New films

Identification of a woman/Identificazione di una donna. United States : Criterion Collection, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

Still life/Sanxia hao ren. Toronto : Mongrel Media, 2008. (Publisher’s description)

Uzak/Distant. Istanbul : NBC Ajans ; New York, NY : Distributed in the US by New Yorker Video, 2005. (Publisher’s description)

New films from the Criterion Collection

Island of lost souls (1932). The Criterion Collection, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

Kuroneko (1968). The Criterion Collection, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys (1989, 1994). The Criterion Collection, 2011. (Publisher’s description)
(As you can see, I’m back to my usual posts about new items.  Thanks for joining me for my celebration of Information Literacy month with my Library Lessons series of posts.)

 

New (and old) films

Of gods and men (Des hommes et des dieux) / a film by by Xavier Beauvois.Sony Pictures Classics, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

• Winner of the 2010 Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival

Jane Eyre / a film by by Cary Fukunaga. Universal, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

Le beau serge / a film by Claude Chabrol. Criterion Collection, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

Les cousins / a film by Claude Chabrol. Criterion Collection, 2011. (Publisher’s description)

[Library lessons] Films on demand

One of my favorite databases is Films on Demand.  It started as a collection of streaming videos made by the Films for the Humanities and Sciences.  Since its inception, it has grown to include all sorts of other streaming videos.

Have some time to spare?  Go to the database and look at the Special Collections tab at the top.  It includes collections of videos from the following sources:

• ABC News
• American Experience (“TV’s most-watched history series”)
• BBC
• The Bill Moyers Collection
• Bio.
• Cambridge Educational
• CBC Television
• 4 Learning (Channel 4 programs in the UK are largely geared towards primary and secondary students, so this is a great resource for education students.)
• CNBC Specials
• Films for the Humanities and Sciences
• Royal Opera House (This is a set of recorded performances of the Royal Opera House.  Amazing.)
• Frontline
• History Education
• Ken Burns (Yes, that’s right.  There is a collection of Ken Burns films. It includes Jazz and Baseball, among others.)
• PBS News Hour
• Meridian Education Corporation
• Modern Marvels
• NFB/ONF (National Film Board of Canada)
• National Geographic Digital Motion
• NBC News (This is largely a collection of historical news casts, including interviews with Eamon de Valera, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frank Lloyd Wright, Igor Stravinsky, Marcel Duchamp, Margaret Mead, Robert Frost, Robert Moses, Somerset Maugham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nixon, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Johnson, Kennedy, and Hoover.  It also includes a series of episodes about American prisons.)
• ABC Nightline
• The Open University
• Empires
• Scientific American Frontiers
• Shopware
• VEA
• Wide Angle

There are over 5,600 films in the collection, and you can search them, create playlists, and have all sorts of fun with them.  While you’re visiting the site, be sure to go to the “Subjects” menu and look at the “Archival films & Newsreels” subject, which includes archival footage from 1914-1968.  If you want to watch newsreels from 1914 so you can see how World War I was portrayed to civilians, there is footage of that.

It’s an amazing collection, accessible both on and off-campus.  Don’t miss it.

[Library lessons] The DVD collection

Every now and then, I hear someone say that it would be really cool if the library had a DVD collection.  And then I cry a little, quietly.

We have one of the biggest circulating collections of DVDs in the state, with over 4,000 titles in it.  The collection spans two sets of shelving on the first floor of the library.  The “feature film” collection is to the left of the Circulation Desk when you walk in the front door of the building.  The feature film collection is mostly the kinds of films that are shown in theaters, or are movies that are played on TV. They are arranged in alphabetical order by title, and all have a call number starting with PN1997.

On the other wall (which would be directly behind you as you face the feature films), there are documentaries and television shows.  These are mostly arranged by subject, except for the television shows, which are in alphabetical order by title at the call number PN1992.7.

Sometimes, finding the film you want is tricky, because it is known by more than one title.  (This is especially true of foreign films.)  In that case, you should look in the catalog.

Let me explain something here about the Order of Things in the Universe, which applies to libraries, too.  Generally speaking, physical objects can occupy one space and one space only at one time.  This is true in libraries, too.  So, let’s say we buy a movie like Pan’s labyrinth.  I can only put it on one place on the shelf.  But this movie is also called El laberinto del fauno.  If you think of the Spanish title, you would look for it in the Ls.  But I put it in the Ps, under Pan’s labyrinth.  (My general rule of thumb is to put it under the title that was used for the U.S. release, since this is a U.S. library, and most of our users tend to look under the U.S. release title first.)

That’s what makes the catalog really helpful, especially for films – a film can have several titles for the same thing.  The physical copy of the video can only sit in one place, but the catalog can let you get at that single film from several different points.  (Not only can you search by the title(s), but you can search by director, or even actors.  Here’s an author search on Clint Eastwood, which shows you movies in which he’s been a director or actor.)

Learn this lesson: if you are looking for a film, don’t just browse the shelves.  Look it up in the catalog. Also, if you discover it is checked out, you can use the “request it” button in the catalog to be notified when the film is returned.

If you are looking for a film and we don’t have it, you can suggest that we buy a copy.

By the way, we collect most of the Criterion collection films.  These are “important classic and contemporary films” that are selected by professionals, and each release typically includes interviews and other bonus features that explore the context and creation of the film.

Also, we have a selection of electronic videos, although these are largely documentaries.  Don’t ignore them for that reason, though.  If you’re the type of person who likes to have the History Channel or Animal Planet quietly playing in the background while you work, then you’ll definitely want to check these out.  They are also really helpful ways to supplement lectures, both for faculty and students.  (Sometimes, having the same idea explained to you by someone else works wonders.) Don’t miss the Theatre in video collection.  Sometimes reading Shakespeare or other plays is difficult.  Try reading along as you watch.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock

The evenings are getting cooler.  It’s early in the semester and you still have free time to watch some films.  Perhaps you’ve decided to check out the Film Studies minor, and you want to immerse yourself in it.

Time to brush up in your Hitchcock.  We just added a few more of his films to our collection, bringing our total of Hitchcock films to over 50.  Here are the latest additions to our collection (i.e., this is what I cataloged yesterday):

• Alfred Hitchcock, the masterpiece collection: bonus features
• The birds
• Family plot
• Frenzy
• I confess
• Lifeboat
• The man who knew too much
• Marnie
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith
• Murder! / The skin game
• Psycho
• Rear window
• Rich and strange
• The ring / The manxman
• Rope
• Saboteur
• Shadow of a doubt
• Stage fright
• Strangers on a train
• Suspicion
• Topaz
• Torn curtain
• The trouble with Harry
• The wrong man
• Vertigo

For some really early Hitchcock, check out Alfred Hitchcock: the legend begins.  It includes:

• The lady vanishes
• The farmer’s wife
• The manxman
• The Cheney vase (from Alfred Hitchcock presents)
• The sorcerer’s apprentice (from Alfred Hitchcock presents)
• Rich and strange
• The thirty-nine steps
• Secret agent
• Champagne
• Blackmail
• Easy virtue
• Jamaica Inn
• The lodger
• The ring
• Young and innocent
• Juno and the paycock
• Sabotage
• The skin game
• Number seventeen
• The man who knew too much

Qualitative research; World War I; Jane Addams

Silverman, David. Doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. 3rd ed. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2010. (Publisher’s description)

Cobb, Humphrey. Paths of glory. New York: Penguin Books, 2010. (Publisher’s description)

• We have Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of glory with Kirk Douglas, too.

Knight, Louise W. Jane Addams: spirit in action. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. (Publisher’s description)

Award-winning films

Garrel, Philippe. Regular lovers (Les amants réguliers). (2005) (Publisher’s description)(IMDB description)

• Awards: César Awards (Most promising actor), European Film Awards (FIPRESCI Prize), Lumiere Awards (Lumiere Award), Prix Louis Delluc, Venice Film Festival (Golden Osella, Silver Lion), Étoile d’Or (Best male newcomer).

Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Millennium mambo (Qian xi man po). (2001) (IMDB description)

• Awards: Cannes Film Festival (Technical Grand Prize), Chicago International Film Festival (Silver Hugo), Ghent International Film Festival (Best director), Golden Horse Film Festival (Golden Horse Award)

Award-winning films

Van Sant, Gus. Elephant. (2003) (IMDB description)

• Awards: Cannes Film Festival (Best Director, Cinema Prize of the French National Education System, Golden Palm), French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (Critics Award), New York Film Critics Circle Awards (NYFCC Award)

Lynch, David. Inland empire.(2006) (IMDB description)

• Awards: National Society of Film Critics Awards (Special Award – Best Experimental Film), Venice Film Festival (Future Film Festival Digital Award)

Award-winning films

Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Café Lumière (Kôhî jikô). (2003) (IMDB description)

• Awards: Awards of the Japanese Academy (Newcomer of the Year), Istanbul International Film Festival (Golden Tulip)

Tsai, Ming-liang. Goodbye Dragon Inn. (Bu san). (2003) (IMDB description)

• Awards: Asian-Pacific Film Festival (Best Supporting Actress, Special Jury Award), Chicago International Film Festival (Gold Plaque), Golden Horse Film Festival (Golden Horse Award), Hawaii International Film Festival (Special Jury Award), Istanbul International Film Festival (Golden Tulip), Nantes Three Continents Festival (Award of the City of Nantes, Young Audience Award), Venice Film Festival (FIPRESCI Prize)