BIG MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN

FILM LECTURE SERIES - WEDNESDAYS, JULY 8 - AUGUST 5, 2015 - 1:00 p.m.

It hardly seems as though summer is almost here, it's been so cool lately.

But we all know that it's only a matter of time before summer takes up residence, bringing with it heat and humidity.

Why not leave the stifling midday heat for the air-conditioned comfort of the library's auditorium, to enjoy some outsized films the way that they were meant to be experi-enced: on a large screen, with immersive sound that will place you right in the middle of the action.

Feel the rush of adrenaline as Charlton Heston is pitted against Stephen Boyd in the heart-pounding chariot race that is the centerpiece in Ben-Hur.

Watch rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks fight to defend their New York turf, while lovers Tony and Maria play out their ill-fated romance on back alley fire escapes, in the musical West Side Story.

Join the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) as he leads the Arabs' revolt against the Turks in the expansive Arabian Desert during World War I, in director David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia.

Experience, along with (fictional) couple Jack and Rose (Leonardo Di Caprio Jr. and Kate Winslet), the fateful night in April 1912 when the S.S. Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, in James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic.

Finally, be swept up in the heartwarming story of the bond between a young man and his horse, and the separation that they must endure when the horse is consigned to the British Cavalry during World War I, in Steven Spielberg's War Horse.

As usual, I'll provide you with brief pre-film commentary to help you better appreciate the pictures that we'll be watching together.

But wait!!--
Because these movies are rather epic in scope (and length!), they are better enjoyed with an intermission. These breaks will give you a chance to stretch your legs, go to the powder room, and absorb what you've experienced during each film's first half. During these 15-minute intermissions, complimentary light refreshments will be served. Enjoy a cool drink and an edible goody before settling back in for the remainder of the movie.

I hope that you'll enjoy this experience as much as I am looking forward to presenting it to you.

Doug Swiszcz
Librarian & Film Enthusiast

Here's the lineup (all running times include my pre-film commentary and the 15-min. intermission):

July  8 - Ben-Hur (1959 - Color - 4 hrs., 15 min. - Rated G)

July 15 - West Side Story (1961 - Color - 3 hrs., 15 min. - Unrated)

July 22 - Lawrence of Arabia (1962 - Color - 4 hrs., 15 min. - Rated PG)

July 29 - Titanic (1997 - Color - 4 hrs. - Rated PG-13)

Aug. 5 - War Horse (2011 - Color - 3 hrs. -Rated PG-13)

SINATRA 100 - A FILM LECTURE SERIES IN HONOR OF THE CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH

Wednesdays, May 6 - June 3, 2015 at 1:00 PM

There he sits, apparently between shots on a movie set. Although Frank Sinatra logged more time in recording studios and on concert and nightclub stages during his lengthy career, he was able to parlay his success into all kinds of media: radio, television, and, germane to this post, movies.

It was only natural that Hollywood would come calling in the early 1940s, at a time when young Francis Albert Sinatra was making bobby-soxers swoon at venues like New York's Paramount Theater. He was "all the rage," as they say, and Hollywood wanted a piece of the action.

What followed was a film career that carried him into the early 1980s, although the last two decades showed a decrease in output.

But, for a time, Sinatra was a constant presence up on the big screen, appearing in musicals (naturally), dramas, comedies, detective stories, war pictures, even a western or two.

This coming December will mark the 100th anniversary of Sinatra's birth, and I thought that it would be a good time for us to share a handful of the close to 60 movies that the Chairman of the Board made.

On the Town teamed the slim, jug-eared movie neophyte with star Gene Kelly and fellow supporting player Jules Munshin, in Leonard Bernstein's and Comden & Green's story of three sailors' 24-hour shore leave in the city that, Sinatra would tell us decades later in song, "doesn't sleep"--namely, New York. Vera-Ellen, Ann Miller, and Betty Garrett offered fine support in this singing-dancing extravaganza.

From Here to Eternity, based on the James Jones novel set on a Hawaiian army base shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was part of a career renaissance that Sinatra experienced in the early 1950s, after he hit rock bottom personally and professionally. Playing a private with a chip on his shoulder who runs afoul of a sadistic stockade warden, Sinatra won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award--one of eight gold statuettes that the production earned.

No longer a supporting player, Ol Blue Eyes headlined a 1955 film noted for its frank (you'll pardon the pun) depiction of a heroin addict in The Man With the Golden Arm. Sinatra earned an Oscar nomination for his harrowing portrayal of a one-time junkie who struggles to turn his life around. With Kim Novak, Darren McGavin, and Eleanor Parker.

Pal Joey, the screen adaptation of the Broadway hit, was retooled to serve as a permanent record, if you will, of the 1950s-era Sinatra, with a reputation for being a likable cad with a knack for charming the ladies. Torn between wealthy socialite Rita Hayworth and young chorus girl Kim Novak, Sinatra got to sing those great Rodgers and Hart songs with arrangements from his Capitol Records arranger of the day, Nelson Riddle.

We conclude the series with The Manchurian Candidate, one of the greatest political thrillers ever committed to film. Sinatra played a former Korean War military commander troubled by dreams involving an officer who served with him during the war. Laurence Harvey, Janet Leight, and Angela Lansbury all lent solid support in this tense exploration of America's Cold War fears.

I look forward to seeing you in May, as we collectively salute the cinematic career of a man who stands as, arguably, one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century--or of any century.

Doug Swiszcz
Librarian and Film Enthusiast

Here's the lineup, at a glance:

May  6: On The Town - 1949 - Color - 98 minutes

May 13: From Here to Eternity - 1953 - Black & white - 118 minutes

May 20: The Man With the Golden Arm - 1955 - Black & white - 119 minutes

May 27: Pal Joey - 1957 - Color - 111 minutes

June   3: The Manchurian Candidate - 1962 - Black & white - 126 minutes

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS! - A BETTE DAVIS FILM LECTURE SERIES

There was no one quite like her. Small in physical size but larger than life on the silver screen, Bette Davis was a movie star back in the days when that term--movie star--meant something. Not fitting into the roles normally available to actresses of her time--neither demure, girl-next-door ingenue, nor sex goddess--Davis found a niche for herself playing women who often resented (either outwardly or with simmering repression) the strictures that society placed upon them.

My early Spring 2015 film lecture series (yes, think spring!) will salute Davis with six movies that show the different ways that she expressed the battles that her characters fought.

In Jezebel, Davis is a willful Southern belle in antebellum New Orleans who refuses to follow the social mores of her day, and whose tempestuous ways bring about unhappiness for herself and others.

The Letter has Davis playing the wife of a man who runs a rubber plantation in Singapore (they're both British colonialists). She shoots and kills a man, claiming that she was defending herself from his physical advances. But what of the existence of a letter that may present the facts of the case differently?

Now, Voyager shows the resilience of the human spirit, with Davis playing a repressed spinster who evolves into a confident woman, but who nevertheless does not adhere to the path in life expected of her.

All About Eve has Davis in fine form as an aging stage actress who is not willing to settle comfortably into the quiescence imposed by her youth-centered profession, even as a young admirer plots to steal her thunder.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? proves that Davis herself was not ready for retirement, even as she passed the half-century mark, with a warts-and-all portrayal of a faded child star who plans a comeback, as she holds her crippled sister (Joan Crawford) captive in their home. What's so impressive is that, despite the gargoyle-like outward appearance of the over-the-hill star, Davis mines the pathos at the core of the character.

Dead Ringer concludes the series, and this post-Baby Jane entry has Davis playing twins, one of whom has spent the majority of her life in the lap of luxury, while the other has eked out a hardscrabble life. Just how does the poor twin deal with her resentment of her more fortunate sister? By killing her and assuming her identity, of course.

Davis certainly led a tumultuous life, marked by the separation of her parents when she was a child (which left her without paternal love), four failed marriages, the discovery that one of her adopted children was mentally retarded, and the betrayal of her only natural-born daughter late in life. But Davis was in many ways a trailblazer. Dropped by her first movie studio because she wasn't considered sexy, she helped to recast the ways that we define beauty, paving the way for actresses like Streisand, Cher, Bette Midler, and Meryl Streep. At Warner Bros. studio, she battled fiercely for better scripts and directors, even walking out of her contract in defiance. But it was never about being a diva. If Bette was troublesome on some of her movie sets, it was always in service to the integrity of her character and the film. And, as headstrong and tenacious as she could be, Davis was insightful enough to know that she needed a strong director to temper her histrionic ways.

I look forward to you joining me, on six consecutive Wednesdays at 1:00 PM beginning March 4th, to contemplate and enjoy just a sampling of the work of this most iconic actress of the golden days of Hollywood cinema.

Doug Swiszcz
Librarian & Film Enthusiast

Here's the line-up:

March  4th - Jezebel (1938 - black &white - 104 minutes)

March 11th - The Letter (1940 - black & white - 95 minutes)

March 18th - Now, Voyager (1942 - black & white - 117 minutes)

March 25th - All About Eve (1950 - black & white - 138 minutes)

April    1st - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 - black & white - 134 minutes)

April    8th - Dead Ringer (1964 - black & white - 116 minutes)

JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY....
MOONSTRUCK
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 AT 1:00 PM

It's always fascinating to consider the less than rational, circuitous route that Cupid's arrow can take on its way to the heart. In this delightful romantic comedy from 1987, Cher plays Loretta Castorini, a late thirties widow who hopes to reverse the streak of bad luck that began with her first, short-lived marriage. She accepts a marriage proposal from her safe, steady boyfriend, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello). However, things get messy when Loretta meets Johnny's estranged brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage), a fiery, brooding man with a kind of raw sensuality. Ronny is as over-the-top as the grand operas that he loves, and Loretta feels an attraction to him that she doesn't feel with Johnny. A full moon casts a spell of enchantment over all of New York in a wise, funny film about taking chances, not settling, and following your heart, even when your sane, reasoned side tells you otherwise. Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, and Olympia Dukakis won for Best Supporting Actress for her world-weary but wise portrayal of Cher's mother. Also in the cast are John Mahoney and Vincent Gardenia. (Color - 102 minutes - Rated PG for sensuality and language)

I look forward to enjoying this film with you on the Wednesday before Valentine's Day.

Doug Swiszcz
Librarian & Film Enthusiast

COLLATERAL DAMAGE: WW II OFF THE FRONT LINE

WEDNESDAYS, OCTOBER 1-29, 2014 at 1:00 PM - Library Auditorium

In choosing a theme for my fall film series, my thoughts turned to movies about World War II—but not those set on the battlefields. We all recognize and honor those who fought on the front line during World War II, the sacrifices made, the lives given so that the world could be restored to peace and order.

But I thought that it might be interesting to look at other kinds of battles fought during the war. Collateral damage is a term used in the military to describe “unintentional or incidental damage to persons or objects that would not be lawful military targets in the circumstances ruling at the time” (Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, US Department of Defense, 2005). I think of the term in a broader sense, to include damage that is not necessarily suffered in combat, but which manifests itself as a result of war. No one who lived through the war remained untouched by it.

Think of the adjustments to civilian life that needed to be made on the home front during the war. Never was this more acutely felt than by the English during the time of the Blitz, the strategic bombing campaign conducted by the Germans against London and other cities of England from September 1940 through May 1941. Here were a people who steadfastly refused to “lie down and die.” The courage that it took for the British to endure these aerial raids is explored through the lives of one upper-middle class family in the first film in the series, Mrs. Miniver.

Consider as well the plight of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who, together with her family and some friends, hid in an Amsterdam attic for two years to escape Nazi persecution. Unlike Mrs. Miniver, Anne was a real-life individual—a girl on the verge of adolescence, whose resolute belief in the basic goodness of people, even as she hoped to escape the horrors of Hitler’s “final solution,” found its expression in the written word. Whether as a physical artifact, a play, or the film that’s part of my series, The Diary of Anne Frank lives on as a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit.

Battle did not necessarily end when surrender came. The aftermath of war lived on long afterward, as those who survived returned to a world that was not the same as the one that they had left behind.  And neither were they the same. How was that possible?  After all that they had experienced in combat, did the mundane trials back home even matter? Some came home with physical changes as well, whether it was a hearing impairment or the loss of an appendage.  Both kinds of adjustments, both psychological and corporal, are explored in The Best Years of Our Lives, the third movie in my series.

Children were also a part of the collateral damage of the war. Its horrors prematurely robbed them of their innocence. If they didn’t die, they were often separated from their families, displaced little beings who might then face a world alone once the war ended. In The Search, Montgomery Clift plays an American private who tries to help a young Czech boy find his mother. Complicating the search is the fact that the boy has suppressed many of his memories—including those of his parent.

My series concludes with a very recent film, The Railway Man, in which Colin Firth plays a veteran who was a prisoner in a Japanese labor camp during the war. When he learns, some 35 years later, that the Japanese military policeman who mistreated him at the camp is still alive, he vows to exact revenge.

Please join me, Wednesdays in October at 1:00 PM, as we look at collateral damage, the ways that the war spilled into so many lives in so many different ways, as depicted on film.

As always, I look forward to your taking this journey with me.

Doug Swiszcz
Librarian & Film Enthusiast

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Here's the series schedule:

Oct.  1st - Mrs. Miniver (1942 - black & white - 134 min. - not rated)

Oct.  8th - The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 - black & white - 180 min, - not rated)

Oct. 15th - The Best Years of Our Lives (1946 - black & white - 172 min. - not rated)

Oct. 22nd - The Search (1948 - black & white - 104 min. - not rated)

Oct. 29th - The Railway Man (2013 - color - 116 min. - rated R for prisoner of war scenes)

INSPIRATIONAL LIVES: BIOGRAPHICAL FILMS ABOUT EXTRAORDINARY INDIVIDUALS

Wednesdays, July 9-August 6, 2014 - 1:00 PM
Barrington Library Auditorium

The first day of summer has already come and gone, and as we put graduations and Father's Day celebrations behind us, and look forward to enjoying fresh strawberries during their all-too brief season as the Fourth of July fast approaches, it's a good time to start planning our recreational activities for the season. Picnics anyone? A swim in the ocean or a refreshing sailboat cruise? Attendance at a baseball game? There are so many possibilities for enjoyment during a time of year that can seem as fleeting as the "in season" for strawberries that I mentioned above.

I've got one more recommendation for you. Why not seek solace from the heat and humidity and join me on five consecutive Wednesday afternoons in the air-conditioned comfort of the Barrington Library auditorium, for a movie lecture series called Inspirational Lives: Biographical Films About Extraordinary Individuals?

I've gathered a handful of films that look at individuals who faced challenges and obstacles in their lives: the blind deaf-mute Helen Keller, who learned to thrive once her dedicated teacher, Annie Sullivan, broke through the barriers that isolated the girl (The Miracle Worker); Sir Thomas More, who followed his conscience by refusing to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to separate from the Roman Catholic Church--exemplifying the principle of "the courage of one's convictions" (A Man For All Seasons).

Karen Blixen, a Danish woman who wrote under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, endured the infidelities of her husband, and years of hard work trying to run a successful coffee plantation in early 20th-century Kenya (Out of Africa); James Braddock was a Depression-era light heavyweight boxing contender whose career seemed to be derailed by an injury, until fate gave him a second chance (Cinderella Man).

And then there's Johnny Cash, who rose from humble beginnings in Arkansas to a career as arguably one of the greatest country music performers of our time, dealing with all of the temptations and pitfalls that can come with fame, including drug dependency and infidelity (Walk the Line).

Like all of us, these men and women had to find their own way, in a world that often dealt them cruel blows. That they were able to surmount these travails serves as a testament to the strength of the human spirit. Self-determination. Courage. When necessary, the willingness to let others help us.These are all traits that, hopefully, we can find within ourselves.

Let's make a date to meet in the library's auditorium. One o'clock. Wednesdays. Together, let's be inspired by the lives that we see depicted up on the screen.

Doug Swiszcz
Librarian & Film Enthusiast

Here's the rundown:

July  9 - The Miracle Worker - Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft. (1962 - Black & white - 106 min. - unrated)

July 16 - A Man For All Seasons - Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Orson Welles. (1966 - Color - 120 min. - unrated)

July 23 - Out of Africa - Meryl Streep, Robert Redford. (1985 - Color - 161 min. - rated PG, for sexuality, profanity, violence involving animals, and smoking and drinking)

July 30 - Cinderella Man - Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti. (2005 - Color - 144 min. - rated PG-13, for intense boxing violence and some language)

Aug.  6 - Walk the Line - Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon. (2005 - Color - 136 min. - rated PG-13, for language, thematic material, and depiction of drug dependency)

Ingrid Bergman: A Celebration

A Film Lecture Series - Wednesdays at 1 PM, March 5, 12, 19, 26 and April 2, 2014

Hello All,
What a winter it's been. Cold weather made more intolerable by a seemingly endless barrage of snow and ice. Those who ski must be quite happy. Those who lean more towards sitting in a window seat, sipping a cup of warm cocoa are content to remain indoors. Please include me in the latter group.

But spring is (hopefully) just around the corner. March will be here before you know it, and each day is getting a little longer. In the meantime, one way to beat the winter doldrums is to attend my latest film lecture series.

I'm saluting a female Swedish movie star of yesteryear. No, not Garbo. The other one:
Ingrid Bergman. Hollywood producer David O. Selznick saw her in a Swedish film and brought her over to America in the late thirties, where she was signed to a contract.

Her exquisite beauty and singular acting style made her the darling of both the critics and the public for a time. However, events in her private life--she left her first husband and their child for neo-realist Italian director Roberto Rossellini in the early 1950s--made the public turn on her. She was even denounced on the floor of Congress for her indiscretions.

But time heals all wounds, and--after several years living with Rossellini and their children in Rome--Bergman returned from her exile to star in Anastasia on the American movie screen. Apparently all was forgiven, for she was awarded with the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in that film.

I've selected a handful of Ms. Bergman's movies that I hope will serve as a fitting celebration of her work, allowing us to appreciate her anew.

Even those who don't necessarily like old movies must nevertheless be familiar with Bergman's work in Casablanca. This World War II era romance film, in which Bergman and Humphrey Bogart agree that, in memory, they'll "always have Paris," is a Hollywood classic. And if you are a classic film fan, you'll swoon again to the strains of "As Time Goes By," the movie's theme song.

Bergman etched for us a portrait of a woman driven to the brink of insanity in Gaslight, in which she plays a new bride who starts to experience disconcerting things once she begins living with her new husband (Charles Boyer). What's behind these strange events--and can they be stopped before Bergman falls over the precipice into madness?

Spellbound is one of three films that Bergman made with director Alfred Hitchcock (who, as he did with so many of his leading ladies, felt unrequited love for her). This one casts the actress as a clinically cold psychoanalyst who tries to help an amnesiac accused of murder, and finds herself falling in love with him in the process. Gregory Peck is her co-star.

In Anastasia, the film with which she was welcomed back into the good graces of America, Bergman plays a woman who claims to be daughter of deposed Russian Emperor Nicholas II. Supposedly the entire royal family was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1917...but did she somehow escape the overthrow? Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes co-star.

Finally, we'll see Bergman in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, playing a missionary in charge of a roadside hostel in remote China, who must endure the invasion of the area by the Japanese. Based on true events, it's the story of a woman forced to summon her inner strength to face great external turmoil.

I am looking forward to getting this series underway--and to seeing all of you again.

The auditorium, second floor of the library. I'll be there.

Doug Swiszcz

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Here's the series at a quick glance:

March  5 - Casablanca 

March 12 - Gaslight

March 19 - Spellbound

March 26 - Anastasia

April  2 -    The Inn of the Sixth Happiness