Lovers 1999

A woman's long history of bad luck starts to change when she puts her life on the line in this romantic drama. Adèle (Vanessa Paradis) is a 22-year-old woman whose life seems to have been a long series of miscalculations; she's never had much luck with love, life, or career, and is standing on a bridge overlooking the Seine one night, contemplating suicide, when she's approached by a man named Gabor (Daniel Auteuil). Gabor announces he's a knife-thrower who needs a new human target for his act. Would Adèle be interested? Adèle's immediate answer is to jump into the water, but after Gabor fishes her out and gets her to a hospital, she has a change of heart and the pair are soon on their way to Monaco, where Gabor gets a spot at a circus. Adèle and Gabor make a great team; he's good with knives, she's young and beautiful, and suddenly Adèle's luck starts to change. She visits a casino one night and comes home with a fortune, and even when Gabor throws blindfolded, she walks away without so much as a scratch.

The Mary Wells volume of MCA's 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection may not be definitive, but the 11-track compilation contains all of her biggest hits – "Bye Bye Baby," "I Don't Want to Take a Chance," "The One Who Really Loves You," "You Beat Me to the Punch," "Two Lovers," "Laughing Boy," "You Lost the Sweetest Boy," and, of course, "My Guy" – which makes it the ideal choice for budget-minded fans.

It is a pity that most music lovers know Boccherini mainly (and sometimes only) for the humorous little minuet that appears in The Ladykillers and countless other films. These symphonies are charming and delightful and filled with some of the same humor exemplified by the minuet.