealing with very common issues that women can really relate to," explains Theron, "but is dealing with them the way a 16-year-old would deal with them. Here she is 37 trying to get her life together, and she just doesn't have the tools to do it."

Like the hit comedies Bridesmaids and Bad Teacher, Young Adult seems to fit a new genre of 'women behaving badly.' However, Theron believes it's actually women getting the chance to play the same kind of roles as men.

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"People get freaked out when they see real women conflicted," she notes. "I think women are almost way more conflicted than men, and I grew up on cinema where guys got to do that. Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman and [Robert] DeNiro got to play all of those kind of characters that I saw a little bit of myself in - those kind of struggles with dark things. It's very rare to see women [like that], but I think we are getting a chance to play those kind of honest characters."

Mavis's journey does not fit the usual pattern in a movie about someone who needs to learn a lesson. But whether that's all right is something director Jason Reitman believes the audience can decide.

"If I have a message, and hopefully there's a continuity of that in all of my films, it's 'think for yourself and come up with your own opinions.' I certainly don't want to tell you what to think and hopefully people draw their own conclusions," he says.

Young Adult features Patrick Wilson as the former high school sweetheart. And  Patton Oswalt is the barroom buddy who tries to be the voice of reason.

In the summer of 1956, Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe joined the equally iconic British actor, Laurence Olivier, to film “The Prince and the Showgirl” in London.  

"My Week with Marilyn" is based on Colin Clark’s account of that shoot and the week he spent with the star. Directed by Simon Curtis, the film portrays Monroe through the eyes of the young English aristocrat, who was working on a film set for the first time.

In the film, Clark comes upon the superstar in the bath tub. No one, especially not Clark, expected to get that close to Monroe. But during filming, Monroe befriended Clark and he became a confidante. For Clark, Monroe was his first love.<!--IMAGE-->

In the film, Monroe is a fragile and troubled sex symbol. Her stardom and new marriage, to playwright Arthur Miller, do little to ease her loneliness and insecurity.

Michelle Williams interprets the superstar’s volatility with verve and sensitivity. The film’s excellent editing enhances Williams’ portrayal of Monroe.

“I hope that it adds, that it fills out the impression of Marilyn Monroe," Williams says, "and that she is allowed, through me or through her own presence, to expand and that there are certain things you may not have realized about her - her wit, her empathy, her deep desire to be taken seriously as an artist.”

According to Clark's book, the superstar hoped to gain respect by playing alongside Olivier in "The Prince and the Showgirl." But the rapport between the effervescent Monroe and the highbrow Olivier was difficult.<!--IMAGE-->

During filming, their relationship broke down and the movie flopped. In "My Week with Marilyn," actor Kenneth Branagh's Sir Lawrence is stodgy, impatient and judgmental.

“By the time he meets Marilyn Monroe, he is the revered and respected Sir Laurence Olivier. And that’s his problem," Branagh says. "He wants to be youthful, edgy, cutting. He wants Marilyn to renew him and it’s a very tough task. And what he imagines and what happens are two very different things.”

As the relationship deteriorates, Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne, comes to Monroe’s rescue. Their romance is the story’s central theme. But through it, we also watch Monroe’s failing third marriage, her depression, her dependence on sedatives and her slide into self-destruction.

“You can quit this. Forget Hollywood. Forget Marilyn Monroe,” Clark tells Monroe in a scene from "My Week with Marilyn."

The film shows she couldn't. Her fame nourished her as much as it devoured her.  

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It was 1956 and a young Marilyn Monroe was already a sensation. The sexy blonde is played by actress Michelle Williams.

Composer Conrad Pope was asked to score the movie's music.

On the set of "My Week with Marilyn," cast and crew recreated an earlier era, telling the story of a brief romance between Monroe and a young production assistant.

At his piano in Hollywood, Pope captured the feeling of each scene as he composed the film score, working from a theme song by French composer Alexandre Desplat.  In the movie, pianist Lang Lang plays the theme and other parts of the score.  

“Marilyn Monroe is of course this iconic figure and so this allows you to have all this very grand music. She's a very exuberant figure, at least the reaction she elicits from men. And so it allows you for some joyous music as well."

The film is based on the true story of Colin Clark, a member of the 1950s film crew, and his brief relationship with Monroe.  Clark, played by actor Eddie Redmayne, gives the star a break from the difficulties of filming and from her troubled marriage to playwright Arthur Miller.

The film's score is inspired by the big band sound and the lush film scores of the 50s. Pope says it varies from scene to scene.

“You take a simple theme and you can put it through a lot of different guises, and that's what we've done,” he said.

Pope is a veteran arranger and conductor who has worked on dozens of major movies.  As a composer, this is his biggest film score to date.

He says scoring this richly textured film was an ideal job.  

“Yeah, I think for anyone that's a musician in Hollywood, it was kind of a dream project,” Pope said.

He says the music helps tell the story and lets viewers understand the brief and tragic life of the talented starlet, who died at the age of 36.

This orange tabby cuts a dashing figure, from his wide-brimmed hat to his rugged leather boots, with his deadly sword ever at the ready.

Since his first appearance in the 2004 hit "Shrek 2," audiences have wanted to know more about this "Puss in Boots." Where did he come from? How did he become such a great fighter? Does he have a girlfriend?"

She is Kitty Softpaws, a sly feline every bit as daring as the hero. Salma Hayek is the voice of Kitty and Antonio Banderas once again creates Puss.

"It is almost embarrassing to say this, but it's easy. It is just fun," Banderas says. "You don't feel that you are spending as much money as you do when you are working on a traditional movie with everybody rushing you because there are 200 people there. It's a lot of fun."

Director Chris Miller has been part of the creative team behind the "Shrek" films from the beginning. He credits Banderas with making Puss worthy of his own movie.

"We started with a great character: bold, dynamic, colorful, romantic, larger than life. Everything just sort of springs off from the character that Antonio created. The look of the film is a reflection of his character."

Comic actor Zach Galifianakis costars as the voice of the film's villain, Humpty Dumpty, and is quick to defend the egg who sat on a wall and had a great fall.

"I think Humpty Dumpty is a little bit all over the place and he is a little emotional and greedy and a little vindictive," he says. "He is also trying to have a friendship, legitimate maybe, but his greed gets the best of him. I think down deep in his yolk, he's an okay guy."

Tweaking traditional fairy tale characters is part of the fun in the "Shrek" films. The original "Puss in Boots" came from French literature, but with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek as the lead voices, the heroes become Hispanic and Banderas believes that sends a good message to young audiences.

"When I first came to America to do "The Mambo Kings" 21 years ago, somebody on the set said to me 'If you stay here, basically you are going to play the bad guy in movies.' In these 21 years, everything changed very much," Banderas says. "In a way, it is a reflection of what is happening in society, so we are actually very proud that our characters are Latinos and I think it is good for diversity and cultural interaction. This movie is going to be seen by kids, and they are going to watch the movie and see that the heroes have strong accents and this is good."

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, known for horror and suspense thrillers, is an executive producer on "Puss in Boots," giving the film an edge as well as that Latin flavor.

The stage is set for an epic struggle when the power-mad King Hyperion sets out to release the Titans and topple the Olympians from their lofty perch.

While the future of humankind is at stake, the chief god, Zeus, has banned his fellow immortals from meddling in earthly affairs. But he does choose a champion: a young villager who possesses the qualities to become a hero.

English actor Henry Cavill stars as that hero. Although this Theseus is only loosely based on the mythological founder of Athens, Cavill says the ancient legends and myths helped him find the character.

"I've always been a fan of reading the stories from mythology and history and anything like that. As a kid I enjoyed reading it all and growing up with it."

Theseus is mighty and moral, but Cavill says it was important that he not appear to be perfect.

"To play a hero effectively I think you have to focus entirely on the flaws and doubts of the hero, because it's sort of become a little boring to be too good and too great at everything you do. So to focus on all of the things which make life and everything difficult for that individual, therefore, makes them more heroic when they overcome them."

Luke Evans, who costars as Zeus, jokes about strutting around the set in regal robes, but the Welsh-born actor says that had to be part of his character.

"I had to channel being a father, a king, authoritarian and somebody who was thousands of years old," Evans says. "You have to get yourself to that place. There is no point thinking 'Oh, I look a bit silly in this gold cape or crown of brass leaves on my head.' You've got to believe it."

The international cast of "Immortals" also includes Mumbai native Freida Pinto of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame. She plays the oracle Phaedra. American screen veteran Mickey Rourke plays bloodthirsty King Hyperion.

Director Tarsem Singh puts the action in a surreal landscape of massive sets augmented by digital technology. The Indian-born director admits that describing his imaginative visions to studio executives is difficult.

"Talk really fast with an Indian accent. Then they kind of think 'He must know what's happening, because we don't understand,'" Singh says. "I'm very clear in what I want to say or what I want to do in my head and if you can get them to believe in the infectiousness of it, I don't think it can be cheated. They usually say 'Okay, you've done visual films before. Let him have it.'"

Singh was apparently on to something when he cast Cavill as his film's champion. The "Immortals" star is now playing the ultimate hero of modern mythology, "Superman," in the new film "Man of Steel" coming to theaters in 2013.

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"It's interesting in this day and age to do a film about political espionage and wiretapping," notes DiCaprio. "I don't think those types of secrets that J. Edgar Hoover was able to obtain and keep would be possible in today's world. With the Internet and 'Wikileaks' it doesn't seem that those types of secrets can be kept for that long a period of time."

It's no secret, though, that DiCaprio is a committed and vocal environmental activist. More than a decade ago he inspired a Hollywood trend by becoming the first among his peers to start driving a fuel-efficient hybrid car.

"I think that every car should have that technology," DiCaprio says. "It really has dramatically less emissions and, not only that, the gas mileage is unbelievable. If we have the technology to make every car like that - and we should - we would reduce our dependence on oil, foreign and domestic."

DiCaprio says he's been fascinated by nature ever since he was a child growing up in smog-choked Los Angeles.

"I actually wanted to be a marine biologist when I was very young. That was a great passion of mine, so I suppose in the off-season when not making movies, I became more and more active as an environmentalist and tried to be more vocal about issues that I felt were important,"  he explains.

The Leonardo diCaprio Foundation, established in 1998 to promote a sustainable future, has been active in issues ranging from eliminating plastic grocery bags to ending shark-finning, the brutal practice blamed for a steep decline in shark populations around the world.

"Right now, the campaign that I'm a part of is to save the last remaining wild tigers throughout Asia," explains DiCaprio. "There are only 3,200 left in the wild. There are more Asian tigers in cages in Texas than there are tigers in the wild and we are at risk of losing this iconic species for all time."

At an Asian tiger summit in Moscow last year, DiCaprio personally donated $1 million to a program for protecting habitat as well as wildlife.

"Throughout Asia, a lot of countries are selling off jungle and forest rights for palm oil and for paper and pulp companies. So it's more of land preservation effort," he explains, "because if you can unify the public behind saving an iconic species like the tiger, like they did with the panda, that means you need to protect their habitat and everything that they hunt."

DiCaprio has won acclaim for his encyclopedic knowledge of the environment and sustainability. He says he uses his movie star status to draw attention to what he considers a global concern.

"It's important to everybody," DiCaprio stresses. "I think that the environmental movement is the biggest people movement in the world."

DiCaprio also brings his environmental activism into the workplace, requiring his film projects to adopt "green" practices to prevent wasting resources.

Academy award-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood has teamed up with actor Leonardo DiCaprio on J. Edgar, a biopic of the former FBI head, J.Edgar Hoover, who died in 1972. The film focuses on J.Edgar's controversial personality. It follows him as he made the Federal Bureau of Investigations into one of the country's most powerful agencies and became one of the most powerful political figures of his time.

The plot spans more than 50 years, eight presidencies and three wars. It portrays Hoover as a Macchiavelian figure who believes that the end justifies the means.

He systematically collects information on U.S. citizens and politicians. No one is above suspicion.



J.Edgar: "Do you remember that file we created on his wife?"
Helen Gandy: "Mrs. Roosevelt?"
J.Edgar: "You make a copy for me please?"
Tolson, J.Egar's no.2:  "Is that legal?"
J.Edgar: "Sometimes you need to bend the rules a little in order to keep your country safe."

Clint Eastwood some parts of the film are dramatic license. But, he says, much about Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation and the power it wielded is corroborated.  

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"He was a very important figure, the top federal cop, and he probably was the most powerful guy in the country," Eastwood says.

The film alleges Hoover collected information on political figures like President John F. Kennedy, with wire taps.

It shows him using the transcripts as political leverage. Motivated by his fear of communism,  Hoover  tries to convince Attorney General Robert Kennedy to step up political surveillance of Americans. 

Bullying aside, the film portrays Hoover as a public relations expert who mingled in Hollywood and  exaggerated his achievements.

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But Eastwood also shows him as a visionary, whose forensics led to the arrest of the likes of John Dillinger, a notorious gangster of the 1930s.

And the film digs into Hoover's emotional make up. We see young J. Edgar idolizing his mother, who fuels his ambitions.  

The film also addresses rumors about J.Edgar Hoover's sexual orientation.

Hoover's deputy, Clyde Tolson, is shown with the FBI head to the end.    

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, that after he wrote the screenplay for Milk, about gay activist Harvey Milk, he became intrigued with Hoover.

"I had just done the whole story how coming out of the closet and embracing your nature can give great hope, and I wondered what's the other side of that," Black explains. "And I felt we potentially could benefit from learning and creating this cautionary tale about a man who denied love."   

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Leonardo DiCaprio offers a daring performance.   

"This is an incredibly important American figure to take on," notes DiCaprio, "and so we needed the immense amount of research that Lance had done beforehand and I think he needed my interpretation of how he was going to put that up on the screen."  

The actor likes to play controversial figures and he might get an Oscar for this one.

"He probably could," agrees Eastwood. "He is very good. He's an excellent actor. I liked working with him."

The rest of the cast is equally formidable: Judi Dench as the overpowering mother; Naomi Watts as Hoover's steadfast secretary Helen Gandy; and Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson, balancing the frustration of unrequited love with dignity.  

Eastwood depicts Hoover as ruthless, but also patriotic. As for his personal life? It remains shrouded in secrecy like much of the information he amassed.

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Filmmaker Roland Emmerich sets Anonymous in a royal court where Queen Elizabeth's scheming advisors, William and Robert Cecil, have dampened her majesty's love of the arts.

Anonymous is Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. In the film, the nobleman despises the Cecils for their rigidity as much as they despise him for his poetic license. His social standing does not allow him to publish his work under his name. So, he hires a lowly actor to pretend he is the bard and stage the plays for the masses.  The imposter?  William Shakespeare.

Anonymous is based on a theory that emerged about a century ago. It claims that William Shakespeare could not have written the literary works attributed to him because he had neither the education nor the worldliness reflected in the manuscripts.

Roland Emmerich's film validates the idea. The German filmmaker, known for action films, surprises us with his skilled and nuanced depiction of the times.

Acclaimed actors such as Derek Jacobi, who introduces the story, and Vanessa Redgrave, who plays an older Queen Elizabeth, offer superb performances and give weight to the theory.

Less well-known actors, like Rhys Ifans, who interprets Edward De Vere, and Edward Hogg as the venomous Robert Cecil are so riveting they make the story credible.

Emmerich believes the theory.

"I am one hundred percent sure that William Shakespeare was a fraud and was like a play broker, a great merchant, a minor actor and there is no evidence in all his records that he was a writer," said Emmerich.  "It more looks like he was illiterate."

The story describes De Vere's writing as politically subversive.   In the film, the plays incited the masses to rise up against self-serving aristocrats in the royal court.   

Proponents of Shakespeare concede there is no direct evidence to prove without a doubt that Shakespeare wrote the plays and sonnets.    

But Michael Collins, a professor of English at Georgetown University, says there is enough information to establish Shakespeare as the author.

"Edward De Vere was dead in 1604 I believe," said Collins.  "Shakespeare continues to write till 1612, 1613. So, that's the other question. How do the later plays which embody, from some points of view, references to contemporary events?  How do you account for the fact that De Vere is dead and the plays continue to be written?"

Anonymous is an entertaining story, well told, that celebrates the works and words of the bard. They survive to this day regardless of who wrote them.

High school beauty Ariel is attracted to Ren. They both love to dance, but Bomont's city leaders made that illegal a few years earlier after several teens were killed in a car crash returning home from a party that included dancing.

"We cannot be missing from our children's lives. They are ours to protect."

The local preacher, who also happens to be Ariel's father, heads the anti-dance movement.

DAD: "I don't want you to see that boy."
ARIEL: "Why?"
DAD: "Because I've heard he's trouble."

With Ariel's help, Ren organizes the local teens to protest the law so they can finish high school with a traditional "prom."

Footloose director Craig Brewer believes the themes are as relevant today as they were when the original was made in 1984.

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"When there is a tragedy …a threat of our children being in harm's way …we will pretty much overreact until the cows come home," Brewer says. "We will come with laws, stipulations and rules and they all make sense. We all go 'I completely agree we need to do that.' Then somehow down the line things get a little bit skewed and we say 'you know what, I know that we created these things for our freedoms [but] now I feel like I have less freedom."

"My name is Ren McCormack, and I want to move on behalf of most of the senior class of Bomont High that the law against public dancing within the town limits be abolished. There was once a time for that law, but not any more. This is our time."

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The Footloose cast includes several newcomers with considerable dancing skill. Julianne Hough, a contender on the TV show "Dancing With The Stars," plays Ariel. Kevin Bacon played Ren in the 1984 version. The new film features stage, screen and music video performer Kenny Wormald.  

"Growing up dancing your whole life, you see these kind of movies and watch them over and over again because they are just strong memories as a kid and inspiring," Wormald says. "You look forward to seeing these kinds of films. To also get to recreate it and hopefully do with this what the original did for so many people, if I can affect just one or two kids to want to dance or do what they want to do, I think that's incredible."

Still, Craig Brewer says he knew that longtime fans of the original might object to the remake.

"People are saying 'you can't remake Footloose or 'they're going to ruin this classic,' and I can't help but be a little bit bitter about it. But primarily what I've learned is it's just arrogant for people my age to look at 13-year-olds and say the only way you can experience this is the way I did with Kevin Bacon," explains Brewer. "I understand where they are coming from, but really we need a new version of this movie for audiences."

Footloose features a danceable soundtrack with current hits and updated versions of songs featured in the original.

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Jeff Nichols's film, Take Shelter, focuses on Curtis, a young husband and father who experiences visions about the end of the world.

Curtis is a loving father and husband. He works in a sand mine in Ohio.  His visions worsen and so does his state of mind.

As Curtis loses control of reality, he withdraws from those around him. He focuses on the one thing he can control:  He builds a tornado shelter. His wife is at a loss.

Jessica Chastain interprets Samantha who sees her husband splurging on a shelter while they face mounting bills for their daughter's medical condition.

Michael Shannon delivers a superb performance as Curtis, whose quiet suffering makes his premonitions all the more potent. Filmmaker Jeff Nichols builds an ominous mood by seamlessly weaving Curtis's real world with his nightmarish visions.  We feel his dilemmas. The tale taps into today's financial uncertainly and evokes recent extreme weather phenomena to enhance the sense of foreboding.

Lars Von Trier's drama Melancholia also centers around Justine young bride who is an emotionally frail individual who cannot cope with daily life, but greets doomsday with stoic resolve.

On her wedding night she has second thoughts.

Gaby, Justine's divorced mother, is no stranger to the pitfalls of marriage. Maybe it's her cynicism that triggers Justine's depression.

The drama unfolds in the middle of an elegant wedding reception.  The guests and relatives are all there. But Justine is a no-show.

The reception's pristine grounds become the scene of Earth's destruction.

"Melancholia" is a beautiful blue planet on a collision course with Earth. Ironically, as the end nears, it is Justine who remains stoic.

Kirsten Dunst won best actress for this role at the the Cannes film festival. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Justine's sister Claire, and Kiefer Sutherland is John, Justine's surly brother-in-law.

In Melancholia, filmmaker Lars Von Trier shows the collision of the planets as something beautiful. The universe is cleansing itself. In both films, destruction is imminent; human life is petty and insignificant.