Movies

For Top-Flight Animators, The Gag Is An Art All Its Own

12:05pm February 08, 2014

by Elizabeth Blair

In the animated world, just about anything goes: Toys talk, mice are chefs, and pandas do kung fu. In animation, the sky's the limit. In this encore broadcast, we learn about the hundreds of people working on big studio features who spend their days figuring out how to manufacture this silliness from the ground up. (This story originally aired on All Things Considered on Nov. 27, 2013.)

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Critic David Edelstein says that The Monuments Men has "an all-star cast" — including Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett — but that "the stars are all low-wattage."

Arts

Masterpieces In Peril, 'Monuments Men' Protects, But Also Panders

3:32pm February 07, 2014

by David Edelstein

George Clooney's film tells the largely true story of a World War II squad of art experts assigned to protect European masterworks from Nazi theft and Allied bombardment. Critic David Edelstein says the film is engaging and earnest, but a little formulaic.

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Linda Emond, Hoffman and Andrew Garfield take their opening night curtain call in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at The Barrymore Theatre in New York City in 2012.

Arts

Philip Seymour Hoffman On Acting: An 'Exhausting' And 'Satisfying' Art

8:21pm February 03, 2014

We listen back to interviews with Hoffman from 1999 and 2008, when he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross that carrying the emotional life of a character could be "burdensome." He was found dead on Sunday at age 46.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman at a screening of The Master, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, during the 2012 Venice Film Festival.

Arts

On Philip Seymour Hoffman, And His Many Appearances

8:16pm February 03, 2014

by Bob Mondello

So many of the actor's roles dealt in appearances and self-doubt. Perhaps you don't get that good at communicating insecurity without knowing a little something about those things.

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Arts

Philip Seymour Hoffman: An 'Uncanny' Actor Of Stage And Screen

2:53pm February 03, 2014

by Elizabeth Blair

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that Hoffman's award-winning performance in Capote wasn't so much an imitation as it was a channeling of "a man whose peculiarities mask great intelligence and deep wounds." Hoffman, 46, was found dead Sunday.

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Silent-film icon Charlie Chaplin, in character as the Little Tramp, takes aim with his walking stick circa 1925.

Arts

A Century Ago Today, Chaplin Made His Film Debut — In A Dud

6:42pm February 02, 2014

by Bob Mondello

The silent-film comic was a flop in the 13-minute Making a Living. But only a few days later, he'd introduce his iconic Little Tramp character — and take the first step toward immortality.

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Arts

Comedian's Career Is Central To 'Quality Balls'

12:00am February 02, 2014

Legendary comedian David Steinberg is the subject of a new Showtime documentary called Quality Balls. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Steinberg, whose controversial routine was responsible for the cancellation of the Smothers Brothers' TV show in the 1960s.

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World News

'Return To Homs' Follows Cycle Of Syrian Demonstrations

7:58am January 31, 2014

A new documentary about the war in Syria follows the transformation of peaceful demonstrators into insurgents. Steve Inskeep talks to Orwa Nyrabia, the producer of the film, about the toll of the Syrian civil war on the besieged city of Homs.

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The Roxie Theater in San Francisco still has two 35 millimeter projectors, but the switch to digital is inevitable.

Arts

Small Cinemas Struggle As Film Fades Out Of The Picture

8:00pm January 30, 2014

by Laura Sydell

Paramount became the first big studio to distribute a major film in the U.S. only in digital, and others will probably follow. Small cinemas are struggling to raise money for the transition. Despite resistance from some major directors, the end of film is almost upon us.

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Arts

Middle-Aged And Divorced, 'Gloria' Takes On Life's Uncertainties

4:23pm January 24, 2014

by David Edelstein

Gloria is a new film from Chile that centers on a late-middle-aged divorced woman whose life is full of ambiguity. She's played by Paulina Garcia, who won the top acting prize — the Silver Bear — at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, where the movie was a surprise hit. It opens this week in New York and Los Angeles, and wider next month.

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