1950年代，美国女性的社会地位表面看来有了明显提高，然而在如威斯理般著名的女子大学里，教师们教授学生，仍是一切围绕将来的好姻缘打转，并不鼓励她们主动获取自己感兴趣的知识，也不注重培养她们的心里素质。美丽成熟的凯瑟琳（朱莉娅·罗伯茨 Julia Roberts 饰）大学毕业，怀揣理想和热情来到该学校担 任艺术史教师时，便因想散播自由的种子碰壁连连。然而因为风趣、率直、热情、渊博，凯瑟琳很快赢得了学生们的喜爱，她的几个学生，想同男孩一样干出一番事业的琼（朱丽娅·斯蒂尔斯 Julia Stiles 饰）、活泼好动的丽薇（玛吉·吉伦哈尔 Maggie Gyllenhaal 饰）等，也慢慢地展露出真性情。然而，另一名学生贝蒂（克斯汀·邓斯特 Kirsten Dunst 饰）要结婚的消息，又将自由浪漫的氛围打破。
回复 :一串悲凉的歌声诉说着蜘蛛城的历史预言。战国时期，处于密林围抱的蜘蛛城，地形复杂，敌军攻来此地，必然迷路，因此城主稳坐城楼，指挥若定，四面排出大将御敌，可保此城固若金汤。大将鹫津武时（三船敏郎 Toshiro Mifune 饰）和副将三木因为平叛得力，准备回城领赏。途中，二人阴错阳差走入了密林深处，偶遇一白发老妪弹琴吟唱。他们觉得此事蹊跷，怀疑是敌方故布疑阵，因此上前以武力逼其就范。但此人却预言鹫津将夺城主之位，三木之子也将继承大统，正当两人将信将疑之时，此人化作一道白光销声匿迹。此后，回到城中，鹫津做了北城城主，但念及预言，心有不甘，于是在妻子浅茅的怂恿下，弑君，自立为蜘蛛巢城城主，然而这才只是预言的开始……
回复 :Three years after the loss of his brother Vittorio, with whom he shared his entire career, Paolo Taviani returns to the works of Luigi Pirandello, which the pair adapted in 1984 (Chaos) and 1998 (You Laugh). In keeping with the Sicilian playwright’s vision, the film is not at all what it appears to be. The title may come from a 1910 novella, but there is no trace of that book’s jealousy-riddled plot. Instead, the focus is on Pirandello himself, or rather, his ashes, which are transported from a hasty burial site in fascist Rome to a permanent resting place in Sicily, on a trek that takes us through post-war Italy and its filmed memories, as seen in newsreels, amateur films and fragments of Neorealism. Having buried the master, Leonora addio then shifts gear from road movie to film adaptation, but here it picks a different Pirandello story, namely the last one, written shortly before his death in 1936. From the farewell of the title to its return to the writer’s last words, it is hard not to read this work, so free and yet so much a part of the Taviani world, as a moving brotherly farewell which, just as in 2012’s Golden Bear winner Caesar Must Die, once again uses cinema to give voice to literature and history.
回复 :一個成功的女人，背後會有個怎樣的男人？本片根據真人真事改編，其實是一個沒有愛情的愛情故事。影片描繪名歌手Ruth Etting 與丈夫兼經理人、芝加哥黑幫頭子的愛恨。她不愛他，但為了成名，接受他的庇護及擺佈；他卻是真心愛她，也尊重她，一心一意幫助她發展事業，始終沒有強佔她。最後，她明星夢是圓了，也為了報恩嫁了他，但是音樂背後的故事，疑幻也似真。舞台巨星對人歡笑背人愁，她背後的男人，何嘗沒有淒酸？
