164 stories
Actors You'd Never Cast As...
Sometimes, a certain actor, even a great one, just doesn't fit in a specific role. Choose high-quality or high-profile quality actors who you believe would simply not be a good choice for each of these character types. Actors from any time period or of any age are allowed. Your suggestions can even include actors who were (mis)cast in a role that type in the past.
A Woman Under the Influence
Mabel Longhetti, desperate and lonely, is married to a Los Angeles municipal construction worker, Nick. Increasingly unstable, especially in the company of others, she craves happiness, but her extremely volatile behavior convinces Nick that she poses a danger to their family and decides to commit her to an institution for six months. Alone with a trio of kids to raise on his own, he awaits her return, which holds more than a few surprises.
Raise the Red Lantern
Teenage Songlian, whose family has been devastated by the recent death of her father, becomes the third concubine of wealthy Master Chen. She soon discovers that behind the palatial luxury of life in the master's house, she and her fellow concubines, Zhuoyan and Meishan, are pitted against each other in a struggle for his affections. The situation inevitably leads to deception, jealous rages and the revelation of each other's darkest secrets.
Actors Genderswapped
Which actor or actress of the opposite sex best aligns with each of these people in terms of screen persona, skill, and range? You may choose actors and actresses from any time period.
Viridiana
Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit to her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Virdiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
At a carnival in Germany, Francis and his friend Alan encounter the crazed Dr. Caligari. The men see Caligari showing off his somnambulist, Cesare, a hypnotized man who the doctor claims can see into the future. Shockingly, Cesare then predicts Alan's death, and by morning his chilling prophecy has come true -- making Cesare the prime suspect. However, is Cesare guilty, or is the doctor controlling him?
Chungking Express
Every day, Cop 223 buys a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1, symbolizing the day he'll get over his lost love. He's also got his eye on a mysterious woman in a blond wig, oblivious of the fact she's a drug dealer. Cop 663 is distraught with heartbreak over a breakup. But when his ex drops a spare set of his keys at a local cafe, a waitress lets herself into his apartment and spruces up his life.
Black Narcissus
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital, but slowly their focus shifts. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean, and begins to question her vow of celibacy. As Sister Ruth obsesses over Mr. Dean, Sister Clodagh becomes immersed in her own memories of love.
Woman at War
Halla is a 50-year-old environmental activist who crusades against the local aluminium industry in Iceland. As her actions grow bolder, her life changes in the blink of an eye when she is finally granted permission to adopt a girl from the Ukraine.
Pierrot le Fou
Uninterested in his wife, Ferdinand Griffon wearies of his stagnant life. But when the couple hires an enigmatic baby-sitter, Marianne Renoir, Ferdinand falls head over heels in love with her and abandons his family. He soon discovers, however, that his mistress is not who she seems. Pursued by foreign thugs, Ferdinand and Marianne steal a car and embark on a crime spree through the French countryside all the way to the Mediterranean.
Winter Light
A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.
Rome, Open City
Resistance leader Luigi Ferrari is pursued by Major Fritz Bergmann, a German intelligence officer who wants the name of others in the underground movement. Ferrari enlists the help of sympathetic priest Don Pietro Pellegrini to pass on funds to the fighters in case he is captured, but is accidentally betrayed by a former lover.
Dead Ringers
Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.
Cries and Whispers
As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so deeply immersed in their own psychic pains that they can't offer her the support she needs. Maria is wracked with guilt at her husband's suicide, caused by his discovery of her extramarital affair. The self-loathing, suicidal Karin seems to regard her sister with revulsion. Only Anna, the deeply religious maid who lost her young child, seems able to offer Agnes solace and empathy.
Red River
Headstrong Thomas Dunson starts a thriving Texas cattle ranch with the help of his faithful trail hand, Groot, and his protégé, Matt Garth, an orphan Dunson took under his wing when Matt was a boy. In need of money following the Civil War, Dunson and Matt lead a cattle drive to Missouri, where they will get a better price than locally, but the crotchety older man and his willful young partner begin to butt heads on the exhausting journey.
Grand Illusion
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
L'Avventura
In Michelangelo Antonioni's classic of Italian cinema, two lovely young women, Claudia and Anna, join the latter's lover, Sandro, on a boat trip to a remote volcanic island. When Anna goes missing, an extensive search is launched. In the meantime, Sandro and Claudia become involved in a romance despite Anna's disappearance, though the relationship suffers from the guilt and tension brought about by the looming mystery.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.
The Queen's Gambit
Set during the Cold War era, orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon struggles with addiction in a quest to become the greatest chess player in the world.
Rumble Fish
Disaffected and restless, Rusty James is spoiling for a fight. Abandoned by his mother and living with his alcoholic father, he hangs out with his girlfriend, Patty, and his similarly aimless friends Midget, Smokey, and B.J. Jackson. When his brother, the Motorcycle Boy, returns to town, Rusty hopes to gain guidance and wisdom from someone most people think is crazy.
