Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ...
Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits
This page features links to reviews of movies, documentaries and exhibits with a historical theme. Listings are in reverse chronological order. Descriptions are taken directly from the linked publication. If you have articles you think should be listed on the Pop Culture page, please send them to the editor editor@historynewsnetwork.org.
SOURCE: Guardian (9-10-08)
George W Bush, Richard Nixon, Che Guevara, Hunter S Thompson and Bobby Sands will all be appearing at this year's London film festival, the full programme of which was announced today.
The annual event, which kicks off on October 15 with the world premiere of Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, about David Frost's famous TV interviews with the disgraced US president, will this year feature a record 15 international premieres.
Oliver Stone's much anticipated biopic W, starring Josh Brolin as the 43rd US president, will get its first UK screening at the festival, and there's also a place for Che, Steven Soderbergh's four-hour examination of the life of south American revolutionary Che Guevara, with Benicio Del Toro in the title role. The biopic debuted at Cannes earlier this year, where it was screened in one showing; for London it looks to have been split into two parts.
Elsewhere, Steve McQueen's award-winning drama Hunger, which features Michael Fassbender...
The annual event, which kicks off on October 15 with the world premiere of Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, about David Frost's famous TV interviews with the disgraced US president, will this year feature a record 15 international premieres.
Oliver Stone's much anticipated biopic W, starring Josh Brolin as the 43rd US president, will get its first UK screening at the festival, and there's also a place for Che, Steven Soderbergh's four-hour examination of the life of south American revolutionary Che Guevara, with Benicio Del Toro in the title role. The biopic debuted at Cannes earlier this year, where it was screened in one showing; for London it looks to have been split into two parts.
Elsewhere, Steve McQueen's award-winning drama Hunger, which features Michael Fassbender...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 09:10
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SOURCE: Telegraph (9-9-08)
The palace of Versailles will undergo a kitsch revolution with the opening
of a controversial exhibition by pop artist Jeff Koons, amid cries from
traditionalists that it is sacrilegious to bring works like his inflatable
lobster into the palace of the Sun King.
Some 17 oeuvres have been hand-picked by the 53-year old"king of kitsch" to hang in the 17th century chateau and home to the French monarchy until the Revolution.
Among those on display in the Grand Apartment, the Hall of Mirrors and other historic rooms is the nine-foot stainless steel red Hanging Heart, which fetched $23.6 million (£12 million) last year, making Mr Koons the most expensive living artist.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 15:37
SOURCE: AP (9-8-08)
HAMBURG, Germany: For Peter Tamm, the passion that launched a thousand
ships — and Hamburg's newest museum along the port city's old docks —
began with a gift from his mother in 1934.
"A 500-gross tonnage coaster from the North Sea-Baltic line," Tamm said, rattling off specs of that first vessel in his possession.
Of course, 500 gross tons was a little too big for a 6-year-old. What Tamm's mother gave him was an inch-long (2.5-centimeter) model of the cargo ship."Then came the second, then came the third, until I lost count," said Tamm.
Today he has 36,000. Each and every one built to the same 1:1,250 scale — and that's not all.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 15:09
SOURCE: AP (9-9-08)
Pssst. The secret's out at KFC. Well, sort of. Colonel Harland Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices was to be removed Tuesday from safekeeping at KFC's corporate offices for the first time in decades. The temporary relocation is allowing KFC to revamp security around a yellowing sheet of paper that contains one of the country's most famous corporate secrets.
The brand's top executive admitted his nerves were aflutter despite the tight security he lined up for the operation.
"I don't want to be the president who loses the recipe," KFC President Roger Eaton said. "Imagine how terrifying that would be."
So important is the 68-year-old concoction that coats the chain's Original Recipe chicken that only two company executives at any time have access to it. The company refuses to release their name or title, and it uses multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients but know only a part of the entire contents....
The brand's top executive admitted his nerves were aflutter despite the tight security he lined up for the operation.
"I don't want to be the president who loses the recipe," KFC President Roger Eaton said. "Imagine how terrifying that would be."
So important is the 68-year-old concoction that coats the chain's Original Recipe chicken that only two company executives at any time have access to it. The company refuses to release their name or title, and it uses multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients but know only a part of the entire contents....
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 14:23
SOURCE: Independent (9-9-08)
An Australian musicologist has discovered what he believes to be the last piano work written by Beethoven.
Peter McCallum, associate professor of musicology at the University of Sydney, found the 32 bars of handwritten music while looking at one of the composer's sketchbooks in Berlin's state library. Most of his books have been studied in detail but the final one has attracted less attention.
McCallum said that he didn't know instantly that it was a piano piece because Beethoven often used a chaotic sort of shorthand. "The sketchbooks ... are very difficult to read and need a bit of deciphering, but you can work it out if you look at it for long enough," he said.
McCallum said he believed the piece was written in October 1826, five months before Beethoven died.
Peter McCallum, associate professor of musicology at the University of Sydney, found the 32 bars of handwritten music while looking at one of the composer's sketchbooks in Berlin's state library. Most of his books have been studied in detail but the final one has attracted less attention.
McCallum said that he didn't know instantly that it was a piano piece because Beethoven often used a chaotic sort of shorthand. "The sketchbooks ... are very difficult to read and need a bit of deciphering, but you can work it out if you look at it for long enough," he said.
McCallum said he believed the piece was written in October 1826, five months before Beethoven died.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 13:45
SOURCE: AP (9-8-08)
When reports circulated over the weekend of a last-minute deal to keep Coney Island's historic Astroland amusement park open for another year, owner Carol Hill Albert was not amused.
Indeed, her tone was bitter as she described plans to close the park Sunday night in lieu of an agreement with the city or with private developer Thor Equities, which have competing plans for the 3-acre Brooklyn site.
"Despite rumors to the contrary, there are absolutely no negotiations going on, and there never were," said Albert, whose family has owned Astroland for more than four decades.
The park would close permanently, she said. Late Sunday night, visitors were herded out of the park and the lights were shut off for the last time.
Indeed, her tone was bitter as she described plans to close the park Sunday night in lieu of an agreement with the city or with private developer Thor Equities, which have competing plans for the 3-acre Brooklyn site.
"Despite rumors to the contrary, there are absolutely no negotiations going on, and there never were," said Albert, whose family has owned Astroland for more than four decades.
The park would close permanently, she said. Late Sunday night, visitors were herded out of the park and the lights were shut off for the last time.
Monday, September 8, 2008 - 10:30
SOURCE: NYT (9-4-08)
BORN to one of the richest families in England, she married into a clan that was even wealthier and more eminent. Her husband was nearly a decade older and never pretended to feel anything close to the romantic love she yearned for. Instead he took a mistress. But if he didn’t want his wife, just about everyone else did. She was a huge celebrity with a unique sense of style that was widely copied. Above all, she was devoted to her children.
Does the story line sound familiar?
Diana, Princess of Wales, was not the first member of the aristocratic Spencer family to win the heart of her country but not her husband. In 1774 her ancestor Lady Georgiana Spencer married the Duke of Devonshire, who had been considered the most eligible bachelor in England. Their sad union is the focus of “The Duchess,” which opens Sept. 19.
Based on Amanda Foreman’s 1998 best-selling biography, “Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire,” the film concentrates on only about 10 years...
Does the story line sound familiar?
Diana, Princess of Wales, was not the first member of the aristocratic Spencer family to win the heart of her country but not her husband. In 1774 her ancestor Lady Georgiana Spencer married the Duke of Devonshire, who had been considered the most eligible bachelor in England. Their sad union is the focus of “The Duchess,” which opens Sept. 19.
Based on Amanda Foreman’s 1998 best-selling biography, “Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire,” the film concentrates on only about 10 years...
Sunday, September 7, 2008 - 16:28
SOURCE: International Herald Tribune (8-20-08)
In France today, the women known as Les Insoumises are feisty
feminists who will not take any affront to their dignity lying down.
During the Second Empire (1852-70), lying down was just what Les
Insoumises excelled at, and dignity had nothing to do with it.
They were courtesans whose nickname"insoumises," meaning insubordinate, came from the fact that, unlike common prostitutes, they refused to submit to police licensing or conventional morals. They were glamorous, venal and usually ended up badly but while the going was good they were celebrated, from before the Empire and after its end, by writers from Dumas fils to Maupassant and Zola.
At the 39th-annual Rencontres d'Arles, France's most famous photography festival, the guest curator, the couturier Christian Lacroix, chose Les Insoumises to feature in a special and very entertaining section, explaining that he has long been fascinated by these colorful transgressors. The exhibition was co-curated by Laure Deratte.
...
Sunday, September 7, 2008 - 15:26
SOURCE: NYT (9-5-08)
BALTIMORE — Edgar Allan Poe never lived in one city for long, and ever since he died and was buried here in 1849 this city has claimed him as its own.
But last year Edward Pettit, a Poe scholar in Philadelphia, began arguing that Poe’s remains belong in Philadelphia. Poe wrote many of his most noteworthy works there and, according to Mr. Pettit, that city’s rampant crime and violence in the mid-19th century framed Poe’s sinister outlook and inspired his creation of the detective fiction genre.
“So, Philadelphians, let’s hop in our cars, drive down I-95 and appropriate a body from a certain Baltimore cemetery,” Mr. Pettit wrote in an article for the Philadelphia City Paper in October. “I’ll bring the shovel.”
So far, no one has taken up Mr. Pettit’s call for Philadelphia’s best grave robbers to bring home the city’s prodigal son before the bicentennial of Poe’s birth in January 2009. But the ghoulish argument between the cities over the body and...
But last year Edward Pettit, a Poe scholar in Philadelphia, began arguing that Poe’s remains belong in Philadelphia. Poe wrote many of his most noteworthy works there and, according to Mr. Pettit, that city’s rampant crime and violence in the mid-19th century framed Poe’s sinister outlook and inspired his creation of the detective fiction genre.
“So, Philadelphians, let’s hop in our cars, drive down I-95 and appropriate a body from a certain Baltimore cemetery,” Mr. Pettit wrote in an article for the Philadelphia City Paper in October. “I’ll bring the shovel.”
So far, no one has taken up Mr. Pettit’s call for Philadelphia’s best grave robbers to bring home the city’s prodigal son before the bicentennial of Poe’s birth in January 2009. But the ghoulish argument between the cities over the body and...
Saturday, September 6, 2008 - 19:09
SOURCE: Guardian (9-6-08)
The dawn of the cold war was literally freezing. The winter of 1947 was the worst ever recorded in Europe. From January to late March, it opened a front across Russia, Germany, Italy, France and Britain, and advanced with complete lack of mercy. Snow fell in St Tropez, gale-force winds building up impenetrable drifts; ice floes drifted to the mouth of the Thames; barges bringing coal into Paris became icebound. There, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin found himself "terrified" by the city's coldness, "empty and hollow and dead, like an exquisite corpse". A slight thaw was followed by a further freeze-up, locking canals and roads under a thick layer of ice. In Berlin, Willy Brandt described how the icy cold "attacked people like a savage beast". Ghostly figures roamed parks looking for benches to cut up into firewood. The Tiergarten was hacked down to stumps, its statues left standing in a wilderness of frozen mud; the woods in the famous Grünewald were...
Saturday, September 6, 2008 - 11:24
SOURCE: Mother Jones (9-1-08)
Laura Bush is a lot more popular than her husband, so when many W.-haters see the first lady in photos or on TV, they must wonder, How does she live with him? The speculation about the first marriage has been fueled by Laura Bush's few titillating suggestions that she might be a closet liberal whose political views, particularly on abortion and homosexuality, directly contradict her husband's. (She was a librarian, after all.) When I look at Laura Bush, I have more Us Weekly sorts of questions, like, Has she had a face-lift?
But unlike her predecessor, Bush has remained something of a sphinx these past eight years, offering few clues about her views of the world and of her husband. The public sees in her what it wants to see, projecting on to her beliefs that she has chosen to neither confirm nor deny. So author Curtis Sittenfeld has gone ahead and tried to fill in the blanks through fiction. American Wife, timed for release with the opening of the Republican convention,...
But unlike her predecessor, Bush has remained something of a sphinx these past eight years, offering few clues about her views of the world and of her husband. The public sees in her what it wants to see, projecting on to her beliefs that she has chosen to neither confirm nor deny. So author Curtis Sittenfeld has gone ahead and tried to fill in the blanks through fiction. American Wife, timed for release with the opening of the Republican convention,...
Friday, September 5, 2008 - 20:39
SOURCE: NYT (9-4-08)
On some days visitors to the Luigi Pigorini National Museum of
Prehistory and Ethnography here may find its director in the front booth
handing out entrance tickets. It’s not a meet-and-greet situation: The
museum is chronically understaffed.
In recent weeks museumgoers have tended to speed past the glass-encased artifacts from Oceania and Asia or skim Homo’s evolution to sapiens. They can’t afford to tarry. The Pigorini has no money for air-conditioning, and the Roman sun is merciless.
“We barely have enough money to keep the lights on, or pay for a cleaning staff,” said Vito Lattanzi, director of educational services and of the Mediterranean collections at the museum, which is also a research institute. The custodial staff has been pared down to 11 from 30. Ten years ago there were eight to a shift; now there are four, and in most cases two are volunteers.
“We’re making a superhuman effort,” Mr. Lattanzi said. “We’re determined to keep the museum open, but the risk of...
Friday, September 5, 2008 - 19:45
SOURCE: International Herald Tribune (9-5-08)
LONDON: South African avant-garde painting of the 20th century has not loomed large in the public mind in the past, but this may be about to change.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, a sale organized by Bonhams will turn the spotlight on some surprising artists who sprang up at the southern tip of the African continent.
They were as diverse as their individual backgrounds and their versatility reflects their own fragmented life stories. Few had an easy time.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, a sale organized by Bonhams will turn the spotlight on some surprising artists who sprang up at the southern tip of the African continent.
They were as diverse as their individual backgrounds and their versatility reflects their own fragmented life stories. Few had an easy time.
Friday, September 5, 2008 - 16:48
SOURCE: Spiegel Online (9-4-08)
A new exhibit in Lebanon celebrates Hezbollah's 2006 war against Israel and commemorates fallen military leader Imad Mugniyah. Though gruesome and kitschy, the show has been a huge success.
A blue laser projects a dancing Star of David on smoke wafting out of a destroyed tank. A loudspeaker roars into life, booming out artillery salvos, hammering out rifle shots. Above the noise, you can hear orders barked out in Arabic and fighters on the front speaking through walkie-talkies. For five minutes, the war is back in Lebanon -- at least acoustically. Then, the sounds of combat fade away, only to be replaced by the chitchat of the visitors to the exhibit. "Look, it's the skeleton of an Israeli soldier," a father explains to his 3-year-old son in front of a casket with a glass lid.
The show has been a huge success, drawing masses of eager visitors to downtown Nabatiye. But it's not the first such exhibit Hezbollah has staged for its supporters. Each year,...
A blue laser projects a dancing Star of David on smoke wafting out of a destroyed tank. A loudspeaker roars into life, booming out artillery salvos, hammering out rifle shots. Above the noise, you can hear orders barked out in Arabic and fighters on the front speaking through walkie-talkies. For five minutes, the war is back in Lebanon -- at least acoustically. Then, the sounds of combat fade away, only to be replaced by the chitchat of the visitors to the exhibit. "Look, it's the skeleton of an Israeli soldier," a father explains to his 3-year-old son in front of a casket with a glass lid.
The show has been a huge success, drawing masses of eager visitors to downtown Nabatiye. But it's not the first such exhibit Hezbollah has staged for its supporters. Each year,...
Friday, September 5, 2008 - 09:50
SOURCE: Telegraph (9-5-08)
I know no artistic director who is more sensitive to, or pugnacious about, bad notices than Dominic Dromgoole of the Globe, so it's been a relief this year to discover that most of the shows have been excellent.
This closing production, however, is a bummer, and reveals Dromgoole's Achilles' heel. He rightly wants to put big meaty new plays on his stage as well as Shakespeare, but he has a bad habit of confusing ambitious intentions with actual achievement.
Liberty, about the reign of terror during the French Revolution, certainly isn't as bum-numbingly terrible as We the People, Eric Schlosser's epic last year about the framing of the American Constitution which made the average parish council meeting seem like a wild night at a lap-dancing club.
But Glyn Maxwell's play is nevertheless a terminal snorer, and the feeling of relief when it ends proves the highlight of the night.
The piece is based on Anatole France's novel Les Dieux ont...
This closing production, however, is a bummer, and reveals Dromgoole's Achilles' heel. He rightly wants to put big meaty new plays on his stage as well as Shakespeare, but he has a bad habit of confusing ambitious intentions with actual achievement.
Liberty, about the reign of terror during the French Revolution, certainly isn't as bum-numbingly terrible as We the People, Eric Schlosser's epic last year about the framing of the American Constitution which made the average parish council meeting seem like a wild night at a lap-dancing club.
But Glyn Maxwell's play is nevertheless a terminal snorer, and the feeling of relief when it ends proves the highlight of the night.
The piece is based on Anatole France's novel Les Dieux ont...
Friday, September 5, 2008 - 09:24
SOURCE: Guardian (9-3-08)
Holocaust exhibitions are a lot more popular than Monty's tank, and the Imperial War Museum's new one looks like a canny attempt to lure people into its permanent collection
London's Imperial War Museum does have an image problem, I admit. Who goes there? Plenty of men with their sons, obviously. Veterans, nostalgists and military history buffs. But it's not, traditionally, the kind of place you take your girlfriend to if you want to look hip. It is, frankly, quite depressing.
There is only one theme from the museum's designated field of 20th-century warfare that still has cachet. As film-makers have found to their profit, while you may no longer be able to fill cinemas with clunking old military epics like A Bridge Too Far you can still reap acclaim, awards and audiences by reflecting on the Holocaust.
For museums too, Holocaust exhibitions are a lot more popular than Monty's tank. The Imperial War Museum's new exhibition Unspeakable: The Artist...
London's Imperial War Museum does have an image problem, I admit. Who goes there? Plenty of men with their sons, obviously. Veterans, nostalgists and military history buffs. But it's not, traditionally, the kind of place you take your girlfriend to if you want to look hip. It is, frankly, quite depressing.
There is only one theme from the museum's designated field of 20th-century warfare that still has cachet. As film-makers have found to their profit, while you may no longer be able to fill cinemas with clunking old military epics like A Bridge Too Far you can still reap acclaim, awards and audiences by reflecting on the Holocaust.
For museums too, Holocaust exhibitions are a lot more popular than Monty's tank. The Imperial War Museum's new exhibition Unspeakable: The Artist...
Friday, September 5, 2008 - 08:57
SOURCE: Reuters (9-3-08)
French scientists have devised a way of using particle accelerators to authenticate vintage wines, one of France's top research bodies said this week.
The new method tests the age of the glass in wine bottles by analyzing X-rays emitted when the bottles are placed under ion beams produced by a particle accelerator, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement.
The new method tests the age of the glass in wine bottles by analyzing X-rays emitted when the bottles are placed under ion beams produced by a particle accelerator, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement.
Thursday, September 4, 2008 - 18:24
SOURCE: AP (9-4-08)
The Army, with a hand from Hollywood, has received a long-lost Oscar back into its ranks.
The little statue took a long, and largely unknown path before being passed from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis to an Army general during a Wednesday night ceremony and screening.
In 1942, a few weeks after Pearl Harbor, filmmaker Frank Capra joined the Army and was assigned to create a film series, "Why We Fight."
Major Capra, who had directed such films as "It Happened One Night," "Lost Horizon" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was told to create the documentary "Prelude to War."
He showed the finished work to Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, who insisted that President Roosevelt see the film.
In his 1971 autobiography, "The Name Above the Title," Capra wrote of a screening at the White House. Amid the applause at the end, FDR...
The little statue took a long, and largely unknown path before being passed from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis to an Army general during a Wednesday night ceremony and screening.
In 1942, a few weeks after Pearl Harbor, filmmaker Frank Capra joined the Army and was assigned to create a film series, "Why We Fight."
Major Capra, who had directed such films as "It Happened One Night," "Lost Horizon" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was told to create the documentary "Prelude to War."
He showed the finished work to Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, who insisted that President Roosevelt see the film.
In his 1971 autobiography, "The Name Above the Title," Capra wrote of a screening at the White House. Amid the applause at the end, FDR...
Thursday, September 4, 2008 - 17:38
SOURCE: Bay Area Reporter (9-4-08)
Milk Directed by Gus Van Sant, this homegrown Greek tragedy -- the City Hall assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone -- is fueled by Lance Black's passionate, meticulously researched screenplay. For decades, the desire to create a fictional template for the slain gay politician's achingly brief career has tempted, absorbed and ultimately frustrated an array of talents, from Oliver Stone to Milk biographer Randy Shilts, to Van Sant himself. To Black, the core of the problem was to find the emotional heartbeat of the story, the elusive but vital role Milk has played in the imaginations of queer kids looking for a father figure. The film opens this fall.
Milk kicks off with two hippies: a scraggily bearded Wall Street dropout, Milk (Sean Penn), getting it on with #1 boyfriend Scott Smith (James Franco). The couple's camera shop becomes a neighborhood hangout, attracting a bevy of ambitious young men: Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), Jack Lira (Diego Luna...
Milk kicks off with two hippies: a scraggily bearded Wall Street dropout, Milk (Sean Penn), getting it on with #1 boyfriend Scott Smith (James Franco). The couple's camera shop becomes a neighborhood hangout, attracting a bevy of ambitious young men: Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), Jack Lira (Diego Luna...
Thursday, September 4, 2008 - 12:46
SOURCE: Tehran Times (9-4-08)
A collection of rare manuscripts of the Holy Quran attributed to the Imams are currently on display at the 16th annual International Holy Quran Exhibition.
The collection has been put on display by the Astan-e Qods Razavi Organization for Libraries, Museums and Archives Centers.
The manuscripts, which are mostly donated to the Astan-e Qods Museum, are attributed to Imam Ali (AS), Imam Hassan (AS), Imam Reza (AS), and Imam Musa (AS) and are on exhibit at the Astan-e Qods stand, the organization’s public relations manager Ali Mehrtalab told the Persian service of IRNA.
“The collection includes the oldest Dari translation of the Quran dating back to the 10th century and the English translation of the Quran translated by Rahim Dowlati,” he remarked.
“The copy of the Quran in the Nastaliq style of calligraphy inscribed by master Hossein Mirkhani, as well as different translations of the Quran into several languages, including Turkish,...
The collection has been put on display by the Astan-e Qods Razavi Organization for Libraries, Museums and Archives Centers.
The manuscripts, which are mostly donated to the Astan-e Qods Museum, are attributed to Imam Ali (AS), Imam Hassan (AS), Imam Reza (AS), and Imam Musa (AS) and are on exhibit at the Astan-e Qods stand, the organization’s public relations manager Ali Mehrtalab told the Persian service of IRNA.
“The collection includes the oldest Dari translation of the Quran dating back to the 10th century and the English translation of the Quran translated by Rahim Dowlati,” he remarked.
“The copy of the Quran in the Nastaliq style of calligraphy inscribed by master Hossein Mirkhani, as well as different translations of the Quran into several languages, including Turkish,...
Thursday, September 4, 2008 - 09:30
