AboutNell Minow Expertise Movies, especially classic movies, current movies, family movies, and movies for children.
Experience I am the movie critic for Beliefnet and radio stations across the country. I have written about movies for USA Today, Parents, Family Fun, Child, Slate, and Daughters, and am the weekly movie critic for twenty radio stations across the US and in Canada and write weekly parental advisories and some movie reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Kansas City Star. I have appeared on Fox Morning News, the ABC Evening News, CBS This Morning, and NPR, and been profiled in the NY Times, Washingtonian, Chicago Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. My book, The Movie Mom's Guide to Family Movies, was published by Avon in April 1999 and is now in its second edition. I can answer questions about movies for special interests, especially family concerns, handling questions from kids like "What do I do when he says everyone else has seen it?" to "My daughter got nightmares from a movie --how can I help her?" or "Why does my child want to see the DVD over and over?" to "What's the deal with Pokemon?" I am pretty good with trivia questions about movies, too, not as good with made-for-TV movies or miniseries.
Organizations Broadcast, Online, and Washington DC film critics associations, Internet Entertainment Writers Association
Expert: Nell Minow Date: 4/3/2008 Subject: Movie title
Question Hello Ms. Minow,
Isabel couldn't answer this and suggested I write you.
I was wondering if you could help me with a movie title from circa
1981-82. As i remember, it dodn't have any big name stars. I don't think HBO was making original movies. If it was at the movies, it wasn't memorable. I don't think it was a foreign flim. No subtitles.
Part of the plot was a dark haired woman with a French accent who was looking for
books on poet Emily Dickinson. I believe she was new to America.
She kept getting turned away from the library, where the librarian wasn't very nice and asked her to leave.
She was on a mission to find the books. I believe she had a boyfriend/son
named Matthew and she pronounced it "Matt-chew".
I don't know if she got pregnant and was very lonely. Somehow, I think her boyfriend did find her the books It's kind of tear jerker.
Any ideas? it's driving me crazy :-)
Thank you for any help.
Sincerely yours,
Dominic
Answer I wonder how clearly you remember the film. "Sophie's Choice" has a scene just like the one you describe -- a young immigrant woman, a Holocaust survivor (played by Meryl Streep) trying to ask a librarian for Emily Dickinson but due to her accent the librarian does not understand and becomes impatient. She had a boyfriend named Nathan and pronounced it "Nate-an." And she is very melancholy. Could that be it?
