On this day in movie history - Easy Money (2000):

Easy Money

French title: Argent content,

directed by Philippe Dussol,

was released in France on May 31, 2001.
18-minute short movie, filmed in color and black and white.
Written by Philippe Dussol and Mathias Pothier.

Cast:

Anne Charrier, Fred Dussol, Philippe Dussol.

On this day in television history - M Squad (1960):

M Squad

Season 3. Episode 36.
Episode entitled: Closed Season.
Released May 31, 1960.
Directed by Herman Hoffman.
Written by Terry Crosby, Lee Erwin and William McCluskey.
Music by Benny Carter.

Cast:

Lee Marvin, Paul Newlan, Paula Raymond, Dennis Patrick, Herbert Rudley, Chet Stratton, Anita Gordon, Robert Kino, Leonard P. Geer.

Born on this day – Nicole Van Goethem:

Nicole Van Goethem

Animator

Illustrator

Writer

Director

May 31, 1941 - March 3, 2000

Credits:

Awarded the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, at the 59th Academy Awards in 1987,

for her movie: A Greek Tragedy (1985).

Book:

Drawing the Film (1988).

Movies and television:

A Greek Tragedy (1985); B.C. Rock (1980); Human Rights Article 13 (1988); John the Fearless (1984); Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle (1975); Trouble in Paradise (1989); Verloren maandag (1974); Vol van gratie (1987).

Born on this day – Rainer Werner Fassbinder:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Director

Actor

Composer

Writer

May 31, 1945 – June 10, 1982

Credits:

Querelle (1982); Veronika Voss (1982); Theater in Trance (1981); Lola (1981); Lili Marleen (1981); Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980); The Third Generation (1979); The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979); In a Year with 13 Moons (1978); Despair (1978); Deutschland im Herbst (1978); The Stationmaster's Wife (1977); Women in New York (1977); Chinese Roulette (1976); Satan's Brew (1976); I Only Want You to Love Me (1976); Fear of Fear (1975); Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975); Fox and His Friends (1975); Like a Bird on a Wire (1975); Effi Briest (1974); Martha (1974); Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974); Nora Helmer (1974); World on a Wire (1973); Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972–1973); Jail Bait (1972); Bremen Freedom (1972); The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972); The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972); Beware of a Holy Whore (1971); Whity (1971); Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971); Rio das Mortes (1971); The Niklashausen Journey (1970); The American Soldier (1970); Warum läuft Herr R. Amok (1970); Das Kaffeehaus (1970); Gods of the Plague (1970); Katzelmacher (1969); Love Is Colder Than Death (1969); The Little Chaos (1967); This Night (1966); The City Tramp (1966).

Born on this day – Alida Valli:

Alida Valli

Actress

Director

Writer

May 31, 1921 – April 22, 2006

Credits:

How I became Alida Valli (2008); Angel of Death (2001); Probably Love (2001); Vino santo (2000); The Sweet Sounds of Life (1999); Fatal Frames (1996); A Month by the Lake (1995); The Final Scoop (1993); The Long Silence (1993); Private Crimes (1993); A lifetime In gioco 2 (1992); Zitti e mosca (1991); The Mouth (1991); A Life at Play (1991); À notre regrettable époux (1988); Le jupon rouge (1987); Secret Secrets (1985); The Farewell Girl (1984); Love Drama (1983); Piccolo mondo antico (1983); The Misunderstanding (1983); Monstrously Forbidden Dreams (1982); Aspern (1982); That ancient love (1981–1982); The Fall of the Rebel Angels (1981); Sezona aims at the Parizu (1981); Illa - Observation Point (1981); The Red House (1981); Puppenspiel mit toten Augen (1980); Aquella casa en las afueras (1980); Towards zero hour (1980); The Prioress's Legacy (1980); Inferno (1980); Licanthropus, the son of the night (1979); The Other Simenon (1979); Luna (1979); Der Landvogt von Greifensee (1979); The Killer Nun (1979); Zoo zéro (1979); Investigation of a perfect crime (1978); Les grandes conjurations (1978); Dirty World (1978); Berlinguer: I Love You (1977); A Simple Heart (1977); Suspiria (1977); The Cassandra Crossing (1976); 1900 (1976); Le jeu du solitaire (1976); The Raoul case (1975); Cher Victor (1975); The Flesh of the Orchid (1975); The Antichrist (1974); The Big Scare (1974); The Imperial Councillor (1974); Beyond Erotica (1974); LISA and the Devil (1973); Indian Summer (1972); Diary of an Italian (1972); Eye in the Labyrinth (1972); Mourning Suits Electra (1972); The Spider's Stratagem (1970); The Mushroom (1970); Love in all its expressions (1968); Oedipus Rex (1967); Humor in Black (1965); Desencuentro (1964); Dr. Kildare (1964); L'autre femme (1964); A la salida (1963); The Getaway Face (1963); Combat! (1963); The Paper Man (1963); The Castilian (1963); Ophélia (1963); Las momias de Guanajuato (1962); Homenaje a la hora de la siesta (1962); Al otro lado de la Ciudad (1962); Disorder (1962); The Maurizius case (1961); La fille du torrent (1961); The Happy Thieves (1961); The Long Absence (1961); The Gigolos (1960); The sin of the Green Years (1960); Le dialogue des Carmélites (1960); My girl (1960); Eyes Without a Face (1960); Signé: Arsène Lupin (1959); The children of Medea (1959); The Man with Short Trousers (1958); The Night Heaven Fell (1958); This Angry Age (1958); The Great Blue Road (1957); The Scream (1957); Sense (1954); The Hand of the Foreigner (1954); We, the Women (1953); The World Condemns Them (1953); The Lovers of Toledo (1953); Last meeting (1951); Les miracles n'ont Lieu qu'une fois (1951); Walk Softly, Stranger (1950); The White Tower (1950); The Third Man (1949); The Miracle of the Bells (1948); The Paradine Case (1947); Eugenie Grandet (1946); The Song of Life (1945); Life Begins Anew (1945); Circus equestrian Za-bum (1944); Apparition (1943); I will always love you (1943); Laugh Pagliacci (1943); Nothing New Tonight (1942); Goodbye Kira! (1942); We the Living (1942); Two Orphans (1942); Invisible Chains (1942); The secret lover (1941); Schoolgirl Diary (1941); Light in the Darkness (1941); Small world Antico (1941); The First Woman Who Passes (1940); Passion (1940); The Last Enemy (1940); Red Tavern (1940); Manon Lescaut (1940); Her First Love (1939); Ball at the Castle (1939); Mille lire al mese (1939); The House of Sin (1938); Love mine does not die! (1938); A Lady Has Made It (1938); It Was I (1937); The ferocious Saladin (1937); The Two Sergeants (1936); The Three-Cornered Hat (1935).

Born on this day – Don Ameche:

Don Ameche

Actor

Comedian

Vaudevillian

May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993

Born on this day – Kathlyn Williams:

Kathlyn Williams

Actress

Director

Writer

May 31, 1879 – September 23, 1960

Credits:

1861 (1911); A Colonel in Chains (1914); A Girl Named Mary (1919); A Little Child Shall Lead Them (1913); A Man, a Girl, and a Lion (1917); A Man's Home (1921); A Private Scandal (1921); A Romance of the Western Hills (1910); A Single Man (1929); A Sultana of the Desert (1915); A Virginia Courtship (1921); A Welded Friendship (1913); A Wise Old Elephant (1913); A Woman Laughs (1914); An Unexpected Fortune (1912); As the Fates Decree (1912); Back to the Primitive (1911); Big Timber (1917); Blasted Hopes (1910); Blood Money (1933); Broadway Gold (1923); Busy Day at the Selig General Office (1911); Captain Kate (1911); Caryl of the Mountains (1914); Chip of the Flying U (1914); Clarence (1922); Daddy Long Legs (1931); Dad's Girls (1911); Dora Thorne (1910); Driftwood (1912); Ebb Tide (1915); Everything for Sale (1921); Forbidden Fruit (1921); Getting Married (1911); Gold Is Not All (1910); Harbor Island (1912); Hearts and Masks (1914); Her Husband's Women (1929); Her Kingdom of Dreams (1919); Her Only Son (1913); Her Purchase Price (1919); Her Sacrifice (1914); Honeymoon Flats (1928); How They Stopped the Run on the Bank (1911); Hush (1921); I Hear Her Calling Me (from the Heart of Africa) (1917); In Old California When the Gringos Came (1911); In the African Jungle (1917); In the Midst of the Jungle (1913); In Tune with the Wild (1914); Into the Primitive (1916); Jealous George (1911); Jim and Joe (1911); Just a Wife (1920); Lieutenant Jones (1913); Life on the Border (1911); Lines of White on a Sullen Sea (1909); Locked Doors (1925); Lost in the Jungle (1911); Lost in Transit (1917); Man and His Other Self (1913); Maud Muller (1911); Mazeppa, or the Wild Horse of Tartary (1910); Morals (1921); Mrs. Hilton's Jewels (1913); Number 13, Westbound (1916); On Thanksgiving Day (1908); On the Trail of the Germs (1912); Our Dancing Daughters (1928); Out of the Wreck (1917); Paid Back (1911); Pioneer Days (1917); Quest of His Youth (1920); Redeeming Love (1916); Rendezvous at Midnight (1935); Road to Paradise (1930); Sally in Our Alley (1927); Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 12 (1936); Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 17 (1923); Single Wives (1924); Sons of the North Woods (1912); Souls for Sale (1923); Sweet Alyssum (1915); Sweet Lady Peggy (1916); Taming Wild Animals (1910); Ten Nights in a Bar Room (1911); The Adopted Son (1912); The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913); The Artist and the Brute (1913); The Best People (1925); The Better Wife (1919); The Black Orchid (1916); The Brand of Cain (1916); The Brotherhood of Man (1912); The Burglar Who Robbed Death (1913); The Carpet from Bagdad (1915); The Child of the Sea (1913); The City That Never Sleeps (1924); The Coming of Columbus (1912); The Coquette's Awakening (1915); The Cost of Hatred (1917); The Court of Death (1914); The Cruel Crown (1914); The Curse of the Redman (1911); The Devil, the Servant and the Man (1912 / 1916); The Enemy Sex (1924); The Fire Chief's Daughter (1910); The Flight of the Crow (1913); The Forged Parchment (1914); The Garden of Brides (1914); The Girl and the Judge (1913); The Girl at the Cupola (1912); The Girl with the Lantern (1912); The Governor's Daughter (1913); The Highway of Hope (1917); The Horseshoe (1912); The House of His Master (1912); The House That Shadows Built (1931); The Inner Mind (1911); The King's Will (1914); The Lady or the Tigers (1914); The Last Dance (1912); The Leopard's Foundling (1914); The Lipton Cup: Introducing Sir Thomas Lipton (1913); The Losing Fight (1914); The Love of Penelope (1913); The Man from the East (1911); The Mansion of Misery (1913); The Merry Wives of Windsor (1910); The Ne'er Do Well (1915); The Painted Flapper (1924); The Prince Chap (1920); The Prosecuting Attorney (1912); The Queen of Hearts (1910); The Return (1916); The Rosary (1915); The Rose of Old St. Augustine (1911); The Royal Slave (1914); The Single Standard (1929); The Spanish Dancer (1923); The Speck on the Wall (1914); The Spellbound Multitude (1914); The Spoilers (1914); The Stolen Melody (1913); The Story of the Blood Red Rose (1914); The Strange Case of Talmai Lind (1915); The Stronger Mind (1912); The Survival of the Fittest (1911); The Temple of the Lion (1914); The Temptation of Adam (1916); The Thing We Love (1918); The Tide of Destiny (1913); The Tragedy That Lived (1914); The Tree and the Chaff (1913); The Tree of Knowledge (1920); The Turning Point (1912); The Two Ordeals (1914); The Two Orphans (1911); The U.P. Trail (1920); The Unwelcome Throne (1913); The Valiants of Virginia (1916); The Vision of the Shepherd (1915); The Wanderer (1925); The Warrior Maid (1914); The Wheels of Justice (1911); The Whispering Chorus (1918); The Witch of the Everglades (1911); The Woman of It (1914); The World's Applause (1923); The Young Mrs. Eames (1913); heir Stepmother (1913); Thor, Lord of the Jungles (1913); Thou Shalt Not (1910); Thou Shalt Not Covet (1916); Three Bags of Silver (1914); Till Death Us Do Part (1914); Trimmed in Scarlet (1923); Two Men and a Woman (1913); Two Too Many (1913); Unholy Love (1932); Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924); We Americans (1928); We Can't Have Everything (1918); Wedding Rings (1929); When a Girl Loves (1924); When Memory Calls (1912); When the Heart Rules (1912); With Love's Eyes (1913); Woman: Past and Present (1913).

Born on this day – Walt Whitman:

Walt Whitman

Writer

May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892

Poems:

1861; A Boston Ballad, 1854; A child said, What is the grass?; A Child's Amaze; A Clear Midnight; A Farm-Picture; A Glimpse; A Hand-Mirror; A Leaf For Hand In Hand; A March In The Ranks, Hard-prest; A Noiseless Patient Spider; A Paumanok Picture; A Proadway Pageant; A Promise To California; A Riddle Song; A Sight In Camp; A Song; A Woman Waits For Me; Aboard At A Ship's Helm; Adieu To A Soldier; After The Sea-Ship; Ages And Ages, Returning At Intervals; Ah Poverties, Wincings Sulky Retreats; All Is Truth; American Feuillage; Among The Multitude; An Army Corps On The March; Apostroph; As A Strong Bird On Pinious Free; As Consequent, Etc.; As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life; As I lay With Head In Your Lap, Camerado; As I Lay With My Head in Your Lap, Camerado; As I Ponder'd In Silence; As I Ponder'd In Silence; As I Sat Alone By Blue Ontario's Shores; As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days; As I Watche'd The Ploughman Ploughing; As If A Phantom Caress'd Me; As The Time Draws Nigh; As Toilsome I Wander'd; As toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods; assurances; Bathed In War's Perfume; Beat! Beat! Drums!; Beautiful Women; Beginners; Beginning My Studies; Behavior; Behold This Swarthy Face; Bivouac on a Mountain Side; Brother Of All, With Genesrous Hand; By Broad Potomac's Shore; By The Bivouac's Fitful Flame; Camps Of Green; Carol Of Occupations; Carol Of Words; Cavalry Crossing A Ford; Chanting The Square Deific; City Of Ships; Come Up From the Fields Father; Come Up From The Fields, Father; Come, Said My Soul; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry; Darest Thou Now O Soul; Darest Thou Now, O Soul; Debris; Delicate Cluster; Delicate Cluster; Despairing Cries; Dirge For Two Veterans; Drum-Taps; Earth! my Likeness!; Elemental Drifts; Europe, The 72d And 73d Years Of These States; Excelsior; Faces Facing West From California's Shores; France, The 18th Year Of These States; From Pent-up Aching Rivers; Full Of Life, Now; Give Me The Splendid, Silent Sun; God; Great Are The Myths; Had I the Choice; Here The Frailest Leaves Of Me; Hush'd Be the Camps Today; I Am He That Aches With Love; I Dream'd In A Dream; I Hear America Singing; I Heard You, Solemn-sweep Pipes Of The Organ; I Saw In Louisiana A Live Oak Growing; I Sing The Body Electric; I Sit And Look Out; I Thought I Was Not Alone; I Was Looking A Long While; In Cabin'd Ships At Sea; In Former Songs; In Midnight Sleep; Italian Music In Dakota; Joy, Shipmate, Joy!; Laws For Creations; Leaves Of Grass. A Carol Of Harvest For 1867; Lessons; Locations And Times; Long, Too Long America; Long, Too Long, O Land!; Look Down, Fair Moon; Manhattan Streets I Saunter'd, Pondering; Mannahatta; Me Imperturbe; Mediums; Miracles; Mother And Babe; Myself And Mine; Native Moments; Night On The Prairies; No Labor-Saving Machine; Not The Pilot; Now Finale To The Shore; Now List To My Morning's Romanza; O Bitter Sprig! Confession Sprig!; O Captain! My Captain!; O Hymen! O Hymenee!; O Living Always--Always Dying; O Me! O Life!; O Star Of France; O Sun Of Real Peace; O You Whom I Often And Silently Come; Of Him I Love Day And Night; Of The Terrible Doubt Of Apperarances; Of The Visage Of Things; Offerings; Old Ireland; On Journeys Through The States; On Old Man's Thought Of School; On The Beach At Night; On the Beach At Night Alone; On The Beach At Night, Alone; Once I Pass'd Through A Populous City; One Hour To Madness And Joy; One Song, America, Before I Go; One's Self I Sing; Or From That Sea Of Time; Or From That Sea Of Time; Other May Praise What They Like; Out From Behind His Mask; Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking; Out of the Rolling Ocean, The Crowd; Over The Carnage; Passage To India; Pensive And Faltering; Pensive On Her Dead Gazing, I Heard The Mother Of All; Perfections; Pioneers! O Pioneers!; Poem Of Remembrance For A Girl Or A Boy; Poems Of Joys; Portals; President Lincoln's Burial Hymn; Primeval My Love For The Woman I Love; Proud Music Of The Storm; Quicksand Years; Race Of Veterans; Reconciliation; Recorders Ages Hence; Respondez!; Rise, O Days; Roots And Leaves Themselves Alone; Salut Au Monde; Says; Scented Herbage Of My Breast; Sea-Shore Memories; Sing Of The Banner At Day-Break; So Long; Sometimes With One I Love; Song At Sunset; Song For All Seas, All Ships; Song of Myself, X; Song Of The Broad-Axe; Song Of The Exposition; Song Of The Open Road; Song Of The Redwood-Tree; Song Of The Universal; Souvenirs Of Democracy; Spirit Whose Work Is Done; Spontaneous Me; Starting From Paumanok; States!; That Music Always Round Me; The Artilleryman's Vision; The Base Of All Metaphysics; The Centerarian's Story; The Dresser; The Indications; The Last Invocation; The Mystic Trumpeter; The Prairie-Grass Dividing; The Singer In The Prison; The Sleepers; The World Below The Brine; The Wound Dresser; There Was A Child Went Forth; These, I, Singing In Spring; This Compost; This Dust Was Once The Man; Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling; Thou Reader; Thought; Thoughts; To A Certain Cantatrice; To A Foil'd European Revolutionaire; To A Historian; To A President; To Old Age; To Rich Givers; To The East And To The West; To The Garden The World; To The Man-of-War-Bird; To Thee, Old Cause!; To Think Of Time; To You; Unfolded Out Of The Folds; Unnamed Lands; Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field one Night; Virgil Strange I Kept On The Field; Virginia--The West; Voices; Walt Whitman's Caution; Wandering At Morn; Warble Of Lilac-Time; We Two Boys Together Clinging; We Two-How Long We Were Fool'd; Weave In, Weave In, My Hardy Life; What Am I, After All?; What Weeping Face; When I Heard At The Close Of The Day; When I Heard the Learned Astronomer; When I Peruse The Conquer'd Fame; When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd; Who Is Now Reading This?; Who Learns My Lesson Complete?; Whoever You Are, Holding Me Now In Hand; With Antecedents; World, Take Good Notice; Year Of Meteors, 1859 '60; Year That Trembled; Years Of The Modern; Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours.

Movies and television:

A Noiseless Patient Spider (2009); A Poetic Experiment: Walt Whitman (2015); A su aire (1974); Actor's Choice (1970); Aliment Roots (2018); American Experience (2008); Amerikai anzix (1975); Amici Novum (2021); Ancient Aliens (2011); Beyond the Unknown (2019); Calamus Variations (2024); David Byrne's American Utopia (2020); Dead Poets Society (1989); Drum-Taps (2019); Facing West (2020); Intolerance (1916); Lo que cuento al viento (2008); Los 10 magníficos (2008); Maestro (2023); Manahatta (2011); Manhatta (1921); Messengers (2004); Middle Voices (2022); O Brooklyn! My Brooklyn! (2010); On the Trail of Mark Twain (1998); Plain-chant (1974); The Big Scary 'S' Word (2020); The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (2016); This Is What You Shall Do (2017); Walt Whitman: Poet for a New Age (1971); Whitman in the Woods. (2021); Your Favorite Story (1954).

Recommended reading - Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose, by Walt Whitman (1982):

Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose

By Walt Whitman.

Edited by Justin Kaplan.

Published by Library of America.

Published 1982.

ISBN-10: 094045002X

ISBN-13: 9780940450028

Description:

“Beautiful and authoritative . . . the most comprehensive volume ever published of the works of Whitman.”

– The New York Times.

This Library of America edition is the biggest and best edition of Walt Whitman's writings ever published. It includes all of his poetry and what he considered his complete prose. It is also the only collection that includes, in exactly the form in which it appeared in 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass. This was the book, a commercial failure, which prompted Emerson’s famous message to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career.” These twelve poems, including what were later to be entitled “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric,” and a preface announcing the author’s poetic theories were the first stage of a massive, lifelong work. Six editions and some thirty-seven years later, Leaves of Grass became one of the central volumes in the history of world poetry.

Each edition involved revisions of earlier poems and the incorporation of new ones. As it progressed, it was hailed by Emerson, Thoreau, Rosetti and others, but was also, as with the sixth edition in 1881–82, beset by charges of obscenity for such poems as “A Woman Waits for Me.” Printed here is the final, great culminating edition of 1891–92, the last supervised by Whitman himself just before his death.

Recommended reading - Drawing the Film (1988):

Drawing the Film

By Nicole Van Goethem.

Published 1988.

ISBN 10: 9063032528
ISBN 13: 9789063032524

The book of the movie: A Greek Tragedy. Original title: Een griekse tragedie (1985).

A 7-minute short comedy film, written, directed, and animated by Nicole Van Goethem.

IMDB synopsis:

Three scantily-clad female figures struggle to hold up the crumbling remains of an ancient Greek temple.

Awards:

Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France (1985).

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (1987).

Margaret Atwood, on reading:

More of your brain is involved when reading than it is when you watch television...

because you are supplying just about everything...

you're a creator.

- Margaret Atwood.