Arts & Life

Books
Arts

The Case For Being Concise: Short Poems That Speak Volumes

3:03pm March 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

Brad Leithauser likes to look for poetry in graveyards. An author and poet himself, there's something he values greatly in tombstone epitaphs: brevity. In a piece for The New Yorker's Page-Turner blog, Leithauser cites tiny works that speak volumes.

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Nicole Kidman (left) and Mia Wasikowska star as Evelyn and India Stoker in Park Chan-wook's new thriller.

Arts

A Disappointing Thriller Channels Hitchcock And Bram 'Stoker'

2:26pm March 01, 2013

by David Edelstein

The film is ripe with a creepy-crawly feel that would be affecting if the tone weren't so arch. Directed by Park Chan-wook, written by Wentworth Miller and starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode, Stoker is a vile little chamber horror, says critic David Edelstein.

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Acclaimed writer-director-producer Robert Zemeckis has worked on more than 30 films, including the Back to the Future series and Forrest Gump, for which he won an Oscar for best director.

Arts

'Flight' Takes On Questions Of Accountability

2:22pm March 01, 2013

The Robert Zemeckis film, out now on DVD, stars Denzel Washington as a pilot with a secret substance-abuse problem who successfully crash-lands an airplane while high on drugs and alcohol. He must then ask himself tough questions about whether his heroism is undermined by his addiction.

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Director Dror Moreh was nominated for an Academy Award for his documentary The Gatekeepers.

Arts

'The Gatekeepers' Offer Candid Assessment Of Israel's Security

1:30pm February 28, 2013

Director Dror Moreh interviews six former heads of the Israel's Shin Bet security service in his Oscar-nominated documentary. The men look back on their work and conclude that continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinians will not resolve the conflict.

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Books
Arts

Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' Inspires The Story Of 'Mary Coin'

1:00pm February 28, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Marisa Silver's new novel imagines the meeting of a Depression-era photographer and her now-iconic subject. Giving the characters different names but similar stories to their real-life counterparts, Silver tackles big questions about the morality of art.

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The "elephant in the room" is something obvious that can't be overlooked, even if no one is talking about it. The phrase was in use as early as 1935.

Books
Arts

Dictionary Of Idioms Gets Everybody On The Same Page

12:04pm February 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

From "dead cat bounce," which originated in the 1980s, to "cold fish," which was coined by Shakespeare, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms explores the origins of more than 10,000 nonliteral sayings.

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Movie trailers can drive people to the theaters or keep them away altogether.

Arts

Movie Trailer Math: Getting 'Butts In The Seats' In Minutes

3:05pm February 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Before films hit theaters, they are heralded by trailers that can either drive people to the box office or keep them away. Stephen Garrett, owner of the trailer production company Jump Cut Creative, talks about what it takes to lure audiences without spoiling a film.

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In his new book, The Vatican Diaries, John Thavis draws on his nearly 30 years of reporting on the Vatican.

Books
Arts

'Behind The Scenes' At The Vatican: The Politics Of Picking A New Pope

1:54pm February 27, 2013

John Thavis covered the Vatican from Rome for nearly 30 years while working for the Catholic News Service. In his new book, The Vatican Diaries, he describes a place much less organized and hierarchical than the public imagines.

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How The Food Industry Manipulates Taste Buds With 'Salt Sugar Fat'

12:46pm February 27, 2013

by Nell Boeschenstein

From food scientists who study the human palate to maximize consumer bliss, to marketing campaigns that target teens to hook them for life on a brand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new book goes inside the world of processed, packaged goods.

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Linguist Geoff Nunberg finds that in the film Lincoln, screenwriter Tony Kushner oscillates between old and modern meanings of "equality."

Arts

Historical Vocab: When We Get It Wrong, Does It Matter?

7:12pm February 26, 2013

by Geoff Nunberg

We're living in an age obsessed with authenticity, says linguist Geoff Nunberg, but we often choose to nitpick the wrong details. Whether it's Downton Abbey, Mad Men, Lincoln or Argo, Nunberg argues, a historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription.

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