Albert Campbell District Blog

Many branches now screen films for children and adults.  Purists may ask “Why show films at the library?  Libraries should be about books!”  Ahh, dear reader, but what is the purpose of a book? A book is to read.  A book is to handle.  A book is to peruse.  A book – a good book – makes you think about things.  That’s one of the functions of a library – to make you think about things.  Good versus evil, for instance.  Right versus wrong.  Our true crime section is brimming with books about evil and good!

Movies do the same.  A good movie is a literary experience – a revelation.  You’ll laugh.  You’ll cry.  Your disbelief will be suspended in the dark for a couple of hours.  And if the movie is good you’ll leave the chair full of thoughts and considerations.  That’s why Kennedy/Eglinton branch screens classic films for adults on Friday afternoons.

The best movies are the ones that grip you and hold you.  In August Kennedy/Eglinton is featuring three ripping yarns featuring  screen icons of good and evil;  Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.  We’ll start on August  5 with “To Kill A Mockingbird “(Robert Mulligan, 1963) – it’s Peck at his most benevolent.  Our August 19 feature is the great post-war film noir “Out of the Past” (Jacques Tourneur, 1947).  Mitchum is caught up with some bad people – but is he so bad?  Our final August flick on the 26^th features Peck and Mitchum each at their career apex – Cape Fear (1961, J. Lee Thompson).  Peck, the innocent; Mitchum the evil predator.  Revenge and murder are the threads which connect all three films this month.  All three films are adaptations of wonderful novels – Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”; Geoffrey Homes’ “Build My Gallows High” and John D. Macdonald’s  1958 classic paperback thriller “The Executioners”.

Come in to our cool space and see some hot flicks this August.  Bring a drink, bring your snacks.  Bring a friend. Bring your library card and check out our movie selection – as well as our movie star biography section .  It’s all here for you at Kennedy/Eglinton branch. Fridays at 2.