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

Oscars 2009: Holocaust survivor defends Kate Winslet film

The film's producers wheeled out Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel to combat a growing campaign in Hollywood designed to deny Ms Winslet her first golden statuette as best actress. As The Sunday Telegraph revealed in mid February, a covert campaign to rubbish the film began after prominent experts on Nazi Germany denounced the film for portraying Ms Winslet's character, an illiterate and unrepentant concentration camp guard, as too sympathetic. Ron Rosen

British Library buys Futurists' metal manifesto

It is known as The Tin Book and was co-authored by a fascist-sympathising Italian artist who, 100 years ago today, said all libraries should be destroyed. With wonderful irony, the British Library announced yesterday that it had bought an edition of the book, an artefact that is at once rare, unusual and significant. The library has spent £83,000 on this pivotal work in the development of the Italian Futurist art movement. Entitled Parole in Libertá Futuriste Olfattive Tattili Term

Back to futurism?

Exactly one hundred years ago, 20 February 1909 to be precise, the Italian dilettante and litterateur FT Marinetti splurged across the front page of Le Figaro his vision of a new art, politics and life. "Let us give ourselves to the Unknown, not in desperation, but to replenish the deep wells of the Absurd!" he proclaimed in launching his Futurist Manifesto. The article, published in Italian, includes the 11 points of the manifesto, plus accompanying narrative of how it c

Can Egypt bring Cleopatra's palace back to life?

Some of the world's most exciting sunken treasures could soon be on view after Egypt confirmed plans to build a giant underwater museum in the Mediterranean. But as preparation begins on the site of Cleopatra's Palace in Alexandria, funding and technical problems are proving as divisive and controversial as the famed queen herself. Ancient Alexandria was one of the world's great centres of civilisation, and since excavations in the eastern harbour began in 1994, divers

National Gallery and Tate end row over 1900

Defining any period of history is a tricky business, but when it comes to art history, fixing the dates of movements and styles can be especially contentious – with important financial ramifications for museums and galleries. Next week, the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square opens an exhibition devoted to the work of the Spanish titan of 20th-century art, Picasso. The show is likely to be the hottest ticket in the art world this spring, bringing in substantial revenue for the mus

“Frost/Nixon’s” Unsung Hero?

John W. Dean’s latest column at findlaw.com concerns Frost/Nixon. That’s not especially surprising in itself. But what is downright strange is that Dean has not seen Ron Howard’s film or Peter Morgan’s play because, he says, “scheduling” conflicts haven’t permitted him to do so. So why is Dean writing about Frost/Nixon? It would appear that his big concern is that the film and play overglorify the role of James Reston Jr. in the development of David Frost’s line of questioning that

Che: Part Two, review

Che: Part One, in which Steven Soderbergh documented the revolutionary medic's struggle to overthrow Cuba's Batista government, offered an upward trajectory: through pain and setbacks to success and the establishment of Fidel Castro as the island's new leader. Che: Part Two goes in the opposite direction, tracking the slow and bloody decline in his fortunes as he tries to export his insurrectionary politics to Bolivia. It is, if one counts Walter Salles's The Motorcyc

Kamran Adl’s photos of 1960’s Iran to go on display in capital

A collection of 130 photos taken in various regions of Baluchestan, Fars, Golpayegan, Zanjan, Neyshabur, and Kordestan will go on display at the exhibit that opens on Friday at the Shirin gallery. Many of these photos make one feel nostalgic about the old days in an Iran that no longer exists, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Wednesday. Adl in his memoir of photography in Iran wrote, “When I returned home from Paris 40 years ago, I did not know what the future

John McGlinn, 55, Restorer of Musicals, Is Dead

John McGlinn, a conductor and musical historian who delved deep into neglected archives to recreate musicals like “Show Boat,” “Anything Goes” and “No, No, Nanette” in their original form, died on Saturday at home in Manhattan. He was 55. His brother, Evan, said that no official cause of death had been determined but that he had probably had a heart attack. Throughout his career, Mr. McGlinn breathed the intoxicating air of the early Broadway musical, with special atten

Meresamun exhibition at the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago

The exhibition ‘The Life of Meresamun’ opened last week at the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago. Meresamun is believed to have been a singer priestess in 800BC at a temple in Thebes. Her remains are preserved in an unopened casket bearing an inscription of her name that was bought in Egypt in 1920 by the founder of the Oriental Institute, James Henry Breasted. In preparation for the exhibition, the casket was recently examined by CT scans to reveal its contents and over the

Wallace Stegner’s Complaint

Wednesday was the centennial of Wallace Stegner, the writer and uber-citizen of the West. His friends said he looked like God ought to look, and perhaps not since Eden was first sketched in Genesis has an author been so sternly rhapsodic about the land. Were Stegner around this week to blow out the 100 candles on his birthday cake, it’s likely he would still be mad at the East Coast Media Conspiracy, and by that he meant this newspaper. “It was the New York Times that b

Best Actor in Blackface

The outrage over Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar nod is predictable and misplaced. Give the brother playing the brother his due. I would classify myself as an intensely proud black man. And I feel completely comfortable saying that Robert Downey Jr. deserves his Oscar nod. Denying Tropic Thunder’s smart satire simply because the artists involved are white is simplistic and short-sighted. Frankly, I find Tyler Perry’s use of trite black American archetypes equally as problemat

Critic: Peter Seeger's got some apologizin' to do himself

[Lloyd Billingsley is the author of From Mainline to Sideline, the Social Witness of the National Council of Churches, and Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s.] Last week the San Diego School Board issued an apology to banjoist and singer Peter Seeger, 89, fresh from his performance with Bruce Springsteen at the pre-inaugural concert for President Barack. The San Diego episode gave little hint that Seeger has a few items to apolog

The Young Victoria: Hollywood learns a history lesson at last

Hallelujah! Hollywood is finally releasing a movie about a British historical subject that is truthful, intelligent, nuanced and pro-British. Here, at last, is a film in which a cut-glass English accent does not denote colonialist evil, sexual perversion or serial killing. For decades Hollywood has treated its audiences like morons, straitjacketing complex historical issues into goodies versus baddies. A classic example is the recent release Valkyrie, in which the German generals'

Auschwitz Blueprints Go on Display in Berlin

Original blueprints showing construction plans for the Auschwitz death camp have gone on display in Berlin in an exhibition opened on Monday evening by a survivor, 86-year-old former Polish Foreign Minister Vladislav Bartoszewski. "The exhibition gives a shocking insight into the abyss," Bartoszweski said in a speech, "even if the objects on display seem harmless. Or maybe precisely because of that. There are blueprints, building instructions. Technical drawings. Calc

British upside down stamp to fetch sky-high price

A mint condition copy of a stamp which shows an aeroplane flying upside down due to a printing error is expected to fetch £150,000 when it goes under the hammer next month. The 1918 "inverted Jenny" stamp depicts a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny plane the wrong way up - one of the most remarkable errors in the history of philately. Auction house Warwick and Warwick is offering the stamp on behalf of a British client.

China Seeks to Stop Paris Sale of Bronzes

China is stepping up the pressure on Christie’s auction house to withdraw two bronzes from its sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s vast collection next week in Paris, saying they were looted from the imperial Summer Palace near Beijing nearly 150 years ago. The two Qing dynasty bronze animal heads, one depicting a rabbit and the other a rat, are believed to have been part of a set comprising 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac that were created for the imperial gardens during the reign of E

From a Vault in Paris, Sounds of Opera 1907

On Dec. 24, 1907, a group of bewhiskered men gathered in the bowels of the Paris Opera to begin a project that by definition they could never see to fruition. First, 24 carefully wrapped wax records were placed inside two lead and iron containers. These were then sealed and locked in a small storage room with instructions that they should remain undisturbed for 100 years. The man behind this musical time capsule was Alfred Clark, a New Yorker who headed the London-based Gramophone C

Major new film celebrates 60th anniversary of Chinese revolution

Infernal Affairs star Andy Lau is set to appear in a major new film to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the communist revolution in China, reports Variety. The feature, which will be directed by Huang Jianxin, boasts "the most powerful lineup in the history of Chinese film", according to its state-backed producers. It will also star directors Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang in acting roles, with Tang Guoqiang and Zhang Guoli playing the first chairman of the People's Republi

The 17th-century couple who straddled the east and west - and today's British Museum exhibitions

A daring 17th-century couple have the distinction of starring in two exhibitions about to open in London. As you enter the magnificent survey of the world of Shah Abbas and early modern Iran in the great domed setting of the British Museum's Reading Room, among the first things you encounter are paired portraits of Robert and Teresia Sherley. He was one of two British brothers who travelled in 1598 to the Persian court and became ambassadors from Shah Abbas to the west, she the daughter of a Chr