French émigré Louis Malle invited playwright John Guare to collaborate. A shared interest in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the promise of its big new hotels and casinos clashing with its seedy underbelly, resulted in this enduring gem that earned five Academy Award nominations (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay). Susan Sarandon is radiant as a small-time dreamer, and Burt Lancaster has one of his great late-career roles as a past-his-prime gangster with a deep nostalgia for his younger days. (“The Atlantic Ocean was something then…”)