The Treatment

Integrating movie stars into ensemble dramas is not just a social experiment for director Ed Zwick (About Last Night, Glory, Thirtysomething, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai), it's how he works.  You can see it in his new film, Blood Diamond.

Writer-director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) continues exploring themes of life, death and rebirth in his new film, The Fountain. It's a lot to cram into an action-adventure, melodramatic epic.

Envy. Pettiness. Betrayal.  They're all elements of –comedy?  Yes, if you're talking about the work of writer-director-actor Christopher Guest.  He follows Best in Show and Mighty Wind with For Your Consideration, inside dealist showbiz. It's all for your consideration.

Gorillas in the Mist.  Coalminer's Daughter. Many of director Michael Apted's films have a journalistic bent. But his documentaries have a soulful touch, like the series following a group of 12 people.  The first one was called 7 Up. The new one is 49 Up.  We'll discuss marking time--on film.

Phillip Noyce's Catch a Fire follows he real life story of an black South African who is radicalized after being wrongly accused. It follows the director's Rabbit Proof Fence and The Quiet American.  The film is about being awakened to the world around you and moments that change your life forever.

Sex and a need to connect in the days after 9/11 are both integral to the director John Cameron Mitchell's second film as a director, Shortbus. Lyrical, literal and fanciful, it's his follow up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He reveals life from the other side of the camera.

After career performances under directors such as Martin Scorsese and Neil Jordan, Forest Whitaker (Platoon, Bird, The Crying Game, Ghost Dog, The Shield) is getting noticed for his work under a first-time director.  Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland is taking him new places.  We find out exactly where.

A career as a producer for CBS News and CNN not only prepared director Amy Berg for her film, Deliver Us from Evil, it sowed the seeds for her documentary as well.  It's the story of the path of abuse left by Father Oliver O'Grady, who molested children in parishes throughout California for 22 year, and the awful authority of power corrupted.

Todd Field chose to complement his acting career, which includes a no-doubt influential turn in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut,  with a career behind the camera. His directing debut, In the Bedroom, won him a Best Picture nomination.  His newest is an adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children.

After being rejected as an actor, Thom Browne decided to take control of his own fate.  In just a few years after starting his own line of elegant stark menswear, he's the hottest thing going.  He talks about turning the spotlight back on himself.