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With Doctor Strange madness not starting until next weekend, it was quiet both domestically and internationally. But the overseas box office universe saw more action.

Many questions arose in the mind of Italian cinema-goers when confronted with the latest Covid measures. Since May 1st face masks have become “highly recommended” rather than mandatory in all social activities, from eating and drinking in restaurants and clubs, to shopping or visiting a museum.

The Germans love costumes, and the Austrians rediscover their own humor. Both countries turned patriotic and supported their own productions in this week’s top ten.

Covid lockdowns continue in China affecting the entire economy. Shanghai has been shuttered for over a month.

Lily Tomlin, a seven-time Golden Globe nominee, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture for Nashville (1975) directed by Robert Altman.   She spoke to the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press in 2006 during an exclusive interview for A Prairie Home Companion about working with the maverick director.

“You may not be able to travel to Tatooine,” reads a comforting announcement currently circulating planet Earth. The Force may lead you instead to the Star Wars Celebration held at the Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, from May 26 to 29, 2022: “Star Wars Celebration,” according to the promise of the ad, “is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience where memories are made – all in the setting of the ever-evolving Star Wars universe.

Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) concludes the Apu Trilogy, director Satyajit Ray’s magnum opus. The three Bengali language films, based on the books by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, tell the coming of age story of Apu – Pather Panchali (1955, Song of the Road) is about Apu’s childhood growing up in the village of Boral in rural Bengal; in Aparajito (1956, The Unvanquished) the story moves to his adolescence in the holy city of Benares; and Apur Sansar concludes the story in Calcutta with Apu facing the challenges of adulthood.

Ang Lee was born in Taiwan in 1954, in Pingtung, a southern agricultural region. He was educated at the National Taiwan University of Arts, the best high school in Taiwan where his father was the principal.

Haruki Murakami is a best-selling author, short-listed for the Nobel Prize in Literature, regularly featured in The New Yorker, the darling of more book clubs in the West than in his native Japan. Collector of jazz records, T-shirts, and, as a runner, marathon miles.

Reggie Lee has no regrets. He was accepted at Harvard but, instead, he proceeded to Los Angeles to pursue his first love – acting.