Saturday, February 19, 2011

Six Degrees of an Oscar Nominated Film!





















Nominated for Best Picture, The Fighter was directed by David O. Russell (Best Director nominee). This bio-pic tells the story of professional boxer Micky Ward and the tumultuous relationship with his half-brother, Dicky Eklund. Love overcomes all kinds of struggles in this story with superb performances by Christian Bale (Best Supporting Actor nominee), Mark Wahlberg (sadly overlooked), Melissa Leo who gives an outstanding performance as the mother (Best Supporting Actress nominee), and Amy Adams (Best Supporting Actress nominee).


Six Degrees brings us to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (d. Ang Lee).


Butler Media
DVD1169






Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Proximity Operators for Full-Text Searching

Sarah Witte, Reference and Women's Studies Librarian, posted to the Butler Library Blog an essential resource for proximity searching in full-text databases. Created by Bob Scott, DHC Head, the list is an aid to understanding the different choices in syntax depending on the database provider. It is frustrating that this is not more uniform, but well worth the effort.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!


Happy Valentine's Day!


My recommendation, an unexpected love story -- The Awful Truth. The film was directed by Leo McCarey, the screenplay based on the play of the same name and written by Arthur Richman. The featured actors include Irene Dunne, who was nominated for Best Actress, and a fabulous Cary Grant. The real treat, Skippy! A true scene stealer, Skippy, as Mr. Smith, the dog in the forefront of a custody battle, displayed both great range of emotion and outstanding comedic talent. You may recognize Skippy as Asta (credited as) in M-G-M's The Thin Man series and Bringing Up Baby.

I suggest a new Oscar category -- Best Featured Dog or Cat! Skippy aka Asta -- deserves the Academy Award for Best Featured Doggy!

McCarey won an Academy Award for direction. Also starring, Ralph Bellamy. In the same year, McCarey also directed the brilliant and heart wrenching film, Make Way For Tomorrow.

The Awful Truth
Butler Media
DVD4501


Six Degrees of an Oscar Nominated Film!



Written and directed by the Coen brothers, True Grit (2010) is nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Picture. Its wide appeal has made this the highest grossing film for the Coen brothers. It is the second adaptation of the Charles Portis' novel, the first adaptation produced in 1969 starred John Wayne.


The trail of six degrees begins with Jeff Bridges and ends with Being John Malkovich -- the featured DVD of the week!

Being John Malkovich
Butler Media
DVD1182

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Six Degrees of an Oscar Nominated Film!



Nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, The Social Network, chronicles the contentious events that led to the founding of Facebook. If you follow the first degree to Aaron Sorkin, nominated for his screenplay, you will eventually get to Kinsey!


Kinsey
DVD3548