The Studio

any favorite horror movies??

Back in my days of undergraduate studies, I remember being freaked out by the movie An American Werewolf in London. True, I had mononucleosis at the time & it probably didn’t take much to rattle me. The Library has the original DVD release and the 2009 “full moon” edition with a bonus disc. Take your pick!

More recently, I totally recommend three films directed by Guillermo del Toro: Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, and Pan’s Labyrinth.

For a classic movie and a little beyond, try the 1922 vampire film Nosferatu, the 1979 re-make, and then Shadow of the Vampire.

If you’re feeling musical go with Tim Burton’s – The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

Last but not least, fun for all ages (i.e. 5-year-olds & kids at heart), I loved the DVD Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors.

A number of us at the Library were all proper children of the 80’s. As a result, it’s impossible for us to estimate the impact filmmaker John Hughes had on our collective coming of age. Titles like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off captured a certain part of teen life that had rarely been portrayed with such empathy. No matter how implausible his films might have been in retrospect, it’s the essence of the lives he tried to show that cements his place in the zeitgeist.

Most of his best-known films were all set in the fictional Shermer, Illinois, a suburb somewhere north of Chicago. As a result, many of the locations can be found in the immediate area. Check out this collection of locations from many of his most well-known scenes. (Bear in mind that it’s an older page, and seems to suffer from a few expired images.)

There’s even a scene from Sixteen Candles that was shot in the parking lot between the Library and the Village Hall:

The scene occurs at about the 41:40 mark, right after the infamous scene with Anthony Michael Hall in the bathroom. The car pulls out of the parking lot, ostensibly en route to Jake Ryan’s party. The library is in the shadows in the top right, and you can see the condominium complex in the center of the frame. After the car pulls out, the camera pans over and you can see Village Hall.

Even though it’s just a few seconds of film, it’s enough to make a strong connection between the Library and Mr. Hughes.

What is your favorite John Hughes memory? Please share in the comments.

Have a favorite vampire movie?

Right now Twilight is the “it” movie. I thought that the director and crew did a really good job adapting the book to film. It will be interesting to see how success affects indie filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke and the sequel New Moon (due in theaters 2010). For now, this is one of my favorite new movies – and I am not even in the right target audience!

Check out the library’s view-a-like list for Twilight. Truly, nothing really compares, but we try.

Also, the soundtrack is pretty cool.

A friend recently recommended that I read the book In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. Lately, my preferred version of reading is listening to the audiobook - which I did. I have to confess that the book wasn’t entirely my type of entertainment (much to the disappointment of my friend, I think). As one thing leads to another that is only slightly related, the book (not being adapted into a movie) did get me excited to see the new movie Australia, directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Oh, I loved the movie! It approaches guilty pleasure territory as far as I am concerned. Certainly Hugh Jackman makes my list of celebrity crushes. That aside, what about other movies filmed in Australia? Quite a few have been released on DVD. See the library’s list. I want to point out the TV series Snowy River: The McGregor Saga. Some of the episodes feature Hugh Jackman – at the beginning of his career. Fun stuff.

BTW, both the TV series and the 1982 feature film The Man From Snowy River are inspired by the poem written by Banjo Paterson.

I think that I have to join in the recent pleas for Scottish director Bill Forsyth – to make movies again. His older movies might be hard to find, but there are some real gems.

The library has on DVD Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero.

On video, the library still has a copy of Comfort and Joy – although who knows how long that old VHS will last. And don’t I wish that I could watch That Sinking Feeling again!

Anyone, looking for quirky & charming … try something mentioned above.

Btw, I never have seen the movie Housekeeping, but critics say it’s really good.

Despite all the hand-wringing about how the Oscar nominations and awards should be judged on quality alone, there is a certain political element to the way prizes are doled out. One example of this is the “Whoops, Sorry” award, where someone receives an Oscar for their work this year, but everyone knows it was really for something they had done (and been snubbed for) in the past. Martin Scorcese’s trophy last year for The Departed is arguably one of these.

Who’s this year’s candidate for the “Whoops” award? Tony Gilroy, the man behind Michael Clayton.

While this is Gilroy’s directorial debut, he’s been hard at work as a screenwriter for many years, penning all three Bourne films, the Al Pacino ham-fest Devil’s Advocate, and Dolores Claiborne, among others.

But he was overlooked for his first effort as a screenwriter, and I’m glad to see that the Academy is finally making amends.

The film? The Cutting Edge.

Forget about Joe Wright and Ian McEwan. The real atonement is going on right here.