Film Databases
All of these databases should work from off campus. If you try to access them from off campus and they do not work please email the librarian and let us know so we can fix the problem. Thank You.
- 1 World FilmsComprehensive website devoted to foreign films. Includes biographies, film festivals, and reviews searchable by country. Includes links to other Foreign Film Sites.
- American Film Scripts OnlineA Film Script database. This database indexes over 1000 film and movie scripts from selected directors and studios. Includes full-text scripts as well as bibliographic and biographical information on directors and scriptwriters.
- Ebsco Film and TV IndexContains articles from all kinds of newspapers and magazines regarding films and TV shows. Resources include TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Television Weekly and much more.
- Schirmer's Encyclopedia of FilmOnline film encyclopedia.
Explore these library books on film.
Anime Intersections - Cavallaro, Dani
ISBN/ISSN: 0786432349
This text examines the artistic development of anime, from its origins as a subset of the Japanese film industry to its modern-day status, as one of the most popular forms of animation worldwide. Chapter One provides a discussion of the history of anime and the separate phases of the artistic process involved in creating a traditional anime film. The main body of the text comprises nine chapters, each of which is devoted to a detailed analysis of a chosen production and explores the technical and thematic developments pioneered in works such as Ninja Scroll, Perfect Blue, and Howl's Moving Castle. The final chapter examines the impact of the medium within Western contexts, focusing on changing perceptions of anime and on the medium's frequent appearances within Western pop culture and the fine arts. A complete bibliography and filmography are included.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11: How One Film Divided a Nation - Toplin, Robert Brent
Call Number: PN 1997.2.F34 T66 2006
ISBN/ISSN: 0700614524
Our newest book in our film collection, this book offers a scholarly look at the film Fahrenheit 9/11 and the furor and controversy surrounding its release. The author takes a look at both the facts upon which the film was based as well as the interpretation of facts.
Shakespeare at the Cineplex - Crowl, Samuel
Call Number: PR3093.C75 2003
ISBN/ISSN: 0821416677
This book takes a critical look at fifteen major Shakespeare films. Each chapter covers one or two films and a certain topic within that film and looks at how it is adapted from the play for film. An interesting read for any Shakespeare fan.
The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki - Cavallaro, Dani
ISBN/ISSN: 0786423692
This critical study of Miyazaki’s work begins with an analysis of the visual conventions of manga, Japanese comic books, and animé; an overview of Japanese animated films; and a consideration of the techniques deployed by both traditional cel and computer animation. This section also details Miyazaki’s early forays into comic books and animation, and his output prior to his founding of Studio Ghibli. Part Two concentrates on the Studio Ghibli era, outlining the company’s development and analyzing the director’s productions between 1984 and 2004, including Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and his newest film, Howl’s Moving Castle. The second section also discusses other productions involving Studio Ghibli, including Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns. Appendices supply additional information about Studio Ghibli’s merchandise production, Miyazaki’s global fan base, and the output of other Ghibli directors.
The Death of Classical Cinema - Mcelhaney, Joe
Call Number: PN 1998.3.H58 M37 2006
ISBN/ISSN: 0791468887
This book examines the work of three classical filmmakers and their films: Alfred Hitchock, Fritz Lang, and Vincente Minnelli and the challenges they faced creating films during the 1960’s when Hollywood was embracing more modernist filmmaking ideas. The book starts out with an introduction to classical cinema and then follows up with chapters on specific films by each of the featured directors.
The Film Encyclopedia - Katz, Ephriam
Call Number: PN 1993.45.K34 2008
ISBN/ISSN: 0061432857
Ephraim Katz's The Film Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive single-volume encyclopedia on film and is considered the undisputed bible of the film industry. Completely revised and updated, this sixth edition features more than 7,500 A-Z entries on the artistic, technical, and commercial aspects of moviemaking, including:
Directors, producers, actors, screenwriters, and cinematographers,styles, genres, and schools of filmmaking, motion picture studios and film centers, film-related organizations and events,industry jargon and technical terms, inventions, inventors, and equipment and much more!
Audio Books
- Understanding Movies: The Art and History of Films - Shargel, Raphael
Call Number: PLY PN 1973.5sha
Why does the cinema have the power to move the heart, stimulate the mind, and dazzle the imagination? How did the art of film develop from its origins to the present day?
This course covers the history and aesthetics of the movies. It traces the experiments and innovations that gave rise to the modern cinema, developing a vocabulary that helps explain the variety of choices filmmakers make when they construct shots and edit them together.
Classic DVD Movies
- An Affair to Remember
Call Number: DVD CLA AFF
n this poignant and humorous love story nominated for four Academy Awards, Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet on an ocean liner and fall deeply in love. Though each is engaged to someone else, they agree to meet six months later at the Empire State Building if they still feel the same way about each other. But a tragic accident prevents their rendezvous and the lover's future takes an emotional and uncertain turn. - Brigadoon - Minnelli, Vicente
Call Number: DVD MU BRI
Anything is possible in Brigadoon, the Lerner and Loewe musical put to celluloid in 1954 by director Vincente Minnelli: a village can reappear for only one day each century, and Gene Kelly can tap-dance on a dirt path. Kelly and Van Johnson play a pair of New Yorkers who go on a hunting vacation in the highlands of Scotland. But what Tommy Albright (Kelly) captures is the heart of a bonny Scottish lass, Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse). The catch: Fiona lives in Brigadoon, an enchanted town that appears for only one day every 100 years. If Tommy stays, he must give up everything (including his fiancé back home); if Fiona leaves with Tommy, Brigadoon will vanish into the highland mist, never to be seen again. Not that this keeps anyone from having a good time. The men are clad in vivid tartan kilts and leggings, and the women swish about in multicolored petticoats. Fiona's sister Jean is getting married, and the whole town is drinking ale and singing cheery songs--except for Jean's ex-beau, who threatens to leave and thereby end the town's existence. Brigadoon is a charming escape into a sweet fairy tale. Some of the songs may be less than memorable, but Kelly's choreography is often as witty as the banter. When the hectic pace of the modern world threatens to overtake you, consider a brief vacation in the highlands of Scotland. As one character says, "There must be an awful lot of folk searching for a Brigadoon"--even if it only lasts for a couple of hours. --Larisa Lomacky Moore - Captains Courageous
Call Number: DVD CLA CAP
The fishing schooner We're Here has just pulled up a different kind of fish: rich, 10-year-old Harvey Cheyne, who tumbled off the side of a sleek ocean liner. Harvey will have to wait months before the We're Here returns to harbor, months that will transform him from a spoiled whiner into an honorable young man - all because of the life lessons he learns from Manuel, the humble fisherman who befriends him. From Rudyard Kipling's classic, Captains Courageous thrills with its seagoing action, grand scale and all-star cast. - Cranford - Dench, Judi
Call Number: DVD CLA CRA
Adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's novels, the five-episode miniseries Cranford focuses on female characters in the 19th-century British town to thematically contemplate encroaching modernity in rural England. With the camera roving house to house, each drama within the grander story is constructed of scenes featuring dialogue between several gossipy ladies obsessed with moral code, romantic ideas about courtship, and social occasions. Three main characters, the ever-appropriate Deborah Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), her sweet sister, Matilda (Judi Dench), and their younger, more savvy relative, Miss Smith (Lisa Dillon), continuously weigh in on situations, providing a dependable view when other ladies, like the nosey Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton) are too judgmental. In fine period dress, the women of Cranford remind the viewer of how little action was needed in their small-town lives to provide unceasing entertainment. The series'most intriguing aspect lies not in the ample female conversation but rather in its display of earlier technologies and ways of life. Part One, for example, quickly launches a main narrative thread that runs throughout the series, namely the arrival and assimilation of London doctor, Frank Harrison (Simon Woods), into village society. Dr. Harrison's medical practices, such as his refusal to amputate a man's arm because it's broken, are all the more radical because they are so fundamental by today's standards. In subsequent episodes, he recommends Miss Smith get spectacles to cure her headaches, and saves his love's life by cooling her fever after conservative doctor, Dr. Morgan (John Bowe), recommends the old school practice of burying her in blankets in front of a raging fire. In Part Two, Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) throws a garden party at her estate, treating all the women in their fancy hats to a new novelty: ice cream. This scene foreshadows Ludlow's future concern at a railroad plan involving her land that would connect Cranford to Manchester, symbolizing the ruin of this idyllic setting.
In fact, fluffy and clever as some scenes are, death and rebirth assert themselves in each showing, both physically and idealistically. Part Four shows an auctioning off of a deceased man's antiques, and focuses on issues of class and women's education, as Mr. Carter teaches a peasant boy to read while his assistant fumes at her trappings as a seamstress. Part Five ushers in a new period of medical emergencies, securing Dr. Harrison's shaky position in town. In total, Cranford offers a powerful, if sentimental, look at how death begets life, love, and passion. --Trinie Dalton - Driving Miss Daisy
Call Number: DVD CLA DRI
Winner of the Academy Award for best picture of 1989, this gracefully moving drama, adapted from the hit play by Alfred Uhry, chronicles the 25-year friendship between a stubborn, aging Southern widow (Jessica Tandy) and her loyal chauffeur (Morgan Freeman). At first, the self-sufficient Miss Daisy is reluctant to accept the services of a chauffeur, but Hoke is quiet, wise, and tolerant, and as the years pass the unlikely friends develop a deep mutual respect and admiration. Tandy deservedly won the Oscar for her sassy and sensitive performance, and Freeman earned an Oscar nomination for bringing quiet depth and integrity to his memorable role. Ironically, director Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies) was not nominated, but the film won Oscars for makeup and for Uhry's screenplay, in addition to a supporting actor nomination for Dan Aykroyd as Daisy's supportive son. Delicate, funny, and bittersweet, Driving Miss Daisy was a surprise hit when released, and marked the crowning achievement of Tandy's great career. - Fiddler on the Roof
Call Number: DVD CLA FID
"An outstanding accomplishment in every category" (Boxoffice), this lavishly produced and critically acclaimed screen adaptation of the international stage sensation tells the life-affirming story of Tevye (Topol), a poor milkman whose love, pride and faith help him face the oppression of turn-of-the century czarist Russia. Nominated* for eight Academy AwardsÂ(r), including Best Picture and Best Director, and featuring such classic songs as "If I Were A Rich Man," "Matchmaker" and "Sunrise, Sunset," Fiddler on the Roof is a universal story of hope, love and acceptancea "stunning, joyful and jubilant" (New York Daily News) musical masterpiece. - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Call Number: DVD CLA FOR
When Hemingway picked Cooper and Bergman for this 1943 film, he couldn't have done better. They're heavenly to look at, and the chemistry between them is palpable. The dialogue has retained the style of the book, and they make it so natural, which is not an easy feat. Set in 1937 Spain, this Civil War story is an action packed adventure, but above all, it's a love story.
Terrific cinematography by Ray Rennahan, a good atmospheric score by Victor Young, and a slew of interesting character actors (Katina Paxinou won the Oscar for best supporting actress) back the magnificent leads.
Cooper is not only gorgeous, but gives a subtle, lovely performance, and Bergaman, looking younger than her 29 years with her short, curly hair, is luminous...I love the scene where she gets her first kiss, and says "I always wondered where the noses went".
Directed by Sam Wood, who a year earlier had directed one of Cooper's most famous films, "The Pride of the Yankees" (and in '45, was to team again with Cooper and Bergman in "Saratoga Trunk"), did a wonderful job with Hemingway's novel...it stands up to many viewings, and is a must for Cooper and Bergman fans. - Harvey
Call Number: DVD CLA HAR
James Stewart stars as Elwood P. Dowd, a wealthy alcoholic whose sunny disposition and drunken antics are tolerated by most of the citizens of his community. That is, until Elwood begins to claim that he has a friend named Harvey who is an invisisble six foot rabbit. Elwood's snooty socialite sister, Veta, determined to marry off her daughter Myrtle to a respectable man, begins to plot to keep Elwood's lunacy from interfering. - It Happened One Night
Call Number: DVD CLA ITH
Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "walls of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment and an uplifting experience - Ivanhoe
Call Number: DVD CLA IVA
Sir Walter Scott's epic novel of timeless romance and knightly daring comes to life! The year is 1194. At long last, the noble knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Anthony Andrews) has returned from the Crusades to regain his title and win the hand of his beloved Lady Rowena (Lysette Anthony). But first, he must defeat a villainous alliance that seeks to steal the throne from its rightful king. Steeds thunder and blades clash as the battle rages! With an all-star cast, featuring Academy Award® nominee James Mason (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, The Verdict, 1982), Olivia Hussey and Sam Neill, this is Ivanhoe as you've never seen it. - Lawrence of Arabia
Call Number: DVD CLA LAW
There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a film for which the widescreen format is utterly mandatory.) Peter O'Toole gives a star-making performance as T.E. Lawrence, the eccentric British officer who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War I. Lean orchestrates sweeping battle sequences and breathtaking action, but the film is really about the adventures and trials that transform Lawrence into a legendary man of the desert. Lean traces this transformation on a vast canvas of awesome physicality; no other movie has captured the expanse of the desert with such scope and grandeur. Equally important is the psychology of Lawrence, who remains an enigma even as we grasp his identification with the desert. Perhaps the greatest triumph of this landmark film is that Lean has conveyed the romance, danger, and allure of the desert with such physical and emotional power. It's a film about a man who leads one life but is irresistibly drawn to another, where his greatness and mystery are allowed to flourish in equal measure. - Mark of Zorro
Call Number: DVD CLA MAR
This swashbuckling remake of the silent classic stars Tyrone Power as the dashing masked avenger who single-handedly saves Los Angeles from Spanish despots. Don Diego Vega (Power) is summoned home from his elite training corps in Spain to California, where he finds his father deposed and the people living in tyranny. Disguised as Zorro, a sword-wielding mystery man dressed in black, he works to restore his father to power and return the tax money stolen by the villains (J. Edward Bromberg, Basil Rathbone). He even finds time to romance the ruling tyrant's beautiful niece (Linda Darnell). - Moby Dick
ISBN/ISSN: DVD CLA MOB
There are so many things right about this 1956 production of Moby Dick, it's a shame it is remembered for the one (debatable) thing wrong with it. As Captain Ahab, the bearded, one-legged, insanely obsessed whaler, Gregory Peck has often been called miscast. The mild, level-headed Peck had many talents, but the volcanic eruptions of Ahab seemed beyond him--even Peck himself felt he was a bad fit for the part after he finished playing it. (Pauline Kael opined that Peck looked like "a stock-company Lincoln.") Yet Peck's quiet brooding works an intriguing variation on the fiery character. John Huston, a director with a taste for location shooting, had his hands full with the difficult open-water filming in Ireland and the Canary Islands ("The catalogue of misadventures was unbelievable," he later wrote). Since Ahab is chasing the rare white whale, three false whales had to be constructed, two of which were lost at sea. For all the miscues, the film is amazingly controlled, and especially beautiful to look at: Huston and cinematographer Oswald Morris developed an unusual color process meant to suggest old whaling engravings. The director wrote the script with the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, an inspired choice to adapt Herman Melville's epic novel. Richard Basehart plays the narrator, Ishmael, and Orson Welles provides a wonderful single-scene role as Father Mapple, declaiming the mysteries of the sailor's life in a thundering sermon - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Call Number: DVD CLA MR
Political heavyweights decide that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an obscure scoutmaster in a small town, would be the perfect dupe to fill a vacant U.S. Senate chair. Surely this naive bumpkin can be easily controlled by the senior senator (Claude Rains) from his state, a respectable and corrupted career politician. Director Frank Capra fills the movie with Smith's wide-eyed wonder at the glories of Washington, all of which ring false for his cynical secretary (Jean Arthur), who doesn't believe for a minute this rube could be for real. But he is. Capra was repeating the formula of a previous film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, but this one is even sharper; Stewart and Arthur are brilliant, and the former cowboy star Harry Carey lends a warm presence to the role of the vice president. Bright, funny, and beautifully paced, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Capra's ode to the power of innocence--an idea so potent that present-day audiences may find themselves wishing for a new Mr. Smith in Congress. The 1939 Congress was none too thrilled about the film's depiction of their august body, denouncing it as a caricature; but even today, Capra's jibes about vested interests and political machines look as accurate as ever. - North and South - Armitage, Richard
Call Number: DVD CLA NOR
North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat star-crossed, love between a middle-class young woman from England's cultivated south and an intemperate if misunderstood industrialist in a hardscrabble, northern city. Daniela Denby-Ashe plays Margaret Hale, forthright and strong-willed daughter of a former vicar (Tim Pigott-Smith) who relocates his family from a pastoral village outside London to unforgiving, largely illiterate Milton, a factory town where John Thornton (Richard Armitage) and his mother (Sinead Cusack), survivors of poverty, rule their cotton mill with an iron hand. Thornton befriends Margaret's father but incurs her wrath for his severity with his workers. What she doesn't notice is Thornton's core sense of responsibility for his employees' welfare. On the other hand, he misinterprets some of Margaret's own actions and intentions. Equally stubborn, the two drag out their obvious attraction over many painful months and events.
North & South's two leads are both very good, though Armitage's brooding, penetrating performance may very well be considered a classic one day. There are other wonders in the cast: Cusack and Pigott-Smith are superb, and Brendan Coyle is memorable as a firebrand union organizer who ultimately becomes an ally to a softening Thornton. The miniseries script by Sandy Welch is a persuasive mix of historical context and character study. Brian Percival's direction is full of moments that linger in the imagination, such as the winter-dream look of a busy cotton mill, with thousands of snowy fibers floating in the air. --Tom Keogh - Once Upon a Time in the West
Call Number: DVD CLA ONC
Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), the power-hungry owner of a railroad company, hires Frank (Henry Fonda, playing against type), a gunfighter without a conscience, to kill anyone who stands in the way of the completion of the railroad. After Frank murders land owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), McBain's widow (Claudia Cardinale) hires two killers of her own to protect her and gain revenge: a mysterious, harmonica-playing desperado (Charles Bronson) and his rogue sidekick (Jason Robards). Using techniques previously unseen in the genre, Sergio Leone utilizes close-ups, color, and Ennio Morricone's trademark score to create a tense and somber meditation on death which is widely considered to be one of the best westerns in cinematic history. Soon-to-be legendary Italian directors Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA) and Bernardo Bertolucci (THE LAST EMPEROR) collaborated with Leone on the screenplay. - Out of Africa
Call Number: DVD CLA OUT
The most acclaimed motion picture of 1985 stars Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in one of the screen’s great epic romances. Directed by Oscar winner Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa is the fascinating true story of Karen Blixen, a strong-willed woman who, with her philandering husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer), runs a coffee plantation in Kenya, circa 1914. To her astonishment, she soon discovers herself falling in love with the land, its people and a mysterious white hunter (Redford). The masterfully crafted, breathtakingly produced story of love and loss earned Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (based on material from another medium), Cinematography, Original Score, Art Direction (Set Decoration) and Sound. - Rear Window
Call Number: DVD CLA REA
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most suspenseful screen achievements, Rear Window, is now available in a new 2-disc Special Edition DVD! When a professional photographer (James Stewart) suspects his neighbor of murdering his nagging wife, he enlists his socialite girlfriend (Grace Kelly) to help investigate the suspicious chain of events. - Rebecca
Call Number: DVD CLA REB
Rebecca is an ageless, timeless adult movie about a woman who marries a widower but fears she lives in the shadow of her predecessor. This was Hitchcock's first American feature, and it garnered the Best Picture statue at the 1941 Academy Awards. In today's films, most twists and surprises are ridiculous or just gratuitous, so it's sobering to look back on this film where every revelation not only shocks, but makes organic sense with the story line. Laurence Olivier is dashing and weak, fierce and cowed. Joan Fontaine is strong yet submissive, defiant yet accommodating. There isn't a false moment or misstep, but the film must have killed the employment outlook of any women named Danvers for about 20 years. - Remains of the Day
Call Number: DVD CLA REM
This excellent film is probably best described as subtle elegance. Framed in the present, the movie deals with the lives inside an English country home just prior to World War II. Reunited with the filmmakers from Howards End are Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton, the head housekeeper, and Anthony Hopkins as Stevens, the impeccable butler. The bittersweet story centers on Stevens and his dedication to his master, Lord Darlington (a suitably officious and slyly pompous James Fox). Stevens summarizes: "I don't believe a man can consider himself fully content until he has done all he can to be of service to his employer." Enveloping Stevens's world are the pending war with Germany, Darlington's horribly misguided interests in said war, and, most effectively, his relationship with Miss Kenton. Stevens is the very essence of repression, but as played by Hopkins he is neither piteous nor self-righteous. Like his master, Stevens becomes misguided in his loyalties, although his is an emotional deprivation, possibly condemning him to lifelong regret. There's so much going on in this film, and yet the action is skillfully depicted through understanding and knowing glances, through emotions expressed only through eye contact. Like other Merchant-Ivory-Ruth Prawer Jhabvala collaborations, this film is sumptuous to look at, capturing the period effectively and affectingly. Jhabvala respectfully adapts from the Kazuo Ishiguro novel. Excellent in supporting roles are Christopher Reeve, Ben Chaplin, and Hugh Grant. - Roman Holiday
Call Number: DVD CLA ROM
Maybe it doesn't quite live up to its sterling reputation, and maybe the leading man and director were slightly miscast. But who cares? Roman Holiday is the film that brought Audrey Hepburn to prominence, and the world movie audience went weak at the knees. The endlessly charming Hepburn had her first starring role in this sweet romance, playing a European princess on an official tour through Rome. Frustrated by her lack of connection to the real world, she slips away from her protective handlers and goes on a spree, aided by a tough-guy news reporter (Gregory Peck). Director William Wyler, more at home with such heavy-going, Oscar-winning classics as The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben- Hur, doesn't always keep the champagne bubbles afloat, and the Peck role would have fit Cary Grant like a silk glove. But the film is great fun, the location shooting is irresistible, and Hepburn embodies an image of chic style that would rule for the rest of the fifties. No coincidence: she won an Oscar, and so did veteran costume designer Edith Head. - Singin' in the Rain - Donin, Stanley
Call Number: DVD MU SIN
Decades before the Hollywood film industry became famous for megabudget disaster and science fiction spectaculars, the studios of Southern California (and particularly Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) were renowned for a uniquely American (and nearly extinct) kind of picture known as The Musical. Indeed, when the prestigious British film magazine Sight & Sound conducts its international critics poll in the second year of every decade, this 1952 MGM picture is the American musical that consistently ranks among the 10 best movies ever made. It's not only a great song-and-dance piece starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and a sprightly Debbie Reynolds; it's also an affectionately funny insider spoof about the film industry's uneasy transition from silent pictures to "talkies." Kelly plays debonair star Don Lockwood, whose leading lady Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) has a screechy voice hilariously ill-suited to the new technology (and her glamorous screen image). Among the musical highlights: O'Connor's knockout "Make 'Em Laugh"; the big "Broadway Melody" production number; and, best of all, that charming little title ditty in which Kelly makes movie magic on a drenched set with nothing but a few puddles, a lamppost, and an umbrella. --Jim Emerson - Ten Commandments
Call Number: DVD DLA TEN
For sheer pageantry and spectacle, few motion pictures can claim to equal the splendor of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 remake of his epic The Ten Commandments. Filmed in Egypt and the Sinai with one of the biggest sets ever constructed for a motion picture, this version tells the story of the life of Moses (Charlton Heston), once favored in the Pharaoh's (Yul Brynner) household, who turned his back on a privileged life to lead his people to freedom. With a rare on-screen introduction by Cecil B. DeMille himself, this unforgettable movie experience is enhanced by a Dolby surround stereo soundtrack. - The Quiet Man
Call Number: DVD CLA QUI
Blarney and bliss, mixed in equal proportions. John Wayne plays an American boxer who returns to the Emerald Isle, his native land. What he finds there is a fiery prospective spouse (Maureen O'Hara) and a country greener than any Ireland seen before or since--it's no surprise The Quiet Man won an Oscar for cinematography. It also won an Oscar for John Ford's direction, his fourth such award. The film was a deeply personal project for Ford (whose birth name was Sean Aloysius O'Fearna), and he lavished all of his affection for the Irish landscape and Irish people on this film. He also stages perhaps the greatest donnybrook in the history of movies, an epic fistfight between Wayne and the truculent Victor McLaglen--that's Ford's brother, Francis, as the elderly man on his deathbed who miraculously revives when he hears word of the dustup. Barry Fitzgerald, the original Irish elf, gets the movie's biggest laugh when he walks into the newlyweds' bedroom the morning after their wedding, and spots a broken bed. The look on his face says everything. The Quiet Man isn't the real Ireland, but as a delicious never-never land of Ford's imagination, it will do very nicely. - The Wizard of Oz - Garland, Julie and Burke, Billie
Call Number: DVD CLA WIZ
When it was released during Hollywood's golden year of 1939, The Wizard of Oz didn't start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn't until its debut on television that this family favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz's TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Young Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the yellow brick road to Oz--the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)--have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for children. As the Wicked Witch who covets Dorothy's enchanted ruby slippers, Margaret Hamilton has had the singular honor of scaring the wits out of children for more than six decades. The film's still as fresh, frightening, and funny as it was when first released. It may take some liberal detours from the original story by L. Frank Baum, but it's loyal to the Baum legacy while charting its own course as a spectacular film. Shot in glorious Technicolor, befitting its dynamic production design (Munchkinland alone is a psychedelic explosion of color and decor), The Wizard of Oz may not appeal to every taste as the years go by, but it's required viewing for kids of all ages. --Jeff Shannon - Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Call Number: DVD CLA THI
There is no more ringing title among World War II movies than Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, and the mission it celebrates was unquestionably historic: a 400-mile bombing raid to carry the war to Japan itself mere months after that nation's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet the film is less memorable than many WWII pictures with less exalted factual basis. At the time, critic James Agee eloquently defined both its virtues and limitations as "a big-studio, big-scale film, free of artistic pretension ... transformed by its not very imaginative but very dogged sincerity into something forceful, simple, and thoroughly sympathetic in spite of all its big-studio, big-scale habits." That remains true today, but perhaps the movie--and its unimpeachably noble, admirably life-sized characters--wouldn't seem so stuck in the amber of a bygone era if Mervyn LeRoy and company had pumped a little "artistic pretension" into it. - To Kill a Mockingbird
Call Number: DVD CLA TOK
Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity, and loving, responsible parenthood. - Treasure Island
Call Number: DVD CLA TRE
Ahoy, mateys! Come aboard the good ship Hispaniola and set sail in search of buried treasure in one of Disney's most critically acclaimed adventure classics -- presented in its original, uncut theatrical version! In his first all-live-action feature, Walt Disney has vividly brought to life Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless tale of buccaneers and buried gold. Authentic locales, rich color photography, and musket-roaring action set the stage for the stouthearted heroics of young Jim Hawkins (Bobby Driscoll) -- and the skullduggery of that wily, one-legged pirate of all pirates, Long John Silver. Aye, for the kind of excitement that only treasure and treachery can bring, there's no better destination than TREASURE ISLAND!
LDS Business College Library |
 Karen Hales or AnnaLaura Brown |
Film Ebooks
- From Antz to Titanic : A Student Guide to Film AnalysisThis book starts out with an introduction to the idea of film analysis and gives reasons why it is a good idea as well as what can be learned from it. The book then proceeds to analyze several different films from recent years such as Antz and Titanic.
- Classics in Film and FictionThis book offers an interesting and insightful look into classic works of fiction which have also been made into films. Some of the classics discussed include: Shakespeare’s the Tempest, The Trial by Kafka and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.
- Museum Movies : The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art CinemaAre you wondering how cinema and art are related? This book discusses in detail the relationship between modern art and film as art. It also discusses different movements and technologies which have been developed during the past century.
- Shakespeare, from Stage to ScreenLearn all about the different methods people use to adapt Shakespeare plays to film. Also included are case studies of how it has been done.
Film Websites
- Film portal and directoryEditorial information and links to over 5000 domestic and foreign Internet films.
- Latin American Cinema GuideThis page provides links to a variety of web sites on Latin American cinema. We include the Caribbean in our definition of Latin America and cinema includes all formats for film, be it video, dvd, etc. Coverage also includes U.S. Latino cinema.
- News, Reviews and previewsThere is also information about current show times, as well as actors and actresses who are popular right now. Information about the writers of current movies, their release dates on DVD on more.
- The internet movie databaseYou can find just about everything you would ever want to know about all different kinds of movies as well as made for TV movies and TV shows. Also included are trailers of upcoming movies, as well as news and reviews.
- Where Did They Film That?A guide to the locations where many popular movies were filmed. Includes details and pictures about the filming process.
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