1 BUGSY
American Dreaming by the gangster Bugsy Siegel, who, besides inventing himself as a Hollywood celebrity, invented Las Vegas as the playground for our more primitive fantasies. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening are terrific in director Barry Levinson's smart-ironic, romantic-perverse, funny-poignant take on modern life in a fast, deadly lane.
2. MY FATHER'S GLORY/MY MOTHER'S CASTLE
In a radiant two-part adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's autobiography, French writer-director Yves Robert imagines family life in Provence as a storybook dream: loving parents, adventurous but obedient children, an idyllic refuge every summer. This old-men's view of youth tells us that memories are precious...