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

Artifacts as Ambience: Art, Antique and Artifacts in the Nation's Capital

For many visitors, the nation's capital has two notable and distinct aspects. On the one side there is the business of government, and on the other a wealth of art and historical museums. However, like everything else in Washington, the distinctions often get blurred. All three branches of government have extensive art, antique and artifact collections—with curators in charge of them, to boot—that probably add more ambience than cultural enlightenment to visitors. But, of course, who expects the

Musicians Who Poked at the Iron Curtain

Guitars, keyboards and drums did not topple the Berlin Wall. But for the young people who helped bring down Communist regimes across Eastern Europe in the fall of 1989, pop music was a profoundly subversive force, inspiration and vital tool of protest for challenging and undermining a totalitarian state stricter than any parent. Now middle aged, some of the musicians who played in ostracism during those last gray years of Communist rule gathered in New York over the weekend for the

An Ethical Question: Does a Nazi Deserve a Place Among Philosophers?

For decades the German philosopher Martin Heidegger has been the subject of passionate debate. His critique of Western thought and technology has penetrated deeply into architecture, psychology and literary theory and inspired some of the most influential intellectual movements of the 20th century. Yet he was also a fervent Nazi. Now a soon-to-be published book in English has revived the long-running debate about whether the man can be separated from his philosophy. Drawing on new e

Film From the Frontlines: New Glimpses of a War

When the Wehrmacht hanged 18 civilians in a World War II reprisal killing in Serbia, tugging on the victims’ ankles to hasten death, a German propaganda cameraman dutifully recorded the grisly sequence on color movie film. When Russian partisans executed a suspected German spy deep in the forest, that killing, too, was caught on camera. Nearly 65 years after the Allied victory, long-lost or overlooked film footage — some in unexpected color and almost all raw and unedited — continue

The secret life of Hitler

WHEN intimate colour film of Adolf Hitler cuddling a pet dog and smiling tenderly like a baby was shown for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival 36 years ago, a scuffle broke out in the audience and the screening had to be abandoned. The documentary, Swastika, contained extraordinary, never-before-seen footage of Hitler entertaining friends, family and his inner circle — including Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels. Much of it was shot by his girlfriend, Eva Braun, at Hitler'

Nabokov's Lost Novel Reviewed

Should Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladimir, have published his father’s final, unfinished work, The Original of Laura? “In many respects, the release of a rudimentary version of his last novel does a disservice to a writer who deeply cherished precision and was practiced in the art of revision,” Michiko Kakutani writes. “Yet, at the same time, these bits and pieces of Laura will beckon and beguile Nabokov fans, who will find many of the author’s perennial themes and obsessions percolating through th

Japanese Manga Comes to London's British Museum

Japanese manga artist Hoshino Yukinobu has brought his popular character Professor Munakata to London's British Museum, featuring some of the collection's most famous treasures in his drawings. In a single-room display near the entrance to the famous museum, a giant picture of folklore expert Munakata donning his trademark bowler hat and black cape includes the Sutton Hoo helmet dating from the 7th-century. One reason the British Museum wanted to work with Hoshino was

Hebrew Bible Looted by Nazis Being Sent to Vienna

A 16th-century Hebrew Bible looted by the Nazis six decades ago was returned to Vienna's Jewish community Monday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials turned over the two-volume Bible to two Austrian emissaries during a repatriation ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. Published in Venice in 1516-17, the Bible once was part of the well-known medieval manuscripts collection of S.H. Halberstam, officials said. In 1908, it was donated to

New Orleans' Exhibit Offers Sights, Sounds of WWII

A new film theater at the National World War II museum is hoping to lure visitors with a film produced by actor Tom Hanks that features the sights and sounds of battle. 'Beyond All Boundaries,' which premiered at the museum on Saturday, inaugurated the new Solomon Victory Theater. The film recalls the winter fighting of the 'Battle of the Bulge' in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As archival footage unfolded on a 120-foot (36.5 meter) screen, the theater's seats vibrated w

Leaders from Around the World Celebrate 20th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall

Ulrich Sauff and his wife stared at the mammoth domino pieces marking the path where the Berlin Wall once stood and reminisced about life in the barrier's shadow. "It was like a prison," said Sauff, 73, who lived on the Western side of the wall. "For us 'Wessis,' the few kilometers from our old home to our new home (in the East) was unthinkable." The Sauffs were among those who gathered Monday to celebrate 20 years of unity, marking the day the wal

Germany Celebrates Memory of Berlin Wall Falling with Museum Opening and Memorials

With concerts and memorials on Monday, Germans will celebrate the day the Berlin Wall came crashing down 20 years ago. On that cold night, they danced atop the wall, arms raised in victory, hands clasped in friendship and giddy hope. Years of separation and anxiety melted into the unbelievable reality of freedom and a future without border guards, secret police, informers and rigid communist control. Germans are celebrating with concerts boasting Beethoven and Bon Jov

Reassessing Artworks of Ancient Rome

ROME — Painting was more prized than sculpture by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and easel paintings more than frescoes, which were considered essentially decorative. Yet not a single easel painting of the kind described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedic “Natural History” of the first century A.D. has come down to us. Accordingly, when it comes to understanding Roman painting, we are seemingly doomed to be equipped with only half the story. An international group of experts led

'Mayan 2012 apocalypse theory' not true, Nasa says

The latest big screen offering from Sony Pictures, "2012," arrives in theatres on Friday , with a $200 million production about the end of the world supposedly based on theories backed by the Mayan calendar. The doomsday scenario revolves around claims that the end of time will come as an obscure Planet X - or Nibiru - collides with Earth. The mysterious planet was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians, according to claims by pseudo-scientists, paranormal ac

The bitter tears of Johnny Cash

[Research assistance for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.] In July 1972, musician Johnny Cash sat opposite President Richard Nixon in the White House's Blue Room. As a horde of media huddled a few feet away, the country music superstar had come to discuss prison reform with the self-anointed leader of America's "silent majority." "Johnny, would you be willing to play a few songs for us," Nixon asked Cash. "I like M

Gordon Crovitz: Money Can't Buy Me Beatles

[Gordon Crovitz is a media and information industry advisor and executive, including former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, executive vice president of Dow Jones and president of its Consumer Media Group.] For two days last week, it seemed that the last holdouts had relented, making their music available digitally. It then turned out that the owners of the Beatles had not changed their minds. Instead, the cut-rate 25 cents a song was the result of what a federal judge called a

Same Street, Different World: 'Sesame' Turns 40

IT is almost too perfect that the first African-American president of the United States was elected in time for the 40th anniversary of “Sesame Street.” The world is finally beginning to look the way that the PBS show always made it out to be. So it is to the credit of this daunting cultural landmark — a program that has taught generations of children to count, countless parents how to teach and is seen in 125 countries around the world — that Tuesday’s anniversary is not a frenzy

WWII comes alive: Museum expansion provides realistic experience (New Orleans)

NEW ORLEANS — Stephen Ambrose’s “love song to democracy,” as the American historian likened The National World War II Museum, has new sound effects and sensory perceptions so real you are thrust into the beating heart of World War II. Beginning this weekend at the 9-year-old museum founded by Ambrose, visitors seated in the new Solomon Victory Theatre will dodge a flak attack on U.S. B-17 bombers flying over Nazi Germany and feel the rumble of Tiger tanks in Kassarine Pass.

At the Morgan, the Jane Austen Her Family Knew

Who would not wish for a close relative like Aunt Jane? In early 1817, the year she died, suffering, perhaps, from lymphoma and beginning work on a novel she became too ill to finish, Jane Austen wrote a letter to her 8-year-old niece, Cassandra. “Ym raed Yssac,” it begins, “I hsiw uoy a yppah wen raey.” Every word in the letter is spelled backward, from that opening New Year’s wish to her dear Cassy to the signature, “Ruoy Etanoitceffa Tnua, Enaj Netsua.” The author, h

Lost Charlie Chaplin film bought on eBay for $5

A lost Charlie Chaplin film has been discovered in a can of nitrate film bought on eBay for £3.20 ($5). Morale Park from Henham, Essex, purchased the tin simply because he liked the look of it. He was amazed to discover its fragile contents: a previously unknown seven-minute film Chaplin film called Zepped. His interest was piqued, he said, when he could not find any mention of it on the internet. The film features footage of Zeppelin airships

Finding a Bit of Animal House in the Bauhaus

Ask most people what they think of when they hear the word Bauhaus, and they’re likely to come up with tubular steel furniture, prefabricated housing, ranks of naïve utopians and Tom Wolfe’s withering disdain for all of the above. A show about the Bauhaus? No thanks. Who, after all, really needs to see another Breuer chair? Which is why “Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity,” opening on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art, is such an unexpected treat. The kind of exhibition tha