Excuse me?

I thought we won that war... and now boss around your PMs... ;p

I plan to see all of these films. I just ordered the Dammed United from Amazon UK. I also ordered Young Victoria and the Boat That Rocked (Pirate Radio). I now live in the UK and these films will be showing in the US soon. I have read great reviews about An Education and Bronson. Carey Mulligan is one of the best new actresses I have seen in a long time. I first saw her in the Dr. Who episode "Blink". There are other fantastic British films such as Nowhere Boy about the mother and aunt of John Lennon and Fish Tank that will be in cinemas the nest few months.

I remember that era well and Brian Clough's larger-than-life presence on British screens at the time. It also features two of the finest actors around in Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall.

Interesting fact about Michael Sheen: he was (still is, I believe) a very good footballer and, as a boy, was asked to sign for Arsenal's youth team, but turned it down because it would have meant moving to London. Football's loss... etc.

the multiple Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire" -- a film about which I have very mixed feelings

Jaysus, I don't. I'm a huge fan of Hindi (and other Indian) movies, and I snarled my way through every minute of Slumdog. It was dreadful. It's a horrible thought that it represents Indian filmmaking to the West when there are countless real Indian films which totally kick its arse.

Just wonderin'...you remember you did write a love letter to Polanski following his Oscar victory. Still feeling the love?

Too bad distribution is tightly controlled and shuts out just about everyone who isn't a property of one of the majors.

Most films are lucky if they are shown at a couple of festivals and those are better than anything hollywood puts out.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Whatever article you may be referring to, it wasn't by me.

Furthermore, while the relationship between a person's life and work is a bit too large of a subject for this forum: Presuming somebody did write a paean to Polanski as an artist after "The Pianist," what possible relevance would his arrest on a 30-year-old warrant have to that judgment?

I'm not an aficionado of his later work, and found "The Pianist" technically impressive (as always) but somewhat chilly. Which is why I didn't write anything significant, pro or con, about his Oscar. But it's worth stressing one basic fact: Person and their work, two different things.

"the Brits are doing what the Yanks can't"

Personally, I don't think of art as a competitive endeavor.

Well, if there is a resurgent British indie-film movement, it's about to come to an end as all the National Lottery money that went into the arts is diverted towards the Olympics. Standby for a couple of mainstays of government film support to be wrapped up.