1. Saving Private Ryan dir Steven Spielberg; w. Matt Damon.; the Normandy invasion up close & personal.
2. Amistad dir Steven Spielberg; based on a historical trial about slaves who mutinied. Mirka was proud that the Brits were the good guys. An image I remember: the luxury ship & slave ship passing in the night. Too close to be realistic, but worked ok.
3. Good Will Hunting dir Gus Van Sant; w. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, & Robin Williams; Cambridge MA natives Damon & Affleck got the screenplay Oscar. Set in Boston, MIT, Bunker Hill Com. College, Harv. Sq. We saw this with Mirka & Janusz.
4. Character (Neth) dir Mike van Diem. Set in the 1920’s. About a self-made young man, son of a single mother, whose father would not acknowledge him. The taciturn mother, upon seeing the young woman Jacob Willem let get away: "You’re an ass." The movie has a dark look. In my memory it’s not in color. Leaving the cinema Herman remarked "Now that’s a drama."
5. The Boxer dir Jim Sheridan. w. Daniel Day-Lewis & Emily Watson. Set in Northern Ireland. The Phoenix called it "My Left Hook." Matt Damon’s mother: "How can it be fair that your movie got so many Oscar nominations & The Boxer got none?"

• Wilde dir Brian Gilbert; script by Julian Mitchell. I checked certain facts where I presumed the film to have used poetic license, & each was documented in Richard Ellman’s acclaimed biography! Stephen Frye even looks like Oscar! Music is used effectively. With Jude Law (Lord Alfred Douglas a.k.a Bosie),Tim Wilkerson (Queensbury) & Michael Sheen (Robbie Ross).
• Beyond Silence (Ger) dir Caroline Link. Daughter of deaf parents leaves home at 18 to study clarinet. Family dynamics.
• Cruise dir Bennet Miller & subject Timothy "Speed" Levich were both present at the BFF screening. A documentary about a NYC tour guide who punctuates his bon mots by snapping his mike off w/ a flourish. I asked "Did your grandparents see it?"

• The Farmer’s Wife dir David Sutherland; documentary on PBS about Darrel & Juanita Buschkoetter of Nebraska this decade.
• Without Limits dir Robert Towne, w. Billy Crudup as Steve Prefontaine & Donald Sutherland as Coach Bill Bowerman. Biopic.
• Life is Beautiful.(Italy) Roberto Begnini; Controversial. Sacred material is used in a movie that also contains sight gags (the one in the opera is my favorite). I regard Art Spiegelman’s Maus as art. This is also. The father’s game theory modeled the universe as plausibly as the truth . Mind boggling. The movie is in 2 distinct halves, both fairy-talelike. The translation scene is brilliant.

• A Short History of a Prince by Jane Hamilton: The year’s top novel. At the reading Dorothy told Jane "I’m from Rockford."

• A Civil Action by Jonathan Haar: H. & I could not put it down. The Woburn MA pollution case against W.R. Grace & Beatrice.
• A Whole New Life. An Illness & a Healing by Reynolds Price: Memoir about cancer & coming to terms with paraplegia.
• American Catholic by Morris; Patrick G. told me he wanted to see this on my list this year & indeed it was great. Genre, history.
• Paula by Isabel Allende; Memoir about Isabel’s coping with her 28-yr-old daughter’s year in a coma; Biographical thoughts.

For the record, the following are the works of fiction from among those her book group chose that Eva managed to read & discuss, time well spent, & a pleasure: Morality Play by Barry Unsworth, At Weddings & Wakes by Alice McDermott, Last Orders by Graham Swift, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald, & The Family Markowicz by Allegra Goodman. G. Keilbach, who has attended the book group in years past on his visits, went w/ Eva to a reading by Allegra G.

Hints about the images used to symbolize our year, 1998:

In Trinidad with the Cape Cod Bird Club we enjoyed the Tufted Coquette, Purple Honeycreeper & Scarlet Ibis; Go players were not defeated by the June 13 flood; The 1st week of August Eva went to the American Go Congress in Santa Fe NM, while Herman & Bob Stymeist went to Ollie’s & Lorena’s wedding in El Salvador, where they encountered a coatimundi. In Sept. Herman & family members went to Patrick’s & Beth’s wedding in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Herman brought a gift home for our kitchen, a watercolor of a red-painted "Casey’s Pub" (w/ cows—that was the WI part). It so happens Eva ran in a road race the next weekend, a 3-mile loop from Casey’s Bar in Somerville to benefit the Y a block from our house; Herman went with Harold & Irene in a group to Antwerp with side trip to Paris; The Vaughts from North Carolina & the Culshaws of London birded MA with us Memorial Day weekend & Labor Day weekend respectively. The finale to Andy & Cathy’s visit was a Bald Eagle soaring over Great Meadows.Bill & Diane also made a dramatic exit; Thanks to Dorothy Arvidson, who smelled gas in our house, we replaced our dinosaur furnace; Eva was called to jury duty & Herman went to Small Claims Court over his car being rear-ended. H won. E was selected, then peremptorily dismissed; Eva’s beeper went off enroute to Peggy’s surprise birthday party. Other FarSight happenings were the Tao buttons, rolling stock w. signage by Rod D’Entremont, & premature vesting; Herman saw his 300^th 1998 MA bird species Nov. 15, a Short-eared Owl. Just home from visiting sister-in-law Theresa in Napa, Massbird put Herman onto what was around; Eva recycled last year’s "Go granny go" statue for the "Gotta get these towels over to St. Anne’s" poster; Ellie & Stauffer joined us in our annual pilgrimage to Rochester at Thanksgiving. Near the NY-MA state line we spotted a wild Turkey from the car.

Credits: Jane Berchtold, in a converstion w/ Eva in Tobago, came up with the idea of the Boreal Owl clutching the mouse. The same idea, whose time had obviously come, was being discussed on the internet; The designer of the Go Congress logo was known to tournament impresario Grant Franks only as "someone at the printer’s." I reproduced it by digitally photographing my T-shirt.

Much on our minds this holiday season are El Niño & El Salvador.