Movies

Director Nidal Hassan spent a year filming in Tartous, a Syrian beach town made up mostly of Alawites who still support embattled President Bashar Assad.

World News

A Close-Up Of Syria's Alawites, Loyalists Of A Troubled Regime

9:59pm April 08, 2013

by Kelly McEvers

A director spent a year filming the Alawite community in the Syrian coastal city of Tartous, where many believe President Bashar Assad is the only man who can save them from the mostly Sunni Muslims leading the country's rebellion.

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The American actress and singer Annette Funicello, photographed here circa 1960, died April 8, more than two decades after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Arts

A Tip Of The Mouse Ears To Annette Funicello, 1942-2013

9:59pm April 08, 2013

by Mandalit del Barco

The Mouseketeer and bikini-musicals actress became a pop star and made a generation of boomer boys swoon. Later she faced multiple sclerosis with equanimity — and raised awareness and money in the process.

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Best friends Rosa (Alice Englert, left) and Ginger (Elle Fanning) are nearly torn apart by the political and social changes of the 1960s.

Arts

'Ginger And Rosa': A Study Of Women's Relationships

5:42pm April 07, 2013

by Pat Dowell

British filmmaker Sally Potter gained worldwide attention with her 1992 film Orlando. Like all of her movies, it was unconventional in its story and structure. Her new film, Ginger & Rosa, is more realistic and direct.

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Chadwick Boseman plays baseball's trailblazing Jackie Robinson in the upcoming biopic 42.

Arts

In '42,' A Young Star Suits Up For A Hero's Role

11:08am April 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Jackie Robinson, the first African-American baseball player in the major leagues, is the subject of an upcoming biopic. Chadwick Boseman plays the groundbreaking athlete in 42; he joins NPR's Scott Simon to talk about what it felt like to take on a cultural hero.

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The iconic Chicago photographer Art Shay took portraits of presidents, prizefighters, prose poets — and in the person of Roger Ebert, at least one Pulitzer-winning critic.

Arts

Roger Ebert In Review: A 'Fresh Air' Survey

1:10pm April 05, 2013

Fresh Air remembers film critic Roger Ebert, who died Thursday, with a roundup of interviews from our archive — one with Ebert alone, one with him and his late partner Gene Siskel, and two in which Ebert interviews iconic directors. Plus, critic-at-large John Powers discusses Ebert's 2011 memoir Life Itself.

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National

For Pulitzer-Winning Critic Roger Ebert, Films Were A Journey

8:20pm April 04, 2013

by Cheryl Corley

He was a print journalist initially, but Ebert's "thumbs up" TV critiques were just as influential as his essays, and he later carved out a prodigious digital presence. Ebert died Thursday after struggling for years with cancer. He was 70 years old.

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Starting At The Beginning: The Promise Of Prequels

5:46pm April 04, 2013

The box office hit Oz The Great and Powerful, is set 20 years before the The Wizard of Oz. The film's success shows that, no matter how old the story, viewers have an appetite for prequels. TOTN's favorite film buff Murray Horwitz explains what sets these films apart.

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'Simple And Straighforward': Remembering Film Critic Roger Ebert

5:46pm April 04, 2013

Roger Ebert, an icon of film criticism and a one-time filmmaker himself, died Thursday at the age of 70. At the end of his life, Ebert cut back on his work as he faced a series of bouts with cancer. Film buff Murray Horwitz remembers Ebert and talks about the courage he showed in his final days.

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Director Cristian Mungiu on the set of his new film, Beyond the Hills. As in his earlier 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the filmmaker focuses on two young women adrift in the post-Soviet wilderness of Romania.

Arts

Cristian Mungiu: Metaphor Or Not, 'Hills' Has Eyes For Romania's Past

6:28pm March 31, 2013

by Howie Movshovitz

Already the poster child for his country's so-called New Wave of filmmakers, the director takes another realistic dive into the post-Communist Eastern Bloc with Beyond the Hills. Though he hesitates to call it a straight metaphor, the symbolism of the film is uncanny.

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Jean (Vincent Rottiers) assists his ailing father, the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet), in his studio on the French Riviera.

Arts

A Film So Sumptuous, 'Renoir' Himself Might Have Helped Out

7:55pm March 29, 2013

by Bob Mondello

The slow, silky pace of Gilles Bourdos' biopic Renoir might burden a lesser subject. But the beauty of the cinematography suggests the aesthetic of the Impressionist master, lending the whole film a surreally beautiful air. (Recommended)

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