The Quest for the True Cross (2002)

Based on the rather misleadingly named bestseller coauthored by scholar Carsten Thiede, this documentary challenges the academic community's knee-jerk dismissal of Christian relics as medieval forgeries. Theide, who previously made waves arguing for an early dating of the Gospels, now investigates a purported relic of the titulus cruces — the placard over Jesus’ head bearing the charge “King of the Jews” — for centuries housed at the Santa Croce Church in Rome, where tradition holds it was brought by the mother of Constantine, St. Helena, following her pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Theide marshals a number of interesting arguments against the titulus being a forgery. For example, the Greek and Latin lines as well as the Hebrew are written right to left — an aberration that could conceivably be the work of a firstcentury Jewish scribe, but is scarcely imaginable in a medieval Christian artifact.

A popular critical documentary, Quest for the True Cross is secular in outlook and presents various scholarly points of view, requiring critical viewing.

Still, as a challenge to academic skepticism and an apologetic for what would be the most direct archaeological evidence to date relating to Jesus, Quest For the True Cross makes worthwhile viewing.

The Peter Rabbit Collection: The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1993)

Beatrix Potter's timeless nursery tales are sensitively brought to life in nine animated episodes of the BBC-produced The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (available complete in a four-DVD set; individual episodes are also available on VHS). With evocative watercolor backgrounds and character design strongly reminiscent of Potter's illustrations, animation ranging from fine to excellent, and dialogue and narrative drawn straight from the source material, the series is remarkably faithful to the text, spirit and look of Potter's beloved stories.

Like the original stories, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends includes incidents both charming (e.g., the work of the mouse tailors in “The Tailor of Gloucester”) and alarming (e.g., the kidnapping of the bunny children in “The Tale of Mr. Tod”).

Each episode is framed by lovely though irrelevant live-action sequences, featuring Potter herself writing the stories in letters to children, which neither add much nor detract much.

A pleasant piano score and lilting Celtic theme song provide ideal accompaniment.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Witty dialogue, romantic complications and class-skewering satire are hallmarks of screwball comedy, but George Cukor's classic The Philadelphia Story doesn't turn on absurd situations, outlandish behavior, or unpredictable plot twists. Instead, it's a more mature and humanistic social satire, a comedy of manners skewering every kind of snobbery: not only the class-based snobbery of the rich against the poor — and the poor against the rich — but also the intellectual snobbery of the literate against the popular, and above all the moral snobbery of the self-righteous against the imperfect.

Like the heroines of The Awful Truthand His Girl Friday, Katharine Hepburn plays a divorcée caught between flawed ex-husband Cary Grant and a respectable but somehow unsuitable fiancé (John Howard).

But Philadelphia Storygoes beyond the formula by throwing in surprise contender Jimmy Stewart as a disgruntled novelist-reporter — an unexpected source of conflict and uncertainty that eliminates the need for Grant to resort to the underhanded tricks he needed to show up his rivals in Awful Truthand Girl Friday.

The late, great Hepburn shines in the role she originated on Broadway, and Stewart won his only Oscar for his terrific performance.