News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Shame.
“Firmly planting itself near the top of the memorable performances and films that have been overlooked by the Oscars, Michael Fassbender’s astonishing work in Shame is genuinely something to behold. Stripped bare, both physically and emotionally, he plays Brandon, a man struggling with a sex addiction, whose life gets yet more complex when his sister, played by Carey Mulligan, comes to stay. It’s comfortably one of the least titillating films ever made about sex, and in this case, it’s all the better for it. Directed by Steve McQueen, who also worked with Fassbender on the acclaimed Hunger, Shame is an ambitious, raw drama. As a study of a character in the depths of an addiction, it both breaks a taboo or two, and is unflinching in its portrayal. And while there’s an argument that the film itself isn’t quite the equal of its leading man, Shame is both important and courageous. McQueen, certainly, is a director who very much does things his own way…” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

The skin I live in.
“From acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar comes The Skin I Live In… Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After 12 years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig…” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

The promise.
“Claire Foy (Little Dorrit) and Christian Cooke (Cemetery Junction) lead an international cast, including Itay Tiran (Lebanon), Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor), Ali Sulaiman (Paradise Now) and Perdita Weeks (Lost in Austen), in Peter Kosminsky’s new four-part drama serial. Just as 18-year-old Londoner Erin (Foy) sets off to spend summer in Israel with her best friend, Eliza (Weeks), she unearths an old diary belonging to her seriously ill grandfather, Len (Cooke). Intrigued by the life of this old man she barely knows, she takes the diary with her, and is stunned to learn of his part in the post-WWII British peace-keeping force in what was then Palestine. Left to her own devices when Eliza begins National Service in the Israeli army, Erin witnesses the complexities of life–for both Jews and Arabs–in this troubled land. And as Len’s story comes to life from the pages of the diary, Erin discovers the disturbing truths about his time in Palestine and the atrocities he witnessed in the 1940s. Retracing Len’s steps in modern-day Israel, Erin sets out on a heart-breaking journey in an effort to understand and fulfil a promise made by her grandfather over 60 years ago…” – (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

Albert Nobbs.
“To his customers, fastidious butler Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close, re-creating her 1982 stage role) is a “kind little man” who works in an upscale Dublin hotel at the turn of the century, prioritizing his position above all other concerns. Little do they know that he isn’t really a man and that he dreams of running a tobacco shop. Until then, he’s quietly biding his time when two new workers arrive: Joe (Nowhere Boy’s Aaron Johnson), a strapping handyman, and Hubert (Oscar nominee Janet McTeer), a swaggering housepainter also passing as a man. After Hubert discovers Albert’s secret, they share their stories, and a friendship ensues. Hubert’s marriage to a spirited seamstress inspires Albert to find a spouse of his own, so he sets his sights on flighty housemaid Helen (Jane Eyre’s Mia Wasikowska). With money in short supply, her erstwhile lover, Joe, encourages her to play along, a move that brings out Albert’s tender side while jeopardizing his security….Though Close gives an admirably controlled performance, Albert’s closed-off character makes him more intriguing than sympathetic…” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

3.
“Hanna and Simon, a couple in their early forties, live together in Berlin. With their 20th anniversary looming, they both become restless despite being truly and deeply in love. Unbeknownst to one another, they separately become acquainted with Adam, a younger man, and fall in love with him. Clearly not your typical 1930’s romp, this reinvention of those classic films … is a playful update: an intellectual study of a modern couple looking for redefinition in a world of absolutes…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The trip: the 6-part series.
“Steve Coogan has been commissioned by a Sunday newspaper to review half a dozen restaurants in the North of England. When his food-loving American girlfriend backs out, Steve is faced with a week of meals for one. Reluctantly, he calls Rob Brydon, the only person he can think of who will be available. Heading north in a stylish black Range Rover, the pair begin a journey of bickering jokes and reflection. Across the dinner tables of the North’s best restaurants the neurotic and sardonic Coogan and the genial eager-to-entertain Brydon spar on everything from Coleridge or career insecurities to which of them does the best Michael Caine impression. This two disc set includes the original six part BAFTA winning comedy series as seen on the BBC.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The artist.
“The Artist is a love letter and homage to classic black-and-white silent films. The film is enormously likable and is anchored by a charming performance from Jean Dujardin, as silent movie star George Valentin. In late-1920s Hollywood, as Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he makes an intense connection with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break. As one career declines, another flourishes, and by channeling elements of A Star Is Born and Singing in the Rain, The Artist tells the engaging story with humour, melodrama, romance, and–most importantly–silence. As wonderful as the performances by Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo (Miller) are, the real star of The Artist is cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman. Visually, the film is stunning. Crisp and beautifully contrasted, each frame is so wonderfully constructed that this sweet and unique little movie is transformed from entertaining fluff to a profound cinematic achievement…” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

My week with Marilyn.
“In My Week with Marilyn Williams takes on the formidable challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe, and does so with depth and assuredness, and without resorting to caricature. Williams’s Marilyn commands the screen with pain and delicacy, and doesn’t let go until the final credits. My Week with Marilyn focuses on a small time frame in Monroe’s life, right after her marriage to Arthur Miller. Monroe, already “the world’s most famous woman,” still feels the need for validation as an actress. What better way to achieve that, she believes, than committing to co-starring with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film she firmly believed would finally cement her reputation as a serious actress. My Week with Marilyn is based on the short memoir of Colin Clark, a crew member on The Prince and the Showgirl, who quickly became the confidant of the wildly insecure Monroe and watched a train wreck of egos–mostly Olivier’s and Monroe’s–collide in a fiery near-disaster…But it’s Williams who gives the revelatory performance, capturing with painful intensity the insecurity that begins to seep out of Monroe like a fearful sweat…My Week with Marilyn doesn’t attempt to answer the unanswerable, but instead shines a light on the very real woman who became lost in the giant shadow of legend…” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

The boy in the song : the real stories behind 50 classic pop songs / Michael Heatley & Frank Hopkinson.
“The Boy in the Song is a follow up to 2010’s The Girl in the Song. It features the real-life stories that inspired some classic pop songs about the male of the species. While the first book was filled with songs about unrequited love, the follow-up is more varied, with songs written from a number of emotions. There are songs motivated by love and hate, there are tributes and there are biographical tales. Each song is featured on two, four or six pages with a small biography of the artist along with the story of how and why the song was written, and, most intriguingly, what happened after the song became a hit.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Holler if you hear me : searching for Tupac Shakur / Michael Eric Dyson.
“Tupac Shakur enjoys a lively posthumous career that threatens to eclipse what he did before death, and it is only appropriate that so-called hip-hop intellectual Dyson should plumb the depths of Shakur’s cultural significance and how it relates to young blacks today. A hip-hop giant, actor, and poet, Shakur was as legitimate a spokesman for his people as any pop star ever is.” – (adapted from Booklist summary)

The big gig : big-picture thinking for success / by Zoro ; with Amy Hammond Hagberg.
“The Big Gig is much more than just an intriguing and comprehensive insider’s guide to breaking into the music industry as an independent musician. Compelling and thought-provoking, it is an excellent resource for leadership training, networking techniques, and personal development. The Big Gig is the first book that describes the inner workings of the highly competitive music industry as seen through the eyes of a world-renowned and highly successful musician. The Big Gig provides a template for success by covering the vocational, personal, and spiritual aspects of a musician’s life.” – (adapted Amazon.com summary)

An American demon : a memoir / by Jack Grisham.An American Demon: A Memoir
“In this disturbingly profane yet strangely mesmerizing memoir, punk musician and political activist Grisham describes a troubled childhood and adolescence on the streets of Long Beach, California. Curiously, Grisham refers to himself as a demon, thereby intentionally distancing himself and perhaps readers, too, from the rest of humanity. Readers interested in punk music will be fascinated by Grisham’s tale, but be forewarned, it is not for the faint-hearted.” – (adapted from Booklist summary)

Who is that man? : in search of the real Bob Dylan / David Dalton.
“Dalton (Living with the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead) is the latest in a series of eminent rock critics (Robert Shelton, Paul Williams, Clinton Heylin, Michael Gray, Greil Marcus, et al.) to take on the enigmatic Bob Dylan. Dalton’s book is a blend of biography and music appreciation. He deftly traces the familiar contours of Dylan’s career and his many shape-shifting personas. The liveliest portion of the book deals with the creative and audacious peak of Dylan’s career in the mid-1960s. Dalton’s insights will be of interest to both die-hard fans and anyone who wants a good introduction to Dylan’s life and art.” – (adapted from Library Journal summary)

Now that’s what I call music 38.

String quartets / by Dmitri Shostakovich and his contemporaries (volume 1) and String quartets / by Dmitri Shostakovich and his contemporaries (volume 2)
“[T]he Pacifica Quartet is one of the best chamber ensembles out there…even so, there’s no dearth of fine Shostakovich cycles, from the Borodin Quartet to the Emerson. These performances, every bit as fine as those, would be excellent by themselves, but they do risk getting lost in the discographic shuffle. So it was an inspired idea to pair them in this series with other important works in the same medium by Shostakovich’s contemporaries…. A great start to a very promising series.” – (adapted from ClassicsToday.comreview)

Apparent distance / Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet
“A truly transcendent recording, “Apparent Distance is a four-part suite, commissioned through a 2010 New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. In the liner notes, Bynum writes My goal is not just to blur the lines between composition and improvisation (a long-time pursuit), but to try to upend the listeners expectations in other ways: circular melodies without beginnings or ends, disguised unisons and non-repetitive vamps, transitions that are simultaneously jarring and organic. Most importantly, I want to spotlight the striking individuality and virtuosity of all the players, albeit in a context where the needs of the ensemble reign supreme a concerto for sextet, if you will. Since the composition s premiere in August 2010, the sextet has performed the work on tour and at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival (Austria), the Banlieues Bleues Festival (France), and the Crosscurrents Festival (New York). Jim Macnie of the Village Voice writes ‘Whether they’re lines that swirl upward, chasing their own tail, or lines that spill downward, like a Slinky on a staircase, the elemental motifs of the cornetist/composer’s pieces are full of springy kinetics. But they re more than mere nu-jazz puzzles. Bynum wrings emotion from his crew. His use of texture and trajectory has to do with his appreciation of passion.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune : Serving the Emperor, 1788-1791
“At the end of 1787, Mozart reported to his sister, Nannerl, that Emperor Joseph II of Austria had appointed him as Imperial-Royal Chamber Composer. As distinguished music historian Wolff points out in this elegant study of the last four years of Mozart’s life, this new appointment provided the great musician with a regular salary and very few obligations. In spite of the great economic and political instability in the empire, Mozart proved to be astonishingly productive. Narrating Mozart’s life and recreating the cultural atmosphere of these years, Wolff focuses on Mozart’s tremendous accomplishments during this time and not on those of his autumnal years, as so many biographers have done. Mozart’s major musical pieces from 1788 to 1791 include the Vienna production of Don Giovanni, with some newly composed material (1788), and the writing and premier of three new operas: CosI fan tutte (1790), La clemenza di Tito (1791), and Die Zauberflote (1791). Wolff demonstrates that Mozart’s tremendous influence on the history of music grows out of this period primarily because of Mozart’s ability to harness an extraordinary diversity of motives, rhythmic textures, and harmonic ideas into a focused, organic whole. Far from a time of resignation and hopelessness, Wolff argues, these years were a new beginning for Mozart, and the music of The Magic Flute and the Requiem represent a point of departure for genuinely new horizons.” – (adapted from Publisher Weekly summary)

Diary of a mad fat girl.
If you’re a fan of Janet Evanovich, you’re going to love getting to know Gracelia “Ace” Jones. Ace is a feisty, sassy Southern lady, a Stephanie Plum-type character who, along with best friends Chloe and Linda, wrecks delicious havoc righting the wrongs in small-town Bugtussle. At the end of all the high jinks – some sleuthing. a little breaking and entering, a spot of dressing up as drag queens – the sisterhood expose the lies, the double-standards and dodgy goings-on in Bugtussle, Lots of fun – let’s hope we hear more of Ace and her friends in the future!

Arcadia / Lauren Groff.
What happens when the ideal of the rural hippy life, full of warm, hard-working people with similar ideals and living off the land, fails to fulfil its promise? Bill Stone is a little boy, being lovingly raised by Adam and Hannah in Arcadia, a commune in the western reaches of New York State. But ideals are hard to live up to, and nothing lasts forever. As the 1960s progress, Arcadia becomes a magnet for people seeking the hippy experience, inevitably bringing the drugs, political debates and influences of the counter-culture movement that eventually destroy the dream. Core members leave – but adapting to the real world is harder for some than for others. Bill himself must find his place in this changed world. Lovely writing, apparently, and highly recommended by reviewers.