Thursday, November 25, 2010

The Rembrandt Affair (2010) novel

Daniel Silva's 2010 novel The Rembrandt Affair features once again his art restorer-sleuth Gabriel Allon, this time, as the time suggests, on the trail of a stolen, priceless and deadly Rembrandt painting.

In addition to scenes inside art galleries (public and private), there is also at least one depiction of an archivist, "a tall man in his early forties with reddish blond hair" who worked in the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. The scene between Gabriel Allon and him is on p. 83-85 (hardcover). On p. 172 (hardcover) there is also a reference to the "archives of Argentina's Immigration Office."

Monday, November 8, 2010

Red (2010) Movie

Red, a 2010 movie about a retired CIA agent's life gone wrong, includes a couple of scenes inside a secret CIA records storage vault staffed by Henry the Records Keeper as played by Ernest Borgnine. Henry does not, however, have a sense of moral obligation to his employer and violates not only whatever statute governs his work but also ethical codes of conduct for archivists and records managers.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Taking Chances (2009) movie

In actor Justin Long's 2009 movie Taking Chances he plays the wise, young curator of a local history museum in a dying town in Pennsylvania whose town council plans on building a casino operated by a local Indian tribe on the town's Revolutionary War battlefield. Long's courageous stand against the council and the town itself is aided by his one slacker friend and a female love interest, who happens to be a young prostitute, in bed with the mayor and desperately searching for her father.

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Atlantis Code (2009) novel

Charles Brokaw's first novel The Atlantis Code is a religious-archaeological thriller based on the legend of the lost continent of Atlantis. A secret order within the Catholic Church has been guarding a secret and with linguist hero Thomas Lourds hot on the trail of clues, this potboiler explores some unusual territory. One of the characters is the Vatican City archivist Father Emil Sebastian (p. 48, hardcover). Museums, artifacts and historical records, including old books, also abound.

Friday, September 10, 2010

The Thieves of Darkness (2010) novel

According to the dustjacket of Richard Doetsch's 2010 novel The Thieves of Darkness: A Thriller, "reformed master thief" Michael St. Pierre helps an imprisoned friend in a quest to find "a map containing the location of a holy place lost to the mists of time, a repository of knowledge and treasure predating Judaism, Christianity, and Islam."

Heresy (2010) novel

S.J. Parris' 2010 novel Heresy features the late 16th monk and early scientist-philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) and the time he spent in England. The plot involves secret and old, even by 16th century standards, manuscripts and books.

Monday, August 9, 2010

The Red Pyramid (2010) Novel

Book 1 of Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles, whose title is The Red Pyramid (2010), is based on "a transcript of a digital recording. ... The author makes no claims for the authenticity of the recording. ..." Part of this novel for teen and young adult readers is set in the British Museum and features the kind of ancient Egyptian mayhem associated with The Mummy movies starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Inglorious Basterds

Original title: Inglorious Basterds.
Director: Quentin Tarantino.
Original USA release date: August 21, 2009; DVD release date: January 14, 2010.

Summary: Without spoiling the plot, even though it's easy to guess from the many signals throughout the film what will happen near the end, a collection of over 300 nitrate 35mm motion picture films in a movie theater create a firestorm of unimaginable consequences for the Nazi villains and their guests in this Brad Pitt movie vehicle from master of ultra-violent chic Quentin Tarantino.





Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Testament

Original novel title: The Testament.
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Publisher: New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006 (hardcover), 2007 (paperback)
Thriller writer Van Lustbader tackles the New Testament of the Bible in what can only be described as yet another Da Vinci Code readalike. According to the dustjacket, "For more than eight hundred years, the Order [of Gnostic Observatines] has preserved an ancient cache of documents, including a long-lost Testament attributed to Christ that could shake Christinaity to its foundations."