Movies

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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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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Arts

Hollywood's History Of Putting Gay Rights On Trial

9:55pm March 27, 2013

by Bob Mondello

With the Supreme Court hearing arguments this week on same-sex marriage, film critic Bob Mondello observes a parallel evolution in what he calls a Hollywood mini-genre: films in which gay characters are either taken to court or seek redress in court for issues involving their sexuality.

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