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Scorsese's Crime Film Education

The Public Enemy Point Blank Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics)

Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated and influential directors in cinema history. He has a new HBO series called Boardwalk Empire premiering this fall that's about crime and Atlantic City.

Scorcese has done his share of crime films - Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver - and he won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2007 for The Departed.

He listed the gangster pictures that had an effect on him and the way he would portray crime on film.

He listed films from the last 40 years like Performance, the Godfather saga, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, The Long Good Friday, Sexy Beast, and John Woo’s Hong Kong films BUT he thinks the films that really matters are the ones he saw when he was young, open, and impressionable both as a kid and as a film student.

They range from 1931's The Public Enemy to Point Blank from 1967. In between are films that a lot of people haven't seen - like the original Scarface from 1932.

You can see all of Marty's picks and clips from the films in this post on The Daily Beast.

What Should I Read Next?

I've got a pretty lengthy list of books that I want to read. I even have a bunch of them in my GoodReads account.



Books on the to-read shelf


The MoviegoerLiving at the MoviesHillerman Country: A Journey Through the Southwest With Tony HillermanFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of EverythingHamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital AgeThe Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

More of Ken's books »
Ken's to-read book recommendations, reviews, favorite quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists

But, I need some guidance on what to pick next.

Have you read anything on my To-Read shelf shown here that you would highly recommend? If so, post a comment below.

Got another title that really, really impressed you lately? Comment with an enticing short review.

Moore and Margret as Charley and Bobbie

Moore


Margret with Nicholson
Just wondering if  Julianne Moore's character, Charley, in A Single Man was styled after Ann Margret's Bobbie in Carnal Knowledge.

The hair, the clothing, even the names suggest a connection.

Just wondering.

Carnal Knowledge  A Single Man

Word of the Summer

Merriam-Webster selected its hot and buzzy "Word of the Summer." The odd part is that it's not really a word.

Their choice is "refudiate."

Sarah Palin got creative with "refute" and "repudiate" and did a blend when she was on some news show and then later on her Twitter page. This led to a lot of searches on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary during the summer for both of those words and the non-existent "refudiate."




When Palin was hit with criticisms about her goof, she pointed out that Shakespeare often created new words.

To save you a few clicks...
refute = to prove something wrong or deny its truth or accuracy
repudiate = to refuse any connection with something or reject it as untrue or unjust

So, is refudiate a Palindrone? Don't laugh. It is.

Summer Reflection

impression on a pond

The hottest summer and spring on record for New Jersey.

Though summer doesn't end officially until the 21st, for weather record keepers, June-August is the summer.

And usually we get 12.84 inches of rain - but this summer only recorded 8.34 - 65% below normal.  My tomatoes were never really happy, even with my mulching and watering. When zucchini doesn't want to grow, there's something wrong.