Films
August 27th 2015
..for Thursday, August 27.
Books by John Milton are burned in London by the common hangman for his attacks on King Charles II. Related reading at Somerville Public Library: Royal Survivor: A Life of Charles II by Stephen Coote. Or if you're in the mood for reading a really long poem, try Paradise Lost. I've always thought the list of fallen angels at the end of Book 1 would be a great source for cat names: Belial, Moloch, Leviathan....
The first Tarzan book, Tarzan of the Apes, was published... Read Post
July 16th 2015
Join us at the Somerville Public Library this Friday for a 30th anniversary screening of an eighties classic, the time travel movie Back to the Future, starring Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox. Back to the Future, which the New York Times called "sweet and ingenious," soon drew a cult following, and inspired two sequels, a theme park ride, an animated series, and a forthcoming musical.
Time travel is a theme of perennial fascination to both movie directors and audiences. The result has... Read Post
June 22nd 2015
The screening of "A Jihad for Love," a documentary about LGBT Muslims, planned for June 26 at SCATV, has been cancelled.
May 21st 2015
SPL is partnering with SCATV, the Massachusetts Cultural Council,f and The Growing Center to host a summer movie series!
The summer cinematic fun begins July 1 with the classic comedy horror rock musical (I love it that I have an occasion to use those five words sequentially) Little Shop of Horrors. Details below:
January 30th 2015
Reading the published diary of someone who died early can be a poignant experience. You can only speculate on what they might have become had they lived. Sometimes all you can think is, "The world lost this person too soon."
Petr Ginz (1928-1944) was a child of extraordinary energy and gifts: between the ages of 8 and 14 he wrote five novels. He was also an accomplished painter (for a child) and a fluent speaker of Esperanto with an insatiable curiosity about science. Given his privileged... Read Post
June 11th 2014
Are you an avid reader and a movie buff? Do you watch film adaptions of books you've read and make mental notes about plot changes and casting choices? Perhaps you should join the library's Books into Movies discussion group.
It meets the third Monday of every month at the Central Library, 7:30 to 8:30. On June 16 the group will discuss Jim Thompson's The Grifters and the film of the same name starring John Cusack and Anjelic Huston, as well as the Robert Redford/Paul Newman film The Sting,... Read Post
February 20th 2014
As part of our ALA/NEH sponsored series Muslim Journeys we are pleased to host a screening of the documentary Dear Bawa Muhaiyaddeen by filmmakers Kythe Heller and Peter McMurray. This event will take place on Thursday, February 27th at 7:00 p.m. at the Central Library.
How can one film something that cannot be seen? Unlike traditional documentaries, which typically view religious experience as a metaphor for something else--whether socially or psychologically construed--this experimental... Read Post
January 28th 2014
A great artist and a great American left us today. Pete Seeger, America's most beloved folk singer, and the father of today's vibrant folk music scene, died today in New York City. He was 94. He left his stamp on American music with songs such as "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." "Hammer" will forever be associated with resistance to Joseph McCarthy's witchhunts, and "Flowers" was the anthem of the anti-Vietnam war movement. For Seeger, there... Read Post
November 22nd 2013
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 still haunts our collective imagination, and rightly so. It was the moment when the entire nation was forced to confront the violence endemic to American life, when people sitting in their own homes watched murder happen. Stephen King's novel 11/22/63 was one of the popular books of 2011. Twenty-five years after nomination for the National Book Award, Don DeLillo's Libra still provokes reflection.
References both serious and... Read Post
September 20th 2013
The 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the greatest art theft of all time. In less than an hour and a half two intruders impersonating policemen got into the museum after hours and made off with $500 million worth of art, including three Rembrandts--and yet left far more valuable works hanging on the walls . A quarter century later the crime is still unsolved. Theories abound: suspects have included Myles Connor, longtime art thief and musician who played with Roy Orbison... Read Post
July 9th 2013
Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, July 10, at 7 p.m. for a screening of the documentary Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World. This is the second event in our NEH/ALA sponsored series Muslim Journeys. Narrated by Susan Sarandon, the film takes viewers on a tour of 9 countries and almost 1,500 years, covering works ranging from household objects such as carved boxes to towering buildings such as the Taj Mahal. The film also examines the common artistic lineages of East and West and the unique... Read Post
April 23rd 2013
I didn't submit my suggestions in time to be included in the last post but I'll throw a few out there now. I recently saw Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery [1993], which was a lot of fun. Woody re-teams with his erstwhile muse Diane Keaton, and the inspired addition of Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston makes the whole thing even better. Carol and Ted (Keaton and Alda) are sure that their elderly acquaintance Paul (Jerry Adler) has committed the perfect murder. Hard-boiled author Marcia Fox... Read Post
March 16th 2013
Last year I wrote about Irish books for St. Patrick's Day. This year, it's Irish movies. The country's contributions to film are much less well-known than its literary achievements, but almost as noteworthy. I consider films to be "Irish" if they meet at least two of three criteria: an Irish cast, an Irish director or screenwriter, based on an Irish literary work or on Irish historical events.
Neil Jordan is best known for his 1992 shocker The Crying Game. I however am forever grateful... Read Post
November 1st 2012
Join us for a three-part film series showcasing the use of classical music in war movies. The series kicks off at the Central Library this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. with Gallipoli. Live musical accompaniment for some scenes will be provided by members of the Cambridge Symphony Chamber Players for all three films.
1981; Starring Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins, Charles Yunipingli, & Ron Graham; Rated PG; 1 hour 52 minutes
Amazon.com says, "An outstanding drama, Gallipoli... Read Post
June 19th 2012
If you were in the Boston area in the 70s or 80s, chances are you had a least a passing acquaintance with Channel 56's Creature Double Feature. That beloved old series is the inspiration for our latest Community Curated film series, Saturday Morning Creature Show: Selections from WLVI's Creature Double Feature. The series kicks off at the Central Library this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. with Destroy All Monsters.
1968; Starring Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Manda, King Ghidora, and more!;... Read Post
1968; Starring Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Manda, King Ghidora, and more!;... Read Post