The Painted Veil (2006)

Down in the Valley

On a trip to the beach, a teenage girl named Tobe meets a charismatic stranger named Harlan, who dresses like a cowboy and claims to be a former ranch hand. The pair feel an instant attraction and begin a relationship, but her father, a lawman, is suspicious of her lover.

The Page Turner

Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.

The Painted Veil

The wife of a doctor in China falls in love with a diplomat.

At Middleton

George is an uptight surgeon with a rebellious teenage son. Edith is a free spirit with an overachieving teenage daughter. When they meet during an admissions tour with their kids at the small, idyllic Middleton University, they decide to ditch the group. Though adversaries at first, they soon discover that the only thing better than the college tour, is the detour.

Roujin Z

Mr. Takazawa, an elderly invalid who is cared for at his home by Haruko, a young nursing student, is chosen by the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare to test the Z-001, a computerized hospital bed with robotic features that allegedly displays more efficiency and skills than any human nurse, but Haruko mistrusts a machine unable to consider human feelings.

Three Times

In three separate segments, set respectively in 1966, 1911, and 2005, three love stories unfold between three sets of characters, under three different periods of Taiwanese history and governance.

Loosies

A young pickpocket in the New York subways, living a fast, free, lifestyle is confronted by a woman whom he had a one night affair with, she informs him that she is now pregnant with his child, he must now choose between continuing the lifestyle he lead or take responsibility for his actions.

Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust

In her first comedy special post-health scare, Sarah Silverman shares a mix of fun facts, sad truths and yeah-she-just-went-there moments.

Personal Services

Fed up with working hard just to scrape by, Christine Painter comes up with a bold plan to become the madam of a brothel and earn her financial freedom: she opens a house of spanking to fabulous reviews.

Phantom Pain

Marc is a passionate cyclist and urban slacker who avoids work and responsibility. Marc's life changes from one moment to the next when he suffers a life-changing accident. He can either wallow in self-pity or tackle the beast called life with the help of love and willpower.

Bed of Roses

The seeds of love are planted when Lisa, a high-powered investment banker, receives flowers from a secret admirer. But when his fairy-tale fantasies clash with her workaholic ways, they soon find out that sometimes, it's harder than it seems for love to conquer all.

Millionaire Dog

Since he won the lottery, Pancho, a Jack Russell Terrier dog, lives a life full of luxury. His personal assistant manages his fortune. After trying to strike a deal with Pancho to make him become a star of the toy industry, Investor Montalbán will try to kidnap Pancho by any means. Pancho will discover real life dangers, and understand real wealth is in friendship.

Strange Birds

Mavie is 27 years old and has just moved to the French capital from the provinces. She dreams of a future as a writer but is plagued by doubt and uncertainty. 76-year-old misanthrope Georges runs a bookshop in Paris – or has he merely been forced to take refuge there to escape his past? These are two peculiar creatures indeed. Georges is cynical and no longer expects much from life, while Mavie is still brimming with expectation. Yet something magical happens between them, until Georges' dark secret suddenly catches up with him – and Mavie is caught up in something very different...

Abdel et la Comtesse

Plot unavailable

38°5 quai des Orfèvres

A serial killer, nicknamed Le Ver(s) Solitaire (The Lone Worm) for the alexandrines left at the crime scenes, is spreading terror. Under the orders of a commissioner, Clarisse Sterling, a rookie in the crime squad, can only rely on her instinct, 200g of chouquettes and the virtues of a well-placed pineapple to solve this investigation and save her skin.

Dear Mr. Gacy

A chronicle of the interaction between college student Jason Moss and the object of his obsession, serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

In Therapy 2

Eduarda is a successful orthopedist, married to event producer Marcos for 10 years. Due to the strain on their relationship, they decide to go to couples therapy, but during the sessions they decide to break up. That's when Eduarda meets Leo.

Prom Night in Mississippi

A high school in a small-town in Mississippi prepares for its first integrated senior prom.

Always - Sunset on Third Street

Teenage Mutsuko comes to Tokyo for work but ends up at a repair shop. She befriends the owner's family. Neighbors Hiromi, writer Chagawa with admirer Junnosuke strive alongside them in postwar Tokyo's evolution.

The Bribe of Heaven

In a small Catholic village, the community stands against the local priest when the latter refuses to offer a funeral mass for a suicide victim. In reprisal, the priest denies the sacraments to the entire town, until the family of the deceased remove the body from the catholic graveyard.

For a Son

Sunita, a middle-aged Sri Lankan woman, lives with her teenage son on the outskirts of a northern Italian city where she works as a caregiver. The relationship between mother and son is fraught with tension and silence. Having grown up in Italy, the boy is a cultural hybrid his mother struggles to understand, as she fights to live in a country to which she does not want to belong.

The Power of the Heart

From the director of ‘THE SECRET’ comes this unparalleled and life-changing film about the astonishing power and intelligence of your heart. Featuring some of the most inspiring and influential icons of our age including Paulo Coelho, Maya Angelou, Deepak Chopra, Isabel Allende, and Eckhart Tolle, ‘THE POWER OF THE HEART’ – which ties into a book of the same name – is an experience that will lead you to uncover... and rediscover... the treasure in your chest.

Che!

Biography of Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro in his struggle against the corrupt Batista regime, eventually resulting in the overthrow of that government and Castro's taking over of Cuba. The film covers Guevara's life from when he first landed in Cuba in 1956 to his death in an ambush by government troops in the mountains of Bolivia in 1967.

Our Life

Claudio is a construction worker living in the outskirts of Rome. He's happily married and his wife is pregnant with their third child. However, a dramatic event comes to upset this simple and happy life.

Yes, I Do

Busy chocolatier Charlotte has left her boyfriend James at the altar three times and now she needs to prove to him that she really does want to marry him. Things are complicated when James’ ex-girlfriend Nicole, who is also the owner of Chocolate Monthly Magazine, arrives on the scene and says she wants him back.

Being Flynn

Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.

Arrhythmia

Oleg is a young gifted paramedic. His wife Katya works as a nurse at the hospital emergency department. She loves Oleg, but is fed up with him caring more about patients than her. She tells him she wants a divorce. The new head of Oleg’s EMA department is a cold-hearted manager who’s got new strict rules to implement. Oleg couldn’t care less about the rules – he’s got lives to save; his attitude gets him in trouble with the new boss. The crisis at work coincides with the personal life crisis. Caught up between their patients, alcohol-fueled off-shifts, and an evolving health care system, Oleg and Katya have to find the binding force that will keep them together.

Ladybugs

To climb the corporate ladder to success, a businessman agrees to coach his company's all-girl soccer team with the help of his secret weapon: his fiancee's son.

Death to Smoochy

Tells the story of Rainbow Randolph, the corrupt, costumed star of a popular children's TV show, who is fired over a bribery scandal and replaced by squeaky-clean Smoochy, a puffy fuchsia rhinoceros. As Smoochy catapults to fame - scoring hit ratings and the affections of a network executive - Randolph makes the unsuspecting rhino the target of his numerous outrageous attempts to exact revenge and reclaim his status as America's sweetheart.

At Close Range

Brad Whitewood Jr. lives in rural Pennsylvania and has few prospects. Against his mother's wishes, he seeks out his estranged father, the head of a gang of thieves in a nearby town. Though his new girlfriend supports his criminal ambitions, Brad Jr. soon learns that his father is a dangerous man. Inspired by the real events that led to the end of the Johnston Gang, who operated in the northeastern United States in the 1970s.

Drive Me Crazy

Nicole and Chase live next door to each other but are worlds apart. However, they plot a scheme to date each other in order to attract the interest and jealousy of their respective romantic prey. But in the mist of planning a gala centennial celebration, Nicole and Chase find that the one they always wanted was closer than they ever thought.

Bad Boys

Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.

Kate & Leopold

When her scientist ex-boyfriend discovers a portal to travel through time -- and brings back a 19th-century nobleman named Leopold to prove it -- a skeptical Kate reluctantly takes responsibility for showing Leopold the 21st century. The more time Kate spends with Leopold, the harder she falls for him. But if he doesn't return to his own time, his absence will forever alter history.

The Girl by the Lake

A cop investigates the murder of a beautiful teen girl left naked by a lake.

The Woman in the Window

A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.

The Devil's Violinist

The life story of Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini, who rose to fame as a virtuoso in the early 19th Century.

Beyond Borders

Sarah Jordan, an American living in London in 1984, is married to the son of a wealthy British industrialist. She encounters Nick Callahan, a renegade doctor, whose impassioned plea for help to support his relief efforts in war-torn Africa moves her deeply. As a result, Sarah embarks upon a journey of discovery that leads to danger, heartbreak and romance in the far corners of the world.

Beyoğlu Güzeli

Plot unavailable

Dear Etranger

Makoto Tanaka is 40-years-old and has remarried. His wife is Nanae and they care for 2 daughters from Nanae's prior marriage. Makoto tries to have an ordinary family. Nanae then becomes pregnant. Afterwards, things begin to change among the family members.

Fisher

In the small town of Eden, Tennessee, a neglected and naive teenage girl named Clara Banks has made a habit of deceiving people online for gifts, a gambit known as "catfishing." She thinks it's all fun and games until she hooks the attention of the wrong person. A short time later, events set into motion spiral out of control as someone begins stalking Clara and her friends. As the consequences of her actions return to haunt her, twisted messages start showing up at Clara's home, causing her to fear for her life. Will she ever feel safe again now that the evil has come knocking?

Beneath the Shadow

From coworkers to close friends, Konno and Hiasa drift apart. When Hiasa goes missing, Konno must face what he didn’t say in time.

The Scent of Incense

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.

Woman Buried Alive

Duke Philippe marries Cristina, the daughter of a fisherman. But his brothers, seeing that they would be cut from the family inheritance set to go to Cristina, decide to get rid of her by imprisoning her in a tower and making the duke believe she died.

Gone Baby Gone

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

Heart of Darkness

A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

In 1930s Italy, a wealthy Jewish family tries to maintain their privileged lifestyle, hosting friends for tennis and parties at their villa. As anti-Semitism intensifies under Fascism, they must ultimately face the horrors of the Holocaust.

Final Analysis

A psychiatrist becomes romantically involved with the sister of one of his patients, but the influence of her controlling gangster husband threatens to destroy them both.

Layer Cake

When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...

And Then There Were None

Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. Television producer by day, CIA assassin by night, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA at the height of his TV career and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.

A Boy and His Dog

Set in the year 2024 in post-apocalyptic America, 18-year old Vic and his telepathic dog, Blood, are scavengers in the desolate wilderness ravaged by World War IV, where survivors must battle for food and shelter in the desert-like wasteland. Vic and Blood eke out a meager existence, foraging for food and fighting gangs of cutthroats.

If We Keep Talking in Summer Days

In a small city in the north, the time of midsummer is very short. Two boys get to know each other by chance and agree to meet by a lake. But one of them doesn’t keep the agreement, and it begins to rain heavily.

Field of Dreams

Ray Kinsella is an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond. He does, but the voice's directions don't stop -- even after the spirits of deceased ballplayers turn up to play.

Still Life

A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.

The Flight

The kids were smoking secretly in a barn, set fire and fled. Feeling that the investigation closely, "sits on his tail" and soon will be declared to her parents, the protagonist escapes from home. The charred ruins of the barn, he meets a young man who is also why some carefully avoids meeting people, and tied him. According to the book Hoffmann Ota (Ota Hofman).

Childhood Holidays

The film is based on the early autobiographical stories of Vasily Makarovich Shukshin. A bright, emotionally rich movie about the childhood of a boy from a distant Altai village, about his family — his sister and mother, about work, holidays, joys and troubles of ordinary Russian peasants during the Great Patriotic War...

All the Truth About Schelps

Three men are united around the coffin of a woman they have never seen before. They have been summoned to the morgue by their old school-friend, now a factory boss, who promised the old, lonely lady a decent funeral.

1918

Pastor Samuel Bro has lost his faith in God. He is in conflict with the Church Council and is rejected from his priesthood. He moves away to a different life.

Stalker

Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.

M. Butterfly

In 1960s China, French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with an opera singer, Song Liling – but Song is not at all who Gallimard thinks.

Party Monster

The New York club scene of the 80s and 90s was a world like no other. Into this candy-colored, mirror ball playground stepped Michael Alig, a wannabe from nowhere special. Under the watchful eye of veteran club kid James St. James, Alig quickly rose to the top... and there was no place to go but down.

Examination

A school physician whose son is being bullied at school finds that he must conduct a routine medical examination of one of his son's chief tormentors.

Sagrada Reset Part 2

In the town of Sakurada, where about half of the residents have special abilities, high schooler Kei Asai is able to remember everything. His classmate Misora Haruki has the power to reset the world by three days. If they combine their powers, they can go back in time by three days and retain their memory.

My Name Is Loh Kiwan

After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.

Mary Queen of Scots

In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne. Betrayals, rebellions, conspiracies and their own life choices imperil both Queens. They experience the bitter cost of power, until their tragic fate is finally fulfilled.

The Crime of Doctor Hallet

Doctor in jungle works on cure for fever.

Shanghai Express

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

Scarface

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Crash

A car crash victim suddenly finds himself turned on by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground sub-culture of like-minded souls.

Aparajito

Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.

Cool Hand Luke

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Doctor Zhivago

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

Don't Look Now

While grieving a terrible loss, a married couple meet two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.

Paths of Glory

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Cruel Intentions

Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.

Lolita

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.

Rosemary's Baby

A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.

Animal Farm

Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

In the Mood for Love

Two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.

2046

Women enter and exit a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years after the author loses the woman he considers his one true love.

Brief Encounter

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

Planet of the Apes

Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.

Singin' in the Rain

In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.

May December

Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.

Desperation Road

Ex-con Russell Gaines is attempting to rebuild his life with the help of his father, Mitchell. However, the arrival of Maben sends his new life into chaos, leading the pair to go on the run - as their violent pasts catch up to them, the pair must learn to trust each other if they hope to live out the rest of their days.

Kadhantharam

Rajaram, a writer and an orator has been fondling a dream around his son Sidharth. While the father is ensconced in these thoughts, the son Sidharth perceives such thoughts to be selfish and imprudent and dismisses them with contempt.

Sagrada Reset Part 1

In the town of Sakurada, where about half of the residents have special abilities, high schooler Kei Asai is able to remember everything. His classmate Misora Haruki has the power to reset the world by three days. If they combine their powers, they can go back in time by three days and retain their memory.

Sliver

A woman moves into a Manhattan apartment, where she learns that the previous tenant's life ended under mysterious circumstances.

Heaven's Prisoners

A hardened New Orleans cop, Dave Robicheaux, finally tosses in the badge and settles into life on the bayou with his wife. But a bizarre plane crash draws him back into the fray when his family is viciously threatened.

Rob Peace

An underprivileged, gifted young black man from Newark reaches Yale University, only for shadows and injustices from his past to threaten his future.

The Social Network

In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend.

The Wedding Trip

When Jack, a groomsman leaves for his best friends' wedding several states away, he's asked to pick up Samantha, a stranded bridesmaid. Jack discovers they've met before and had a less than friendly past.

All the Long Nights

Two work colleagues: he suffers from panic attacks, she has extreme PMS. Their company distributes toy planetariums. What may not sound like Ozu Yasujirō is actually precisely that: people are attentive and do each other good, without even realising.

Big Timber

Stella Benton, a young society girl who has lost her beautiful voice through the death of her father, goes to live with her brother Charles, in the lumber camp. Charles Benton is having a struggle to make both ends meet, and when his cook quits, he makes his sister do the work for the hundred men in the lumber camp. Jack Fyfe, a neighboring lumber man, meets Stella and gradually falls in love with her, but love is not reciprocated. Seeing that she is being overworked, Fyfe offers to marry her, in spite of the fact that she does not love him. A child is born of this loveless marriage, and the couple are reasonably happy, until Walter Monahan, a wealthy lumberman, begins to make love to Stella.

Quarantine

During an experiment, an accident occurs at the Institute of Epidemiology. To prevent the virus of a deadly disease from penetrating the walls of the laboratory, five employees remain in quarantine. In this situation, people reveal themselves in the most unexpected ways.

Dawn Wind in My Poncho

Three friends who will soon graduate from high school decide to take one last trip together.

Call Boy

Ryo Morinaka is a university student and works part-time at a bar. He is bored with his daily life and exists in a state of torpor. One day, his friend Shinya Tajima brings the owner of a host bar over to the place where Ryo Morinaka works. Shizuka Mido is the owner of the host bar. Soon, Ryo Morinaka begins to work for Shizuka Mido at the members only host bar. He feels embarrassment initially, but he fulfills the desires of women and develops a sense of purpose.

Taste of Freedom

A young girl, cook Varia, loses her job because no one needs her haute cuisine in a roadside café. Sweet, energetic, witty – she runs as far away from home as possible in search of realization! But an unexpected discovery – a book by the forgotten legend of Ukrainian cuisine Olha Franko changes her life forever and inspires her to go local, instead of trendy!

Pork Chop Hill

Korean War, April 1953. Lieutenant Clemons, leader of the King company of the United States Infantry, is ordered to recapture Pork Chop Hill, occupied by a powerful Chinese Army force, while, just seventy miles away, at nearby the village of Panmunjom, a tense cease-fire conference is celebrated.

Lake Consequence

A repressed housewife is plunged into erotic ecstasy by the arrival of a handsome groundskeeper. At a remote lake, she is encouraged by the groundskeeper and his lover to explore her deepest sexual desires.

Island in the Sun

A scandalous tale of politics, social inequality, interracial romance, and murder set on a fictitious British-owned Caribbean island.

Everything Must Go

Tony is a homosexual law student who quits his studies. With a van and a handful of cash, he hits the road hoping to become a salesman. This, however, turns out to be harder than he expected.

The Children of the Marshland

The film is set in Marais, a quiet region along the banks of Loire river in 1918. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics.