Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

[Video: Jennifer Hsu]

The sudden death yesterday in London of Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella is, of course, a grievous loss to the film world. At 54, with only seven features to his credit, including The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, Minghella had so much more to show us about ourselves and the curves life throws at us. But the loss is greater for his family and friends. Minghella, to paraphrase the author John O’Hara, was “a gentleman in a world that has no more use for gentleman.” To know him was to be in the presence of a man with an elegant regard for the romance of film. Talking to me, a critic, he’d want to know what I didn’t like about a movie, his or someone else’s. His arguments, fiery but never hostile, were filled with joy in the discussion. Joy, however, was the last thing he was feeling on the day we first met. It was the first New York screening of The English Patient

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In the last of his Oscar prediction videos, Peter Travers contemplates what movie should win the big prize and be called "Best Picture." Will it be the epic There Will Be Blood, the intense No Country for Old Men, the quirky Juno, the romantic Atonement or the thrilling Michael Clayton? Click above for the Rolling Stone film critic's take, and be sure to tune in to The Travers Take tomorrow for his live blog of the Oscar ceremony, starting at 8PM EST.

Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

[Video: Jennifer Hsu]

In the current issue of Rolling Stone, Peter Travers interviews iconic film director Sidney Lumet about the breadth of his career, from 1957's 12 Angry Men to last year's excellent Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Click on the video above to take a look at Travers' thoughts on some of his favorite Lumet titles, including Dog Day Afternoon and Network.