Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

To Lure ‘Twilight’ Teenagers, Classic Books Get Bold Looks

Teenagers are still reading the classics. They just don’t want them to look so, well, classic.That is the theory of publishers who are wrapping books like “Emma” and “Jane Eyre” in new covers: provocative, modern jackets in bold shades of scarlet and lime green that are explicitly aimed at teenagers raised on “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”The new versions are cutting edge replacements for the traditional (read: stuffy, boring) covers that have been a trademark of the classics for decades, those familiar, dour depictions of women wearing frilly clothing. In their place are images like the one of Romeo in stubble and a tight white tank top on a new Penguin edition of “Romeo and Juliet.”...

Love Lies in Carthage, but Duty Calls in Rome in Berlioz’s 5-Act Epic

A lot was riding on the new production of Berlioz’s epic opera “Les Troyens” that opened at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, on Monday night. This staging by the director David McVicar is a co-production with the Vienna State Opera, Teatro Alla Scala in Milan and the San Francisco Opera. The Royal Opera’s “Troyens” is also a major event in the London 2012 Festival, and it will be shown in movie theaters worldwide in November.

Successes in Rhetoric: Language in the Life of Churchill

The orotund proclamations will be unavoidable at the new exhibition “Churchill: The Power of Words,” at the Morgan Library & Museum, because at the center of the gallery is a semi-enclosed theater. And from it, however muted, will emerge recordings of Winston Churchill’s voice, speaking to Parliament, to British radio listeners and to American audiences, breaking on the ear like waves, rising and falling with every breath, sometimes suspended unexpectedly in midair, other times rushing forward with renewed vigor.If you enter that small theater to hear excerpts from eight of his landmark speeches more clearly, you will also see the words on screen, laid out in poetic scansion (“The whole fury and might of the enemy/must very soon be turned on us”), just as Churchill wrote them, to match the rhythms of his voice.

Exhibition Rewrites the History of Han Civilization in China

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND — “The Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China” on view at the Fitzwilliam Museum through Nov. 11 is one of those landmark shows that shed new light on a crucial historical period in one of the world’s great civilizations.The discoveries made in the past three decades by Chinese archaeologists have yielded so much datable evidence that books dealing with Han China must be rewritten.The tour de force achieved by the curator of the show, James Lin, with the backing of the director of the museum, Timothy Potts, is to have brought to the West some of the art treasures that lay the foundations on which our understanding rests of the Han age in the second and first centuries B.C....

Cambodia Says It Seeks Return Of Met Statues

The Cambodian government is convinced that two life-size 10th-century statues that have anchored the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Southeast Asian galleries for nearly two decades were looted from a jungle temple and plans to ask for their return.“The government is very serious about moving this forward, and we are getting much legal advice,” said Im Sokrithy, a director of Apsara, the Cambodian agency that oversees heritage and land management at the sprawling temple complex where, archaeologists say, the statues stood for centuries. “We are taking a forceful position, and we hope they can be returned.”...

Mary L. Dudziak: The Limits of Empathy in Toni Morrison’s "Home"

Mary L. Dudziak is Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science at the University of Southern California Law School. Her books include War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences; Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall’s African Journey; and Cold War Civil Rights.Toni Morrison’s new novel Home about a Korean War veteran’s struggles after the war might seem perfectly suited to an impending cultural turn. The close of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq and an anticipated draw-down of American troops in Afghanistan, might signal the end of a war era and a renewed focus on what we now call the homeland. Perhaps we can turn to Morrison’s beautiful and brief narrative to understand the journeys of our generation’s soldiers as they, like Frank Money (the protagonist), try to find their way home.

Niall Ferguson's "Civilization" series gets a 'C' from the A.V. Club

Civilization: The West And The Rest With Niall Ferguson debuts tonight on PBS. It will air at 8 p.m. Eastern in most markets, but you should check local listings.

Right-wing historical art catches Colbert's eye

Provo right-wing painter Jon McNaughton is truly national news now - so much so that he was satirically "praised" by Stephen Colbert.On "The Colbert Report" Wednesday, Colbert played clips from cable TV -- both Sean Hannity on Fox News and Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC -- talking about MacNaughton's works.Colbert then used his artistic expertise to decipher the hidden meaning of McNaughton's painting "One Nation Under Socialism," which shows President Barack Obama holding up a flaming copy of the U.S. Constitution....

Tracing the Path of Jewish Medical Pioneers

The young man who applied to medical school in the spring of 1933 had graduated from Dartmouth College with good grades, a keen interest in medicine and, according to the university official who interviewed him, a nice sense of humor.The application did not ask about religion, but the interviewer surmised it. “Probably Jewish,” he wrote in a scribbled evaluation, “but no unpleasant evidence of it.”...The note is displayed in an exhibition called “Trail of the Magic Bullet: The Jewish Encounter With Modern Medicine, 1860-1960,” on view at Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan. The exhibition offers a rare look at a topic few patients ever stop to consider: the emergence of European and American Jews as innovators in medicine, despite their status as outsiders frequently scorned by the medical establishment.While some religions place ultimate responsibility for healing in divine hands, “Jews don’t see a conflict between faith and medicine,” said Alan M. Kraut, a professor of history at American University who helped put together the exhibition and has written extensively about immigration and health....

A.O. Scott: Jean Renoir’s Timely Lessons for Europe

A.O. Scott is a film critic for the NYT.“GRAND ILLUSION” had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 1937, and it has been around ever since, by enduring consensus one of the greatest films ever made. It is true that Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief and cultural arbiter, was not a fan, but Mussolini, patron of the festival and Europe’s leading fascist cinephile, kept a print in his personal collection. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that “all the democracies in the world must see this film,” which is still sound advice. The nations that fall within that rubric may have grown in number since those days, but none of those democracies, old or new, is so secure as to be immune to the lessons of Jean Renoir’s great and piercing antiwar comedy.

History of Cardenio: Is Shakespeare's lost work recovered?

After 20 years of work, an American Shakespeare scholar is bringing his restoration of what he says is a lost play by the Bard to the stage.In 1613, royal records show payment was made to a Shakespearian actor, who starred in a play performed by Shakespeare's theatre company, written during Shakespeare's tenure as playwright.In 1653, the play, The History of Cardenio, appeared in a register of soon-to-be published works. But Cardenio, credited in the register to Shakespeare and his collaborator John Fletcher, never appeared in print.Seventy-four years after that, playwright, editor and Shakespeare imitator Lewis Theobald published a play called Double Falsehood - based, he said, on three original manuscripts of the History of Cardenio....

Polanski’s Next Movie Is of a Man Persecuted, a k a the Dreyfus Affair

LOS ANGELES — In France, the pursuit of Roman Polanski by American authorities who remain intent on bringing him to trial for a decades-old sex offense has raised comparisons to the Dreyfus Affair. And those comparisons will surely be revived by Mr. Polanski’s next film project: A political thriller to be called “D,” based on the story of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus....

Rosie Sultan: Helen Keller's Secret Love Life

Rosie Sultan earned her MFA at Goddard College and won a PEN Discovery Award for fiction, on the nomination of historian Howard Zinn. A former fellow at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, she has taught writing at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts, and Suffolk University in Boston. Her short story “Blue is Your Color, Dear” appeared in Other Voices. She lives with her husband and son in Brookline, Massachusetts.I've been fascinated by Helen Keller since I read my first slim paperback about her when I was a child, and I've read most everything about her since. I've seen the movie The Miracle Worker more times than I can count, and still feel the emotional wallop of the dining room scene: you remember the one -- a young Helen fights her new teacher Anne Sullivan tooth and nail in the Keller family dining room in Alabama, and amidst broken crockery and smashed plates Helen finally, finally succumbs to Anne's demands that she eat from a plate....

Susan Bordo: When Fictionalized Facts Matter

Susan Bordo is a professor of humanities at the University of Kentucky. Her book The Creation of Anne Boleyn will be published early in 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.There is a scene in the 1969 film version of Anne of the Thousand Days that has audiences cheering to this day. Henry VIII (Richard Burton) visits Anne Boleyn (Geneviève Bujold) as she awaits execution in the Tower of London and reflects on the "thousand days" of her marriage to the king. He has come to offer a bargain. If Anne will declare their marriage unlawful and their daughter Elizabeth illegitimate, freeing him to marry Jane Seymour, he will spare Anne's life. But Anne is having none of it. Her hair disheveled, eyes burning a path straight to his masculine pride, she rejects the offer and spits out a lie: "It is true. I was unfaithful to you with all of them. With half your court. With soldiers of your guard, with grooms, with stable hands. Look for the rest of your life at every man that ever knew me and wonder if I didn't find him a better man than you!" Rattled and enraged, Henry shouts, "You whore!" Anne has an even sharper arrow in her quiver:

First Look: Cally Blackman’s 100 Years of Fashion

The last century saw two World Wars, economic disaster, numerous artistic movements, and the rise of the digital age — and, along with it, a complete transformation in women's fashion. Cally Blackman, a dress historian and instructor at Central Saint Martins, attempts to chronicle the shift from corsets to today's ready-to-wear, pulling together more than 400 photographs and illustrations to create 100 Years of Fashion, published by Laurence King. Organized by sections that include "Youthquake," "Amazons," "Couturière," and "New Looks," the goal was to give an overview without getting too in-depth. "I suppose one of the frustrations was I couldn't go into great detail on any one topic because there just wasn’t space to do that," Blackman says. "I think that's always the difficulty with this kind of book." This is the third in a series, following 100 Years of Menswear and 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. The new title comes out May 7, but you can see a preview in our slideshow: "Everyone can identify with [one] image or another because clothes are so much of our lives and such an important part of our lives," she explains. Plus, read ahead for more about the making of the book in our interview with Blackman.

Guggenheim Project Challenges ‘Western-Centric View’

In an effort to reach beyond the Western art world the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is embarking on a five-year program to work with artists, curators and educators from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to bringing curators from those parts of the world to the Guggenheim Museum in New York and organizing exhibitions that highlight art from their regions, the program will acquire art for the Guggenheim’s permanent collection.The project, to be financed by UBS and called the Guggenheim UBS Map Global Art Initiative, will begin with South and Southeast Asia. The museum will invite a curator from each region to New York for overlapping two-year residencies; they will work with a team of Guggenheim curators to identify new and recent artworks that best reflect the range of talents in their areas. The artworks they choose will be acquired for the Guggenheim and will also be the focus of exhibitions that open at the New York museum and then travel to two other cultural institutions....

'Drunk History': Will Ferrell to produce pilot for Comedy Central

Will Ferrell's hysterical web series "Drunk History" might end up on your TV screen. Comedy Central has given a pilot presentation order for the show, which will be produced by Ferrell, Adam McKay and Gary Sanchez Prods., according to Deadline.The series has a drunk narrator describing an historical event, while famous comedians and actors reenactment the scene. The pilot will be called "Drunk History Across America." It will also include travel elements. City locals will get smashed and talk about local history. These will be reenacted as well.Check out one of the episodes of the web series featuring Jack Black below. Other segments have featured Michael Cera (pictured above), Zooey Deschanel and Jason Ritter. What do you think of this as a series? Let us know below....

Robert Redford to Produce a Documentary About Watergate

‘Mad Men’ Takes a Swipe at a Politician Named Romney

It’s no easy feat for a show set in the 1960s to comment on an election taking shape in 2012. And while the writers of “Mad Men,” the popular AMC period drama, haven’t officially endorsed any candidate in this year’s presidential contest, they did find a way to take a sly dig at the Republican front-runner – or at least a progenitor who shares his name.In a brief scene from Sunday’s latest installment of “Mad Men,” written by Erin Levy and the series creator Matthew Weiner, the character Henry Francis (played by Christopher Stanley) is shown in a telephone call with an unseen colleague. Francis, a fictional character who is the public relations director for Mayor John Lindsay of New York City, tells the off-screen figure: “Well, tell Jim his Honor’s not going to Michigan.”After a pause, Francis adds: “Because Romney’s a clown and I don’t want him standing next to him.”...

History Carved Out of the Hills

SALT LAKE CITY — All museums are temples of sorts, monuments to collectors or cultures, declarations of identity, gathering places for tribute. But museums of natural history have an even more distinctive stature. Their focus is not human history, measured in centuries, but natural history, measured in eons. And their subject is not a particular culture and its accomplishments, but a world that seems to stand beyond culture altogether. Natural history museums seek their ground in the earth itself.That is one reason that the Natural History Museum of Utah, which opened last fall in a new $102 million, 17-acre home in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountain Range, has such a powerful impact. Here, at Salt Lake City’s edge, above the geological shoreline of the ancient Lake Bonneville, the earth is vividly present: seen in nearby snow-covered mountains, in the winding hiking and biking path that runs past the museum, and in the untouched land above. Most natural history museums are in urban centers, offering reminders of a distant natural world, but this one is housed in the realm it surveys; it is at home....