Staff Picks: Movies
Staff-recommended viewing from the KPL catalog.
The recent “balloon boy” hoax that had citizens across the country glued to news outlets late last week brings Billy Wilder’s 1951 film classic Ace in the Hole back to my mind, in a big way. Ignored in its time, the film predicted the modern-day “media circus” that persists around human interest stories - true or otherwise.
Scenery-chewing (and I mean that as a compliment) Kirk Douglas plays a shady reporter who unexpectedly comes across a man trapped in a cave before any local help has been summoned. Sensing that he’s on to a big scoop, he decides to make it bigger by manipulating the rescue effort for maximum dramatic effect – bringing as much media attention to him as that paid to the hapless victim biding his ever-lengthening, nail-biting time at the bottom of the cave-in. Though the noirish theatrics push the boundaries of credibility, if you’re familiar with the film Wilder made just prior to this - the sublime Sunset Boulevard - you know that OTT can be a good thing in the right hands.
Due to its unavailability in any video format until Criterion’s 2007 DVD release, the film has been something of a rarity in Wilder’s oeuvre, hardly as well-known as Some Like it Hot, Double Indemnity, or The Apartment. It didn’t do well in its theatrical release (the studio changing the film’s title to The Big Carnival without Wilder’s approval), and many contemporary critics found it far too cynical to be believable – but it’s that very cynicism that makes the film very of-the-moment, even six decades after its first screening. Ace in the Hole is no second-string Wilder production – it’s a first-rate film that's simply ahead of its time.
Movie
Ace in the Hole
ICRCC1705D
The animated film Waltz With Bashir is a magnificent film that reminded me of the recently adapted graphic novel Persepolis, especially the way in which memoir, history and social turmoil are woven together not only as a compelling narrative form but also because in both works, the primary characters struggle for certainty, meaning and peace in a world of war, conflict and confusion.
The main plot takes place in contemporary Israel, where a man who was an Israeli soldier during the Lebanon/Israel War of the early 1980's sets out on a journey to rediscover his lost memories of the war and to determine what role, if any, he played in the Sabra and Shatila massacres. The film's director and protagonist Ari Folman depicts the war as a horrorific act against humanity, where neither side was innocent of committing atrocities. Winner of many awards in 2008 and nominated for a Best Foreign Film Academy Award, Waltz With Bashir is a haunting and visually rich meditation on memory, war and healing.
Learn more about this piece of history by accessing the library's information databases. They can put you in touch with the information you need to understand today's vital issues.
Movie
Waltz with Bashir [videorecording]
COL28993D
Two of the best films from the 1990’s, both of which were adapted from well known literary sources, present very different views of the City of Angels yet both explore the often sinister contradictions between image and reality that simmer under Los Angeles’ landscape of broken dreams and superficial glamour. Robert Altman’s loosely adapted Short Cuts threads together several of Raymond Carver’s short fiction into a dynamic tableau of everyday people behaving like…well…everyday people. With a star studded cast that includes Tim Robbins, Jack Lemon, Tom Waits, Robert Downey Jr., Lilly Tomlin, and Jennifer Jason Leigh but to name a few, Short Cuts effortlessly weaves together the lives of these wonderfully drawn characters in ways both surprisingly humane and hilariously blemished. For those new to Altman’s classic, do not expect a linear or simulated rendering of Carver’s stories. Altman draws from Carver’s tones and themes of people living on the social edges to masterfully depict modern life in all its garish comedy rather than replicate the stories verbatim. Carver’s vision is still there, albeit mashed up and re-imagined through the optics of a gifted auteur.
The beautifully detailed and soundly acted crime thriller L.A. Confidential also looks toward Los Angeles for its backdrop. A stylish and taut take on James Ellroy’s noir classic, director Curtis Hanson, unlike the mundane city of ineffectual Angelinos portrayed by Altman, delivers a cool Hollywood with a 1950’s sheen and Chandleresque heart. Like Short Cuts, a great deal of L.A. Confidential’s strength as a film stems from a strong cast including Aussies Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe as well as Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell and Kim Basinger. This a wonderfully paced detective thriller with strong performances from everyone involved. Hanson’s subsequent work has never quite lived up to the expectations that L.A. Confidential brought with it.
Movie
Short Cuts
ICRCC1776D
“Hamlet” has been called the most celebrated drama in the English language and some say it is William Shakespeare’s greatest play. The DVD introduction to director Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” (1996) asserts that in the 400 years since it was written, there’s rarely been a time when it hasn’t been performed. Perhaps the play’s attraction is what Branagh says is its “panoramic view” of human nature. This special edition DVD features commentary by the director.
A number of screen adaptations have been presented over the years, but only Kenneth Branagh’s version features the play in its entirety. In bringing it to screen, Branagh said he wanted to create “an experience, an event.” This wide-angle view of human nature was shot in 70 mm, a wide-angle high-resolution film that lends itself well to the many sweeping shots used in the movie, whether of soldiers mustered outside a snowy Elsinore Castle, or a grieving Ophelia wandering along a hall of mirrors. The most amazing, and memorable, shot is a pan to behind the king and queen on their thrones to Hamlet lurking behind the wall, looking at the camera. We and the camera are shocked to find him there. Visually this is a stunning achievement.
But more than the beautifully composed scenes and elegant Victorian set design, this “Hamlet” succeeds with superb acting and direction. Brash, ambitious and talented, Kenneth Branagh was likened as the next Orson Welles or Laurence Olivier when he came on the scene in the late 1980s. A heavy mantle. Starring as Hamlet, he’s joined by Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, Richard Briers, Julie Christie and others.
I think Kenneth Branagh’s real gift to audiences in his understanding of the text. One cannot appreciate the humor and wisdom in Shakespeare’s writings when actors don’t understand what they’re saying. In “Hamlet,” Branagh’s goal was to have the lines “spoken as clearly as possible, as naturally as possible,” and he succeeded. (This natural presentation is seen in his other film adaptations of Shakespeare, too: “Henry V,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Othello,” “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”)
I encourage you to experience this “Hamlet”: beautiful scenes, impeccable acting and brilliant delivery.
Movie
Hamlet
WARC2683D
http://www.catalog.kpl.gov/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=Hamlet{TI}+AND+Branagh&library=CENTRAL&language=ANY&format=ANY&item_type=ANY&location=ANY&match_on=KEYWORD&item_1cat=DRAMA&item_2cat=ANY&sort_by=-PBYR
Gregory Nava’s masterpiece El Norte, often cited as an updated and re-imagined “Grapes of Wrath”, is one of the most hailed and accomplished films of the 1980’s, yet has largely gone unnoticed by the film-viewing public since it was first produced in 1983. Now, a distinguished addition to the must-see Criterion Collection, I hope that this groundbreaking film will find its way into the hands of more viewers and be recognized for its rich and powerful depiction of two young Guatemalan teenagers journeying northward to escape injustice while encountering both personal triumph and heart wrenching tragedy along the way.
Movie
El norte [videorecording] = The north
ICRCC1788D
I love films that often appear at first glance to be very simple in form or plot yet possess a profound range of emotional depth and suggestive weight that when perfectly pitched with gorgeous cinematography and credible acting, lays bare the lyricism of the human condition even as characters struggle with loss and grief. In short, the film Cherry Blossoms conjures such a description. One of the best films I’ve seen all year.
What happens when a wife discovers that her husband is dying of a terminal illness but who then dies herself before telling him or their family? Subtle and yet packing an emotional punch, this film is a modern day love story that is heartbreaking yet poetic in its life affirming tone.
Movie
Cherry blossoms - Hanami [videorecording]
STN28112D
The new HBO drama In Treatment reflects how a simple premise, primarily driven by dialogue between a therapist and his patients, can produce a tremendous range of dramatic depth. Starring Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment will not appeal to those who require stupefying “reality” show gimmicks or cliché ridden plots from their television viewing experience. This is a stylistically pared down and deliberate show with minimal settings and new characters each week. In fact, most of the show’s half hour format draws its power to intrigue from the silent glares between listener and confessor, the intentional absence of closure and the indeterminate struggles of both patient and therapist to come to grips (or not) with their troublesome queries. Sometimes the most simple of plots can be wildly entertaining for the oppositional tension that quality writing can create.
Movie
In Treatment
HBO1000039464D
The documentary film Bergman Island is an intimate portrait of one of the most influential, post-war film directors. Swedish auteur, Ingmar Bergman, known for his revolutionary work in cinema, television and theater created some of cinema’s most recognizable and enduring images over a long career, ending with his death in 2007. Known as a reclusive, solitary figure (he lived alone on an island off the coast of Sweden for many years) who rarely spoke about his life or the details of his creative achievements, Bergman Island explores the enigmatic director’s relationship with his parents and those he collaborated with on films, raises questions about his turbulent personal life and bares new insights about the muses, themes and inspirations behind his work. Bergman is best known for his films and television programs, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, Persona, Fanny and Alexander, and Saraband.
Movie
Bergman Island
ICRCC1817D
Well it’s that time again to remind lovers of books that their favorite characters and stories are never safe from the evil hands of casting directors, screenwriters and corporate honchos who are ruthless in their cinematic destruction of a good book. How many times have you burdened with guilt and cynicism peaked your head into a theater to see the bloody carnage and the two hour dismantling of every thing you ever loved about a book’s power to move you with its words, images and literary prowess? Well, for those of you who glance from time to time on Youtube or IMDB for the latest trailers associated with film adaptions, you know that in the near future that Cormac McCarthy’s award winning The Road and Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife will soon hit the multiplex. From my vantage point, both films look as though their producers never quite got around to reading the books. Maybe I’ll be wrong about the movies but c’mon, Eric Bana as Henry the librarian and hammy explosions and action movie tropes. Puleeese. And least we not let HBO off the hook with their soon to ruin everything great about Raymond Chandler series Bored to Death. I hope that I'm wrong but there exists a long history of very bad adaptations in the dustbin filed away under "bad idea."
Book
The time traveler's wife : a novel
193156146X
Having made its Broadway debut last fall, Billy Elliot: the Musical was the big winner at last night's Tony Awards ceremony, nearly sweeping the awards in the Musical categories, claiming 10 Tonys total.
The original film’s leap from screen to stage seems especially natural. Music and dance are crucial to the plot, in which the young title character pursues his dream of becoming a ballet dancer against the backdrop of the 1984 UK miners’ strike – and some of his family’s wishes. Billy’s fits of dancing are scored by pop classics by T. Rex, the Clash, and Paul Weller’s outfits the Jam and the Style Council, many of which are being heard through home stereo speakers and headphones as Billy lets himself go.
This more organic use of music is in sharp contrast to the stage production's numbers, written by lyricist Lee Hall, who wrote the original film, and composer Sir Elton John. Still, the spirit of the songs found in the original film can’t help but to have influenced those in the musical – especially since the lyricist has such a direct connection to the movie version, and the composer was a contemporary (and fast friend) of the most frequently heard musician on the film’s soundtrack, T. Rex’s Marc Bolan. A classically trained pianist who made his name as a glam rocker, John’s well suited to be involved in this particular musical production.
Whether or not a film version of the musical based on the original film will be made (à la Mel Brooks’ The Producers or John Waters’ Hairspray), the drama and joy found in the music and story of the original Billy Elliot will surely stir the cosmic dancer in viewers who haven't yet seen its award-winning stage incarnation.
Movie
Billy Elliot
MCA21134D