Movies

Oscar Winners of the past . . .

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The recent Oscar show got me thinking of past awards, and my mind jumped to wondering what/who won the awards the year I was born.  My homework reveals the winners that year were: Best Picture:  The Greatest Show on Earth Best Director:  John Ford, The Quiet Man Best Actor:  Gary Cooper, High Noon Best Actress:  Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba Best Supporting Actor:  Anthony Quinn, Viva Zapata! Best Supporting Actress:  Gloria Grahame, The Bad and The Beautiful Keep in mind that Gardiner Public Library has a great movie collection both on DVD and VHS formats and that if we …

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Nominated Short Films

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Watching the Oscars each year reminds me how disappointed I am that we are not able to readily view the animated short films that are nominated each year.  The library has been able to add to our collection here in Gardiner three compilations of these winners and nominees, “A Collection of Academy AwardNominated Short Films”.  The years covered are 2005, 2006, and 2007.  But what about all the other years and other films?  Last year’s winner for Best Animated Short Film was “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr.Morris Lessmore”.  A friend who knew I worked in a library passed a …

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Maine Movie Marathon!

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  Ah, summer in Maine!  For those who can’t experience it in person, there is the charm of a movie set in Maine during the summer.  Two you may not have seen are The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold (2008), a comedy action adventure starring artist William Wegman’s Weimaraner dogs and set in the Rangeley area and the Disney film Summer Magic (1963) starring Haley Mills and Dorothy Maguire.     Remember A Summer Place (1959) with Troy Donahue, Sandra Dee, and Dorothy McGuire set at a Maine resort? The remake of The Parent Trap (1998) with Lindsay Lohan set …

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Cult Films in the Library

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In discussing cult films, the website http://www.filmsite.org/cultfilms.htmldescribes them this way: “Cult Films have limited but very special appeal. Cult films are usually strange, quirky, offbeat, eccentric, oddball, or surreal, with outrageous, weird, unique and cartoony characters or plots, and garish sets. They are often considered controversial because they step outside standard narrative and technical conventions. They can be very stylized, and they are often flawed or unusual in some striking way.” The book, Cult Movies, by Danny Peary is devoted to discussing the weird, wonderful, and wacky movies that seem to demand that we watch them over and over. How …

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GET ME OUT OF HERE!

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    Many of us may feel like shouting this as the temperatures in Maine hover around zero degrees in January and February. So…….how about getting away on a vacation?  Maybe not literally as funds may hold us back, but a movie can take you away to a warmer climate with unusual adventures with the click of a remote control.  Pick your destination, choose the movie, and away you go! Here are a few suggestions of movies available at the Gardiner Public Library that will help you escape the cold…..at least for the time being. American Werewolf in London (1981) …

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Movies for New Year’s Eve!

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Ah, New Year’s Eve!  The promise of a fresh start in a new year!  There are many movies we can think of right off that deal with the Christmas holiday season, but how well has Hollywood dealt with the holiday of New Year’s?  Quick – what movie comes to mind when I say “Happy New Year!“?  Not much comes to mind, does it? So, in the spirit of the holiday, here are a few movies that have New Year’s as the background for important plot lines: Poseidon Adventure (1972) – At midnight on New Year‘s Eve, the SS Poseidon is …

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