Movies

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man in upstate New York who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and won his freedom 12 years later. The film 12 Years a Slave is an adaptation of Northup's 1853 memoir.

Arts

Historian Says '12 Years' Is A Story The Nation Must Remember

3:59pm October 24, 2013

Yale historian David Blight says Americans like to think of themselves as "the country that freed the slaves," but prefer not to dwell on the sobering history that came first. He says the new film 12 Years a Slave is a rare, effective depiction of slavery in the United States.

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'Blockbusters': Go Big Or Go Home, Says Harvard Professor

11:54am October 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

Anita Elberse's new book, Blockbusters, examines the strategy behind making and marketing megahits. She tells NPR's Renee Montagne that content companies — publishers, movie studios and the like — can create blockbusters by dedicating most of their budgets to a select few likely winners.

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Robert Redford stars in All Is Lost as a solitary man struggling to make his yacht seaworthy again after it collides with a rogue shipping container adrift in the Indian Ocean.

Arts

At Home At Sea: Robert Redford, At His Best Alone

3:38pm October 18, 2013

by David Edelstein

The actor is a cast of one in All Is Lost, about a man adrift alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Fresh Air critic David Edelstein says Redford and director J.C. Chandor have pulled off the ultimate fusion of actor and character. (Recommended)

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Lupita Nyong'o and Chiwetel Ejiofor play Patsey and Solomon, two slaves on a Louisiana plantation, in 12 Years a Slave.

Arts

'12 Years A Slave': 160 Years Later, A Memoir Becomes A Movie

12:09pm October 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Solomon Northup was born a free man and lived the life of a respected musician until 1841, when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. British director Steve McQueen's new film, starring British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, brings Northup's memoir to life in excruciating detail.

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Books
Arts

Billy Crystal Finds Fun In Growing Old (But Still Can't Find His Keys)

3:48pm October 17, 2013

Crystal isn't happy about turning 65, but at least he's finding a way to laugh about it. The actor and comedian's new memoir — Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? — is on the best-seller list and he'll be back on Broadway in November.

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Helena Bonham Carter plays Elizabeth Taylor in Burton and Taylor, a BBC America movie that focuses on the famous couple's stint acting together on Broadway in 1983.

Arts

Bonham Carter Takes On Taylor, And She Did Her Homework

6:39pm October 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

The actress spoke with NPR's Robert Siegel about playing the icon in BBC America's Burton and Taylor. The movie follows the preposterously famous '60s and '70s couple as they reunited for a 1983 Broadway production of Private Lives.

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In Kill Your Darlings, Dane DeHaan (left) plays Lucien Carr, a man whose charm and wit quickly command the attention of the young Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) in their time at Columbia University. John Krokidas' film chronicles the "Libertine Circle"

Arts

Beat Manifesto: 'Kill Your Darlings,' Figuratively And ...

6:39pm October 16, 2013

by Bob Mondello

The film follows Beat Generation notables — Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr — as college students in the 1940s. NPR's Bob Mondello says it may succeed where other movies about the poets have failed. (Recommended)

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Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter star as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Burton and Taylor, a new made-for-TV movie from BBC America.

Arts

A Peek Into The Private Lives Of 'Burton And Taylor'

4:20pm October 16, 2013

by David Bianculli

A new made-for-TV movie from BBC America dramatizes one particular period in the intertwined lives of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Critic David Bianculli says less is more, and the film's narrow biographic focus is one of its strengths.

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Alan Rickman tells NPR's Arun Rath he wasn't familiar with CBGB or the punk scene until he began working on the film.

Music & Culture

Alan Rickman On 'CBGB' And The Importance Of Listening

6:12pm October 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the new film CBGB, Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the New Yorker who opened the dive bar he hoped would be a space for country, bluegrass and blues. CBGB instead turned into a hub for punk rock in the '70s. Rickman talks about preparing for the role and the challenges of playing a real person.

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Ahmed Hassan is the leader of the group of young Egyptian revolutionaries at the center of The Square.

'The Square' Tightens Lens On Egypt's Revolution

10:56pm October 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

Jehane Noujaim's documentary follows a group of young revolutionaries in Egypt through the political upheaval of the past two-and-a-half years. NPR's Robert Siegel spoke with the director about the film, the activists it follows and their country's future.

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