calmI don't think there are any real spoilers here, certainly nothing beyond what you'd see in a trailer or from reading the DVD case.
#5 - East/West
alpheratz recommended this to me, and I have a question for you, Maria . . . Is this a true story? In any case, it was a moving story set in Russia after WWII, when the Russian (or should I say USSR?) government allowed many expats back into the country, only to execute or imprison many of them as spies. One of the families who returns - a man, his French wife and their son - enter the Soviet Union to have the wife be accused of being a spy; the rest of the story deals with the family's struggle to survive and escape, in the hopes of returning to France. It's a very good story - interesting and moving, although shocking and depressing at times. Oh, and it's in French, with subtitles. #6 - A Little Princess
I rented this film because it was directed by Alfonse Cuaron (apologies if I've misspelled his name), who has directed the upcoming Harry Potter film. So, I was watching it with an eye to seeing how I thought his style might translate into the PoA film. I have also seen "Y Tu Mama Tambien," and wasn't particularly impressed, so I wanted to see something else by him.
I enjoyed, but did not fall madly in love with, this film. It's a familiar story (for me most familiar in the film version with Shirley Temple), and this version was well done. It was very pretty (visually), and for the most part I thought it was well-acted. There were a few places where I found the childrens' performances to be a bit over-the-top (which is something that has also bothered me with previous HP films, most notably Draco in CoS), but for the most part, I really enjoyed this film. I did cry in a few places (which is a good thing) ::grin::.
#7 - Discovering the Real World of Harry Potter
I checked this out of my local library; it's a documentary which discusses some of the things in the Harry Potter books in terms of their real-life counterparts, or the mythology behind things Rowling used in the books. It was mildly interesting to me as a Harry Potter fan, but not something I'd necessarily recommend. There is a very short interview with JKR, and also appearances by authors including David Colbert. I didn't really like the style of the film, though - it spent a lot of time on goofy photography and camera angles, like one of those unsolved ghost story type shows, trying to set a "mood" and create tension - I'd rather they just present the information, personally. And much of the material seemed to me to be only very loosely connected to anything in the HP books - like the legend that Queen Bodacea (sp?) is buried under King's Cross Station in London. So, I would recommend this to only the most dedicated of Potter fans; otherwise, it's really not that interesting. I had to watch it twice, actually, as I fell asleep the first time through. ::grin::
