Born on this day – Martha Vickers:

Martha Vickers

Actress

May 28, 1925 – November 2, 1971

Credits:

The Rebel (1960); The Jim Backus Show (1960); Four Fast Guns (1960); Perry Mason (1959); State Trooper (1958); Playhouse 90 (1957); The Burglar (1957); The Millionaire (1956); The Big Bluff (1955); Fireside Theatre (1955); The Whistler (1954–1955); The Indiscreet Mrs. Jarvis (1955); The Ford Television Theatre (1954); General Electric Theater (1953–1954); The Unexpected (1952); The Bogus Green (1951); Alimony (1949); Bad Boy (1949); Daughter of the West (1949); Ruthless (1948); Love and Learn (1947); That Way with Women (1947); So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947); The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946); The Man I Love (1946); The Big Sleep (1946); The Falcon in Mexico (1944); The Mummy's Ghost (1944); Marine Raiders (1944); This Is the Life (1944); Hi Ya, Sailor (1943); Top Man (1943); Captive Wild Woman (1943); Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).

Born on this day – Natalie Norwick:

Natalie Norwick

Actress

May 28, 1923 – December 20, 2007

Credits:

23 Paces to Baker Street (1956); 87th Precinct (1961); Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950); Ben Casey (1962); Big Town (1955); Boots and Saddles (1957); Cavalcade of America (1955); Crusader (1955); Dark Shadows (1968–1969); Death Valley Days (1955); Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal (1957); Dragnet (1958); Gunsmoke (1963); Have Gun - Will Travel (1958–1962); Hidden Fear (1957); I Led 3 Lives (1954); Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (1955); Law of the Plainsman (1960); M Squad (1957); Matinee Theatre (1955); Medic (1954); Mike Hammer (1959); Navy Log (1956); Perry Mason (1958–1964); Ryan's Hope (1976); Schlitz Playhouse (1954); Star Trek (1966); Starsky and Hutch (1977); Studio 57 (1955); The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1957); The Clock (1950); The D.A.'s Man (1959); The Detectives (1962); The Edge of Night (1982); The Halls of Ivy (1955); The Lineup (1954); The Millionaire (1956); The O. Henry Playhouse (1957); The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1955); The Rebel (1960); The Star and the Story (1956); The Thin Man (1957); You Are There (1955); Zane Grey Theatre (1961).

Born on this day – György Ligeti:

György Ligeti

Composer

May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006

Credits:

Music:

Allegro (1943); Andante and Allegretto, for string quartet (1950); Apparitions (1958–1959); Artikulation (1958); Atmosphères (1961); Aventures (1962); Baladă și joc (Ballad and Dance) (1950); Betlehemi királyok (Kings of Bethlehem) (1946); Bujdosó (The fugitive) (1946); Capriccio nº 1 & nº 2 (1947); Cello Concerto (1966); Chamber Concerto (1969–1970); Chromatische Phantasie (1956); Clocks and Clouds (1973); Concert românesc (1951); Continuum (1968); Continuum (1970) (adapted for two Player Pianos); Continuum (1970); Coulée (1969); Der Sommer (1989); Double Concerto (1972); Due capricci (1947); Éjszaka – Reggel (Night, morning) (1955); Études pour piano, Book 1, six etudes (1985); Études pour piano, Book 2, eight etudes (1988–1994); Études pour piano, Book 3, four etudes (1995–2001); Four Early Piano Pieces: Basso Ostinato (1941); Fragment (1961); From Études pour piano, Book 2:Ha folyóvíz volnék (1947); Haj, ifjuság! (Hey, youth!) (1951); Hamburg Concerto (1998–1999); Harmonies (1967); Három lakodalmi tánc (Three Wedding Dances) (1950); Három Weöres-dal (Three Weöres Songs) (1946–1947); Hommage à Hilding Rosenberg (1982); Hortobágy (1951); Hungarian Rock (Chaconne) (1978); Húsvét (Easter) (1946); Idegen földön (Far from home) (1945–1946); Inaktelki nóták (Tunes from Inaktelk) (1953); Induló (March) (1942); Invention (1948); Kállai kettős (1952); Lakodalmas (Wedding dance) (1950); L'arrache-coeur (1994); Le Grand Macabre (1975–1977); lissandi (1957); Lontano (1967); Lux Aeterna (1966); Magány (Solitude) (1946); Magos Kősziklának (From the high rocks) (1946); Magyar Etüdök, for 16 voices after Sándor Weöres (1983); Mátraszentimrei dalok (Songs from Mátraszentimre) (1955); Melodien (1971); Musica ricercata (1951–1953); Négy lakodalmi tánc (1950); No. IX: Vertige (1990); No. VII: Galamb borong (1988); No. X: Der Zauberlehrling (1994); No. XI: En suspens (1994); No. XIII: L'escalier du diable (1993); No. XIVa: Coloana fără sfârşit (original version for Player Piano) (1993); Nonsense madrigals (1988–1993); Nouvelles Aventures (1962–1965); Öt Arany-dal (Five Arany Songs) (1952); Pápainé (Widow Pápai) (1953); Passacaglia ungherese (1978); Piano Concerto (1985–88); Pièce électronique no. 3 (1957–1958); Pletykázó asszonyok (1952); Poème Symphonique (1962); Polifón etüd (Polyphonic Étude) (1943); Ramifications (1968–1969); Requiem, for soprano and mezzo-soprano solo, mixed chorus and orchestra (1963–1965); Ricercare – Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi (1953); Rondeau, One-man theatre for an actor and tape (1976); San Francisco Polyphony (1973–1974); Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles) (2000); Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (1953); Sonata for Solo Cello (1948/1953); Sonata for Solo Viola (1991–1994); Sonatina (1950); String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes (1953–1954); String Quartet No. 2 (1968); Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet (1968); The Big Turtle Fanfare from the South China Sea, for trumpet (1985); Three Fantasies after Friedrich Hölderlin (1982); Three Pieces for Two Pianos – Monument – Selbstporträt – Bewegung (1976); Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (1982); Trois Bagatelles, for David Tudor (1961); Violin Concerto (1989–93); Volumina (1961–62, revised 1966).

Movies and television:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984); 2020: a toilet paper odyssey (2020); 56 villanás (2007); A Warning to the Curious (1972); Anónimo (2003); As Above, So Below (2014); Aurora (2018); Bang Bang Orangutang (2005); Barbie (2023); Berlin murmures (1991); Beyond My Reflection (2015); Blink of an Eye (2015); Brainwash (2010); Bruno n'a pas d'agent (1999); C'è musica & musica (1972); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005); Club 2 (1983); Csalog-Kurtág-Ligeti; Der Paradiesgarten (1970); Die Früchte der Arbeit (1977); Ekpyrosis (2013); Elemental Mass (2013); Embers (2015); Enter the Green Abyss (2022); Eyes Wide Shut (1999); Fist of Fury (1972); For the End of Time (2009); Giraffe (2019); Godzilla (2014); György Ligeti - Ein Komponist gibt Auskunft (1970); Heat (1995); Homecoming (2018); Hot for Cash (1974); Intervalo (2012); Jean Tardieu ou le 'voir-dit' (1991); Kinderspiel (2015); Klang aus dem Chaos - Aspekte der Neuen Musik (1969); La ira (1989); Le Grand Macabre (2012); Lemming (2005); Letters from War (2016); Little Spain (2011); Lonely Child: The Imaginary World of Claude Vivier (1988); Magánszám - Üljön le Hajós Andrással! (2003); Másnap (2004); Mediterranea (2011); Memoir of War (2017); Menschen & Mächte (2016); Merci La Vie (1991); Miss Gulag (2007); Mission Hill (1999–2002); Morrer no mar (1984); Musica ricercata (2023); Mutter (2002); NDR Talk Show (1989); Omnibus (1976); Orson Welles's the Other Side of the Wind: A Film by Orson Welles (2011); Other Worlds (2020); Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010); Paper Girls (2022); Polyformia (2008); Reel Iconic (2015); Requiem (1986); Schalcken the Painter (1979); Screen Two (1985); Shutter Island (2010); Stanley Kubrick in Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001); Strada Pia (1983); Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (2015); The Fear (El Miedo);  (2006); The Great Performance (2008); The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017); The Miracle of Tekir (2015); The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012); The Shining (1980); The Silent Witness (1978); The Trouville Zone (2013); The Vanity (2020); The War (2007); The Whole Town's Sleeping (2014); The Young Hitchikers (1971); Tulevaisuus ei ole entisensä (2002); Um Filme Sem História (2002); Viagem a Portugal (2011); Winterspelt 1944 (1978).

Born on this day – Ian Fleming:

Ian Fleming

Writer

May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964

Born on this day – Mona Dol:

Mona Dol

Actress

May 28, 1901 – December 29, 1990

Recommended reading – Vertigo (novel & book of the movie):

D’entre les morts

translation: From Among the Dead

By Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac).

Filmed as Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by Pushkin Vertigo.

First published 1954.

ISBN-10: 1782279741

ISBN-13: 978-1782279747

Description:

In World War II-era Paris, a troubled-ex policeman is entangled in a web of deceit and lies when he investigates a woman’s strange behavior.

Flavières doesn’t really want to investigate his old’s friend’s wife, but he doesn’t feel he has much of a choice. Madeleine has been behaving strangely, and her husband wants answers – answers that she isn’t willing to give him.

As WWII rages around him, Flavières is drawn into an obsessive cat-and-mouse chase across Paris. Soon his intrigue is replaced by obsession and his dreams by nightmares, as he edges towards discovering a dark, terrible secret.

The most celebrated collaboration of a ground-breaking crime-writing duo, Vertigo is the timeless story of morality and revenge, and the inspiration for Hitchcock’s iconic film.

Vertigo

By Charles Barr.

Published by British Film Institute.

Published 2012.

2nd edition.

ISBN-10: 1844574989

ISBN-13: 9781844574988

Description:

Vertigo (1958) is widely regarded as not only one of Hitchcock's best films, but one of the greatest films of world cinema. Made at the time when the old studio system was breaking up, it functions both as an embodiment of the supremely seductive visual pleasures that 'classical Hollywood' could offer and – with the help of an elaborate plot twist – as a laying bare of their dangerous dark side. The film's core is a study in romantic obsession, as James Stewart's Scottie pursues Madeleine/Judy (Kim Novak) to her death in a remote Californian mission. Novak is ice cool but vulnerable, Stewart – in the darkest role of his career – genial on the surface but damaged within.

Although it can be seen as Hitchcock's most personal film, Charles Barr argues that, like Citizen Kane, Vertigo is at the same time a triumph not so much of individual authorship as of creative collaboration. He highlights the crucial role of screenwriters Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor and, by a combination of textual and contextual analysis, explores the reasons why Vertigo continues to inspire such fascination.

In his foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series, Barr looks afresh at Vertigo alongside the recently-rediscovered 'lost' silent The White Shadow (1924), scripted by Hitchcock, which also features the trope of the double, and at the acclaimed contemporary silent film The Artist (2011), which pays explicit homage to Vertigo in its soundtrack.

Joseph Addison, on reading:

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

- Joseph Addison.