Berg Fashion Library

Winner of the 2011 Dartmouth Medal, the 2011 Frankfurt Book Fair Digital Award and the 2011 Bookseller FutureBook Award for Best Website, the Berg Fashion Library is the only resource to provide integrated text and image content on world dress and fashion throughout history. Invaluable for scholars, students, professionals, and anyone interested in dress, it includes the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, an extensive e-book collection, an image bank and more

ARTbibliographies Modern

ARTbibliographies Modern indexes journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, and dissertations on all forms of modern and contemporary art dating back to the 1960s through the present day. Topical coverage is wide-ranging and includes performance and theatre arts as well as film and art production.

Click here.

Ball of Fire

Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, this wonderful screwball comedy also features an outstanding supporting cast which includes some of the best character actors in Hollywood at the time. The screenplay was written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett and is based on an original story by Wilder and Thomas Monroe.

When Professor Potts hits the streets to get the angle on some real slang, an unlikely romance takes shape --once Sugarpuss O'Shea gets into the act. The film has a lot of boogie, a good dose of yum-yum, and a little bit of corn!

Also featuring a dynamite performance by Gene Krupa and his orchestra. Miss Stanwyck's costumes were designed by the legendary Edith Head and the photography was by Gregg Toland, one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood.

Remembering Sidney Lumet

A scene from TWELVE ANGRY MEN.

It's the Same Knife!
Twelve Angry Menat MOVIECLIPS.com

Filmakers Library Online

Filmakers Library Online – Filmakers Library Online provides award-winning documentaries in the areas of race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, political science, current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. This database is being offered on a trial basis until May 15.

Access is currently limited to on-campus.

Please send comments to nef4@columbia.edu.

Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride

The second film in this tribute to Elizabeth Taylor is Father of the Bride. This 1950 film, directed by Vincente Minelli, stars Elizabeth Taylor as the lovely Kay on the eve of her wedding. Spencer Tracy plays her father, Stanley Banks, a suburban lawyer, who looks back to the day three months earlier when he learned that Kay became engaged to Buckley Dunstan, played by Don Taylor. Joan Bennett is the lovely Ellie Banks, mother of the bride. The wedding reception is one Stanley will never forget. With both joy and heartache, Stanley and Ellie wish Kay off to her honeymoon.

Taylor is touchingly sweet in this role and we clearly understand the depth of affection between "Pops" and Kay. Also starring Billie Burke. The film's release coincided with the wedding of Taylor to Nicky Hilton. Costumes (and Taylor's real-life wedding gown) were designed by Helen Rose.

Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO)

Now covering 15 major subjects, OBO offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics. The latest additions focus on Victorian Literature, International Relations, Communication, and Public Health. Coverage for each subject area is extensive -- and the articles are regularly updated by their authors. OBO is an excellent resource for online research.

Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor

For the next several weeks, I will be highlighting films starring Elizabeth Taylor -- in what I consider some of her best performances as an actress.

The first film is Who's Afraid of Virigina Woolf?

Based on the play by Edward Albee, the film featured Elizabeth Taylor opposite Richard Burton as the battling and drunken duo, Martha and George. Taylor played a character considerably older than her 32 years and successfully managed the haggard look with weight gain, makeup and unglamorous costumes. Under the masterful direction of Mike Nichols (in his directorial debut), Taylor gives a searing performance. There is never a dull moment as this dark story plays out over the course of an evening. Often funny, the film is an emotional roller-coaster also featuring excellent performances from Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis (her film debut). The film received five Oscars including a Best Actress award for Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor Dead at 79

The end of an era.

Read the New York Times obituary.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My film pick for St. Patrick's Day, check out The Last Hurrah directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy as Frank Skeffington, the Irish-American mayor of a New England city. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, Frank Skeffington is based on James Michael Curley, the multi-term Mayor of Boston serving in the early -mid 20th century. A changing world and the changing nature of "big-city" politics eventually leads to Skeffington's decline. Masterful acting from Tracy and an a-list supporting cast including Pat O'Brien, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, and John Carradine.