National Geographic Awareness Week

Mon, 11/07/2005 - 12:00pm by amy

The third week in November is National Geographic Awareness Week. To celebrate, check out National Geographic's Most Amazing Moments. Other National Geographic videos in our collection include classic programs such as Tigers of the Snow and For All Mankind, and recent productions such as the Be the Creature series; Welcome to Mars and Guns, Germs and Steel, left, based on the book by Jared Diamond. Coming soon: Inside 9/11 and Strange Days on Planet Earth.

Before you see Aeon Flux...

Fri, 11/04/2005 - 8:00pm by Rich

November is upon us and that can only mean that Hollywood will soon be rolling out its holiday lineup. Personally, I'm looking forward to the live-action version of Aeon Flux. Originally a series of animated short films created for MTV's Liquid Television, Aeon Flux tells the story of an extremely acrobatic female secret agent from a futuristic universe. Charlize Theron will play the title character in the film to be released in early December. We'll see if she can do justice to her animated counterpart. Meanwhile, if you want to take a look at other works by the original series creator, Korean American animator Peter Chung, check out Reign: The Conqueror and "Matriculated" in The Animatrix.

Is Wal-Mart Good For America?

Tue, 11/01/2005 - 6:18pm by amy

Today on Talk of the Nation guests discussed Wal-Mart's recent efforts to improve its public image in the wake of criticism over treatment of workers and an apparently scathing new documentary titled Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (on order). While you're waiting for the new DVD, you may want to try the 2004 PBS Frontline title Is Wal-mart Good for America?, left.

Pride and Prejudice

Mon, 10/31/2005 - 11:04am by amy

Also coming soon, another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, this time starring Keira Knightley. Surprisingly, this is only the second big screen version of the novel by Jane Austen (the first being the 1940 Hollywood classic starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier), but the Library owns both the 1985 BBC version and the wildly popular 1995 BBC miniseries, left, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. P&P was also the source for the 2004 Bollywood musical Bride and Prejudice.

Jarhead

Mon, 10/31/2005 - 10:13am by amy

According to Variety, Jarhead, Hollywood's take on the United States' initial offensive against the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein doesn't come close to David O. Russell's Three Kings. The book, however, written by Anthony Swofford in 2003, is "a witty, profane, down-in-the-sand account of the war" and "a worthy addition to the battlefield memoir genre." (Publisher's Weekly).

Scary movies

Fri, 10/28/2005 - 10:51am by Rich

Once again, it's that time of the year when people actually want to be frightened out their minds. As far as scary movies are concerned, none are better than the suspenseful thrillers by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Known as the " Master of suspense," Hitchcock understood better than anyone how to creation tension within a story and keep the viewer completely enthralled for the duration of a film. The library has a very good collection of Hitchcock films on DVD, including personal favorites Vertigo, Rebecca, Notorious, and Strangers on a Train.

Not Formatted to Fit Your TV Screen

Thu, 10/27/2005 - 4:31pm by amy

As part of his "See What You've Been Missing" campaign, Martin Scorsese has compiled a list of what he considers the Top 10 Movies Best Viewed in Widescreen Format (the preffered format of AADL DVDs): 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ben-Hur (1958), Blade Runner, East of Eden, High and Low, Lawrence of Arabia, Lola Montes (on order), Once Upon a Time in the West, Some Came Running (not yet available on DVD), and Zulu. For more on widescreen vs. fullscreen click Read More, below.

Others I'd definitely add to this list are: West Side Story, The Searchers, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In order to reformat these films to "fit your TV screen" they must be cropped along the edges, resulting in the loss of content and ultimately the director's original intent. A film aficionado's worst nightmare is a widescreen film that's cropped using the pan-and-scan technique that boxes off a portion of the original screen and moves it from side to side to capture the action and inserts cuts that aren't part of the original film. Click here for more on these and other films.

A Brief History of Horror Film

Thu, 10/27/2005 - 2:21pm by amy

Here are just a few of the high points in the history of cinematic horror...

1920: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: This German expressionist classic would go on to influence horror, science fiction, and film noir.

1922: Nosferatu: Actor Max Schrek, who took his role perhaps a little too seriously, is the creepiest vampire in film history. (Schrek's performance is memorably rendered by Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire.)

1925: Phantom of the Opera: becomes the first major horror film star.

1931: Frankenstein and Dracula: Both monster movie classics appear this year, introducing audiences to Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, respectively.

1960: Psycho: The shower scene, followed by the introduction-to-Norman's-mom scene, make this Hitchcock classic AFI's number one thriller of all time.

1964: Kwaidan: These four lavishly produced tales of the supernatural are adapted from Japanese ghost stories--a popular Japanese genre later responsible for Ringu, the film that kicked off the J-horror craze in the U.S.

1968: Night of the Living Dead: This low-budget, black and white film with rough edges turns out to be the perfect vehicle for unearthing the public's fear of flesh-eating zombies.

1973: The Exorcist: Linda Blair's head-turning turn as a girl possessed by the devil may just be the scariest film of all time.

1978: Halloween: The archetypal Boogeyman comes to town.

1999: The Blair Witch Project: This low-budget, black and white film with rough edges turns out to be the perfect vehicle for unearthing the public's fear of witches.

I'm sure I'm missing a few. Any suggestions?

A Decade Under the Influence

Sun, 10/23/2005 - 5:17pm by Rich

For those of you who are tired of the films Hollywood is cranking out these days, you might want to look back to the films of the 70s for something refreshing. A good place to start would be watching A Decade Under the Influence, a recent documentary about these ground-breaking films and the people who created them. Even for those of you who already know your film history, it should be fun to watch interviews with legends like Scorsese, Coppola, Hopper, and Bogdanovich. Also coming soon to the library is the documentary based on Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: how the sex-drugs-and-rock 'n' roll generation saved Hollywood. So, what's your favorite film from the 70s?

Two new documentaries on Iran

Fri, 10/21/2005 - 5:04pm by amy

10 is a portrait of contemporary Iran as seen through the eyes of one woman as she drives through the streets of Tehran over a period of several days. Her journey is comprised of ten conversations with various female passengers, and sheds light on the lives of women whose voices are seldom heard. In Mystic Iran: The Unseen World, Aryana Farshad explores the religious rituals and traditions of her native Iran that have fascinated the Western world for centuries.