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When movie buffs discuss the greatest directors of old Hollywood, the same names tend to crop up: John Ford, Frank Capra, William Wyler, George Cukor, and of course, Hitchcock. Worthy picks of course, but why not Fred Zinnemann? Granted he worked in a wide variety of genres (much like contemporary George Stevens), making him harder to classify. Also he started directing features roughly 15 years after these pioneers of talking pictures. Still, his track record is every bit as impressive.

It was gratifying, if not particularly surprising, to see Cillian Murphy capture the Best Actor Oscar this year. He’d just starred in the year’s most critically acclaimed film, “Oppenheimer,” which also took Best Picture. It was a big performance in a very big movie.

Why were so many of our very best actors born in April? It’s an unanswerable question, of course, but intriguing nonetheless. And in the rarefied world of movie stardom, the concentration of April birthdays is pretty remarkable.

Fifty years ago, President Richard Nixon had just been inaugurated for a second term after a landslide election; his fall from grace would accelerate over the course of 1973.  Amidst the growing turbulence of Watergate, the Roe v. Wade decision came down, and the Paris Peace Accords were signed, signaling the end of the Vietnam War. A racehorse named Secretariat won the Triple Crown for the first time in a quarter century.

Today his name may be familiar only to film buffs, scholars and students, but some of Fritz Lang's movies have never really left us. For the most part his work explored nefarious doings in society’s criminal underbelly. But he also gave us our first real science fiction epic (1927’s “Metropolis”).

Thanks to a couple of stellar releases from the Criterion Collection, I’m being reminded of a big star from Hollywood’s golden age who risks being forgotten, but shouldn’t be. His name was Charles Boyer, and he was one of only two French actors to break through in Hollywood during the thirties (the other was singer Maurice Chevalier, who unlike Boyer, confined himself to musical comedies).

We’ve just returned from an extended stay in Italy, most of it spent in Rome. It was an unforgettable trip, with all the stars aligning. We experienced a heady mix of lovely weather, welcoming people, fabulous food and wine. With beauty and history around every corner, you could almost forget all the horror happening to the East.