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Post by london777 on Jun 21, 2017 23:43:45 GMT
I was reminded to start this thread by reading about Notting Hill (1999) dir: Roger Michell. Hugh Grant, the hero, owns a small bookshop specializing in travel books. Such a bookshop was entirely realistic, with the caveat that it was a gentleman's hobby and he did not expect to earn a living from it. I knew many such in the 1960s and 1970s when I was in the trade. Whether they still exist I have no idea.
Bookshops in American films are nearly always havens of tranquility. The proprietors are repositories of wisdom and uncle-figures to the younger protagonists. Rather like newspaper owners in Westerns, often a last bastion of decency against brutality and corruption. Neither category seems particularly bothered about actually making a living.
My all time favorite depiction of the rare book trade is The Ninth Gate (1999). It is Johnny Depp's best film, maybe because Roman Polanski keeps him on a tight leash, and it could have been Polanski's as well, had he not made an inexplicable misjudgment in one scene. But the bookselling scenes are absolutely spot on, which is what concerns us here.
We can interpret the brief widely. I believe the manuscript which is central to the plot of The Words (2012) Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal was found in an antique store rather than antiquarian bookshop, but that's near enough. Decent film, though a bit self-important, that sank without trace. A German film, Lila Lila (2009) is said to have much the same plot. (Over to you, manfromplanetx).
You've Got Mail (1998) dir: Nora Ephron changes the leather-goods shop of Lubitsch's 1940 original to a bookstore of the unrealistic sentimental type described above. Her rival Tom Hank's modern book-vending juggernaut is (sadly) more commercially viable.
Arthur Gwynn Geiger's bookshop in The Big Sleep (1946) did not have to be commercially viable as it was just a front for his blackmail racket but I do not know what Peggy Malone's excuse was in the Acme Bookstore opposite. I do not think my boss would have taken kindly to my closing early and pulling down the blinds to make out with a customer (especially one who had no intention of buying anything, like Marlowe).
Rebecca Pidgeon runs a bookstore in State and Main (2000) David Mamet. She plays a big role in the film, but I cannot remember if the bookstore is significant, or could as well have been a knitwear shop.
I have another I cannot quite recall, where a known star is, I think, licking his wounds in some picturesque coastal small town and the bookstore plays a role in his recuperation. Can any kind poster lay that ghost for me?
What else you got, guys and gals?
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Post by spiderwort on Jun 22, 2017 0:05:40 GMT
My all-time favorite would be 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anthony Hopkins, who owns the bookstore, and Anne Bancroft, who becomes his transatlantic friend. I can't think of one that I love more than that. And as I said earlier I'm also a big fan of Notting Hill. I also enjoy the book store scene with a young Dorothy Malone in The Big Sleep. And I liked Robert Preston courting librarian Shirley Jones in The Music Man, even though, technically, I know that's not a bookstore. And it seems to me there was a bookstore in Crossing Delancy, a film I liked, but I'm not sure about the bookstore (a party scene; maybe more?).  There are probably others I just can't think of right now. Haven't seen The Ninth Gate, State and Main, The Words, and for whatever reason I don't remember a bookstore in You've Got Mail (I know, I know - the brain isn't what it use to be). What I remember is the damned computer. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:08:57 GMT
84 Charing Cross Road (1987) The year 1949 marks the beginning of the twenty year unconventional and long distance love affair between Helene Hanff and Frank Doel. Straightforward Helene is an aspiring New York based writer who works as a script editor. She is a voracious reader, especially of non-fiction. Frank is the efficient and knowledgeable head clerk at Marks & Co., a second-hand bookstore located at 84 Charing Cross Road in London. Unable to find the out of print books she wants at New York bookstores without having to pay an arm and a leg which she can't afford, she writes to Marks & Co. hoping they can fill her order at reasonable prices. Frank and the bookstore staff are able to provide Helene most of what she wants at more than reasonable prices including shipping. As such, she provides them with standing orders for more and more books. But as time goes on, their correspondence not only deals with Helene's orders, but what is happening in their lives and in the world around them, Frank's which includes his loving marriage to his wife Nora and their two children. Helene dreams one day of being able to travel to London herself to meet Frank and the other Marks & Co. staff, the people who have been able to fulfill a great need in her life. Anne Bancroft... Helene Hanff Anthony Hopkins... Frank P. Doel Judi Dench... Nora Doel I see that spiderwort beat me in the race for mentioning this really REALLy good film. wtg 
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 22, 2017 0:09:48 GMT
84 Charing Cross Road (1987) - Entirely through their regular written correspondence, single New Yorker Anne Bancroft and London bookseller Anthony Hopkins develop an enduring and intimate friendship that begins with a simple business transaction and spans decades and an ocean. Judi Dench is also on hand for this fact-based story, which is a charming and intelligent gem from beginning to end. Not to be missed.
EDIT: I see that while I was writing, spiderwort and Bat Outtaheck were posting. Ringing endorsements indeed.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:13:28 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:15:58 GMT
EDIT: I see that while I was writing, spiderwort and Bat Outtaheck were posting. Ringing endorsements indeed. Another three way mind meld on a great filming of a great book. My first trip to London I know I wanted to go to see the store BUT I cannot recall for the life of me whether I found it or not. That probably means that I did not. |
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Post by london777 on Jun 22, 2017 0:16:51 GMT
And I liked Robert Preston courting librarian Shirley Jones in The Music Man, even though, technically, I know that's not a bookstore. I have been both a public and university librarian too in my time, but let's leave that for another thread. |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 22, 2017 0:27:11 GMT
EDIT: I see that while I was writing, spiderwort and Bat Outtaheck were posting. Ringing endorsements indeed. Another three way mind meld on a great filming of a great book. My first trip to London I know I wanted to go to see the store BUT I cannot recall for the life of me whether I found it or not. That probably means that I did not. While bookstores undoubtedly figure, if only peripherally, into more films than any of us can remember, I daresay that this is the film that's actually about the buying and selling of (and love for) books. And it's also about so much more. |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 22, 2017 0:29:44 GMT
It's hard to imagine that anyone with an ounce of sensitivity who's seen this one can ever forget it. It is truly special and is one that stays with you. I must revisit it again soon. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:31:06 GMT
Doghouse6 While bookstores undoubtedly figure, if only peripherally, into more films than any of us can remember, I daresay that this is the film that's actually about the buying and selling of (and love for) books. And it's also about so much more.
<nodding vigorously in agreement emoticon>
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Post by london777 on Jun 22, 2017 0:37:19 GMT
My all-time favorite would be 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anthony Hopkins who owns the bookstore and Anne Bancroft who becomes his transatlantic friend. I can't think of one that I love more than that. Funny I did not immediately recall that one like you guys as I knew that store and Frank Doel very well. He had nothing of Anthony Hopkins' charm and dignity in the film but was more like an older version of Wilbur in The Maltese Falcon, ducking and diving to make a few quid. He was not, of course, the owner of Marks, but a bullied and overworked clerk whom Old Man Marks delighted in humiliating by scorning his lack of education and ignorance of foreign languages. Of course the correspondence was (as far as I know) genuine so the book and film show another side of his character we would not see in the cut-throat hurly-burly of the trade. Nonetheless I thought the film was shaped to bring his bookshop into line with the usual dubious stereotype in American films which I mentioned above, of a leisurely and scholarly profession of gentlemen who are philosophers and guides to the less experienced, whereas the reality was much nearer the used car trade (and we know what that is like). The Ninth Gate shows it far more accurately (give or take a few demons!). Frank was in my time the secretary of the Ring, an illegal price-fixing cartel, no doubt chosen to carry the can for the bosses in case any legal action was taken. (It never was during my decade in the trade). |
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🎄😷🎄 on Jun 22, 2017 0:37:40 GMT
There's a bookstore scene in Beginners, with Christopher Plummer shopping in a bookstore.  |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:39:25 GMT
spiderwort Crossing Delancey (1988) Another neglected film favorite. Isabelle's life revolves around the New York bookshop she works in and the intellectual friends of both sexes she meets there. Her grandmother remains less than impressed and decides to hire a good old-fashioned Jewish matchmaker to help Isabelle's love-life along. Enter pickle-maker Sam who immediately takes to Isabelle. She however is irritated by the whole business, at least to start with. Isabelle (Amy Irving) is a young independent woman who works in a bookstore. She meets regularly with her friends, and often goes to visit and spends time with her Jewish grandmother (wonderfully played by Reizl Bozyk), or bubbie as she calls her, who thinks its sad that she doesn't have a man in her life. Trying to do something about that, her grandmother hires a marriage broker, and Isabelle ends up getting fixed up with a guy who sells pickles, Sam Posner (Peter Riegert). Isabelle is not very happy about it to begin with, since she is interested in the writer Anton Maes (Jeroen Krabbé), who does readings at the bookstore she works in. She is not very interested in Sam to begin with, and declines his offer to take her out when they meet for the first time at her grandmothers apartment. Sam is very persistent though, and Isabelle starts to warm up to him slowly as he woos his way into her heart. Still being very interested in Anton Maes, she fixes Sam up with her best friend Ricky. A good idea to begin with, but as Isabelle starts to like Sam more and more and discovers that maybe Anton Maes isn't that great, she starts spending more time with Sam. Thirty-three year old single Isabelle Grossman, who works at a small but prestigious Manhattan bookstore, is a modern, emancipated woman who doesn't need a career or a man to fulfill or define her as a person. If a man does enter her life, she will let it happen. Such is the case with "very separated" Anton Maes, a celebrated local writer whose outward bohemian attitude toward life she isn't sure is actually a come-on or just the way he is as a person with everyone. She would like it to be the former. To the contrary, being emancipated and modern is the reason that she rebels against the move by her Lower East Side grandmother - her "Bubbie" - to hire Hannah Mandelbaum, a matchmaker, to find a man for her. Who Hannah sets her up with is Sam Posner, a pickle maker and vendor. While Sam admits that he is attracted to Izzy and as such pursues her, she in turn can't see beyond the fact of he being a set-up and a pickle vendor truly to see him as a person for good or bad. When Izzy finally can see beyond those obstacles to find a cute, nice man she would like to get to know, it may be too late as Sam may be able to sense Izzy's apprehension to stick around for long. Izzy may also hedge her bets with Anton perhaps in the picture. Great cast, enjoyable story. Shot in NEW YORK ! (always a plus)
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:45:38 GMT
spiderwort Oh, London, I do not want to know this! I'm sticking with my original reaction to the film. I need for that to be closer to the truth. <more vigorous head nodding in agreement emoticons> Enjoy the movie ! 
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Post by london777 on Jun 22, 2017 0:45:58 GMT
... for whatever reason I don't remember a bookstore in You've Got Mail (I know, I know - the brain isn't what it use to be). What I remember is the damned computer. She owns a cosy local bookstore and he owns a modern book superstore which is undercutting her prices but his main income is as a property developer. You must have fallen asleep very early in that one, spiderwort. If so, you did not miss much. Lubitsch's version is better, especially if you have a leather fetish. I do not remember a computer so between us we have it covered! |
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Post by london777 on Jun 22, 2017 0:52:08 GMT
I have been both a public and university librarian too in my time, but let's leave that for another thread. Gotcha. I'll delete that from my first post, and then you can delete your earlier one to me, and I'll delete this response to you. Great topic, btw. And glad to know you are a man of books. That makes me happy in this day and age. Selling my collection funded my move to the Caribbean. It is blazing hot here but I see equally hot in England at the moment. Because of my eye condition I am no longer a man of books. Just a man of DVDs. Sorry to spoil your happiness. No deletions necessary. The guys will take this thread where they want. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 22, 2017 0:57:27 GMT
spiderwortIn the earlier versions didn't they write snail mail letters back and forth? so in the New One it would be e-mail. Ages since I saw any of them !
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Post by london777 on Jun 22, 2017 1:01:30 GMT
She owns a cosy local store and he owns a modern book superstore which is undercutting her prices but his main income is as a property developer. You must have fallen asleep very early in that one, spiderwort. You did not miss much. Lubitsch's version is better, especially if you have a leather fetish. I do not remember a computer so between us we have it covered! But I would have sworn there was a computer in there. How else does the title make sense? And I don't get the leather fetish reference, but I'll leave that one alone. Of course there was a computer. I was just standing shoulder to shoulder with you as to our senile memories. "The shop around the corner" was a leather goods shop rather than a bookstore. |
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 22, 2017 1:02:45 GMT
I have been both a public and university librarian too in my time, but let's leave that for another thread. Yes, let's. I got my first library job driving a bookmobile (a long trailer with detachable cab) on June 1, 1970. I retired completing exactly 40 years on May 31, 2010. Mostly I was a public library administrator but at various points and life situations I, too, worked at a University library and six dreadful agonizing years as a public school library and media faculty member. As for bookstore scenes, Jimmy Stewart visits an esoteric bookstore for information on Carlotta Cortez in Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (1958). The Abrahams, Zucker, and Zucker comedy "Top Secret" (1984) parodies Vertigo's bookstore scene. |
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Post by london777 on Jun 22, 2017 1:03:27 GMT
Selling my collection funded my move to the Caribbean. It is blazing hot here but I see equally hot in England at the moment. Because of my eye condition I am no longer a man of books. Just a man of DVDs. Sorry to spoil your happiness. No deletions necessary. The guys will take this thread where they want. Sorry about your eyes. Mine aren't so great anymore either. But I keep reading, just not as often as I once did - a book a week down now to a book a month. But I still consider myself a bookworm, and something tells me that you are, too, in spite of your circumstances. Once a bookworm, always a bookworm, I believe. I am still a worm. But no longer a bookworm. |
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