Kazuo Ishiguro

The White Countess -- Set in 1930s Shanghai, a blind American diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee (Natasha Richardson) who works odd - and sometimes illicit - jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.

The Saddest Music in the World -- Isabella Rossellini is the owner of a brewery that sponsors a competition to find the saddest music on Earth. As musicians vie for the $25,000 prize, the world listens in on the radio.

In this final film by Oscar-nominated producer Ismail Merchant (1994, Best Picture, Remains of the Day), and Oscar-nominee James Ivory (1993, Best Director, Howard's End), 1930s Shanghai provides the backdrop for this exceptional drama starring two-time Oscar-nominee Ralph Fiennes (1997, Best Actor, The English Patient; 1994, Best Supporting Actor, Shindler's List) as Todd Jackson, a diplomat blinded in a bombing. An encounter with Sophia (Natasha Richardson, Maid in Manhattan), an exiled Countess employed as a bar girl, inspires him to open his own club, but only if she will work for him. Sophia's in-laws (two-time Oscar-nominee Lynn Redgrave) and Sarah (Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave), greedily pocket her income, but denounce her as a bad influence on her daughter. When Japanese troops invade the city, a mass exodus ensues! Alone and afraid, Sophia clings to the only hope left to her - finding her missing daughter!

Set in 1930s Shanghai, a blind American diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee (Natasha Richardson) who works odd - and sometimes illicit - jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.

Set in 1930s Shanghai, a blind American diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee (Natasha Richardson) who works odd - and sometimes illicit - jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.

Set in 1930s Shanghai, a blind American diplomat develops a relationship with a Russian refugee who works odd jobs to support members of her late husband's aristocratic family.

It's 1933 in Winnipeg and the Great Depression is in full bloom. Beer Baroness Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini) announces a global competition to determine the saddest music in the world, and musicians from across the globe pour into town to vie for the whopping $25,000 prize. Sobbing Mexican Mariachis, dour Scottish Bagpipers, woeful West African drummers and numerous other grief-stricken ensembles give it their all. Down-on-his-luck Broadway producer Chester Kent (Mark McKinney) and his amnesiac girlfriend Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros) return home to his native Winnipeg as the United States entry in the contest. He soon finds himself embroiled in a family reunion as treacherous and twisted as the competition itself. Ultimately, a cataclysmic fire and the machinations of fate sort matters out for the sad characters and the denizens of the saddest city on earth. Part musical melodrama, part tongue-in-cheek social satire, Guy Madden's expressionistic film achieves a level of lunacy rarely seen since the Marx Brothers.

&NFb;&NFb_;During the Great Depression, beer baroness Lady Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) offers a $25,000 prize to the composer who can write the saddest music in the world. Musicians from around the globe travel to Winnipeg to vie for the cash, including a failed Broadway producer, a cellist just returned from postwar Serbia and a bereaved father wracked with guilt over the accidental amputation of the legs of his one true love.

Isabella Rossellini is the owner of a brewery that sponsors a competition to find the saddest music on Earth. As musicians vie for the $25,000 prize, the world listens in on the radio.

Isabella Rossellini is the owner of a brewery that sponsors a competition to find the saddest music on Earth. As musicians vie for the $25,000 prize, the world listens in on the radio.

Oscar®-winners Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Emma Thompson (Howards End) reunite with the acclaimed Merchant Ivory filmmaking team for this extraordinary and moving story of blind devotion and repressed love. Hopkins stars as Stevens, the perfect English butler - an ideal carried by him to fanatical lengths - as he serves his master, Lord Darlington, beautifully played by James Fox (The Servant). Darlington, like many other members of the British establishment in the 1930s, is duped by the Nazis into trying to establish a rapport between themselves and the British government.Thompson stars as the estate's housekeeper, a high-spirited, strong-minded young woman who watches the goings-on upstairs with horror. Despite her apprehensions, she and Stevens gradually fall in love, though neither will admit it, and only give vent to their charged feelings via fierce arguments. Marvelously acted by a supporting cast that includes Christopher Reeve and Hugh Grant.

Remains Of The Day. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson reunite for this extraordinary and moving story of blind devotion and repressed love.