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I have an ongoing love affair with New York, the city that formed me. I was born here, and though I’ve left occasionally, it was never for very long. The pace, color, and excitement of this amazing town always drew me back like a magnet, and holds me still. No surprise then that I love experiencing the potent nostalgia of great films that recall the New York City of my early years.

Fifty years after its release, “Chinatown” (1974) endures as a stunningly effective tribute to the Bogart private eye classics and the best noir entries of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Directed by the gifted Roman Polanski, an iconic performance by Jack Nicholson as private eye J.J. “Jake” Gittes beats at the heart of this film. The rest of the cast is equally stellar, however, with Faye Dunaway as twitchy, mysterious femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray, and powerhouse director John Huston playing her domineering, power hungry (and worse) father, Noah Cross. Even Polanski makes a cameo as a knife-wielding thug.   And let’s not forget Robert Towne’s sterling screenplay, peppered with smart, snappy dialogue that gives even Raymond Chandler a run for his money. In fact, out of eleven Oscar nods for the movie (including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director), only Towne went home with a statuette for his stinging, perfectly structured script. So I suppose, after fifty years, you think you know everything about this tale of water theft and sisters, I mean daughters! No, sisters!… but I’ll just let vile water baron Noah Cross tell you… “You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't.”

Top-ten lists of holiday films abound right about now, but what about picking the top three Christmas movies ever made? Certainly there's plenty to choose from. Christmas movies are almost a genre unto themselves: between live-action and animated features, there are literally hundreds of titles out there. Inevitably, some are pretty bad, others amusingly cheesy.

It’s nearly impossible to discuss a truly great movie without mentioning its musical score. Can you  honestly ponder the Spielberg classic “Jaws” (1975) without hearing those relentless, alternating two notes (played on a tuba!) that announce the killer shark’s arrival? Or think of “Rocky” (1976) without remembering how Bill Conti’s soaring trumpet theme made your heart race? 

Who are you calling “Diva?”   In real life, wrangling with a diva is a blood-boiling lesson in the perils of the high-maintenance personality. On film, though, there is an undeniable deliciousness to watching the diva — at a safe distance.   Divas are so cutting, so presumptuous, so brash, brassy, demanding, withering, larger than life, full of themselves, and they chew through scenery with cast iron teeth. And, in what might just be a law of nature, it often takes a diva to play a diva. 

 One of the major pleasures and sources of eye candy the movies provide are fantasy spaces of which dreams are made. For anyone who lives for their monthly issue of Dwell, or who forwards photo compilations of delicious décor, on-screen interiors offer a form of fun several notches up from catalogue shopping.  Whether these movies were shot on sound stages, or on existing locations dressed up for their close-up, they perform the task of drawing us into the world of the story, and making us forget about the tedious limitations of reality. If you could choose any movie interior to move into, which one would it be? 

Each year around Oscar time, there’s a lot of speculation about which film will win Best Picture. From what I’ve read online, it appears that my own favorite, Ryasuke Hamaguchi’s brilliant drama “Drive My Car,” is a long shot for the top prize.

With my awareness of passages heightened by a turbulent year, I was moved to compile a list of all the amazing players who have left us over the past twelve months. Some were big movie stars and household names, others skilled and reliable featured players who spent most of their careers on the stage or television.