2003 Movies : Historical

With Henry Cavill • Rose Byrne • Henry Thomas • Romola Garai • Tara Fitzgerald • Tim Fywell • Bill Nighy • Marc Blucas • Sinéad Cusack

The film follows 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai), and the fortunes of her eccentric family, struggling to survive in a decaying English castle. Her father (Bill Nighy) is desperate to repeat the spectacular success of his first novel, but hasn't written a word for 12 years; her exquisite sister Rose (Rose Byrne) can only rail against their fate, and their bohemian step-mother Topaz (Tara FitzGerald) is a nudist and no help at all. Salvation comes in the form of their American landlord Simon Cotton (Henry Thomas) and his brother Neil (Marc Blucas).

With Eiji Okuda • Yumiko Nogawa • Misa Shimizu • Nagiko Tono • Masatoshi Nagase • Hidetaka Yoshioka • Renji Ishibashi • Miho Tsumiki • Michiko Kawai • Tenshi Kamogawa • Yukiya Kitamura • Kumiko Tsuchiya • Kei Kumai

Set in a small Edo period Japanese brothel near Tokyo, this is the story of a young samurai, Fusanosuke (Hidetaka Yoshioka), who seeks refuge there in the company of a young prostitute, Oshin (Nagiko Tono), after he accidentally wounded a powerful samurai during an argument whose colleagues are now seeking to kill Fusanosuke in return. Soon falling in love with Oshin, Fusanosuke hopes to be able to cleanse her from the sins of her occupation so that she may be his wife, even as danger lurks all around the brothel.

With Elizabeth Banks • William H. Macy • Jeff Bridges • Tobey Maguire • Chris Cooper • Eddie Jones • Gary Ross • Annie Corley • Kingston DuCoeur • Ed Lauter • Chris McCarron • Michael O'Neill • Gary Stevens

This is the true story of a former bicycle repairman, Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), who made his fortune introducing the automobile to the American West, and who owned a small, knobbly-kneed horse called Seabiscuit. Howard teamed up with a half-blind ex-boxing prize fighter, Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), who became the horse's jockey and a former "mustang breaker" Wild West performer called "The Lone Plainsman", Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), who became the horse's trainer. As the United States struggled through the Great Depression, people around the country followed with rapt interest of the Seabiscuit story, leading to his win of the Horse of the Year honors in 1938...

With Vera Farmiga • Joseph Fiennes • Adrian Lester • Anne Brochet • Eric Colvin • David Wenham • Nikolina Kujaca • Rosemary Murphy

This movie tells two stories in three settings, going back and forth between each story as the film proceeds. One is the story of two cowboy brothers (Joseph Fiennes, David Wenham) who worked as mercenaries in Turkey around the turn of the century, and fall in love with the same woman (Anne Brochet). The other is set in contemporary New York, and is about a 90-year-old woman with a secret horde of Balkan gold and a thief (Adrian Lester), who surprisingly become friends. The third setting is the Ottoman Empire, circa 1913.