Mistress of Spices (Aishwarya Rai)

• Making: The Mistress of Spices
• Theatrical Trailer

THE MISTRESS OF SPICES is a universal immigrant story told through magical realism in the vein of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE and CHOCOLAT. It is a sensual love story building on the cultural themes of the writers of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM and WHAT'S COOKING? - what as an immigrant do you choose to keep or leave behind as you assimilate. TILO is an outsider from India who has to come to terms with her new country, America. But as a 'mistress of spices', there are certain rules she must follow. TILO runs a spice store in San Francisco and has a magical gift of seeing into her customers' lives and desires. She gives them different spices to help them get what they want. In order for the magic to work, TILO must obey the rules set out for a mistress - never leave the store, never touch another human, and love only the spices. When DOUG - a han! dsome, enigmatic American with a secret past - enters her store, TILO's own desires are stirred for the first time. She begins to feel passion for the American and as she becomes closer to DOUG, the spices she has given her other customers begin to misbehave. The more TILO falls in love and begins to defy the rules, the worse the lives of her customers become. TILO must decide. Will she choose forbidden love for an American over devotion to her spices and her traditions? Aishwarya Rai, star of Gurinder Chadha's upcoming BRIDE & PREJUDICE, is confirmed to play TILO. A leading American actor will play DOUG. An exciting range of British Asian actors complete the strong ensemble cast. TILO must decide. Will she choose forbidden love for an American over devotion to her spices and her traditions?

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Conversation(s) With Other Women

• There Are Two Sides To Every Love Story At a New York City wedding reception, two guests (Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart), seemingly strangers, become entangled in a sexually-charged battle of wits. As the night carries on, the nameless couple's repartee deepens to reveal the passion of their past love affair. Unfolding entirely in split-screen, director Hans Canosa's feature de

The story of Lady Jane Grey, cousin to Henry the VIII, who found herself Queen of England for 9 days in 1553, at the age of 16.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 12-DEC-2003
Media Type: DVD"I foresee a glittering future for your daughter," the conspiratorial Duke of Northumberland insidiously whispers to the mother of Lady Jane Grey, the woman who would be England's queen, albeit for only nine days. The same could be said for Helena Bonham Carter, who,! in her screen debut, carries this historical drama with aplomb. Jane, a principled and precocious 15-year-old (she reads Plato in Greek) was a pawn in a plot to maintain Protestant rule in the wake of young King Edward's death. A dashing Cary Elwes, anticipating his swashbuckling role in The Princess Bride, costars as Northumberland's feckless, wastrel son, Guilford, whose arranged marriage to Jane unexpectedly blossoms into love and rebellion. Anglophiles will bask in this impeccably mounted production (featuring Patrick Stewart as Jane's bullying father), but swooning teens, too, may embrace these young lovers as did the youths who made Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo & Juliet a box-office smash in its day. --Donald LiebensonA ghostly romance from Australia. Guy Pearce is a brooding psychiatrist who must journey back to his family's summer home, to bury his father and settle some lingering childhood traumas. Helena Bonham Carter is the mysterious woma! n he meets on his journey, twice: once in a fleeting encounte! r on a t rain, again as she takes a dive off a trestle into a river. By the way, she's amnesiac--Guy Pearce just can't shake that Memento feel. For viewers susceptible to this kind of thing, director Michael Petroni's lofty literary tone might just work (the breathless pauses are broken by quotations from T.S. Eliot); otherwise, it will look like a skeletal take on a potentially interesting subject. The two fine actors give it a go, and they're always good to look at, but finally one wonders what they saw in this very slim proposition. --Robert HortonA rich and emotionally charged drama about the seductive and destructive nature of passion. Socialite Madeleine invites her bohemian sister Dinah to stay with her and her husband, Rickie. Rickie and his sister-in-law find themselves unable to control their desire for one another. What starts as a momentary affair spirals into decades of deception, ecstasy, and passion.At a New York City wedding reception, two guests, se! emingly strangers, become entangled in a sexually-charged battle of wits. But as the night carries on in a cigarette smoke haze, the nameless couple's repartee deepens to reveal the passion of their two decades past love affair. Unfolding entirely in split-screen, director Hans Canosa's feature debut is an unconventional and poignant love story.

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