Arts

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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Arts

A Fossilized Confection Baked For Easter 1807

10:34am March 30, 2013

A British couple believes they've come across a hot cross bun that was baked more than 200 years ago. Host Scott Simon explains.

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Science
Arts

Gripping Science Tales Need Not Be Science Fiction

9:19am March 30, 2013

When does a story about science become science fiction? Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and theoretical physicist Brian Greene discuss how to spin a yarn about string theory or the Big Bang, without hyping the science. And novelist Ian McEwan, whose books touch on neurosurgery and quantum field theory, talks about what science offers to fiction.

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Over the past three decades, Arthur and Cynthia Wood turned their four-story home into a work of art. They purchased the brick tenement at the intersection of Downing and Quincy streets in 1979 for $2,100 in cash.

Arts

Self-Taught Architect Behind Brooklyn's 'Broken Angel' Faces Eviction

7:55pm March 29, 2013

by Joel Rose

Over the past three decades, artist and sculptor Arthur Wood has turned his four-story home into a towering cathedral built out of salvaged junk. But after a fire in 2006, the New York City Department of Buildings determined that the Clinton Hill landmark was no longer a safe place to live.

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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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Rodney Ascher, director of the experimental documentary Room 237, leads an exploration of differing interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's classic horror film The Shining.

Arts

Hunting For Secrets In 'The Shining's' Room 237

2:05pm March 29, 2013

by John Powers

A new documentary looks at obsessive fans of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. These fanatics look for hidden meanings in the movie, and while some of their theories sound outrageous, it's too simple to call such thinking deranged.

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In Robot & Frank, a robot cares for an aging ex-burglar who has dementia. Frank Langella, who plays the burglar, says his character "becomes fond of the robot only because it is a tool for his wicked, wicked ways."

Arts

Frank Langella: A Career 'Like A Chekhov Play'

2:03pm March 29, 2013

In the movie Robot & Frank, the actor plays an aging ex-burglar who learns to take advantage of his robot caretaker. Langella, 74, tells Fresh Air why he was drawn to the role, and discusses the ups and downs of his long career.

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Tuscany's sweet spinach pie is a dish that's often associated with Easter and spring.

Arts

Tuscan Pie A Sweet Springtime Take On Spinach

12:55pm March 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Francine Segan, author of Dolci: Italy's Sweets, discovered the unusual treat while traveling in Tuscany.

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Arts

Triad Arts Weekend: March 29, 2013

12:39pm March 29, 2013

by David Ford

Today it's an arts sandwich with two thick slices of visual art and one of the world's most renowned creative pioneers right there in the middle.

Sawtooth School for Visual Arts - Dane Snodgrass

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Arts

Our State Magazine Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Hudson Talks North Carolina

10:53am March 29, 2013

by David Ford

You've seen it at bookstores and newsstands all over but you probably didn't know that more than 800,000 people in every state in the union and 42 different countries worldwide enjoy an incredible magazine that just happens to be entirely devoted to North Carolina people, places, history and travel.

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