So, I guess I should re-state to strong, smart women?

Jonathan Brandis committed suicide a couple years ago?! I completely missed this.

But I can't really think of many big old-time actresses who made a career out of playing weak women. Early Olivia de Havilland, maybe, when her primary job was co-starring for Errol Flynn.

Of course, in the third film she worked on (A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935) she played the fiercest character in the whole movie.

I can't express how disappointed I was in Callista Flockhart's whiny, petulant "poppet" rant by Hermia in comparison to de Havilland's. You could see the simmering rage about to go volcanic in her scene, with the other characters stepping back unconsciously(?) as her voice kept getting louder.

Of course, in the third film she worked on (A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935) she played the fiercest character in the whole movie.

Haven't seen that version. Liked the recent version because of (1) Kevin Kline, (2) Rupert Everett not fully clothed, (3) Calista Flockhart beating herself up.

Stanley Tucci's Puck was fun, Michelle Pfeiffer's Titania was luminous, and Christian Bale waking naked in a field played a definite part in me staying til the end, but the 1935 version is just incredibly good all the way around.

Idiots

AACS, a system to be used in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) players, will require that those players downconvert video over their analog outputs. But only if the studio decides to use this feature.

… the affected analog signal must be “down-converted” from the full 1920×1080 lines of resolution the players are capable of outputting to 960×540 lines—a resolution closer to standard DVDs than to high-def. Standard DVDs are typically encoded at 720 horizontal by 480 vertical lines of resolution.

The 960×540 standard stipulated in the AACS agreement represents 50% higher resolution than standard-def, but only one-quarter the resolution of full high-def. Whether a particular movie is down-converted will be up to the studio.

Sneaky...well, I can't say "buggers" can I?

Brokeback Mountain retained its position at the top of the midweek box office for a second day in a row Wednesday although playing in just 682 theaters. The Oscar front-runner earned $740,000 -- $105,000 more than second-place Glory Road. The film is due to expand to 1,194 theaters this weekend -- nearly doubling the number of venues after slowly expanding over the past six weeks. Daily Variety said that the decision to accelerate the release pace was taken in order to take advantage of excitement over the film that was generated by the film's win at the Golden Globes and would likely expand even wider if it garners major Oscar nominations on Jan. 31.

Very crafty distribution strategy.

That's a lot like CTHD, isn't it?

Did it start that narrowly? I don't remember.

I'm never seen Judy Davis be anything less than fierce, comedy or drama. For example, she was amazing as George Sand in the frothy "Impromtu". Oh, wait. There's Adela Quested from "Passage to India", where the character gets overcome by hysteria, but I have to say I've never quite bought her in the role (despite liking her presence in the film very much) because Judy Davis gives out such aura of quiet intelligence and strength that Adela comes across never quite as fragile as she's supposed to be.

Of the younger generation, I'd say Toni Collett consistently comes off as forceful and strong, no matter which role she plays.