In 1995, two foreign directors entered the US scene with delicately judged, visually luminous adaptations of classic novels by female English authors, but only one received adequate credit. Ang Lee's very fine take on Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" was greeted with critical hosannas and a slew of awards, but Mexican upstart Cuarón's extraordinary refit of Frances Hodgson Burnett's "A Little Princess" was practically buried by Warner Bros., who were perhaps expecting a treaclier family entertainment than this serious-minded but magic-dusted ode to the power of storytelling. Its promise of a similarly dazzling career for Cuarón has been largely fulfilled so far, though I think this remains his most complete English-language production.