Kristin Levine ’97 and Matt McNevin, co-directors, Soirée, 2003

You need to start somewhere. With neighborhood blockbusters costing $100 million or more to produce, it helps to remember that the lifeblood of creativity in film is often found in the “indies.” Young writers/directors, passionate about their art, somehow manage to leap over the hurdles and get their independently produced pictures on the screen.

Joining their ranks is Kristin Levine who graduated from Swarthmore in 1997 with a major in German. Her day job is teaching German in a suburban Washington, D.C., high school, but, with an M.F.A. in film and electronic media from American University and an adjunct appointment there teaching screenwriting, it is clear where her heart lies. And now, along with co-writer/director Matt McNevin, Levine has her own indie film, Soirée, which opened in March in at least one theater in suburban Washington.

Although many indie filmmakers pride themselves on doing a film for a few hundred thousand, Soirée cost only $40,000—a tad more than the cost of a year at certain colleges.

Levine’s liberal arts background apparently gave her the confidence to tackle an adult comedy about the marital challenges of two 40-something couples. Cindy (Anne Flosnick) and David (David James) are planning a party to celebrate their 20th anniversary. In the opening line of the film, however, Cindy is on the phone to her suicidal therapist, Dr. Sherman (Greg Coale): “Should I leave the so-and-so, or invite my friends to the soirée?” They decide to go ahead with the party, and among the guests are Roberta (Kate Revelle), a divorce lawyer, and Greg (Neil Conway), a wannabe novelist who has settled for writing fortune-cookie wisdom. Greg and David were best friends in college, and David went out with Roberta until he dumped her to marry Cindy; then, Roberta married Greg on the rebound. Despite Roberta’s reluctance, she and Greg decide to spend the night with David and Cindy, and, to boot, they bring along their misbehaving 16-year-old daughter, Jessica (Lauren Adelman).

Complications ensue. David has the hots for Roberta again, Greg has the hots for Cindy, and Jessica has the hots for David. Doors are slammed. People hide in closets. David’s precious baseball with Roberto Clemente’s autograph is thrown out the window, and the autograph is washed off. And, like a Greek chorus, Cindy’s intermittent phone calls to Dr. Sherman, seeking reassurance, keep interrupting his suicide attempts. Striking an odd blow for the effectiveness of therapy, Dr. Sherman’s arrival at Cindy and David’s house, gun in hand, precipitates the denouement.

Soirée aims for a kind of retro innocence. Despite some sexual innuendo, the dialogue and the situations are more PG. Levine and McNevin have an obvious affection for the characters they have created, and the cast runs through the farce with a sense of fun. Of course, $40,000 doesn’t buy a lot of production value these days. The film was shot on location in Levine’s parents’ house; unless you’ve seen dinner theater in the DC area, you are unlikely to recognize any of the cast.

One senses that Levine and McNevin were trying for something like the wit of Nora Ephron in the dialogue and the zaniness of early Woody Allen. Ephron and Allen don’t have to move over just yet, but it is exciting to see Levine and McNevin taking them on. I look forward to the next efforts of these talented young filmmakers.

—Robert Gross ’62
Dean of the College

BOOKS

Publishers Weekly (March 5) reported that Adam Haslett ’92 received The L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, named for a former editor of The Boston Globe and honoring a book about New England or by a New England author. The award was presented in April at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. You Are Not a Stranger Here (Doubleday, 2002) was also nominated for the National Book Award and won a New York Magazine Award for fiction.

According to Publishers Weekly (March 3), “The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group [now officially the Random House Publishing Group] named Daniel Menaker [’63] the new editor-in-chief of its Random House side, ending one of the most closely watched job searches in recent publishing history. Menaker, an executive editor at HarperCollins who also did a six-year turn at Random House, is best-known for his 25 years at the New Yorker, many of which he spent editing fiction and nonfiction.”

T. Alexander Aleinikoff ’74, Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship, Harvard University Press, 2002. Attuned to the demands of a new century, the author argues for abandonment of plenary power cases and for more flexible conceptions of sovereignty and citizenship.

Michael Alexander ’68, The Case for the Prosecution in the Ciceronian Era,University of Michigan Press, 2002. This work reconstructs the prosecution’s case in 11 criminal trials held in the late Roman Republic.

Bernard Beitman ’64, Barton Blinder, Michael Thase, Michelle Riba, and Debra Safer, Integrating Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy: Dissolving the Mind-Brain Barrier, W.W. Norton, 2003. This book covers topics such as research in combined treatments, pharmacotherapy during psychotherapy, and the neurobiology of psychotherapy.

Edmund Bowles ’49, Timpani: A History in Pictures and Documents, Pendragon Press, 2002. The author, an expert musicologist and iconographer, provides a comprehensive compendium of historical documents and photographs.

T. Alan Broughton ’62, Suicidal Tendencies, Center for Literary Publishing and University Press of Colorado, 2003. The author of several novels and poetry collections explores themes such as revolutionary activities in Italy and America.

Philip Ashley Fanning ’57, Mark Twain and Orion Clemens: Brothers, Partners, Strangers, The University of Alabama Press, 2003. This account of Twain’s relationship with his older brother draws on extensive archival sources, unpublished letters between the brothers, and the Mark Twain papers at the University of California–Berkeley.

Jan Feldman ’76, Lubavitchers as Citizens: A Paradox of Liberal Democracy, Cornell University Press, 2003. The author, an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont, illuminates a fascinating group and explores the relationship between liberal and democratic values.

James Fritts ’60, Essentials of Illinois School Finance: A Guide to Techniques, Issues and Resources, Illinois Association of School Boards, 2002. Originally designed as a training manual and desktop reference for school business managers and budget makers, this book is also a reference for anyone who needs to understand “the essentials of Illinois school finance.”

Randy Holland ’69, The Delaware State Constitution: A Reference Guide, Greenwood Press, 2002. State Supreme Court Justice Randy Holland divides this detailed work into two parts: “The Constitutional History of Delaware” and “Delaware Constitution and Commentary.”

Joseph Horowitz ’70, Dvorák in America: In Search of the New World, Cricket Books, 2003. In this account of Dvorák’s 1890s stay in America, the author follows the musical and cultural influences that inpired the New World Symphony.

Clark Kerr ’32, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967, vol. 2: Political Turmoil. University of California Press, 2003. This second of two volumes continues the story of one of the last century’s most influential figures in higher education.

Dana Mackenzie ’79, The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be, John Wiley & Sons, 2003. For a general audience, this book relates how lunar scientists arrived at a theory of the Moon’s birth.

Carolyn McConnell ’93 and Sarah Ruth van Gelder, eds., Making Peace: Healing a Violent World, Positive Futures Network, 2003. These stories, including “The Language of Nonviolence” and “Restorative Justice,” from YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, support peaceful alternatives in the media, schools, and international affairs.

Sandra ’68 and David McLanahan ’63, Surgery and Its Alternatives: How to Make the Right Choices for Your Health, Kensington Publishing, 2002. Siblings Sandra McLanahan, a family practice physician on the East Coast, and David McLanahan, a general surgeon on the West Coast, provide useful information about the surgical experience—and how to avoid it.

Charles Miller ’59, Ship of State: The Nautical Metaphors of Thomas Jefferson, With Numerous Examples by Other Writers From Classical Antiquity to the Present, University Press of America, 2003. Organized in two parts, an essay and an anthology, this book gathers and examines approximately 100 nautical metaphors.

Jim Moskowitz ’88, Bubbleology, innovative KIDS®, 2003. This hands-on science kit, for children to use with adult supervision, has more than 30 experiments to learn the secrets behind amazing bubble tricks.

Marcus Noland ’81 and Howard Pack, Industrial Policy in an Era of Globalization: Lessons From Asia, Institute for International Economics, 2003. This work focuses on globalization as a description of economic transformation and its many meanings.

Gwinn Owens ’47, Carpenter’s Heaven, Xlibris, 2002. In this book, a brilliant and cantankerous microbiologist seemingly achieves the ultimate—a dietary supplement that controls the aging process.

J.P. Partland ’90 and John Gibson, photographer, Mountain Bike Madness, MBI Publishing, 2003. This account of mountain biking’s beginnings describes its culture, style, and global appeal.

Eric Sievers ’92, The Post-Soviet Decline of Central Asia, RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. This work explains the economic decline of the post–Soviet Central Asian states, presenting a challenge to development agencies, scholars, and human rights organizations.

Maryhelen (Hintz) Snyder ’53, No Hole in the Flame: A Story of Love and Loss in Prose and Poetry, The Wildflower Press, 2003. After her husband, Ross Snyder Jr. ’52, died suddenly in 1996, the author chronicled her experience with grief and her reflections on their 40-year marriage.

Daniel Styer ’77, The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, 2000. “Dedicated to two extraordinary teachers of quantum mechanics: John R. Boccio and N. David Mermin,” this introductory work is suitable for use as a course text and will appeal to other readers “seeking intellectual adventure.”

Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman ’90, The Press Effect, Oxford University Press, 2003. This book reveals how media coverage in America determines what we know and don’t know about politics.

E. Roy Weintraub ’64, ed., The Future of the History of Economics—Annual Supplement to Volume 34: History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, 2002. Divided into five parts, this book covers topics such as North American and international issues, publication and research, the next generation, and heterodox traditions.

Stephen Ross and John Yinger ’69, The Color of Credit: Mortgage Discrimination, Research Methodology, and Fair-Lending Enforcement, MIT Press, 2002. The authors discuss mortgage-lending discrimination in recent years by reanalyzing existing loan-approval and-performance data and devising new tests for detecting discrimination in contemporary mortgage markets.

COMPACT DISK

Adam Grabois ’84 and John Nauman, Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Reflex Editions, 2002. With an introduction, “Recording as Performance,” by William R. Kenan Jr., Professor Emerita of Art History T. Kaori Kitao, this CD features music that Grabois has performed and produced. To listen to three sound clips, click here: http://www.reflexeditions.com/text/soundclip.htm.