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 (UK) (10-4-08)
The title of Erich Maria Remarque's great anti-war novel about German soldiers fighting in the first world war comes from a news report in October 1918 just a month before the end of the war. But as Remarque's novel demonstrates, even when all was reported quiet, men were being slaughtered. Robin Kingsland's stage adaptation tells the story of Paul who - influenced by the patriotic fervour of his school teacher - enlists in the German army, aged just 19. A tale of lost innocence and lost lives, the play follows Paul through the war as he confronts the horrors of the trenches and no man's land and deals with death as his friends are gradually killed. Giles Croft's production was first seen in 2006 and is now revived with a new cast - headed by James Alexandrou (EastEnders' Martin Fowler) - offering another poignant reminder that there are no winners in war.
Saturday, October 4, 2008 - 09:14
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SOURCE: Alex Vernon in the Chronicle of Higher Ed (10-3-08)
Cultural historians adore Tarzan. He emerged in 1912 as if called to battle against the New Woman, the New Negro, the new fascination with homosexuality, and all those new immigrants, and to provide a breath of fresh jungle air for a society industrializing and urbanizing at an astonishing rate. In his virile primitivism he became our answer to Prufrock, T.S. Eliot's vision of the paralyzed, self-conscious psyche of the modern civilized man.
But not so fast. As Tarzan grows and learns to read, he begins to question what it means to be human. Prufrock's "Do I dare to eat a peach?" has as its cousin, or distant ancestor, Tarzan's puzzle after killing his first African, Do I dare to eat a man? Edgar Rice Burroughs's original story, published 96 years ago this October, ends on a Wisconsin dairy farm (who knew?) as Tarzan allows his cousin to marry Jane and to keep the Greystoke name. This act preserves her honor and well-being, and in its restraint and self-sacrifice...
But not so fast. As Tarzan grows and learns to read, he begins to question what it means to be human. Prufrock's "Do I dare to eat a peach?" has as its cousin, or distant ancestor, Tarzan's puzzle after killing his first African, Do I dare to eat a man? Edgar Rice Burroughs's original story, published 96 years ago this October, ends on a Wisconsin dairy farm (who knew?) as Tarzan allows his cousin to marry Jane and to keep the Greystoke name. This act preserves her honor and well-being, and in its restraint and self-sacrifice...
Friday, October 3, 2008 - 00:48
SOURCE: CNN (10-2-08)
The first authentic Greek amphitheater in the U.S. it being built at the University of Connecticut.The open-air amphitheater, which will accommodate 500 people, is being built on land given to the Center for Hellenic Studies years ago by the university. Center officials said they see the project as a way of giving back to the community."I would like to say, anything we do, even if it's a bigger project than this, it would not be big enough to say thank you to the U.S. or Connecticut," center member Ilias Tomazos said.Funds for the project are coming from donations and a $100,000 grant from the state, officials said. The theater is designed along classic Greek principals by a team of architects who are all donating their services.
Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 23:57
SOURCE: BBC (10-1-08)
The life and times of a group of 18th century revolutionaries has been marked with a new work of public art which has gone on permanent display in Belfast.
The four paintings in the city's Cathedral Quarter depict the history of the Society of United Irishmen - a movement co-founded by Wolfe Tone that sought to create an independent Ireland free from English rule in the 1790s.
They have been erected in the newly-restored Warehouse Lane in the Four Corners area where Belfast members of the society met in secret over 200 years ago, calling themselves the Muddlers Club.
The four paintings in the city's Cathedral Quarter depict the history of the Society of United Irishmen - a movement co-founded by Wolfe Tone that sought to create an independent Ireland free from English rule in the 1790s.
They have been erected in the newly-restored Warehouse Lane in the Four Corners area where Belfast members of the society met in secret over 200 years ago, calling themselves the Muddlers Club.
Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 20:14
SOURCE: AP (10-2-08)
The former aircraft carrier Intrepid is ready to make its way back to Manhattan and resume its post as a floating museum.
Repainted, refurbished and loaded with new exhibits, the vessel was to arrive Thursday afternoon at the same Hudson River pier where it previously spent 24 years as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
The two-hour, five-mile return voyage from Staten Island was to be the reverse of the one it took 22 months ago, again with a passing salute to the Statue of Liberty and a pause near ground zero.
And again, FDNY fireboats will deliver red, white and blue water sprays, the traditional harbor welcome for arriving ships. The vessel was even to be hauled to its pier by the same four tugboats that brought the old aircraft carrier to its shipyard overhaul.
Its home, Pier 86, was totally rebuilt during Intrepid's absence as part of the project that cost some $120 million, according to Intrepid president Bill White. This...
Repainted, refurbished and loaded with new exhibits, the vessel was to arrive Thursday afternoon at the same Hudson River pier where it previously spent 24 years as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
The two-hour, five-mile return voyage from Staten Island was to be the reverse of the one it took 22 months ago, again with a passing salute to the Statue of Liberty and a pause near ground zero.
And again, FDNY fireboats will deliver red, white and blue water sprays, the traditional harbor welcome for arriving ships. The vessel was even to be hauled to its pier by the same four tugboats that brought the old aircraft carrier to its shipyard overhaul.
Its home, Pier 86, was totally rebuilt during Intrepid's absence as part of the project that cost some $120 million, according to Intrepid president Bill White. This...
Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 08:11
SOURCE: Times (UK) (10-2-08)
Forty-three years ago, two men enrolled at Yale University. One of them dropped out a year later, volunteered to fight in Vietnam, then made a movie about his experiences entitled Platoon. His name is Oliver Stone. The other dodged combat and went on to become the 43rd President of the United States. His name is George W. Bush.
If all this sounds like the premise of a Hollywood blockbuster, then it is – sort of. The movie is W., a Bush biopic that – and here’s the twist – is directed by Stone. It will be released in America a mere 19 days before the 2008 presidential election and is the Times Gala film at this year’s Times BFI London Film Festival.
Of course, with Stone being a peacenik Buddhist liberal and Bush being a militaristic evangelical Christian Republican, the result isn’t expected to be in any way flattering to the departing leader of the free world. Then again, the pair have an awful lot more in common than you might think. Both, for example, are...
If all this sounds like the premise of a Hollywood blockbuster, then it is – sort of. The movie is W., a Bush biopic that – and here’s the twist – is directed by Stone. It will be released in America a mere 19 days before the 2008 presidential election and is the Times Gala film at this year’s Times BFI London Film Festival.
Of course, with Stone being a peacenik Buddhist liberal and Bush being a militaristic evangelical Christian Republican, the result isn’t expected to be in any way flattering to the departing leader of the free world. Then again, the pair have an awful lot more in common than you might think. Both, for example, are...
Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 07:54
SOURCE: Times (UK) (10-1-08)
It is a story that underpins Italy’s postwar democracy: the honour lost under Benito Mussolini was regained through the struggle of the partisans and their help for the Allies. Now the partisans are fighting for their reputation after a new film by the director Spike Lee which, they say, insults the memory of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War.
Miracle at St Anna retells the story of the massacre of 560 civilians – including women and children – in August 1944 by SS troops as they retreated northwards in the face of the Allied advance.
The film, which highlights the role of African-American soldiers in the war, suggests that antiFascist partisans indirectly caused the atrocity by taking refuge in the village and then abandoning the residents to their fate.
It even shows a partisan named Rodolfo collaborating with the Nazis. This runs directly counter to the accepted Italian version of events, which is that the slaughter was not a...
Miracle at St Anna retells the story of the massacre of 560 civilians – including women and children – in August 1944 by SS troops as they retreated northwards in the face of the Allied advance.
The film, which highlights the role of African-American soldiers in the war, suggests that antiFascist partisans indirectly caused the atrocity by taking refuge in the village and then abandoning the residents to their fate.
It even shows a partisan named Rodolfo collaborating with the Nazis. This runs directly counter to the accepted Italian version of events, which is that the slaughter was not a...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 05:45
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (9-30-08)
Part of the charm of New York is its only partly tongue-in-cheek reluctance to grant that anyone else does anything better. Beaches? Yeah, the Caribbean's got that whole luxury thing down but really the Hamptons are more convenient. Tacos? Sure, they're pretty good in Mexico but have you tried that place at 49th and 10th? Studio movies? Well, yeah, Los Angeles is where it's at now but between the wars all the killer action was right here ...
The last is the intriguing premise of Hollywood on the Hudson, a month-long season of movies playing at the Museum of Modern Art. It's partly curated by Richard Koszarski, from whose scholarly study it takes its name and argument: that in the 1920s and 1930s, the relatively independent-minded film-makers operating on the east coast set the template for the development of the film industry by focusing on technical innovation and niche audiences, rather than the one-size-fits-all grandiosity that the California studios developed and had...
The last is the intriguing premise of Hollywood on the Hudson, a month-long season of movies playing at the Museum of Modern Art. It's partly curated by Richard Koszarski, from whose scholarly study it takes its name and argument: that in the 1920s and 1930s, the relatively independent-minded film-makers operating on the east coast set the template for the development of the film industry by focusing on technical innovation and niche audiences, rather than the one-size-fits-all grandiosity that the California studios developed and had...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 05:09
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (10-1-08)
It features high-kicking Nazis, a potato-peeling Eva Braun and a hapless Russian spy lording it in the SS. Welcome to Hitler Kaput! Super Agents 008, a Russian farce wowing native audiences.
The spoof comedy, which has been reigning supreme at the top of the Russian box-office for the past fortnight, describes the rollicking adventures of a Soviet undercover agent in the top echelons of the Third Reich. Herr Hitler gets high on cocaine and plans his military proceedures using potatoes for troops, while Braun pleads for a holiday in Dubai as she slaves over the spuds.
The Russian hero is no James Bond either. He sings Soviet patriotic songs in Nazi bars, builds models of the Kremlin at Gestapo headquarters, and flashes a passport stamped "Official Soviet Spy ID" at checkpoints. But even if he's a raving nut, the mole never forgets his love for Mother Russia. When he has sex in a cornfield, he leaves behind him a trail of crushed stalks in the shape...
The spoof comedy, which has been reigning supreme at the top of the Russian box-office for the past fortnight, describes the rollicking adventures of a Soviet undercover agent in the top echelons of the Third Reich. Herr Hitler gets high on cocaine and plans his military proceedures using potatoes for troops, while Braun pleads for a holiday in Dubai as she slaves over the spuds.
The Russian hero is no James Bond either. He sings Soviet patriotic songs in Nazi bars, builds models of the Kremlin at Gestapo headquarters, and flashes a passport stamped "Official Soviet Spy ID" at checkpoints. But even if he's a raving nut, the mole never forgets his love for Mother Russia. When he has sex in a cornfield, he leaves behind him a trail of crushed stalks in the shape...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 05:06
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (10-1-08)
In what may be one of the more incongruous musical pairings of recent times, composer Philip Glass is to write an opera about the life of Walt Disney. The work, a commission from the New York City Opera, will be based on the novel The Perfect American by Peter Stephan Jungk, which recounts the last years of Disney's life from the point of view of a fictional Austrian cartoonist.
"The story of the last days of Walt Disney, American icon and creator of perhaps the most pervasive fantasy world on our planet, is surprisingly gripping and at times disturbing," Glass said. Whether he was himself a fan of Mickey Mouse, Glass did not divulge.
"The story of the last days of Walt Disney, American icon and creator of perhaps the most pervasive fantasy world on our planet, is surprisingly gripping and at times disturbing," Glass said. Whether he was himself a fan of Mickey Mouse, Glass did not divulge.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 04:59
SOURCE: AFP (9-26-08)
More than a half-century after Nazis looted artwork from European Jews, an unprecedented Berlin exhibition tells both sides of the story: how property was seized and efforts, at times fruitless, were made to have it restored.
"Looting and Restitution: Jewish-owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present", at the Jewish Museum Berlin until January 25, focuses on 15 different pieces plundered from Jewish families during World War II.
Using photos and documents of the time, the show not only sets up the historical context but looks at who profited from or played a role in the looting, including at times disreputable dealings by museums, libraries and art dealers. It also examines efforts after 1945 to restore the works to their rightful owners.
"Looting and Restitution: Jewish-owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present", at the Jewish Museum Berlin until January 25, focuses on 15 different pieces plundered from Jewish families during World War II.
Using photos and documents of the time, the show not only sets up the historical context but looks at who profited from or played a role in the looting, including at times disreputable dealings by museums, libraries and art dealers. It also examines efforts after 1945 to restore the works to their rightful owners.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 00:28
