In the Realm of PN1997

Good News for People Who Like Obscure Movies

2005-08-16T14:16:00.000-04:00

The always interesting Wired has a fascinating article titled The Long Tail which describes how online shopping makes selling or renting obscure merchandise profitable for companies like Amazon and Netflix. Because online vendors don't have the overhead of physical stores, making low-selling items available is a viable option. As author Chris Anderson points out, "more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles." Which means, ideally, there's no reason for obscure titles to go out of print.

Controversy!

2005-08-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

Connelly Library recently added Warner Home Video’s Controversial Classics DVD set. As the title of the set suggests, each of these films created controversy at the time of their initial release, whether for its violence, politics, cynicism, or honest depiction of race relations.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932): Director, Mervyn LeRoy; Cast, Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson

Fury (1936): director, Fritz Lang; Cast, Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, George Walcott

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955): director, John Sturges; Cast, Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin

Blackboard Jungle (1955): director/screenplay, Richard Brooks, Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes, Vic Morrow, Sidney Poitier

A Face in the Crowd (1957): director, Ella Kazan; Cast Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick

Advise and Consent (1962): director, Otto Preminger; Cast, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Burgess Meredith

The Americanization of Emily (1964): director Arthur Hiller; Cast, James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas, James Coburn

See what other new films are available at Connelly Library

Sight and Sound on Robert Mitchum

2005-08-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

The always interesting Sight and Sound has an excellent article about Robert Mitchum in their August 2005 edition.

Richard Widmark

2005-08-04T10:04:00.000-04:00

My recent fascination with some early films of Richard Widmark continues. I have recently purchased a handful of classics, which coincidentally have Widmark in them. I had never paid much attention to his work before, but highly recommend these films which have recently come out on dvd (and recently added to our collection):

The Bedford Incident (1965)

Night and the City (1950)

Panic in the Streets (1950)

Pickup on South Street (1953)

The Street With No Name (1948)

Me And You And Everyone We Know

2005-07-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite films from this year's film festival, Me And You And Everyone We Know, is now playing in the Philadelphia area at the Ritz East and Ritz Sixteen.

You can find out more about Me and You and see the trailer here.

National Films Registry Titles Added

2005-07-15T14:12:00.000-04:00

The AV department has just purchased DVD copies of the following films that were recently selected to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress:

The Court Jester (1956)

Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury, Cecil Parker

Enter the Dragon (1973)

Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Ahna Capri, Bob Wall, Shih Kien, Jim Kelly

Going My Way (1944)

Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown

Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Dean Jones, Jennifer Holden

The Nutty Professor (1963)

Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Del Moore, Kathleen Freeman, Med Flory

Unforgiven (1992)

Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris

See what other new films are available at Connelly Library

New Award Winning Documentaries

2005-07-14T13:58:00.000-04:00

New in Connelly Library: Award Winning Documentaries Recommended by the American Library Association:

Be Good, Smile Pretty – “A daughter’s journey to know her father…thirty years after his death in Vietnam.”

A Crisis of Faith: The Series – “what is really real in our lives, and how can we live in such a complex world with dignity, compassion and purpose?”

Farmingville – “a provocative, complex, and emotionally charged look into the ongoing nationwide controversy surrounding a suburban community, its ever-expanding population of illegal immigrants, and the shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers.”

Trembling Before G-D – “The hidden lives of Gay and Lesbian Orthodox and Hasidic Jews.”

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives – “In their words, our shared history.”

Union Square – “a powerful look into the world of homeless heroin addicts that live in Union Square Park in New York City.”

Winsor McCay: The Master Edition – “Winsor McCay was the first master of animation and one of its greatest and most influential artists.”

For more new films see http://www.lasalle.edu/library/Departments/newfilms.htm

It's Not Just Me

2005-06-16T13:21:00.000-04:00

David Edelstein from Slate has some interesting insights about Spielberg. Not coincidentally, he uses my favorite Spielberg-related word: "manipulated."

The Trouble with Glib Comments

2005-06-15T14:33:00.000-04:00

In a previous post, I made a rather glib comment about AFI's nasty habit of coming up with attention getting lists. Little did I know that they are about to announce 100 Years...100 Movies Quotes. Will "Match Me, Sydney" win?

Lucky Brits

2005-06-10T10:27:00.000-04:00

Reading June's Sight and Sound and came across an ad for a new boxed set: Laid Bare with all 4 of Lukas Moodysson's films: Show Me Love, Together, Lilya 4-Ever, and A Hole in My Heart.

We're luck enough to have Show Me Love and Together in our collection, but neither Lilya 4-Ever nor A Hole in My Heart have been released in the U.S. I was lucky enough to have seen Lilya at last year's Philly Film Festival. Well, lucky may not be the right word. Lilya is a hell of a movie, but it's a tough watch because of how disturbing and depressing it is. Hole is supposed to be even moreso, but I wouldn't know since it wasn't released here.

Lilya is especially difficult after seeing Show Me Love and Together which are much more upbeat, especially Together which is quite funny (which is why I refer to him has Lukas Moodswingysson, at least in my head). Show Me Love is kind of like thirteen, but good.

Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies

2005-06-09T14:42:00.000-04:00

I guess as a self-proclaimed movie guru, I feel quasi-obligated to comment on Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Movies. I’m not a big fan of lists like this. AFI went crazy over the past few years compiling lists (have they done the 100 Best Dog Movies yet?). These lists are by nature subjective. Richard Corliss, one of the authors of Time’s list, gives a good explanation of the list and, thankfully, he and Richard Schickel don’t take themselves too seriously in trying to develop some kind of authoritative list.

Although, I am not a big fan of these list, I am, alas, strangely compelled to look at them. They give me some idea of the cultural significance (or at least the cultural popularity) of these works. More importantly, high profile lists may incite movie companies to release some classic films that have not previously been released on DVD, especially some cool pre-code stuff like Baby Face.

A lot of obvious titles make the list (Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Godfather, blah, blah, blah), but the list goes out on a limb with some titles for good or ill:

Of the movies that one doesn’t often see on such lists--
The Good (aka movies I’m glad made the list):

The Lady Eve—Almost as good as Sullivan’s Travels, say, where’s ST?
Detour—OK, it probably really doesn’t belong on any list except for “Cool Low-Budget Flicks,” but I applaud the author’s for having the nerve.
Out of the Past—You have no idea how happy the movie guru is that OotP is on this list. Though it’s still not Robert Mitchum at his best. I prefer him creepy like Night of the Hunter or Cape Fear. Oh how breathless I get trying to convince people to watch the original Cape Fear instead of Scorsese’s schlock. And speaking of Jacques Tourneur, how about Cat People instead of Detour as the token Cool Low-Budget Flick? And speaking of Cool Low-Budget Flicks, where’s Night of the Living Dead?
Invasion of the Body Snatchers—The original, natch.
Sweet Smell of Success—The movie guru is too happy for words, except, perhaps, “Match me, Sydney.”
A Hard Day’s Night—Before Monty Python, there was the Beatles.
The Fly—Only one Cronenberg? No Videodrome? No Crash? What gives?
City of God—A bit surprising this made the list, but it is rather good.

The Ill (aka movies I would not have put on the list):

It’s A Wonderful Life—Isn’t about time to admit we’re all pretty sick of this movie?
In a Lonely Place—I like IaLP, but top 100? Bogart’s better in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Gloria Grahame’s better in The Big Heat.
Closely Watched Trains—Also like CWT and yes it’s important historically, but it feels slight.
Schindler’s List—Though I have to say I’m soooo happy that Saving Private Ryan isn’t on this list and neither is Jaws, but is a Spielberg free list too much to ask for?
Talk to Her—Another film I like, but if Almodovar makes any lists shouldn’t it be for Women on the Verge or All About My Mother?
Finding Nemo—who did what now? For a list short on animated films, this shouldn't make the cut. Yeah it's funny. Yeah it's a technical breakthrough, but where's Hayao Miyazaki? Though the movie guru is happy to see a shortage of Disney pap. (What? First he disses Spielberg, now Disney?)

Other observations:

I would never argue to remove any Kurosawa films, so nothing against Yojimbo or Ikiru, but Seven Samaurai really, really has to be on any list. Really.
And not one single movie with Parker Posey? Put Henry Fool on the list and I’d be doubly-happy, being a Hal Hartly fan as well.
Am I seeing correctly, only 1 Hitchcock? No Vertigo? No Rebecca?
8.5, OK, but I'm a bigger La Dolce Vita fan and only partly because of Anita Ekberg in the fountain.
And please, one Richard Widmark hitting hard times film: Night and the City or Pick-up on South Street. One of the great pleasure in life is watching RW crumble under the weight of the world.
And one three-hour epic Bollywood movie about cricket.

So, just some knee-jerk observations. I’d probably have more if I thought about it, but I’m not going to.

More Me and You

2005-06-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

The trailer for Me and You and Everyone We Know, which I was incredibly fond of at the film festival, is available at the Apple site. Click above to see it. It's coming out in limited release on June 17th.

Top 25

2005-05-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

It's the end of our fiscal year and I just ran a list of how often the items I purchased this year got checked-out. Not that what we do here is a popularity contest, but I certainly like to know what the popular titles are. Of course, this list is not a completely accurate depiction. Films I bought last June had a greater chance of making this list than the things I just bought last month. But here are the top 25 for the 2004-2005 fiscal year:

25. The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season
24. In America
23. The Ladykillers (2004)
22. Fight Club
21. The Cooler

20. Sex and the City: The Complete Fourth Season*
19. The Passion of the Christ
18. Sex and the City: The Complete Second Season*
17. Sex and the City: The Complete Third Season*
16. The Last Samurai
15. Kill Bill Vol. 1
14. Kill Bill Vol. 2
13. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
12. Cabin Fever
11. City of God

10. Master and Commander
9. The Human Stain
8. Sex and the City: The Complete Fourth Season*
7. Sex and the City: The Complete Second Season*
6. Sex and the City: The Complete Third Season*
5. Big Fish
4. Cold Mountain
3. Sex and the City: The Complete Fifth Season*
2. Mystic River
1. Sex and the City: The Complete First Season*

*Multi-disc sets checked-out in 1- or 2-disc sets.

Lonesome Jim

2005-04-29T11:25:00.000-04:00

Last but not least...

The final film I saw was Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim. Buscemi was at the earlier screening, but, alas, had to leave for New York prior to the screening I attended.

As a big fan of his earlier Trees Lounge, I was eager to see Lonesome Jim and was not disappointed. If felt the tone of the ending was slightly inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the film, but that's only a minor complaint of an otherwise well-acted and engaging film about a young man (Casey Affleck) who comes back to the small town in Indiana where he grew up after spending time in New York. Back home, he meets nurse Anika (Liv Tyler), casually talks his brother (Kevin Corrigan) into a failed suicide attempt, and hangs out with his drug-dealing uncle (Mark Boone, Jr).

Despite these heavy topics, film never gets self-indulgent or overly serious. Acting is superb throughout (including supporting roles for Mary Kay Place and Seymour Cassel).

Given the director and name cast, I would expect Lonesome Jim to be released theatrically. Though, given the dark tone, it may never reach the mainstream market.

Poor -- Fair -- Good -- VERY GOOD -- Excellent

Me And You And Everyone We Know

2005-04-29T10:31:00.000-04:00

And now for the good news...

Finally saw my first "excellent" film of the festival. As I mentioned before, I originally rated The Holy Girl "very good," but afterward felt I could have given it an "excellent." But Miranda July's debut, Me And You And Everyone We Know, felt like an "excellent" right from the beginning and didn't disappoint for the duration.

Ostensibly about shoe saleman Richard Swersey (John Hawkes) trying to get his life back together after his recent separation from his wife. Opening sequence of his moving out sets the quirky tone that is both dark and laugh out loud funny. Richard meets performance artist Christine Jesperson (July) and the two begin an awkward and quirky (there's that word again) relationship.

The plot, though interesting, is not the strongest point of Me and You. The characters are so compelling, that one cannot help sympathize with them.

Miranda July was present at the screening I attended and wooed the crowd with her quirky charm. She said Me and You is scheduled for limited theatrical release in July.

Poor -- Fair -- Good -- Very Good -- EXCELLENT

Genesis

2005-04-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

OK, so I'm way behind on my film festival films.

One of my biggest disappointments was Genesis, directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou, the same people who created the unique and inventive Microcosmos from 1996. Unfortunately, Genesis is neither unique or inventive. Perhaps Microcosmos set my expectations too high, but Genesis comes across as a second-rate NOVA special. The photography, which was so special in their former film, fails to deliver any surprises here.

The use of the storyteller is pretentious and exposes the shortcomings of the film. The images are not as convincing as the storyteller's mythology.

It didn't help that at the screening I was at, the final reel was inverted and the projectionist took 20 minutes getting it to face the right way.

Poor -- FAIR -- Good -- Very Good -- Excellent

Woman Is The Future of Man

2005-04-25T13:23:00.000-04:00

For all my alleged film knowledge, I somehow missed the detail that Hong Sang-soo also directed Turning Gate, which I saw at last year's festival and didn't like much at all. I picked Woman based on a vague recollection of having read a good review in Variety.

Turning Gate had mildly interesting characters who sat around talking. Woman Is the Future of Man has not-so mildly annoying characters sitting around talking. Neither film is visually interesting. Most of Woman is medium shots of said annoying people sitting around talking.

Slow moving tale of two old friends who visit a woman with who both have a past raises a lot of questions as to why this woman ever took any interest in either of these men. Side trip of one of the men who visits with some of his students unnecessarily pads a film that feel long at 88 minutes.

Sigh.

Poor -- FAIR -- Good -- Very Good -- Excellent

Take a Deep Breath

2005-04-21T14:40:00.000-04:00

Saturday was by far the worst day of the festival for me. I saw more movies (3) on that day than any other, and the best of the lot, Dragan Marinkovic's Take a Deep Breath, was only average. The film is about a dysfunctional Serbian family of three, Mom (Mira Furlan), Dad (Bogdan Diklic), and daughter Sasa (Ana Franic). As the film opens, Sasa is about to run off with her boyfriend, Stefan (Branislav Tomasevic). When they run off, they get into a car wreck which leaves Sasa unscathed, but lands Stefan in the hospital for a lengthy stay. At the hospital, Sasa meets Stefan's sister, Lana (Jelena Djokic) and the two develop and intimate relationship. Meanwhile, Mom's having her own affair and Dad's trying to fix Sasa up with his young assistant.

What keeps the film afloat is the soap opera-like plot and it's occasional humor. But overall, Take A Deep Breath is rather slight, all the plot turns don't really add up to much.

The best part of the screening was that the director was there and fielded questions. He would not specifically talk about how the film was received in Serbia but did talk about how controversial having lesbian characters is.

Poor -- Fair -- GOOD -- Very Good -- Excellent

Yuva

2005-04-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

Yuva is one of the films I was really looking forward to seeing. Two years ago, I saw Mani Ratnam's excellent A Peck on the Check, which, alas, I have never been able to find on VHS or DVD.

While Ratnam's new film, Yuva, is not quite as emotionally engaging as A Peck, it is an energetic and entertaining film. Nearly three hours long (but not feeling it), Yuva tells the intertwining stories of 3 men who have a fateful encounter on a bridge. The film begins with the shooting at the bridge and then flashes back to tell the story how each man wound up at that place at that time. Blending the personal with the political, Yuva mixes drama, romance, comedy, and musical numbers in a way only possible in a Bollywood film.

Print at the film festival had spotty English subtitles, but the film was easy enough to follow.

Poor - Fair -- Good -- VERY GOOD -- Excellent

Brothers

2005-04-15T13:01:00.000-04:00

Brothers is an emotionally draining Danish film from director Susanne Bier about two brothers, one, Jannick (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), just getting out of prison and one, Michael (Ulrich Thomsen), being shipped out to serve in Afghanistan. When Michael's helicopter is shot down, his family believes he is dead. Jannick, mercilessly derided by his father, assists in caring for Michael's wife, Sarah (Connie Nielsen) and children. While they continue to grieve and slowly recover, Michael is found by the enemy and tortured. But the real tragedy occurs when Michael is rescued and returns home psychologically damaged.

Well-written script and excellent performances are completely convincing in a story which could easily have devolved into cheap melodrama.

Poor -- Fair -- Good -- VERY GOOD -- Excellent

Lakeside Murder Case

2005-04-13T13:39:00.000-04:00

I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with Lakeside Murder Case, directed by Shinji Aoyama (Eureka). The first half is a very tense story about the murder of a man's mistress. Mr. Namiki (Kôji Yakusho) meets his wife at a prestigious school where their daughter, Minako (Hiroko Yakushimaru), is applying. Two other couples and their children are also staying the weekend at the isolated school. When Namiki's mistress shows up and winds up murdered, the three couples frantically try and hide the dead body before the school's instructor can find out.

Unfortunatly, in the second half, the plot's twists are strained and predictable. But the main problem is that this film is clearly an indictment of Japan's overly competitive education system. Toward the end, the film becomes very heavy-handed and didactic, and, in effect, rather insulting toward it's audience.

Poor -- Fair -- GOOD-- Very Good -- Excellent

The Holy Girl

2005-04-13T13:16:00.000-04:00

The Holy Girl is a disturbing film set in Argentina about a teenage girl, Amalia (Maria Alche), caught between her spirituality and budding sexuality. Director Lucrecia Martel (La Cienaga)uses close-ups to convey an intimacy not often seen in film. Often, the close-ups cut off the focal character's face to haunting effect.

What is particularly unsettling about this film is that the religion being taught to the teenagers is one based more or superstition than on scripture. The students share stories about the miraculous ways people are given their vocations. They are taught they need to "save and be saved."

Amalia finds her vocation in trying to save the soul of the man who frotteurizes her. This Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso) is staying in the same hotel where Amalia and her mother, Helena (Mercedes Moran) are living. Helena meets and falls for Dr. Jano. The film creates a great deal of tension with effective use of dramatic irony. The viewer knows that Amalia's attacker and Dr. Jano are the same man, but neither Amalia nor her mother realize the connection.

Many aspects of the film are unsettling: from the frequent use of Theremin music to the phone call that Helena refuses to take. Many of the questions the film raises remain unanswered by film's end, but not necessarily in a bad way. The disturbing tone is consistent throughout and the lack of solid answers leaves the viewer intellectually curious and emotionally satisfied.

My initial reaction was to rate this film "very good," but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Given another chance, I most likely would have rated it "excellent."

Poor -- Fair -- Good -- VERY GOOD-- Excellent

Film Ratings

2005-04-13T13:14:00.000-04:00

At the Philly Film Festival, you can rate each movie you see. The staff at the theater hand out ballots and you rip the ballot in the spot where you rate the movie. They use a simple Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent scale, so that's the scale I'm going to use when I rate the films here.

Philly Film Festival

2005-04-11T15:10:00.000-04:00

One of the reasons I am starting this blog when I am is because I will be going to a number of screenings for the 14th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival. I have gone each of the past two years and have had a wonderful time.

I will be going to two screenings tomrorrow: The Holy Girl and Lakeside Murder Case. I have read excellent reviews of The Holy Girl in Variety and in The Philadelphia Inquirer, so I'm really looking forward to that. Don't know as much about Lakeside Murder Case.

The official site (in Spanish or English) for the The Holy Girl can be found here.

The offical site for Lakerside Murder Case can be found here. This is the Japanese site, so the monolingual of us are at a loss, but the trailer makes sense even without subtitles: people die, someone's scared, everyone's yelling.

Introduction

2005-04-08T11:39:00.000-04:00

I have be toying with the idea of starting a blog to promote the films and services offered here at Connelly Library at La Salle University in Philadelphia. It wasn't until I found myself hanging out with some serious bloggers at the March 2005 Computers in Libraries Conference that I was newly inspired to give it a serious try. If you don't know who you are, check out the list of other blogs at the right. And if I have forgotten anyone, let me know and I'll add you.

I've decided to focus on three areas:

1) promoting the services offered in the Media Services Department at Connelly Library

2) discussing films, film history or any other cinematic topics my heart desires

3) promoting and discussing aspects of Media Librarianship.

In my previous musings about starting a blog, I always felt I was going into it a bit haphazard. No more. Thanks to Michael Stephens' excellent list of the 10 things he learned as a Blogging Librarian, I feel like I now have an approach.