Flick Picks 6/26

New this week!
ENTERTAINMENT The moment that we've all been waiting for since the last Academy Awards broadcast is finally here as the Oscar winner for Best Picture The Artist hits DVD and Blu-ray! Jean Dujardin stars in this near-silent tribute to Hollywood's past. Get your holds in so you can see what the buzz is about!

Another major release this week is the surprisingly well-reviewed comedy 21 Jump Street, which stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as police officers going undercover as high school teens. Unlike many of the old tv show remakes this one has some real laughs (as well as some surprising cameos). We have it on DVD and Blu-ray.

Rounding up the major releases are Wrath of the Titans, the sequel to 2010's Clash of the Titans, on DVD and Blu-ray. Sam Worthington returns Persues as does Liam Neeson as his dad, Zeus. Meanwhile, Mirror Mirror provides family fun as it retells the Snow White story with Julia Roberts in wicked stepmother mode. Finally, you might not have heard of the based on a true story Oranges and Sunshine but it's a sensitive drama starring Emily Watson as a social worker who uncovered the mass deportation of children from the UK to Australia.

TV SERIES The major tv series release this week is the fourth season of Damages, starring Glenn Close as a ruthless lawyer. In the meantime, you've probably heard about the tv show House M.D. but if you haven't had a chance to see it yet we've picked up seasons 1-7!

SUBTITLED The Hedgehog, the much anticipated adaptation of Muriel Barbery's The Elegence of the Hedgehog, tells the story of a disillusioned young French girl who learns about life from her building's prickly concierge. For those of you looking for something a little grittier, Bullhead is about a young cattle farmer who is approached to make a shady deal that eventually leads to violence. It was Belgium's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards last year. The Turkish Oscar entry Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, a long, quiet thriller telling the story of a murder investigation, also comes out on DVD this week. 

You can see and place holds on all of our new and forthcoming releases in our Bibliocommons catalog.

Criterion means quality

Would you like to watch an interesting classic, documentary or subtitled film? Why not look for the Criterion label? Since 1998 The Criterion Collection of DVDs has included some of the finest transfers of cinematic gems as well as informational booklets and commentaries. We own over 100 Criterion titles, and the following are some of the essentials:

• Grey Gardens
• Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game
• Francois Truffaut's Antoine Doinel saga
• Lots of Ingmar Bergman including The Seventh Seal and Cries and Whispers
• Early Hitchcock films The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes
• Fellini's Amarcord and 8 1/2

Criterion also releases films that were only recently in the theaters, such as Tiny Furniture and Life During Wartime. Check out the entire list of the Criterion DVDs that we carry!


Talking Pictures
Our next Talking Pictures program takes place on Monday, July 2nd at 1:00 in the library's Hammond Room. We will be showing Water for Elephants, with Susan Benjamin leading the discussion following the film.

Flick Picks: Ernst Lubitsch and a Hollywood Golden Age

There might not have been one Hollywood golden age so much as several. Certainly, a great number of film comedies produced in the 1930's constitute one such age. This was particularly the case in the period between the adoption of the Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) in 1930 and the beginning of its enforcement in 1934. Hollywood films of this brief window in time achieved a level of candor and sophistication not to be seen for decades.

One of the giants of 1930's and 40's film comedy was German immigrant Ernst Lubitsch.  So polished were the director's comedies of manners that they were eventually and rightfully heralded as having "the Lubitsch touch."

Miriam Hopkins

The Glencoe Library has recently acquired two great Lubitsch comedies from the years before the crackdown of the Production Code. Both star Miriam Hopkins, an actress little known today but one of the great screwball comediennes of the 30's and beyond.  


In Design for Living, Hopkins is in the middle of a Parisian love triangle between Gary Cooper and Frederic March. This lasts until the menage a trois becomes too much for everyone and Hopkins' character runs off to America and marries a staid businessman played by Lubitsch regular Edward Everett Horton. Neither Cooper nor March can stand for this and the sanctity of marriage is in for an irreverent assault, the laughs courtesy of a typically sharp script by Ben Hecht, based on a play by Noel Coward.  

Even better is Trouble in Paradise, in which Hopkins is matched with the suave English actor Herbert Marshall. They play two thieves who meet in Venice and decide to team up to rob a wealthy perfume manufacturer (played by another major star of the 1930's, Kay Francis). Both critics and audiences at the time were very pleased with the results. But so risque was Trouble in Paradise considered after the enforcement of the Production Code that the film did not see the light of day nor the dark of the cinema between its banishment in 1935 and the end of the Code in 1968. Lubitsch apparently considered it one of his favorites and you're much more likely to be charmed than scandalized by Trouble in Paradise from your 21st-century vantage point.

Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marhsall in Trouble in Paradise

The library also has several other Lubitsch films in its collection:  Ninotchka (Garbo laughs!), The Shop Around the Corner and Heaven Can Wait. We also have many great comedies from the 1930's and beyond in our "Classic" section, all of the films in the Glencoe collection released before 1976. Check 'em out!

Flick Picks 6/19

New This Week!

ENTERTAINMENT The Duplass brothers are a promising pair of writers/directors whose Cyrus was a pleasant surprise in 2010. This week we see the release of their quirky Jeff Who Lives at Home, starring Jason Segal and Ed Helms as brothers, one of whom refuses to move out of his parents' house. Another funny little film this week is Wanderlust, which stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as a couple who lose their high-powered New York City jobs and then decide to move to a commune dedicated to nudism, veganism and free love. Finally, the kids will want to see Big Miracle, the "based on a true story" film starring Drew Barrymore as a Greenpeace worker who helps free whales that are trapped in ice in the Arctic Circle.

If you're looking for an unusual indie film from a director with a proven track record you might want to try Guy Maddin's Keyhole. Previous Guy Maddin films, such as The Saddest Music in the World and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs combine surrealism and humor and perhaps make him a Canadian David Lynch. Keyhole stars Isabella Rossellini and Jason Patric in the story of a gangster who returns home.

TV SERIES Web Therapy is an interesting new Showtime comedy starring Lisa Kudrow as a therapist in a mostly improvised show. It has a long list of guest stars including Lily Tomlin, Conan O'Brien and Rosie O'Donnell. Also, set 5 of the English police drama Trial and Retribution arrives this week as well.

SUBTITLED The wonderful French film My Afternoons With Margueritte comes out this week, with Gerard Depardieu as an illiterate man who befriends an elderly woman and finds out he's not as stupid as he thinks. It's a charmer! Also, the Japanese Norwegian Wood is a hypnotic adaptation of Haruki Murakami's love story by the director of the beautiful Scent of Green Papaya.

DOCUMENTARIES Finally, we've got two top-notch documentaries coming to the library this week. Steve Martin narrates Give Me the Banjo, which also features interviews with some of our premier banjo players. Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance profiles the Chicago ballet company and tells its history of unique and influential choreography.

Don't forget - all of our new and upcoming DVDs are available in Bibliocomons for you to place holds.

Explore more Iranian cinema

Many of you have commented on how much you enjoyed the last Monday Night at the Movies showing of Certified Copy. Director Abbas Kiarostami is a well-respected Iranian director, but Certified Copy was atypical for him in that his films are usually shot in the Persian language. We own his poetic classic The Wind Will Carry Us, as well as two films that he wrote - Crimson Gold and Deserted Station.

You might not be aware Iran has been putting out quality films for years. Some other excellent examples of Iranian film are Border Cafe, about a woman who bucks tradition to run her husband's cafe and A Time for Drunken Horses, the first Kurdish language feature film. Also consider revisiting Persepolis, the animated film that tells the story of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution. It was also a surprise Monday Night at the Movies hit! Finally, keep your eyes peeled for the Oscar winning Iranian film A Separation which arrives in August.

Flick Picks 6/12

New This Week!

Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes is back this week as he and Watson (Jude Law) battle Holmes's insidious arch-enemy Moriarity in Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. It's an action packed sequel to the 2010 hit and we have it on both DVD and Blu-ray. If you're looking for a quality smaller film try Thin Ice, which stars Greg Kinnear in a charming Fargo-esque comedic caper set in winter Wisconsin. Also, Too Big To Fail, based on the bestselling story of the Lehman Brothers collapse, is another well-made made-for-HBO movie. With a cast that includes William Hurt, James Woods, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup and many more great actors you know that this has got to be worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of true-life big business dramas like Margin Call.

Vince, Ari and the rest of HBO's fun-loving Hollywood gang of buddies returns for a final season of Entourage. If you find yourself going through Entourage withdrawal we've got a funny new Showtime series called Episodes, which stars Matt LeBlanc playing himself as the manipulative new star of British-import series. LeBlanc won a Golden Globe award for this role in a series that is like a cross of Ricky Gervais's Extras and Entourage. Also, worth checking out is ABC's Scandal, a tense political drama about a crisis management consultant (Kerry Washington) in Washington DC. It was created by Shonda Rhimes who also brought us Gray's Anatomy and Private Practice, so it has an excellent pedigree!

The Polish drama In Darkness tells the true story of how a Catholic businessman saved Jews during the Holocaust by hiding them in the town's sewers. This powerful and visually striking film shows how despite being at first motivated purely by money he eventually discovers his conscience.

Finally, are you wondering how to live forever? Well the answer is finally here! The DVD How to Live Forever features interviews with celebrities and great minds on the topics of life, death and what it might mean to live forever. This one is sure to get you thinking!

Monday Night at the Movies

We'll be showing Certified Copy at 1:00 and 7:00 on Monday, June 18th at the Women's Library Club as part of our Monday Night at the Movies program. Certified Copy is the first feature by renowned filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami to be set outside of his native Iran.  Over the course of an afternoon, two apparent strangers set out for a Tuscan village.  A discussion about artistic origins gradually transforms into an inquiry of the relationship between the man and woman.  Are they really strangers?  Juliette Binoche stars as the mysterious woman, “Elle,” and is as beguiling as ever. Find all of our past Monday Night at the Movies DVDs on Bibliocommons!

We will rock you!

Ravinia is not the only place to catch great live music this summer! Bring home a DVD from the library and turn your living room into your own live music festival! We've got performance DVDs from great acts like Adele, Tony Bennett, The Band, Neil Young and Friends, Harry Connick Jr., Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood and so much more. Jazz, classical, opera and rock can all be found in our performing arts DVD collection. Take some time to explore our performing arts collection and you might find some real gems!

Flick Picks 6/5

New This Week

John Carter: underrated intelligent sci-fi popcorn flick or overstuffed bomb? This week you can judge for yourself as Disney's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic story comes out on DVD and Blu-ray. Then come back to earth for the tense thriller Safe House, about CIA agents in South Africa. It stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds and is also available on both DVD and Blu-ray.

There are some big TV series releases coming out this week with season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm leading the pack. In this season Larry heads to New York and discomfort ensues. AMC's Breaking Bad is as addictive as the crystal meth the characters produce and the fourth season hits the shelves this week.

BBC fans have some good options this week too. Everyone's favorite surly doctor Doc Martin is back for a fifth season, and now he's got a baby with him! Also from the Beeb, New Tricks is back for a seventh season!

The USA Network is also putting out fun, quality shows. White Collar, about a con man turned FBI consultant, is on its third season - lots of time to get caught up on seasons one and two this summer! Burn Notice is fun and sexy and is all the way up to the fifth season. Or try the new Fairly Legal about a female lawyer turned mediator who tries to get along with her father's young widow (who just happens to run the law firm where she works)!

If you're looking for an intriguing documentary with an artistic bent, try The Woodmans. Francesca Woodman was a photographer who committed suicide at the age of 22, only to have her reputation swell in ensuing years. Her parents, also artists, wrestle with her death while also trying to find fulfillment through their own artistic practices. The film has a 94% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and could easily be enjoyed by those of you who like other quirky artistic documentaries like Marwencol.

You can access and put holds on all of our new and upcoming DVDs in Bibliocommons.

One you might have missed

The Mill and the Cross is a beautiful film that is about art and is a piece of art itself. Rutger Hauer plays painter Pieter Bruegel, walking among the setting of his epic 1564 painting "Way to Calvary". The film is both a lesson in the creation of art and the history behind the creation. But most impressively the film is like a painting itself - it is lush and gorgeous in its scenery. There are some violent scenes but they are a reflection of the time that the painter was living and and trying to refer to in his portrayal of Christ's collapse under the weight of the cross. The film also stars Michael York and Charlotte Rampling.

Don't forget about Movies on the Green!
Friday, June 8th at sundown we will be cosponsoring The Muppets on Wyman Green. Other films this summer will be Puss in Boots on July 13th and Soul Surfer on August 8th.

Celebrate the Diamond Jubilee!

You might not be able to fly to the UK for the Diamond Jubilee celebration so grab some royal DVDs to celebrate at home! The Queen is a five-part docudrama from Britain, following Queen Elizabeth over five episodes in her life. It is not to be confused with the Helen Mirren movie The Queen, also about Queen Elizabeth. Queen Victoria's Empire is a look at the queen who once ruled over 1/5th of humanity.The BBC documentary Windsor Castle shows you a year inside the Queen's favorite home. Or settle down for a while with the exhaustive 16 episode series Monarchy.