News from the Boston Becks

We will be seeing these people (V's mom and grandparents)

At best, I hope to get the Best Picture 1971 sometime in the next week, but that will be the only film / literature post in the next week.  We are off to Wisconsin before the crack of dawn in order to be there before midnight.  We’ll be back on Sunday.  Hopefully.

and this person (V's sister), though she will probably not feed any giraffes while we are there.

and this person (V's dad)

one of Malcolm McDowell's calmer moments in A Clockwork Orange (1971)

My Top 20:

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. The French Connection
3. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
4. The Last Picture Show
5. Sunday Bloody Sunday
6. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
7. Harold and Maude
8. The Hospital
9. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
10. Walkabout
11. Klute
12. Macbeth
13. Straw Dogs
    
14. Carnal Knowledge
15. The Policeman
16. Dodes Ka-Den
17. Play Misty for Me
18. They Might Be Giants
19. Bananas
20. Le Boucher (more…)

the original Modern Library dust jacket for The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon

• Author:  Dashiell Hammett  (1894  -  1961)
• Rank:  #59
• Published:  1930
• Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf
• Pages:  217  (Vintage paperback)
• First Line:  “Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth.”
• Last Lines:  “Spade, looking down at his desk, nodded almost imperceptibly.  ‘Yes,’ he said, and shivered.  ‘Well, send her in.’ “
• ML Edition:  #45  (two dust jackets  -  1934, 1942)
• Acclaim:  Modern Library Top 100 English Language Novels of the 20th Century  -  #56
• Film:  1931 (**  -  dir. Roy Del Ruth), 1936 (**  -  as Satan Met a Lady, dir. William Dieterle), 1941  (****  -  #2 film of the year, #24 all-time, dir. John Huston)
• First Read:  Spring, 1994 (more…)

George C. Scott as General George Patton - an Oscar that caused the Academy quite a bit of grief

The 43d annual Academy Awards for the film year 1970.  The nominations were announced on February 22, 1971 and the awards were held on April 15, 1971.

Best Picture:  Patton

• M*A*S*H
• Five Easy Pieces
• Airport
• Love Story

Most Surprising Omission:  Women in Love

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Twelve Chairs

Rank (out of 82) Among Best Picture Years:  #70 (more…)

the three demented stars of M*A*S*H: Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt and Donald Sutherland

My Top 20:

1. M*A*S*H
2. Five Easy Pieces
3. Patton
4. Women in Love
5. The Twelve Chairs
6. Mississippi Mermaid
7. Lovers and Other Strangers
8. Floating Weeds
9. The Passion of Anna
10. The Milky Way
11. The Human Condition Part III
12. The Joke
13. Big Dig
14. The Aristocats
15. The Ballad of Cable Hogue
16. Catch-22
17. Tristana
18. My Night at Maud’s
19. Au Hasard Balthazar
20. The Wild Child (more…)

Well, between being sick for over a week and a horrible reaction to the antibiotic and work and Veronica’s NEA conference (which went great), there is one other reason I haven’t been able to get a new post up yet:

2011 Civic Hybrid (with GPS) with three of the most wonderful words in the English language: "heated leather seats"

our new car

the original Modern Library dust jacket for Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess of the d’Urbervilles

• Author:  Thomas Hardy  (1840  -  1928)
• Rank:  #60
• Published:  1891
• Publisher:  The Graphic  (U.K. – serialized)
• Pages:  414
• First Line:  “On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor.”
• Last Line:  “As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.”
• ML Edition:  #72  -  two dust jackets  (1931, 1956)
• Film:  1913  -  lost; 1925  -  lost;  1979  (****)
• First Read:  Fall, 2000 (more…)