“The Artist”

directed by Michel Hazanavicius

The 2011 French film in the style of a black-and-white silent film. The story takes place in Hollywood, between 1927 and 1932, and focuses on the relationship of an older silent film star (Jean Dujardin) and a rising young actress (Bérénice Bejo) as silent cinema falls out of fashion and is replaced by the “talkies”.

It was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture, Best Director for Hazanavicius, and Best Actor for Dujardin, who was the first French actor ever to win for Best Actor. It was the first French film to ever win Best Picture, and the first mainly silent film to win since 1927’s Wings and Sunrise won best picture awards at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. It was also the first film presented in the 4:3 aspect ratio to win since 1955’s Marty, and the first black-and-white film to win since 1993’s Schindler’s List.

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“An American In Paris”

 directed by

Vincente Minnelli

The 1951 Musical starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron and Oscar Levant. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira, with additional music by Saul Chaplin, the music director.

The story of the film is interspersed with dance numbers choreographed by Gene Kelly and set to Gershwin’s music. Songs and music include “I Got Rhythm “,”I’ll Build A Stairway to Paradise”and “Our Love Is Here to Stay”. The climax of the film is “The American in Paris” ballet, a 16 minute dance featuring Kelly and Caron set to Gershwin’s An American In Paris. The ballet alone cost more than $500,000

Winner of 6 Academy awards in 1951 including Best Picture!

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“The Lion King”

directed by

Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff

The 1994 animated musical

The story takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa,  It tells the story of Simba, a young lion who is to take his father Mufasa’s place as king. However, after Simba’s uncle Scar kills Mufasa, he must stop his uncle from conquering the Pride Lands and avenge his father.

The voice cast includes Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Moira Kelly, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Rowan Atkinson, Robert Guillaume, Madge Sinclair, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings.

click below to view the trailer