Daniel Day Lewis

In Philip Kaufman's surprisingly successful film adaptation of Czech author Milan Kundera's demanding 1984 best-seller, Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, an overly amorous Prague surgeon, while Juliette Binoche plays Tereza, the waiflike beauty whom he marries. Even though he's supposedly committed, Tomas continues his wanton womanizing, notably with his silken mistress Sabina (Lena Olin). Escaping the 1968 Russian invasion of Prague by heading for Geneva, Sabina takes up with another man and unexpectedly develops a friendship with Tereza. Meanwhile, Tomas, who previously was interested only in sex, becomes politicized by the collapse of Czechoslovakia's Dubcek regime. The Unbearable Lightness of Being may be too leisurely for some viewers, but other viewers may feel the same warm sense of inner satisfaction that is felt after finishing a good, long novel.

Adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster, A Room with a View is a shining example of Merchant-Ivory's ability to achieve maximum quality and opulence at minimum cost. Set during the Edwardian Era, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, who like all proper young British ladies is compelled to tour Europe in the company of an older chaperone – in this instance, her spinster cousin Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith). While in Italy, the ladies make the acquaintance of a wide variety of personalities; the most fascinating of their fellow tourists – at least in Lucy's eyes – is free-spirited George Emerson (Julian Sands). Aware that her cousin is becoming too familiar with Emerson, Charlotte demands that Lucy return to England posthaste. Lucy complacently settles for the tiresomely traditional courtship of nerdish Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis) – and then Mr. Emerson moves into the neighborhood. Lucy now finds herself on the horns of a dilemma…

Responsible for surely the only concept album based around cricket, the Duckworth Lewis Method is the side project of Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon and Pugwash frontman Thomas Walsh. The duo, named after the complicated cricket scoring system, formed in 2008 after Hannon and Walsh met at Father Ted writer Graham Linehan's wedding in Ireland. After Walsh asked Hannon to contribute to a Christmas charity record, the pair discovered a mutual appreciation of ELO and cricket, and decided to combine the two to record an album together. Their self-titled debut was released two days before the 2009 Ashes through Hannon's own label, and reached number 40 in the U.K. charts.