Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

New Museum on Life of Frederic Chopin Opens in Warsaw on the Composer's 200th Birthday

The last piano that Frederic Chopin composed on. A death mask made after he succumbed to what was probably tuberculosis. A lock of his brown hair. Those are among objects on display at a new museum dedicated to the life of the Romantic-era composer that opened on his 200th birthday Monday in his native Poland. The interactive multimedia museum is located in the center of Warsaw, where Chopin moved in infancy from a nearby country estate, and where he spent the first 2

London's new Jewish Museum gears up for grand opening in March

The Jewish Museum in London is gearing up for its public opening on March 16 and staff are working behind the scenes to get the ambitious £10 million project finished. The original museum has tripled in size by expanding into a 19th century piano factory at the rear of the building, allowing the museum to showcase its collections in a state of the art space packed with displays and interactives. Visitors will enter the Museum through the Welcome Gallery where images of

Campaign to Save the Staffordshire Hoard has Reached 1 Million (UK)

As the end of February fast approaches, the fundraising total for the Staffordshire Hoard campaign has reached £1million. So far, the total raised towards saving the most valuable treasure found on British soil is £1,080,000. Of this, almost £500,000 comes from members of the public. The Art Fund is spearheading the campaign to save the Staffordshire Hoard for the West Midlands . The charity is delighted to have reached this landmark figure, just seven weeks into the

New Cleopatra Exhibition to Make World Premiere at Franklin Institute (US)

The world of Cleopatra, which has been lost to the sea and sand for nearly 2,000 years, will surface in a new exhibition, “Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” making its world premiere in June 2010 at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Organized by National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), the exhibition will feature more than 250

Detroit Institute of Arts Opens New Permanent Islamic Gallery

In the heart of the largest concentration of Muslims in the U.S., the Detroit Institute of Arts this weekend is opening a new permanent gallery of Islamic art showcasing exhibits including a rare 15th-century Quran of a Mongol conqueror. "The Arab and Islamic community is significant enough that it needs to see itself in the museum," said director Graham W.J. Beal. "Their collection had not been shown very prominently in the previous recent decades."

Thomas Doherty: The Death of Film Criticism

[Thomas Doherty is a professor of American studies at Brandeis University and author of Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration (Columbia University Press, 2007).] The transfer of film criticism from its print-based platforms (newspapers, magazines, and academic journals) to ectoplasmic Web-page billboards has rocked the lit-crit screen trade. Whether from the world of journalism (where the pink slips are landing with hurricane force) or academe (w

Lifting Hazy Veils From Centuries of Vietnamese Art

Art brings out unresolved enigmas with a directness that no historian can hope to match. The “Arts of Ancient Viet Nam” show at Asia Society, and the book written by Nancy Tingley who spent the better part of the last two decades putting it together, lay bare some of the avatars that led to the formation of the country now called Vietnam.... Some pieces, like the molds for casting ax heads that came to light on a site called Dong Dau and may date from as early as about

'Photogenic' Khrushchev reassessed in Moscow exhibition

Nikita Khrushchev and His Time, which opened last week in Moscow's Manezh exhibition hall, is one of the largest exhibitions on the colourful Communist leader to be mounted in Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Bald, stocky and famed for his peasant earthiness, Khrushchev is pictured in diverse settings ranging from Cold War summits with US president John Kennedy to casual days at home with his family. "He was certainly photogenic," said Viktor

Alexandre Dumas to be played by Gerard Depardieu in new film

Alexandre Dumas played by a white actor? That’s the controversial role the ubiquitous French actor Gerard Depardieu has taken on in a new film called The Other Dumas. Dumas, author of such famous novels as “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers,” was the grandson of a freed Haitian slave and a French nobleman, but that hasn’t stopped Depardieu, France’s busiest actor, from playing Dumas. The blue-eyed blond actor darkened his skin and donned a curly-hair wig for his s

Matt Damon To Star In New RFK Biopic

In this tough marketplace, if you want to make another movie about a complex historical figure like Robert F Kennedy, you'd better bring to the table an actor with chops and bankability to excite a financier. Matt Damon does both those things. I've just heard that a deal closed at New Regency for an RFK film that has Damon attached, with Gary Ross directing and Steven Knight scripting. Damon will wait to see the script before we know whether or not the project will really happen. The film will b

"Formosa Betrayed" a haunting history lesson

Illuminating another dark chapter in recent political history and U.S. foreign policy, "Formosa Betrayed" is a straightforward, workmanlike procedural "inspired by actual events" during the communism-obsessed Reagan era. James Van Der Beek leads the film's efficient, fuss-free performances, playing an FBI agent awakened to the reality behind the official story when a murder investigation takes him to Taiwan, a.k.a Formosa. Given the island's economic

JFK Miniseries isn't really character assassination

[ For the past week, liberals everywhere have been up in arms over the horrifying prospect of a new History Channel miniseries about John F. Kennedy hatched from the brain of Joel Surnow, a creator of Fox's hit TV series "24" and an ardent political conservative who smokes cigars with Rush Limbaugh and whose political point of view is best expressed by his favorite bumper sticker, which reads "Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, War Has Never Sol

Art deco ocean liner exhibition opens in New York

"The Normandie was the most magnificent of all the ocean liners," said Bill Miller, curator of the "Decodence" exhibit running until January next year at the South Street Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan. The ship was the largest and fastest of what were known as "floating palaces" at a time when airliners could not yet make transatlantic trip and ships were not just a mode of transport, but islands of fantasy. The exhibition shows off t

East Germany Makes a Comeback at the Berlinale

Screening the best films from around the world. That was the lofty goal the Berlin International Film Festival set for itself from its very inception in 1951. But even then, it was clear that the festival would fall short. Indeed, the Berlin blockade was still a fresh memory and the Cold War was just entering its most frigid years. Initially, in fact, the Berlinale, as the festival is known, wasn't even able to screen the best films from the city's surroundings. Just a few kilometer

Paul Gauguin: The Breakthrough into Modernity Opens at the Van Gogh Museum

From 19 February to 6 June 2010 Paul Gauguin: The breakthrough into modernity will be on view in the Van Gogh Museum. This exhibition is the first to devote attention to the Volpini suite: a series of prints that Gauguin (1848-1903) exhibited in monsieur Volpini's Café des Arts during the Paris Exposition of 1889. The 11 zincographs offer a fascinating overview of the key themes in the artist's work: from the exotic landscapes of Martinique to scenes of Brittany and Arles. The exhibition will al

Landmark Exhibition Reveals Deep Artistic Dialogue Among Early Impressionists (US)

The Dallas Museum of Art presents a landmark exhibition exploring the influential and profound relationship between photographers and painters who lived and worked along the Normandy coast in France during the mid-19th century. The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850-1874 reveals how the convergence of social, technological and commercial forces within the region affected artistic production and dramatically transformed the course of photography, impres

Eric Felten: Abbey Road and the Day Studio Music Died

Rumors abound that money-hemorrhaging music behemoth EMI may sell Abbey Road Studios, the sanctum sanctorum where the Beatles recorded most of their albums. Britain's National Trust is entertaining the idea of bidding on it, aiming to add the famed recording studio to its stable of historic castles and country houses. If that happens, will Abbey Road still function as a recording studio, or will it become a rope-lined destination for tourists to traipse through in their stations of Beatles vener

History Lesson in Abstraction, Cutting Across the Americas

Art museums are in the business of sorting out history. And it often falls to our smaller institutions to tackle the initial, broad-stroke cuts. Over the years the Newark Museum has taken on this path-clearing role with relish, particularly when the histories are transcultural in scope. It does so again in “Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s-50s,” the capstone exhibition of the museum’s centennial. In this case, a chunk of the history is in Newark’s

“Dolley Madison” Documentary Features UC-Riverside Historian

Most Americans know Dolley Madison as the first lady who saved the portrait of George Washington as the British marched on Washington City in 1814, eventually setting fire to the White House. It was Madison, however, who contributed greatly to creating a sense of nationality and unity in the fledgling United States, says Catherine Allgor, professor of history and UC Presidential Chair. Allgor is one of several historians and authors who appear in a documentary, “Dolley Madison,” whi

Theater Review: "Black Angels over Tuskegee"

“Black Angels Over Tuskegee,” Layon Gray’s sturdy drama about trailblazing African-American fighter pilots entering the European theater in World War II, gets by on the charm of the cast and a commitment to the rules of the uplifting inspirational melodrama. The leisurely 2-hour-20-minute play is full of good intentions, decent talent and not an ounce of daring. Mr. Gray, who stages his own work, steers his underdog story so cautiously, moving in the straightest of lines, that you d