Purpose of this Blog...

You may have noticed that not all books are equal in capturing children's imaginations and in cultivating those innocent, tender souls. My goal is to help you find the ones that do!
(Painting by Mary Cassatt: "Mrs Cassatt Reading to her Grandchildren" -1888)




Monday, April 15, 2013

Some Fun For National Library Week: Libraries on the Big Screen!

How many do you recognize?  The films I've included were filmed in or inspired by real libraries!

Henry Higgins' two-story Victorian library from My Fair Lady was inspired by a private residential library of a grand home in France...
The Chateau de Groussay was built in 1815. Its library has two circular staircases stretching up to the book-lined landing, and the ceiling must be more than twenty feet in height. It was interior and set designer Cecil Beaton's inspiration for the Henry Higgins library in the 1964 film.


The Harry Potter films mostly take place in the fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which has a great old Library.
The library scenes are filmed in a real library: Duke Humfrey’s Library at the Bodleian Library at Oxford in England...


In Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard spend some time in the New York Public Library in Manhattan. 
specifically in the NYPL Reading Room...

The library scene in the movie Hugo was shot on location in Paris...
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At the Bibliotheque Sainte-Geneviève.
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And remember, not only was Batgirl Commissioner Gordon's daughter,
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she was a librarian!
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Disney's imagined library in the animated film, Beauty and the Beast, is one of my favorites!



Source: unless otherwise noted, the photos and notes in this post are from the wonderful website Beautiful Libraries.

4 comments:

  1. Don't forget the library in The Mummy, and the librarian played by Rachel Weisz!

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  2. Oh yes - I forgot that one! But it was so painful to watch all the shelves tumble, domino-style! :)

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  3. A friend of mine reminded me of Marion the Librarian in Music Man. And for another scene of library mayhem, don't miss Stan Lee's cameo as the oblivious school librarian in the most recent version of Spider-Man!

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    1. I love the Music Man, but didn't include it because I don't think it was filmed in a real library. Haven't seen the newest Spider-Man yet - I'll have to see it now, just to watch Stan Lee as the librarian! Fun!

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