Tuesday, September 1
Film: List of New DVDs from September 2009
Aviator, The (DVD): A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes'
career, from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s. Bullitt (DVD): An all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.
Cinematographer Style (DVD): 110 of the world's top cinematographers discuss the art of how and why films look the way they do.
Empire of the Sun (DVD): A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation during World War II.
Garden of Evil (DVD): A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband from Apaches.
Hollywood Shuffle (DVD): An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, the film takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood.
It Happened Here (DVD): It is the Second World War. The Nazis have invaded Britain. There is a split between the resistance and those who prefer to collaborate with the invaders for a quiet life. The protagonist, a nurse, is caught in the middle.
Journey to 10,000 BC (DVD): Experience the suspense and heart-pounding action of a woolly mammoth hunt. A single kill could feed the tribe for weeks. As the winters grow curiously colder and longer, this vital source of nourishment becomes even more critical.
L.A. Confidential (DVD): Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner in this lush tribute to tough film noir crime films. Based on the multi-layered James Ellroy novel.
Laramie Project (DVD): Moisés Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of Matthew Shepard. This is a film version of the play they wrote based on more than 200 interviews they conducted in Laramie. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd's visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his killers. It mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words. It concludes with a Laramie staging of "Angels in America" a year after Shephard's death.
Maggie Smith at the BBC (DVD): This three-disc set celebrates four of Dame Maggie Smith's leading roles for the BBC. The collection begins with two 1972 Plays of the Month, The Merchant of Venice and The Millionairess. In Shakespeare's morality tale, Smith's sharp-tongued socialite Portia disguises herself as a doctor to negotiate with money lender Shylock. In the Bernard Shaw comedy, she plays self-centered heiress Epifania who tries to live like a pauper to please a selfless Egyptian physician (Dr. Who's Tom Baker). In Alan Bennett's quietly devastating Bed Among the Lentils, one of his Talking Heads monologues, Smith portrays Susan, a deeply disillusioned vicar's wife, and in Sir Richard Eyre's intimate 1993 adaptation of Tennessee Williams's Suddenly, Last Summer, she takes on Mrs. Venable, a grief-stricken mother (a role assumed by Katharine Hepburn in the 1959 film).
For some fans, the supplements may surpass the features. They include a breezy 1973 chat with Norman Parkinson and Acting in the '60s, a candid 1967 conversation with Richard Goodwin and narration by Kenneth Tynan, who refers to the actress as "the most versatile girl on the English stage." Actor Kenneth Williams participates in both. Smith also appears in a radio version of The Country Wife, while A Portrait: Maggie Smith, an exclusive profile, offers commentary from Bennett, Eyre, and A Room with a View co-star Simon Callow. The viewing notes include an essay on her career and details about each production. This BBC set presents a worthy tribute to a tremendous talent.
Maquilapolis (DVD): Just over the border in Mexico is an area peppered with maquiladoras: massive sweatshops often owned by the world's largest multinational corporations. Carmen and Lourdes work at maquiladoras in Tijuana, and it is there that they try to balance the struggle for survival with their own radicalization in this documentary.
Mononoke-hime (English:Princess Mononoke) (DVD): Set in feudal Japan a time of upheaval of samurai warriors and isolated villages comes this story of a gun-wielding, young brave princess who was raised by wolves named Princess Mononoke who is sent to an ancient, forested land to defend the forest from human encroachment which threatens to unbalance the forces of nature. Ashitaka intervenes to stop the two sides fighting and takes San back to the forest, but is injured in the process. With San's intervention, he is healed of his wounds - but not his curse - by the forest spirit.
Mrs. Doubtfire (DVD): After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend secret time with his children held in custody by his
Ex.
Murder on the Orient (DVD): In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before. It won an Oscar for best actress in a supporting role played by Ingrid Bergman.
Naked Lunch (DVD): After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.
Rawhide (DVD): A stagecoach stop employee and a stranded woman traveler find themselves at the mercy of four desperate outlaws intent on robbing the next day's gold shipment.
Real Women Have Curves (DVD): Freshly graduated from high school, Ana receives a full scholarship to Columbia University. Her very traditional, old-world parents feel that now is the time for Ana to help provide for the family, not the time for college. Torn between her mainstream ambitions and her cultural heritage she agrees to work with her mother at her sister's downtown LA sewing factory. Over the summer she learns to admire the hardworking team of women who teach her solidarity and teamwork.
Senorita Extraviada (DVD): This gripping documentary investigates the disappearance of young women from assembly plants that line the Mexican-American border.
Stormy Weather (DVD): The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African American entertainers of the early 1900s.
That's Dancing! (DVD): The history of dance depicted on film.
That's Entertainment! III (DVD): Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From _Hollywood Revue of 1929, The (1929)_ to Brigadoon (1954) , from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain (1952) , are examined.
That's Entertainment! (DVD): Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favourite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
That's entertainment, Part II (DVD): Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
That's Entertainment. Treasures from the Vault (DVD): That's Entertainment: Treasures from the Vault, includes: "That's Entertainment: The Masters Behind the Musical" Outtakes jukebox: 16 deleted musical numbers MGM's 25th Anniversary That's Entertainment: 50 Years of MGM Just One More Time The Lion Roars Again Excerpts from the 2/20/76 broadcast of The Mike Douglas Show That's Entertainment III: Behind the Screen
The Gunfighter (DVD): Notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo rides into town to find his true love, who doesn't want to see him. He hasn't come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner.
The Hitch-hiker (DVD): Two fishermen pick up a psychotic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.
The Nutty Professor (DVD): Grossly overweight Prof. Sherman Klump, desperate to lose weight takes a special chemical that turns him into the slim but obnoxious Buddy Love. It won an Oscar for best makeup.
The Wind and the Lion (DVD): At the beginning of the 20th century an American woman is abducted in Morocco by Berbers. The attempts to free her range from diplomatic pressure to military intervention.
Thelma & Louise (DVD): An Arkansas waitress and a housewife shoot a rapist and take off in a '66 Thunderbird.
Watchmen (DVD): In an alternate 1985 where former superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach into his own sprawling investigation, uncovering something that could completely change the course of history as we know it.
A Central Washington University ID card or library card must be presented when checking out library materials. They are the only accepted identification for borrowing circulating library materials. Users are responsible for all materials charged on the card.The loan period for DVDs and Videocassettes for students is a 3 day period while staff may check out materials for a week at a time.
Monday, August 31
Film: Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman
Nominated for 7 Oscars.
Academy Awards (1995): Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role: Morgan Freeman, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music: Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium: Frank Darabont.
Golden Globes, USA (1995): Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Morgan Freeman, Best Screenplay - Motion Picture: Frank Darabont.
Grammy Awards (1995): Nominated Grammy Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television: Thomas Newman.
Music: Shostakovich - His life and legacy
Read about one of the most prolific Russian composers of the 20th Century as he struggled with his strained relationship with the Stalinist Bureaucracy.Shostakovich and Stalin (BOOK): by Solomon Volkov
“Music illuminates a person and provides him with his last hope; even Stalin, a butcher, knew that,” said the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, whose first compositions in the 1920s identified him as an avant-garde wunderkind. But that same singularity became a liability a decade later under the totalitarian rule of Stalin, with his unpredictable grounds for the persecution of artists. Solomon Volkov—who coauthored Shostakovich’s controversial 1979Testimony—describes how this lethal uncertainty affected the composer’s life and work.
Volkov, an authority on Soviet Russian culture, shows us the “holy fool” in Shostakovich: the truth speaker who dared to challenge the supreme powers. We see how Shostakovich struggled to remain faithful to himself in his music and how Stalin fueled that struggle: one minute banning his work, the next encouraging it. We see how some of Shostakovich’s contemporaries—Mandelstam, Bulgakov, and Pasternak among them—fell victim to Stalin’s manipulations and how Shostakovich barely avoided the same fate. And we see the psychological price he paid for what some perceived as self-serving aloofness and others saw as rightfully defended individuality.
This is a revelatory account of the relationship between one of the twentieth century’s greatest composers and one of its most infamous tyrants.
Fairclough (Editor), David Fanning (Editor)
As the Soviet Union's foremost composer, Shostakovich's status in the West has always been problematic. Regarded as a collaborator, and by others as a symbol of moral resistance, both he and his music met equally with approval and condemnation. The demise of the Communist state has, if anything, been accompanied by a bolstering of his reputation, but critical engagement with his multi-faceted achievements has been patchy. This Companion offers a new starting point and a guide for readers who seek a fuller understanding of Shostakovich's place in the history of music. Bringing together an international team of scholars, the book brings up-to-date research to bear on the full range of Shostakovich's musical output, addressing scholars, students and all those interested in this complex, iconic figure.
Shostakovich Reconsidered (BOOK): by Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov
"...a splendid celebration of this sublime musician..." -- The Guardian. "...devastating..." -- The Daily Telegraph. "It's very rare to come across a book that's so readable..." -- BBC. "...one of those 'indispensable' books on your shelf..." -- DSCH Journal. "...an immense torrent of facts..." -- Helsingin Sanomat. "...holds the attention to the end..." -- The Times Literary Supplement. "...formidable wealth of data..." -- American Record Guide. "...essential reading for anyone interested in Shostakovich..." -- The Washington Post.
Dmitry Shostakovich's memoirs, “Testimony”, `related to and edited by Solomon Volkov', have been the subject of fierce debate since their publication in 1979. Was “Testimony” a forgery, made up by an impudent impostor, or was it the deathbed confession of a bent, but unbroken, man? Even now, years after the fall of the communist regime, a coterie of well-placed Western musicologists have regularly raised objections to Testimony, hoping with each attack to undermine the picture of Shostakovich presented in his memoirs that of a man of enormous moral stature, bitterly disillusioned with the Soviet system. Here, Allan Ho and Dmitry Feofanov systematically address all of the accusations levelled at Testimony and Solomon Volkov, Shostakovich's amanuensis, amassing an enormous amount of material about Shostakovich and his position in Soviet society and burying forever the picture of Shostakovich as a willing participant in the communist charade. Allan B. Ho is a musicologist and Dimitri Feofanov a lawyer and pianist.
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (BOOK): by Elizabeth Wilson
A detailed portrait of the Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovich, presented through the memories of those who knew and worked with him. The author - a cellist, broadcaster and writer - draws extensively upon interviews which she conducted in the Soviet Union with his contemporaries.
