Princeton Library Lounge

A good number of the selections for this season's Second Chance Cinema: Thirteen films you should have seen but didn't, William Lockwood's popular class at the Princeton Adult School, are in the library's collection or on order. Look for these DVDs on the shelves: Paradise Now; Quinceanera; Nine Lives; Tristram Shandy: A cock and bull story; L'Enfant; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu; Cache; and The Best of Youth. Keane and Half Nelson are on order.

(Barbara Silberstein, Media Librarian)

Country Boys
Producer David Sutherland explores the timeless issues of poverty and class through the lives of two teenage boys coming of age in Kentucky's Appalachian hills.
DVD 155.5 Cou

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Enter the manic-depressive world of creative genius Daniel Johnston, a singer, songwriter, and artist who achieved cult status in the world of contemporary music.
DVD 781.66 Dev

The Devil's Miner
This documentary follows two young boys working in the Cerro Rico silver mines of Bolivia, where they face deadly conditions to earn enough money to provide for their family and attend school.
DVD 984 Dev

End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
Captures the groundbreaking band at its peak while providing an examination of the influential New York music scene that gave rise to the punk movement.

Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog's haunting study of Timothy Treadwell's obssessive and ultimately fatal relationship with grizzly bears.
DVD 599.78 Gri

The Ground Truth
An honest portrayal of the recruitment and training of soldiers, their combat experiences, and their attempts to reintegrate into the community upon returning.
DVD 956.7044 Gro

Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action
Tells the story of several Native American tribes and their struggles against environmental racism as they fight to protect and care for their ancestral lands.
DVD 363 Hom

In the Tall Grass
Looks at the Gacaca grassroots court process in Rwanda as the Hutu and Tutsi tribes struggle with reconciliation following that country's 1994 genocide.
DVD 967.571 Ins

Life in the Undergrowth
David Attenborough guides viewers through an amazingly intricate miniature world of insects and spiders in this five-part series.
DVD 592 Lif

Murderball
A group of quadriplegics overcomes severe mental and physical challenges through participation in the highly competitive sport of wheelchair rugby, known as "murderball."
DVD 796.33 Mur

One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern
Interweaving vintage video footage and contemporary interviews, Stephen Vittoria retraces McGovern's ill-fated 1972 presidential campaign, shedding light on current events.
DVD 324.973 One

Sir! No Sir!
Filmmaker David Zeiger's award-winning documentary tells the story of some daring American GI's protesting the Vietnam War, and their impact on policy.

Street Fight
Marshall Curry's close-up coverage focuses on the last four months of the 2002 Newark mayoral battle between altruistic newcomer Cory Booker and old-style incumbent Sharpe James.
YA DVD 324.7 Str

We Are Dad
Michael Horvat's award-winning documentary follows two gay dads who are foster parents to five kids, four of whom are HIV-positive, and one who is a the center of the hotly debated issue of gay adoption.

Why We Fight
Explores a half-century of U.S. foreign policy from World War II to the Iraq War, revealing how political and corporate interests have become alarmingly entangled in the business of war.
DVD 956.704 Why

ALA NOTABLE VIDEOS for ADULTS, 2006 http://www.ala.org/ala/vrt/notablevideos/notables2006.htm

The DVD-of-the-month club for Award Winning Independent and Global Films.
www.filmmovement.com

For The National Society of Film Critics A List of 100 Essential Films

See: http://www.listsofbests.com/list/5222

Did you know that reading is not a requirement of our adult summer reading club? Sure, we'd like you to read, but it is summer and sometimes, well, sometimes it's just not feasible to read a book while swimming, barbecuing or taking a midsummer's night stroll. But, if you can, come on in to the library on a Monday night. As part of Read Around the World we have ongoing evening programs, including our World of Film series, in which we are showing movies based on books. The next film will be Pride & Prejudice on June 23, 7pm. You can earn points to get raffle tickets and an invitation to our Sunday morning Book Brunch on August 26th, where you can talk about all of the books, films, and events that have been filling your days. So, stop by and pick up a passport. There's no required reading. Just have fun!

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The Once and Future Newark, debuted this fall on New Jersey Network public television. Produced by Rutgers University in Newark, the film features a number of city sites, as a group tour is hosted by Rutgers History Professor Clement Price, a celebrated scholar of Newark and New Jersey history. Part travelogue, part documentary and part history lesson, the film engages viewers' interest for personal exploration and discovery of the city. The locations included in the film were chosen for their broad cultural, social and historical significance. Price's great personal warmth, his affection for the city, and his profound feeling for Newark's fascinating interface of cultures, races and ethnicities, and religions makes this a personal and engaging film. (Submitted by B. Silberstein, Media Librarian)

On December 7, 2007, the movie version of Ian McEwan's award-winning novel Atonement will open here in the United States (it is already playing to good reviews in the UK). This leaves plenty of time to read (or re-read) the novel before seeing the film. Originally published in 2001, Atonement won the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction, and was a short-list finalist for the Booker Prize.

The story opens on a hot summer's day in the English countryside. It is 1935 and England is on the brink of war. At the Tallis family country estate, 13-year old Briony anxiously awaits the arrival of her older brother Leon, for whom she has written a silly romantic play. She witnesses an encounter between her sister Cecila and Robbie Turner, the son of their charwoman, that she does not understand, but which changes her. Before the night is over, the play has been cancelled, a horrible crime has been taken place, and Briony will make an accusation that will change all three lives forever. The second part of the book moves ahead five years, England is in the early stages of WWII, Robbie is in the British Army, and Briony seeks atonement first through a career in nursing and then through writing.

Will the movie live up to the book? Will you see the movie before reading the book? Leave a comment and let us know!

(submitted by Cynthia Lambert, Library Intern)

Three films based on novels make their debut this Friday.

Love in the Time of Cholera, starring Javier Bardem, Liev Schreiber and John Leguizamo.

Beowulf, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich and Robin Wright Penn.

Elegy, based on The Dying Animal by Philip Roth, and starring Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper and Penélope Cruz.

Entertainment Weekly recently featured a list of 13 Must-See Horror Movies that was compiled by the film director, William Friedkin. Friedkin, who directed the horror classic, The Exorcist, claims that these movies give him nightmares every time he watches them.

Alien (1979), Directed by Ridley Scott
Le Boucher (The Butcher) (1970), Directed by Claude Chabrol
Deep Red (1975), Directed by Dario Argento
Diabolique (1955), Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Funny Games (1997), Directed by Michael Haneke
The Lodger (1944), Directed by John Brahm
Onibaba (1964), Directed by Kaneto Shindô
Psycho (1960), Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Rosemary's Baby (1968), Directed by Roman Polanski
The Spiral Staircase (1946), Directed by Robert Siodmak
Suspiria (1977), Directed by Dario Argento
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Directed by Tobe Hooper
Them (2006), Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud

The library owns DVD copies of eight of the thirteen movies on Friedkin's list. If you're feeling brave (and well-rested), then click on one of the links above and check out a horror movie that's scary enough to disturb the sleep of one of the genre's masters.

Submitted by DK.

Check out The National Society of Film Critics – The A List – 100 Essential Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey; La Dolce Vita; Killer of Sheep and many more (at least 97 more).

Submitted by B. Silberstein, Media Librarian.

THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT (DVD 616.9792 Blo)
2007 Academy Award® winner for Best Documentary Short Subject, The Blood of Yingzhou District is a groundbreaking documentary film which exposes the hidden AIDS epidemic in China, a country not commonly associated with this disease.

(Submitted by B. Silberstein, Media Librarian)

For those of you who are not aware that PBS is presenting The Complete Jane Austen - just try to find a copy of Persuasion at the library. Mansfield Park? You may need to move quickly.
New adaptations of all six novels are being presented Sunday evenings through April 6. Check out the PBS website for more details and stay tuned this weekend for Northanger Abbey.

The American Library Association's Video Round Table announces 2008 Notable Videos for adults. Here's the list of videos in our collection:

After Innocence DVD 614.1 Aft
Been Rich All My Life DVD 792.8 Bee
A Crude Awakening 333 Cru
Favela Rising DVD 981 Fav
Hacking Democracy DVD 324.7 Hac
The Heart of the Game DVD 796.323 Hea
Iraq in Fragments DVD 956.704 Ira
Jesus Camp DVD 230 Jes
Maxed Out DVD 332.743 Max
Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety DVD 338.4 Mon
Salud! 362.1 Sal
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts DVD 363.33 Whe

Submitted by B. Silberstein.

Are you as big a public radio and public television junkie as me? If so, you'll want to check out the numerous NPR and PBS related materials in the library collection. Whether you enjoy the hilarious musings of Click n' Clack on Car Talk, or the revelatory segments of This American Life, you can enjoy these shows and more at your convenience on audio CD.

Among the library's PBS DVD offerings are the elaborate and sophisticated productions of Masterpiece Theatre as well as the hard-hitting, thought provoking stories presented on Frontline and The American Experience. Listen to Terry Gross's Fresh Air to hear interviewing at it's very best. For the gourmand, there are some mouthwatering recordings on Hidden Kitchens. There's something of interest for every fan of publicly supported broadcasting.

Submitted by J. Ju.

Sisters in Law
DVD 305.4 Sis
A film by Kim Longinotto, Co-directed by Florence Ayisi
Cameroon/UK, 2005, 104 minutes, Color,
Pidgin English, Subtitled
(Photo courtesy of Women Make Movies, www.wmm.com.)

"POSITIVELY SOARS…Who are these women, and can they please take over the world soon?"
- Nathan Lee, The New York Times

SISTERS IN LAW is a fascinating, often hilarious look at the work of one small courthouse in Cameroon where two women determined to change a village are making progress that could change the world. The toughminded state prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Beatrice Ntuba are working to help women in their Muslim village find the courage to fight often-difficult cases of abuse, despite pressures from family and their community to remain silent. With fierce compassion, they dispense wisdom, wisecracks and justice in fair measure—handing down stiff sentences to those convicted. A cross between Judge Judy and The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, SISTERS IN LAW has audiences cheering when justice is served.

SISTERS IN LAW has won many prizes at film festivals and most recently received a prestigious Peabody Award.

Submitted by B. Silberstein.

For those who like period dramas, there is the recently released movie, The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley, to see in the theaters. For those readers who like to read biographies of interesting and influential women, this movie is based on the book, Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. Her sister, Harriet, is featured in the more recent biography, Privilege and Scandal: The Remarkable Life of Harriet Spencer, Sister of Georgiana by Janet Gleeson. Much of the publicity for the movie seems to focus on parallels between the Duchess and her more recent relative, Princess Diana (most recent book, The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown), since both are members of the Spencer family.

Winston Churchill was also a Spencer, his parents being Jennie (Jerome) Churchill and Lord Randolph Spencer Churchill, second son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. Jennie led quite an eventful and colorful life as told in American Jennie:The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill by Anne Sebba and The Titled Americans:Three American Sisters and the British Aristocratic World Into Which They Married by Elisabeth Kehoe.

Another prominent, wealthy, famous or infamous, British family, is the Mitfords (who also have Winston Churchill in their family tree), six sisters and one brother. The Sisters:The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell tells the story of Nancy, Pam, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. Brother Tom is a lesser player in the family. The sisters were prolific writers of correspondence, particularly to each other, some of which is collected in The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters edited by Charlotte Mosley. Nancy became a writer (A Talent to Annoy: Essays; Articles and Reviews, 1929-1968, edited by Charlotte Mosley). Diana married British Fascist leader Oswald Mosley (Diana Mosley, Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler’s Angel by Anne DeCourcy). Unity was enamored with the Nazis and a friend of Adolph Hitler and came to a tragic end. Jessica also became a writer (The American Way of Death Revisited). Pamela seems to have led the quietest life of all. However, it is Deborah, the youngest, who brings this blogpost full circle. You see, Deborah, (whose biography is Counting My Chickens…and Other Home Thoughts) through her marriage to Lord Andrew Cavendish, was, until recently, the Duchess of Devonshire. And just an extra little tidbit of trivia – Chatsworth House, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, was the house used for Mr. Darcy’s home, Pemberley, in Pride and Prejudice, also starring Keira Knightley.

Submitted by Gayle Stratton.