Category Archives: Public librarian

Librarian at first sight

The storyline of At First Sight (1999) is pretty simple:  Blind guy meets girl. Blind guy and girl fall in love. Girl wants blind guy to have an operation to restore his sight. Blind guy has the operation. More dramatic stuff happens.

I watched this film recently because I saw that it was available for free on my OnDemand movie list, and this film has been on my Master List for awhile. I even tried to watch it a few years ago but couldn’t get past the first 20 minutes. This time, I forced myself to watch the entire film. And, of course, I also took the opportunity to Facebook my experience:

Reel Librarians

At First Sight is really bad, y’all, and badly shot. It’s like the director, Irwin Winkler, wanted to make the main actors (Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino) look as haggard and unappealing as possible. And even worse, the end credits revealed that the film is based on a true story! SIGH. Shirl and Barbara Jennings, you deserved better. Much better.

Although that pretty much sums up my feelings about this film, I do have to address the sassy librarian who makes an appearance about 15 minutes into the film. Virgil (Kilmer) and Amy (Sorvino) are on a walk through town, and Virgil is showing off his other sensory gifts while describing the town and its inhabitants to her along the way.

Virgil then hears rumbling car noises:

Virgil:  Here comes Nancy. She’s the librarian. Gets me any book I want in Braille. Hey Nancy!

Nancy:  Hey Virgil. I got that book in for you.

Virgil:  Still haven’t got that old jalopy fixed.

Nancy:  No, if I got it fixed, how would you know that it’s me?

AtFirstSightLibrarianHug

Nancy the librarian in ‘At First Sight’

Virgil then gives Nancy and Amy a quick introduction to each other, but Nancy, with a letter in her hands, is obviously on the move and running errands.

Nancy:  Gotta go. [to Amy] Be careful, honey. He’s all hands.

Virgil:  Be nice.

Nancy:  Yeah. [walks away]

Amy [to Virgil]:  Nice town you have here. Seems you’re very popular with the ladies.

AtFirstSightMeetGreet

Virgil’s friend, Nancy the librarian, greets Amy in ‘At First Sight’

The film credits reveals the librarian’s full name, Nancy Bender, played by Margo Winkler. I enjoyed this reel librarian’s spunk and breath of fresh air, a spot of realism sorely needed in this wishy-washy film. And come to find out, Margo Winkler is the real-life wife of the director, Irwin Winkler! Thank goodness he did right by his wife and the reel librarian character.

Nancy Bender, another Information Provider in a Class IV film, also joins a list of reel librarians who are never seen in their library work environment; instead, their professions are merely referred to. See also Ragtime (1981), That Touch of Mink (1962), This Happy Breed (1944), The Golden Child (1986), The Last Supper (1995), and The Asphalt Jungle (1950), among others.

Also, I couldn’t pass up another opportunity to highlight another Friends reference. This film, At First Sight (1999), is referenced in the Season 7 episode, “The One with Rachel’s Big Kiss,” when Chandler Bing is jealous of Ross and his Batman tux, until he finds:

An invitation to the At First Sight premiere? Oh my God! Val Kilmer didn’t wear this in Batman, he wore this to a premiere of some tutti-fruity love story where he played a blind guy! 

You’re welcome. ;)

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Twisted librarian love

Continuing in our series of scary movies featuring librarians, this week’s feature is Twisted Nerve (1968). SPOILERS AHEAD.

Whistling past horror — although there are some close-ups of bloodied bodies and hatchets along the way — this decidedly odd film tries to sell itself as a psychological drama, with a main argument that homicidal/psychopathic tendencies are passed genetically. It also attempts to relate this issue of “twisted nerves” to Down’s Syndrome — referred to as “Mongolism” in this ’60s film — as the main star/villain of the film, Martin (played by Welsh actor Hywel Bennett, who looks like Zac Efron in a bad wig) has a brother with Down’s Syndrome living in a mental institution. Martin himself reverts to a mentally  handicapped personality, “Georgie,” throughout the film.

This (controversial and offensive) link to Down’s Syndrom is so badly pieced together that the filmmakers were forced to add a prologue during post-production, stating “that there is no established, scientific connection between Mongolism and psychotic, or criminal, behavior.”

You’re probably wondering… what in the world is a librarian doing in this film? Enter Hayley Mills as Susan Harper, a lovely young librarian who, in the space of an ill-timed smile, becomes the obsessive target of Martin, who assumes the persona of “Georgie” around Susan in order to gain her trust. Which isn’t very hard to do, because again and again, Susan is shown to be incredibly gullible, naive, and easily manipulated (even blaming herself in one scene for Georgie’s behavior!). It’s a credit to Hayley Mills’ acting skills that she comes across as warm-hearted and intelligent as she does; otherwise, you would just want to scream at the screen constantly about how dumb her actions are. Which, now that I think about it, totally fits the tradition for those watching horror movies, to scream at the young girl who walks into a dark house without telling anyone where she is.

A little over ten minutes into this Class II film, Martin/Georgie embarks upon his obsession by following Susan one morning to the public library, whilst whistling a creepy tune:

Don’t look behind you!

Susan is a classic Spirited Young Girl character type:  a young, physically attractive, intelligent, and modern girl who is working temporarily at the library. She’s quite open about working for a teaching degree, and she has a conversation later with her mom about school lasting “only one more year.” And along with Ali McGraw in Love Story (1970), she’s one of the best-dressed reel librarians ever! Behold the blonde-haired cuteness:

Our first introduction to Susan in a library setting is a classic one; while looking for a book atop a library ladder, two young lads enjoy the view up her (short) skirt.

It’s interesting to compare how the behavior of these two boys comes off as cheeky, while Martin’s behavior as alter ego Georgie — a young boy’s personality stunted in a man’s body — comes off as creepy. In small moments like this, this movie can be quite clever and intriguing.

Susan enjoys a nice moment of readers’ advisory with the boys:

Susan:  Here we are. How about this? [hand them book ]

Boy #1: The Tower of London? Get off. That’s history, isn’t it?

Susan:  That’s bloodthirsty enough, even for you, Johnny.

Boy #2:  Any girls in it?

Susan:  Well, there’s Lady Jane Grey. She gets the chopper.

Boy #2:  I’d rather have Lady Chatterley.

Susan:  I bet you would. But you take this. You’ll like it. I promise you.

Also during the few library scenes throughout the film, we are introduced to the head librarian, Mr. Groom, who is portrayed as a textbook example of the Anti-Social Male Librarian. Again, so clever to juxtapose this decidedly neurotic reel librarian with the name of “Mr. Groom.” Or maybe they’re hinting he’s horsey? ;)

In this first library scene, Martin/Georgie gets upset at Susan refusing to go to the cinema with him and starts unbuttoning his shirt in distress. While trying to help him button his shirt back up, Susan manages to then upset Mr. Groom, who rushes over with a stack of books, hissing in a loud stage whisper:

Look, I don’t know whether you are dressing or undressing your friend, but I do wish you wouldn’t do it in the public library.

In a later library scene, Martin/Georgie is waiting in the library for Susan after hours. Of course, this rattles Mr. Groom’s cage, who quickly scuttles over to him to point out the library’s been closed for the last 10 minutes. Martin doesn’t waste any Georgie mannerisms on Mr. Groom; rather, he calls him “Ratface” and later yells at the hapless reel librarian to “Get stuffed!”

Poor Mr. Groom, he has no idea what he’s in for

After Martin/Georgie has killed a few people, the drama increases as Susan finally starts putting all the pieces together. But even after figuring everything out and returning to an empty house all by herself (insert shouting at the screen!), she gets trapped in the attic in an effectively tense climax scene. The film ends on a plaintive note, as Martin/Georgie continues to call out for, “Susan, Susan.”

A memorable reel librarian in an otherwise troubled film.

Here’s a clip of the whistling scene (later echoed in Kill Bill: Vol. I), and our first glimpse of the public library:

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Forever my librarian

Oooh, boy. Forever Mine (1999) was rough on my nerves. Here’s the plot off IMDb.com:

An affair between a cabana boy and the young wife of a sinister politician triggers a 16-year vendetta between the two men.

When a one-line plot summary includes the words cabana boy, sinister politician, and 16-year vendetta, you just KNOW it’s going to be bad. And it IS bad. But not awesomely bad. It’s just run-of-the-mill terrible, complete with bad acting, wavering accents, fake-o scar makeup, and the worst of ’70s and ’80s fashions. Joseph Fiennes plays not only the cabana boy, Alan, but also the Cubano boy Manuel Esquema; Gretchen Mol plays the young wife, Ella; and Ray Liotta plays the sinister politician, Mark.

At first, scanning through the credits, listing Catherine Hayos as Librarian, I was thinking the librarian would flash by in a short scene 2/3 through the film. In one respect, I was right — about the timing. That’s about when a library is first mentioned. However, that’s when we find out that Ella — one of the main characters! — has been volunteering at the library. At this point, I had to stop the movie, because (a) it was so terrible, and (b) I had to gear up for paying more attention to Ella and considering the entire movie in her role. Sigh. This is another of those times that I watch bad movies so you don’t have to.

Wow, it’s been 16 years, and I haven’t aged at all. Suspension of disbelief, anyone?

So how do we find out Ella works at the library? Alan/Manuel comes back years later to Ella and Mark’s house — without either of them recognizing him or wondering about the fake-makeup scar running down his face — and their conversation turns to her work. (It’s already been mentioned that she has no children; is her volunteer work considered a substitute?). Here’s a bit of their after-dinner conversation:

Mark:  She has her home, her work.

Alan/Manuel: I didn’t know you worked.

Ella: Well, in a manner of speaking.

Mark: She reads.

Alan/Manuel: Ah!

Ella: I work for the Westchester Library System. It’s volunteer work. Mostly paperwork, and I read for the elderly. It started when Mark was a councilman. I liked it, so I kept doing it.

We also learn that Ella is rereading Madame Bovary (!) to senior citizens, and almost an hour and a half into the film, we are treated (?!) to a scene of this.

What an odd choice, Madame Bovary, but director Paul Schrader is none-too-subtle on the correlation of the novel’s plotline with this movie’s story:

Remembering the ball became an occupation for her. Every Wednesday morning she said to herself as she woke, Ah, a week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I was there! And little by little, the faces became confused in her memory. [...] Some of the details vanished, but her longing remained.

The scene then cuts to an outside shot of a library, with red brick and high arched glass. Inside at the Circulation counter, Ella gathers books and places them on a cart behind the desk (see below).

Another female librarian — no doubt the Librarian listed in the credits and your basic Information Provider — is also there, as well as another unidentified female shelving in the back shelves.

Librarian:  You better hurry if you’re going to the city with  your husband. [grabs a big stack of books]

Ella: Oh, I decided not to. Mark’s all right on his own. Besides, I’ve got to catch up on my paperwork.

Using her volunteer job at the library as cover (!), out of sight of her controlling-yet-clueless husband, Ella uses the library phone to call Manuel/Alan (see right).

You can bet this is NOT going to end well.

And in the end, Ella’s dabbling into librarianship doesn’t mean much to the film, landing it into the Class II category of films. Her (non)occupation is simply a means to an end, in an attempt to demonstrate some kind of depth to her character (too little, too late). Also, the library provides another set piece to the film. But her character’s motivation — she was a bored housewife who dabbled in different charities and classes — actually ends up pretty condescending to real librarians. I think Paul Schrader, also the film’s screenwriter, was trying to provide some kind of arc for Ella, as a woman who finds herself within all the melodrama, so in that sense, she does (marginally) fulfill the Liberated Librarian character type. But it’s all surface, as slight as the rest of this less-than-mediocre film.

If you can bear it, here’s a trailer for Forever Mine:

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Waitress! Librarian! Action!

You know by the exclamation point in the title that this is a classy movie, right?! Oh, how I wish that were true. Actually, that’s not true. I did not enjoy this movie, not even for the camp factor of a raunchy comedy as only the ’80s could make ‘em. Waitress! (aka Soup to Nuts, 1981) is a film by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz of Troma Entertainment, the creators of those craptastic “Toxic Avenger” B-movie series. I remember reading a few years ago how “Toxie” keeps intoxicating Cannes (see what I did there?!). This movie even premiered at Cannes in 1981, with its American release over a year later, in September 1982 (hence the discrepancy in release dates).

My Facebook status documenting my personal reaction to this movie? “I feel violated.”

On that positive note ;) … The plot revolves around different young women working as waitresses, including one woman trying to make it as an actress and another trying to make it as a writer in New York City. Both work at the WORST restaurant ever, which was filmed after hours at an actual restaurant in Manhattan called Marty’s (the worst advertising I can think of, really, as the sign is clearly visible throughout the restaurant scenes). The “comedy” bits include sight gags, vaudeville schtick, slapstick comedy, anything to elicit a laugh… or a groan. There are also tons of cameos and bit parts, including Chris Noth (!) and Anthony John Denison, who plays Lt. Flynn on The Closer TV series.

Almost a half-hour into the film, Jennifer (Carol Bevar), the girl who wants to be a writer, goes to the library to follow the advice of a teen magazine article on how to find guys. The narration illuminates her mission:

Remember, the mature teen goes for a man with a mind not just a body. Do some browsing at the public library. That’s where you’ll find your cosmopolitan intellectual.

She immediately heads on over to the wall o’ card catalogs, and meets a boy with a finger up his nose. (NOT kidding, see below). There’s your typical “cosmopolitan intellectual” at the library, eh? Sigh.

Jennifer starts asking him questions, which irritates the guy — until the light bulb comes on — and he asks if she’s making a pass at him. “I can’t believe it! I’ve never had a lady come up to me before!” Of course, all of this highly excitable babbling occurs right underneath the sign atop the card catalog, with “QUIET” in huge black letters (see above). He’s so loud that the other patrons start shushing him and telling him to be quiet, and we see Jennifer booking it out of there (I am on fire with the puns today!). And you guessed it… here comes the librarian, played by Lola Ross.

Librarian:  Young man , you should be more quiet.

Dorky guy: I know, I’m just very happy. This young lady she just made a pass at me.

Librarian:  What young lady? [puts on huge glasses handing on a lanyard and pokes his shoulder with her pencil]

Dorky guy:  What do you mean what young lady? This young lady. Oh my god, I’ve lost her! Wait!

And turning in panic, the guy runs into a book cart (supplied by the librarian, no doubt), flips over it in spectacular gymnastic fashion, then runs straight into another patron. He scampers off as the librarian puts a hand to her chest. This is obviously the most excitement she’s seen in the library in a long time!

So Jennifer the wannabe writer was NOT successful in finding a cosmopolitan intellectual guy at the library. Sigh.

And Lola Ross, the actress playing the librarian — in stereotypically buttoned-up, lanyard-wearing fashion — looked so similar to the librarian in The Last American Virgin (1982) that I had to look both movies up again. Don’t they look similar at first glance, right down to the extreme winged collars?

 ‘The Last American Virgin’ librarian  ‘Waitress!’ librarian

As the librarian character is used to contrast with the younger woman and to set up the slapstick comedy in this scene, I would argue she best fulfills a combination of the Spinster Librarian and Comic Relief character types. She, her lanyard, and her pencil also join the other librarians in bit part roles over in the Class IV listing of films.

Below are the opening credits, which is pretty much all you EVER need to watch from Waitress! (1981):

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Oh, she may be weary

In 2 Brothers and a Bride (aka A Foreign Affair, 2003), two brothers (Tim Blake Nelson and David Arquette) run a farm. After their mother dies, they travel to Russia in search of a bride to help cook and clean for them. It’s an odd film, and I think the filmmakers were going for quirky. Real-life clients and would-be brides appeared as extras as the film, and scenes were shot during an actual “romance tour” in St. Petersburg, Russia. You can feel the desperation from both the male suitors and the mail-order brides.

And that desperation also comes through in the library scene. In an early scene — just ten minutes into the film — the elder brother, Jake (Nelson), goes to the public library to look at newspaper ads, where he spots the ad for mail-order brides. The plot of the movie hinges on this two-minute library scene.

After spotting the ad, which includes a web site address, Jake looks over his shoulder at the librarian, seen stamping books in the background. This small gesture reveals his nervousness.

He braves the reference desk and asks the librarian (Allyce Beasley as Library Lady) for help.

Jake:  I want to go on the Internet.

Library Lady:  Ok. You may.

[He just stands there, unsure.]

Library Lady:  You need help. Go ahead. You can say it. I really need help. [putting fist to her chest, see below]

Jake:  I need help.

Arghhh, the clutter! This is probably a real working library.

I think they were going for funny here — and it may be funny, I’m probably just too close to it — but the librarian’s actions in this scene seem VERY condescending to me. I said out loud at the screen, “You’re not making us look good here, lady… “

The scene cuts to Jake seated at a computer carrel, with the librarian leaning over his shoulder and giving him directions.

Such a good camera angle to demonstrate how trapped and awkward Jake must be feeling. And this physical set-up — the wooden study carrel adapted for computer use — feels so familiar. I’m sure this was filmed in a real library.

Library Lady:  See, move the arrow like this, then you click, to go to…

[Looks at Jake, he looks back]

Library Lady:  Where? Name of the web site. You got to type it.

Jake [quietly]:  Loveme.com

The librarian’s reaction? She stares straight ahead, her expression hardly changing, and then a little sigh escapes. “There’s a 20-minute time limit. You got 16 left.” She then whispers to him, “I’m watching you, buddy”.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of her facial expression before and after he tells her the web address URL.

She’s on porn alert. You can tell. And he can tell. After he looks around the site a bit, he looks up and finds the librarian standing and stacking books and watching him, a weary expression on her face.

I’m watching you, buddy.

As he is shown preparing for the trip in the next few scenes, he obviously got what he needed at the library. The Library Lady character serves in an Information Provider role in a variety of ways: she provides info to Jake about computers and library use policies, and she provides info to the audience as an example of the obstacles these brothers face, as well as reflecting the social attitude toward mail-order brides.

In many ways, this is a pretty realistic scene. I’ve dealt with this kind of situation in real life, especially back when I started out in public libraries (in 2003, also the year of this film’s release!). I taught computer classes and helped people learn how to use computers and the Internet and what a computer mouse was used for. There was a regular male user who would come in to look at these kinds of “international dating” sites — heck, it might have even been the actual site used in this movie! — who wasn’t very good with computers. So I get it. I get the weariness this librarian must be feeling, with all that stamping and book processing and showing people how to use computers and having to be on the lookout for porn use in public spaces like the library. But the understandable weariness of this reel librarian gets turned into condescension in this film, which isn’t very flattering to our profession. And her look isn’t very flattering, with her drab colors and buttoned-up clothing and I-give-up hairstyle. And she has given up. She’s jaded. That’s what makes this portrayal a little too close for comfort. (Sigh.)

Like I mentioned earlier, real-life clients and would-be brides were used in this film. And “A Foreign Affair,” the original title, gets its name from a real “international dating” site. When we were taking screenshots of the site Jake looks at in the film, I was thinking to myself, “Oooh, this would be a good example to point out these old-school kind of websites.” Then I tried out the URL mentioned in the film, and it’s the SAME site. Same URL, colors, layout, frames, much of the same wording, even the same phone number (see below). After almost a decade. WOW. You don’t see that very often.

The site as shown onscreen in 2003

The site in 2012

What’s odd, though, is that this film — which could be seen basically as a movie-length commercial/testimonial for this obviously thriving business — is NOT mentioned on this site’s Media page. Hmmm…

Yes, this is the kind of stuff librarians look up. For the benefit of mankind. ;)

And in case you’re interested, here’s an interview with David Arquette about the movie, in costume as Josh Adams.

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