In Verona, Italy, Romeo-besotted girls still leave notes on the wall next to Juliet's balcony asking for love advice that women are employed to answer. Sophie, a New Yorker researcher played by a live-wire Amanda Seyfried, answers one herself. It was left in 1957 by Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), who enlists Sophie to help her find Lorenzo Bartolini, the boy she left behind in her teens. It's unapologetic schmaltz, deftly directed by Gary Winick (Tadpole) as if it really meant something. Redgrave is incandescent, and casting Franco Nero as Lorenzo was inspired. Nero and Redgrave had a son soon after they co-starred in 1967's Camelot, but they didn't marry until 2006. Watching art imitate life provides a charm that can't be faked.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."