Friends of Axe Library Wins Internationalization Grant

The International Academic Affairs Committee has awarded an internationalization grant to the Friends of the Leonard H. Axe Library. The purpose of the grant is to purchase films in French, Spanish and other languages to support instruction as well as to provide opportunities to study international films and the cultural differences (and surprising similarities) exhibited in them.

The film list was put together with the help of Dr. Miriam Krepps, Dr. Bert Patrick, Dr. Steven Harmon and other faculty. There are older classics such as the venerable adventure film La Salaire de la Peur (The Wages of Fear), or Simon del Desierto (Simon of the Desert) , one of the famous Luis Buñuel’s Mexican films. There are history based dramas such as Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre), about a notorious case of fraud in Renaissance France, or Vatel (the only English film) about the famed 17th century French chef, butler and Master of Festivities, François Vatel. Some films are dramatizations of renowned classics, such as El Sur and Emma Zunz, both based on stories by Jorge Luis Borges. The recent Mexican Renaissance in film is represented with modern classics such as Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), a romantic adventure/comedy about the surreal culinary creations of a lovelorn cook, or Solo Con Tu Pareja (Only With Your Partner) an inspired comedy by the famous Cuarón brothers. There is an African documentary, Afrique, Je te Plumerai (Africa, I Will Fleece You), an indictment of the devastations of colonialism in Cameroon. We have some of the films and are catalogingthem. So, the rest should be up on display and ready for viewing very shortly. A complete list of all other films purchased follows.


French

8 Femmes – Eight women snowbound in a house with the corpse of a man each one of them had a reason to kill.

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme- Moliere’s classic about the foibles of a “nouveau riche”.

Camille Claudel – Brilliant career and sad life of French sculptor.

Chocolat – In French and English. A French chocolatier prepares concoctions which inspire the passions of the villagers of a conservative French town.

Cyrano de Bergerac - Rostand’s great play brought to the screen.

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain – Young girl uses bizarre, quasi magical techniques to improve the lives of her friends and family.

The Gerard Depardieu Collection:
Tous Les Matins du Monde / The Count of Monte Cristo / Changing Times - Three classics starring Dépardieu.

Horseman on the roof – Italian revolutionary finds himself in France during the 1832 cholera epidemic.

Inch' Allah dimanche – Algerian immigrants try to adjust to life in France.

Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring - Greedy farmer robs a family of its water rights. Original film and sequel sold together.
Karmen Gei,– Story of Carmen, in an African setting. In French and Wolof.

Keita: the Heritage of the Griot, - 13th century African Sundjata Epic brought to the screen. In French and Jula.

Marius et Jeanette – Two unlikely lovers hit it off in a romantic comedy.

Molière – Film based on the life and plays of Moliére.

Monsieur Klein – Art dealer named Klein in the Vichy region of France gets confused with a Jew with the same name.

My Father’s Glory – Son’s relationship with his school teacher father.

My Mother’s Castle - Companion piece, and sequel, to above film.

Queen Margot – Marguerite de Valois, 1st wife of Henri IV, faces political intrigues at the 16th century French court.

Ressources Humaines – Young business student gets an internship at the factory where his father works.

Ridicule – Courtiers play cruel word games at the doomed court of Louis 16th.

Le Samourai – Lonely hit man performs his last hit.

La Vie en Rose – Biopic on life and career of singer Edith Piaf.



Spanish

Bad Education – Two boys in a parochial school fall in love, only to be thwarted by a pedophile priest.

Cabeza de Vaca – Mexican film about the adventures of the famous explorer.

Camila – Classic Argentine film about a priest and his lover in 1847 Argentina.

Cronos – Mysterious object found in a pawnshop grants immortality…and a thirst for blood.

The Devil’s Backbone – Orphans survive the Spanish Civil War with the help of kindly ghosts in 1939 Spain.

I, the Worst of All – Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz battles the Inquisition in 17th entury Mexico.

The Motorcycle Diaries - Che Guevara explores South America on a beat up motorcycle.

The Orphanage – Child is kidnapped under very mysterious circumstances.

The Other Conquest - Hernan Cortes conquers Mexico.

The Sea Inside- True story of Ramón Sampedro, a quadriplegic who wished to end his life after a diving accident.

Viridiana – Confused Catholic novice opens her family home to paupers with disastrous results.

What Have I Done to Deserve This? – Neurotic housewife and her troubled family.





International films in other languages:

African

Guimba the Tyrant – Evil African tyrant overthrown by his own people. In Bambara and Peul.


Danish & French

Babette’s Feast - Two aging preacher’s daughters sacrifice their chance at love and marriage to care for others.


Italian Opera

The La Scala Opera Collection:
Adriana Lecouvreur, Lucia di Lammermoor, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Lo Frate 'Nnamorato, La Fanciulla del West, La Donna del Lago, William Tell, Attila, I Due Foscari, I Vespri Siciliani


Polyglot

Babel- Shooting in Morocco has repercussions in Japan, Mexico and the United States.


Portuguese

City of God – Gangs erupt in a Brazilian favela.

Friends of Axe Continues to Enhance DVD Collection

Friends of the Leonard H. Axe Library, at its last Board Meeting, continued to pursue its ambition of enhancement of the DVD collection of Axe Library. All films check out for three weeks with three renewals. Here is the latest list of classic films which the Friends hope that University and community patrons will enjoy:

Abstract Art 1999- Artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Jason Martin, and Fiona Rae are profiled in this brief overview. Includes footage of artists at work along with a wide selection of paintings and sculpture.

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman 1974 - Story of a black woman in the South who was born into slavery in the 1850s and lives to become a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

The Battle of Algiers (Italian: La battaglia di Algeri) 1966 - Classic film by Gillo Pontecorvo based on events during the 1954-1962 Algerian War against French rule.

Beckett 1964 – Famous film adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play . Henry II appoints his best friend Thomas Beckett to be Archbishop of Canterbury, thinking he’ll rubber stamp all royal policies. But The new job transforms Thomas into a faithful and honorable prince of the church who’s not afraid to face down the king.

Ben-Hur 1959 – Charlton Heston’s famous film about a Jewish prince who is betrayed and sold into slavery by a Roman friend. By his strength and intelligence, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.

El Cid 1961 – Charlton Heston rides again in this epic/biopic of the career and trials of El Cid
Campeador, a Castilian nobleman, military leader, diplomat, and conqueror of the city of Valencia.

Civilisation 1969 --Kenneth Clark’s groundbreaking television series about Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages.

Death of a Salesman 1966- Broadway Theatre Archive – Lee J. Cobb’s riveting performance as Willy Loman, a travelling salesman struggling to make a living as he slides into old age and madness.

Lord of the Flies (Criterion Collection) -
Classic 1963 adaptation of William Golding's novel. A planeload of schoolboys is stranded on a tropical island where they try to set up a Western style democracy, but promptly descend into barbarism and brutality.

Godspell 1973- The film adaptation of the Off-Broadway musical Godspell. Jesus sings and dances his parables in modern New York City,

Great Stars of Opera - Telecasts from the Bell Telephone Hour 1959-1966 – Groundbreaking TV series from the fifties and sixties. Joan Sutherland sings the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor, George London sings from Boris Godunov and Leontyne Price sings from Aida and Il Trovatore.



Inherit the Wind 1960 – Spencer Tracy faces down Frederick March in a Tennessee courtroom in this film adaptation of the notorious Scopes trial of 1925.

Jesus Christ Superstar (Special ed.) 1973 – The great Andrew Lloyd Webber ‘s take on the Crucifixion, brought to the screen.

A Man for All Seasons 1966 – Paul Scofield stars as Thomas More in director Fred Zimmerman’s film adaptation of Robert Bolt’s play.

Les Miserables, directed by Glenn Jordan (in English) 1978 - Richard Jordan is escaped convict Jean Valjean and Anthony Perkins relentless pursuer Inspector Javert in this film version of Victor Hugo's novel.

Monteverdi - L'Orfeo, L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Boxset) 2007,
directed by Jean Pierre Ponnelle – Complete surviving operas of Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi, 1567-1643, brilliant Renaissance/Baroque composer and father of opera as we know it.

Le Nozze de Figaro 1976 - directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. The vocal talents of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Maria Ewing, Mirella Freni, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Hermann Prey as Figaro enhance this production made especially for television.

Rules of the Game 1939 -Directed by Jean Renoir, Criterion Collection – Jean Renoir’s 1939 classic about a group of sexually entangled French couples who meet at a country estate for the weekend, with devastating consequences.

Simon Schama’s Power of Art 2007- Scholar and writer Simon Schama profiles Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, Picasso’s Guernica, Caravaggio’s David with the head of Goliath, Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Rembrandt’s The Conspiracy of the Batavian, David’s The Death of Marat, Turner’s Slave Ship…and Rothko’s Seagram Murals in order to pinpoint the “creative Moment” which made these works so great.

In 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, the Gestapo visited Pablo Picasso's Left Bank flat, where a member of the secret police spied a postcard of the artist's most famous work, Guernica. The giant mural memorialized Germany's 1937 aerial obliteration of a small Basque village. "Was it you who did this?" the Nazi demanded of Picasso, to which he replied, "No. It was you."

Zulu – 1964 Historical film depicting extraordinary valor of outnumbered remnant of British forces who were pinned down at the missionary station of Rorke’s Drift in Natal, South Africa during the Zulu Wars. Stanley Baker and Michael Caine star.


Upcoming events for Friends of Axe: Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture, October 9, 2008, 7PM: Shelby Horn lectures on the cultural journal founded by Gene, The Little Balkans Review.