Monthly Archives: February 2012

Calling all the beautiful girls

I caught Beautiful Girls (1996) on Hulu recently. For a movie that explores different versions of masculine ambivalence on the eve of a high school reunion (a reunion in winter? huh?), it comes as no surprise that it’s hard to feel anything but ambivalence toward the movie itself. I had seen it once before, years ago, and it was memorable only in my memory for featuring a young Natalie Portman (albeit in a slightly creepy subplot). It’s the kind of movie that substitutes songs for character development.

So about a half hour into the film, hapless girlfriend Sharon (Mira Sorvino) commiserates with her girlfriends about her cheating boyfriend Tommy (Matt Dillon).

Her friend Gina (Rosie O’Donnell) cheers her up by painting this scenario:

You’re going to have to break up with him, and you’re going to have to break up with him now. Now getting over him, that’s going to be the hard part. I know. Believe me, I know. It’s true. At first, after the breakup, you’ll have these visions. Of you alone, 57, 58, walking around wearing a nightgown, your hair in a bun. Maybe you’re a librarian, heating up a can of soup for one and worrying about the cobwebs that are growing in your womb.

Again, the specter of the Spinster Librarian nightmare. Gee, thanks.

At this point, I thought, ok, it’s going to be a Class V film, one that mentions a librarian but doesn’t include an actual librarian. But I was wrong.

An hour and ten minutes in, right after another inspiring soliloquy, this one by actor Michael Rappaport about the allure of supermodels (“A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you’ve been drinking Jack and Coke all morning”) we cut to a scene in the public library, where Tommy is trying to end his affair with Darian (Lauren Hutton). Is it merely coincidence that a librarian — this time an actual one — provides the backdrop for yet another breakup scene? Methinks perhaps not.

The librarian in Beautiful Girls

The older female librarian (uncredited) is standing up behind the circulation desk, checking out books to a couple of young boys. Her grey bobbed hair and bangs match her grey blazer, and her glasses sit low on her nose. No lanyard or bun in sight, thank goodness. She sits down as the camera pans to the back of the library toward Tommy and Darian. The bit of the desk visible reveals the standard movie props for libraries:  stacks of books, a globe, a carousel of book stamps, a small card file, a bookstand, and in a nod to modern technology, a computer and scanner. Your average Information Provider, elevating the film into the Class IV category.

This scene was filmed at Franklin Library, a branch library of the Minneapolis Public Library system. This site provides a very thorough exploration of the filming location, plus more recent photos of this beautiful Carnegie library.

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Oscar! Oscar! Read all about it!

Best Actress Academy Award

Best Actress Academy Award (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

Ah, the Oscars. The time of year when family members, agents, and “the Academy” get a spike in popularity.

I kid because I love. And I do ♥ the Oscars. Every last bit, from the designer frocks to the once-in-a-blue-moon inspiring acceptance speeches to the hyperbolic self-congratulations to the kernel of sincere appreciation for cinematic artistry. For a complete list of Oscar winners, click here.

So here’s a rundown of my personal reactions to this year’s Oscar marathon:

  • Overall winner of the night:  Nostalgia.
    • The theme of the telecast was all about recreating the experience of watching movies, from the usherettes passing out candy and whatnot as the show went to commercial to the Cirque du Soleil performance (more on that in a bit) to the snippets of actors describing their first moviegoing experience.
    • Also, the most nominated films, Hugo (11 noms) and The Artist (10 noms), both harkened back to the origins of filmmaking. Both films ended up tying for the most Oscars won, with 5 golden statuettes each.
    • Plus, the (second) choice of Billy Crystal as host upped the nostalgia factor.
  • MVP of the night:  Melissa McCarthy. Clips of her hilarious, and Oscar-nominated, turn in Bridesmaids popped up all over the place. Loved the robe-and-sparkly-shoes bit with Billy Crystal, plus the Scorsese drinking bit reprise from the SAG Awards.
  • Favorite moments:
    • The acceptance speeches of Christopher Plummer and Meryl Streep. Classy and funny. My husband’s response:  ”That’s how you do it.”
    • Billy Crystal’s opening song. Of course. It’s a wonderful night for Oscars…
    • Tom Hanks’s shout-out to 59-year Oscar seat filler Carl. I really hope that backstory is true, and I hope that Carl has been wearing that pastel blue tux and ruffled shirt every one of those years.
    • The hilarious pairing of Robert Downey, Jr. & Gwyneth Paltrow. Runner-up schtick:  Emma Stone & Ben Stiller.
    • Funniest spontaneous bit:  When the writers of The Descendants, who won Best Adapted Screenplay, made fun of Angelina Jolie’s leg-baring stance.
    • The very classy “in memoriam” tribute. And how beautiful did Esperanza Spalding sound (and look) during her rendition of “What a Wonderful World” during the tribute? So lovely.
  • Least favorite moments:
    • Sasha Baron Cohen’s performance on the red carpet, “accidentally” pouring Chemical X — whoops, I mean, the ashes of Kim Jong-il — on Ryan Seacrest. So UNclassy and UNfunny.
    • The pairings of Jennifer Lopez & Cameron Diaz (total clunker) and Tina Fey & Bradley Cooper (Tina, I ♥ you, and you looked fantastic, and sorry you were stuck with such a humorless sidekick)
    • The totally POINTLESS Cirque du Soleil thing. Why did they have time for that interpretive dance and not the performances of the two nominees for Best Original Song? It seemed like it was thrown in there just so someone could say, “This has NEVER been done at the Oscars before.” Ugh. Oscar FAIL.
    • Spending more camera time on the musicians in the balcony than the 3 Honorary Oscar winners (Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones, and Dick Smith) who were also stuck up there in the balcony. Another Oscar FAIL.
    • Pretty much dissing the category you’re presenting, à la Chris Rock, who made fun of voice acting when he presented the Animated Feature category.
  • Fun facts:
    • Plummer setting a record as oldest actor to win an acting Oscar, at age 82. I’m sure he LOOOOVED all those mentions of his age. Previous holders of that record? George Burns for Best Supporting Actor (The Sunshine Boys, 1975) and Jessica Tandy for Best Actress (Driving Miss Daisy, 1989), who both were 80 years young when they won.
    • Meryl Streep having been nominated across five decades, starting in 1979. WOW!
    • In Colin Firth’s introduction for Michelle Williams, he humorously mentioned learning so much from her when they last worked together. OF COURSE I looked that up in IMDb.com. Turns out they did co-star in a movie, A Thousand Acres, in 1997.
  • Best dressed:
    • The cast of The Help. Jessica Chastain pulled out all the stops in her black-and-gold strapless dress, Octavia Spencer was giving a master class in how to dress a full-figured physique, Viola Davis rocked her natural hair, and Emma Stone pulled off a gigantic neck bow. They all brought it and then some.
    • Runner-up: Tina Fey in her form-fitting navy blue gown. Best she’s ever looked.
  • Worst dressed:
    • I loved Bridesmaids but overall, the ladies were a disappointing lot in the dress department — except for Maya Rudoph, who looked great in an eggplant-colored, embellished sheath. Melissa McCarthy’s natural beauty got lost in all the doo-dads on her dress, Kristen Wiig looked DRAB in yet another neutral column, and Rose Byrne needed another sandwich (or 10) in her black sequins. She is so so so so pretty but looked waaaay too thin. And they say the camera adds 10 pounds. Yikes!
  • Overall grade? A solid B+, for a satisfying slice of Oscars. And not the kind of slice featured in The Help. ;)

So you know I’m spending the rest of this morning reviewing other Oscar-themed commentary, “best dressed” and “what was she/he thinking?” picture galleries, and assorted bits and trivia. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. ;)

Can’t get enough Oscars? Check out my post, “Behind every academy is a great library,” over on my personal blog about the Margaret Herrick Library, the library for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. You know, “the Academy” everyone was thanking last night. Bless. ♥

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Oscar love BONUS!

Getting ready for the lion of all awards shows tomorrow night? Yeah, it’s a little show called the Academy Awards. So for some Oscar love (and discontent) that I’ve been looking at recently, please check out my “Oscarmania? Guilty!” post over at my personal site. It includes Oscar Bingo cards!

I’ll check back in with you Monday for a post-Oscar high.

Information Provider librarians

Now it’s time to shine the spotlight on our intrepid Information Providers (for previous entries in this series of librarian character types, click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). As I wrote about in my previous post in this series, I used to combine this category with the Comic Relief librarians, entitled “The Librarian Who Provides Information or Humor.” Yep, telling the truth when I was said I was bad with titles.

Their role seems pretty self-explanatory:  supporting or minor characters who provide information — or misinformation — to a character.

Take the film All the President’s Men (1976), which includes a trio of Information Providers. One librarian, a female, is heard only over the phone; with her frightened manner of supplying the wrong information, she helps heighten the tension of the Watergate scandal at the center of the film. Contrast her role’s purpose with the two other Information Providers in the film:  two male librarians, one Caucasian and one African-American, both of whom work in the Library of Congress. The white male is, shall we say, reluctant to help the two reporters, but the African-American librarian’s helpful research spurs the two reporters on their successful trail to uncovering the Watergate story. The two male librarians are both more helpful than the untruthful female librarian in the film.

The Information Provider character type may also simply provide information to the audience, such as helping to establish:

For example, the library scene in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn highlights the diligence and intelligence of little Francie (Peggy Ann Garner), and in Bed of Roses, Lewis Farrell’s (Christian Slater) friendship with the children’s librarian at the local public library reveals his character’s inner sensitivity.

In Philadelphia (see film clip below), Tracey Walter plays a librarian who gives main character, Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a book about HIV discrimination and proceeds to ask if he wants a private room. After Andrew’s refusal, Walter is almost rude in his insistence, demonstrating his (and society’s) discrimination. This brief role helps turn the audience’s sympathy even more toward Andrew, and the movie relies on this sympathy to move the plot forward.

Click to view film clip from 'Philadelphia'

Physically, Information Providers are the most diverse of all the character types, spanning ages, clothing styles, gender and ethnicities.

A librarian from 'All the President's Men'

Librarian in 'The Ultimate Gift'

The Information Providers are also the most identified with occupational tasks, such as shelving, filing, stamping, pushing carts, checking out books, etc. The tasks and props usually included in a reel library setting are most associated in real life with library assistants or technicians. See my post on library education and job duties.

There are so many examples of Information Providers that although they make up the majority of reel librarian roles, they are the least important roles overall of librarians in film, at least according to screen time. Makes sense, then, that they are almost exclusively ensconced in the Class III or Class IV film categories.

For my money, the most informative Information Provider ever onscreen — so far — would have to be Vox from the 2002 remake of The Time Machine. In his time travels, a disillusioned inventor (Guy Pearce) encounters Vox (Orland Jones), a holographic librarian who supplies him with information about time travel and the history and evolution of the planet and its population. Vox is truly informative, but he also embodies the library itself. Hundreds of thousands of years later, Vox IS the library, literally all that remains of the “compendium of all human knowledge.”

Next up in our series, we’ll be peeking in on the Naughty Librarians. Stay tuned! ;)

Oscar-nominated reel librarians

I know where I’ll be this Sunday, Feb. 26… ballot and red pen in one hand, Cherry Coke in the other. That’s right, the Oscars will be on! So don’t call me this Sunday, ‘kay?

If you know me, you know I love the Oscars. It’s a family tradition, librarian-style. My mom and I used to watch the Oscars together every year — no slackers in this family — complete with a side order of Cherry Coke and Swiss cake rolls. We have kept this up, even several time zones apart (even while I lived overseas). And I’m totally down with the tradition of griping about the Oscars… but just like with voting, you gotta participate to be able to complain! You gotta earn it.

Where was I? Oh, yes, waxing rhapsodic about the Oscars. So if you, too, are caught up in Oscar fever, then I’ve compiled a list below of Oscar-nominated reel librarians.

After compiling the list below, I noticed that I included all the films in my “Best Librarian Films by Decade” lists (click here and here).

Sam Jaffe as Doc Erwin Riedenschneider

Nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Richard Burton as Alec Leamas

Nominated for Best Actor in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

Ali MacGraw as Jennifer Cavalleri

Nominated for Best Actress in Love Story (1970)

Javier Bardem as Reinaldo Arenas

Nominated for Best Actor in Before Night Falls (2000)

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