Extra stuff: Can you guess the film?

Exercise: Try to guess the titles of the following films. Use a dictionary to look up the words in bold, and write a synonym/definition in the Comments section:

1. Dark, dreamlike and dangerous, this film is a fairytale every bit as scary and moving as they were always meant to be. In both the real world - civil war-riven Spain - and the fantasy underworld she discovers, our heroine Ofelia must battle against the most twisted, nightmarish evils to survive. Transcendent, passionate, full of beauty and endlessly affecting, this is without question the movie of the year.


2. The director gets back in touch with his feminine side in this film, the Spanish helmer's most femme fable since 1999's All About My Mother. One of that film's stars here takes centre stage as a domestic drudge caught up in family strife - including the return of her supposedly dead mother. Despite dwelling on death, there's plenty of life in this mix of tears and laughter, although the style's subdued compared with the writer/director's earlier melodramas.


3. Set in the week following the death of Princess Diana, The Queen depicts the backstage parley between PM Blair and HM Elizabeth II. Of course, much of this is speculation (especially the scenes at Balmoral) and director Stephen Frears falls into the trap of gross caricaturing. Only Helen Mirren retains her dignity as the reigning monarch - just as it should be. Otherwise this plays like a bizarre dream that Rory Bremner might have after a late night cheese sandwich.


4. This sensitive adaptation of a very famous epic fantasy classic skilfully maintains the spirit of the book while adding the energy, pace and atmosphere of cinema.
Filming a book is always tricky - but filming this one is nearly impossible. It's not just that recreating the magical realm of Middle Earth requires huge budgets and would terrify even an elite special effects team; more than that, it's a fan's book - regarded with near-sacred awe by devotees - and however hard you try, you risk offending the very people the film's aimed at. It's no wonder that despite buying the rights in the late 50s, it took Disney nearly 30 years to make the film - the surprise is how good the final version is.
The final section of the film was never completed due to financial problems - but despite lacking a conclusion, the film easily stands alone as an atmospheric fairytale romp across the landscapes of the writer's imagination.


5. Several interwoven storylines unfold across four countries as difficulties in communication and understanding complicate life in the shrinking global village. A Moroccan shepherd, a pair of American tourists, a deaf Japanese teenager, and a Mexican nanny and her two young American charges are among the characters whose lives connect in unexpected ways.