Movies at the Library welcomes spring
Movies at the Library is celebrating its ninth year with a spring collection that lives up to the series motto, “great movies, known and unknown.”
The series will open on Tuesday, April 2 at 7 p.m. with one of the latter, a little-known American film from the mistress of comedy, Elaine May. She wrote, directed and starred in “A New Leaf” about a hapless botanist who is relentlessly courted by Walter Matthau. Matthau has financial difficulties that he plans to remedy by securing a wealthy wife. George Rose plays his patient valet. Also in the cast are two of Hollywood’s best supporting comedians, Jack Weston and James Coco.
The selection for April 16 is completely different. It is Leni Reifenstahl’s masterwork, “Triumph of the Will,” commissioned by Adolf Hitler to be a grand celebratory record of the sixth Nazi Party Congress held in September 1934 at Nuremberg. The result is an awesome spectacle on an epic scale, considered the most powerful propaganda film ever made.
It is extraordinary filmmaking, utilizing ingenious camera angles, striking composition and relentless pace. It is a chilling testament to the power of film.
We now know Ang Lee as the immensely talented director of an astonishing variety of films. Contrast his current “Life of Pi,” which won him the Best Director Oscar at the recent Academy Awards, with “Brokeback Mountain” or “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” with “Sense and Sensibility.” It was “Eat Drink Man Woman” in 1994 that influenced Emma Thompson to ask him to direct her version of the Austen book. Who else would have known that the sensibility of Austen and the Chinese family in Ang’s film would be so compatible? She was right, and that put Lee center stage among directors and brought new attention to “Eat Drink Man Woman,” which will be shown on April 30.
One of America’s under-appreciated directors is Sidney Pollack. His 1969 “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” about the grueling dance marathons of the Great Depression will be seen on May 14. Based on a novel by Horace McCoy, the marathon dance becomes a microcosm of life with subplots and characters’ lives intertwining.
Jane Fonda heads a stellar cast that includes Susannah York, Red Buttons, Bruce Dern, Bonnie Bedelia and another under-appreciated Hollywood name, Gig Young. Young won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the oily contest promoter. It is an engrossing drama.
For May 28, the day after the Memorial Day observance, the wonderful British film “Hope and Glory,” set in World War II, will be shown. It is another family story told through the eyes of a young boy. We see bombed-out buildings and streets filled with rubble; he sees a new playground. Based on his own boyhood, John Borman wrote and directed this 1987 movie with a cast headed by Sarah Miles and Ian Bannen. It is funny and moving, a cinematic delight.
Lastly, on June 11, the series will celebrate baseball. Based on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that came into being during World War II when the men were at war, “A League of Their Own” is brilliantly directed by actress Penny Marshall. Tom Hanks stars as the unwilling manager of the all-female team with a performance that is both touching and hilarious. He is joined by Geena Davis and Madonna in a thoroughly entertaining film about a neglected chapter in sports history. The film will lead us into summer and the library movies hiatus.
