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

Historian is protagonist in new novel

Askold Melnyczuk has written two short, excellent novels about Ukrain ian immigrants in America, “What Is Told” (1994) and “Ambassador of the Dead” (2001). His new novel, “The House of Widows,” feels more ambitious. James Pak, the central narrator, is a mild, introspective 40-year-old historian biding time in a job at the American Embassy in Vienna. In May 2006, when the novel opens, an anonymous informant has sent James a package: a dossier of materials from soldiers deserting the

Fight to claim Jane Austen's true home

It is the village in which Jane Austen spent the last years of her life and produced some of the best-loved novels in the literary canon. But Chawton in Hampshire is fighting to retain its rightful place in history after the city of Bath laid claim to be the author's "true home". Organisers of Bath's Jane Austen Festival say the city is now "internationally recognised" as the writer's home because it features so heavily in her books. This is no small

The phrase Old Masters is sexist, authors and students are told

Students and academics are being banned from using the term "Old Masters" and "seminal" because of claims they are sexist. Publishers and universities are outlawing dozens of seemingly innocuous words in case they cause offence. Banned phrases on the list, which was originally drawn up by sociologists, include Old Masters, which has been used for centuries to refer to great painters - almost all of whom were in fact male. It is claimed that th

Revealed: Philip's four-letter riposte to Diana funeral plan

A poised performance by Dame Helen Mirren in the film The Queen has, until now, provided the nation with the only clues about the atmosphere in Buckingham Palace and Balmoral Castle after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Mirren's portrayal told us that the Queen found Downing Street's involvement irritating at first, though the royal family ultimately accepted Tony Blair's advice to open up. Prince Philip was grumpy, but realised that Blair, who hailed Diana as the &qu

World War I 'Great Escape' plot revealed in new exhibition at UK's Imperial War Museum

A little known plot by prisoners of war to tunnel out of a German camp in the First World War is to be told in a new exhibition. Decades before the escape of 76 Allied prisoners from the Stalag Luft III camp in Nazi Germany, events which became the basis for Hollywood film The Great Escape, 29 officers escaped the clutches of the Germans in a similar feat of engineering and subterfuge. The exhibition will tell the story of 60 British and Australian prisoners of war who

Yankees head for pastures new

After 85 years the most famous sporting lights in America are about to go dark forever. ... The 60,000-seat stadium was home to many of baseball's star players and characters - from "Babe" Ruth to current captain Derek Jeter - but it also hosted many a world title boxing contest, and several papal masses. "It's time to change," said retired school principal Bill Blazek, who had driven to the Bronx with a group of visitors from Iowa. &quo

The mysterious tragedy at the heart of Rothko's tranquil masterpieces

In May last year a picture by Mark Rothko was sold at Sotheby's, New York for $72.8 million, which was then the record price for a post-war work of art at auction. It was an event that would almost certainly have appalled and infuriated the artist. He would, if anything, have been even more agitated by a new retrospective exhibition of his work at Tate Modern. Rothko (1903-1970) is one of the great figures of mid-20th-century American art, his name often paired with that of Ja

Michelangelo's David 'at risk of falling over'

Cracks in the 500-year-old statue, which were filled in four years ago, have already reappeared, said Antonio Borri, a structural engineering professor at Perugia University in Umbria. The weight of the 17-ft-tall statue, the poor quality of its marble and the accumulation of small shocks from building work or drilling in the streets outside have put it in danger of falling over, Professor Borri said. However, he said that the statue, housed in Florence's Accademia Gall

Spanish poet's family won't oppose opening of mass grave to establish truth about Franco

Federico Garcia Lorca's family won't oppose a petition to open a mass grave where his body is believed to have been dumped after Franco supporters allegedly executed the poet and playwright at the outbreak of Spain's Civil War, a relative said Thursday. A judge will decide whether to exhume the remains, but the announcement by the family of Spain's most prominent and popular 20th century poet is a significant about-face after years of refusing to touch the grave. It also takes

Baader Meinhof film stirs controversy in Germany

The controversial The Baader-Meinhof Complex is a warts-and-all depiction by the producer Bernd Eichinger, who won fame with his taboo-breaking 2004 hit Downfall, about Hitler's last days in his besieged Berlin bunker. His new work on the Left-wing Baader-Meinhof gang – also known as the Red Army Faction – is reputed to be the most expensive German film ever made. Starring some of the country's top actors, it sets out to remind the German public that the gang members were vicious k

How Winston Churchill saved the National Gallery

On 23 August, 1939, the National Gallery was open as usual - but, as soon as the doors closed behind the last visitors, a well-orchestrated evacuation plan swung into operation. War was now imminent and the possibility that London might suffer saturation bombing meant that a new, safer home was needed for the paintings. Over the next few days, the doors remained shut to the public while the paintings were removed from the walls and painstakingly loaded onto vehicles in conditions of

Sir Peter Blake's Queen under the hammer

Sir Peter Blake's portrait, based on a photograph taken by Lord Lichfield, is one of several works of art being auctioned on Tuesday in London, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. It was originally painted for a reception held at the Royal Academy of Arts to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002. Sir Peter, famous for his rock album covers - from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's to Stop the Clocks by Oasis - as well as his vivid paintings and collages of seemingly-ev

Imperial War Museum exhibition helps preserve the memory of the first great escape

It was certainly a Great Escape, even if it did not get the Hollywood treatment of Steve McQueen on his motorbike. The little known story of the prisoners of war who tunnelled out of a German camp in 1918 is to be told in a major exhibition that will show how they pioneered the subterfuge before their celebrated Second World War counterparts. The story of the attempt by 60 officers to break out of Holzminden camp during the First World War has long been eclipsed by films about PoWs

Michelangelo's David 'at risk of collapse' because of traffic and visitors

Four years after it was last cleaned and repaired Michelangelo's statue of David in Florence is "at risk of collapse", according to a restoration expert. Antonio Borri, professor of construction engineering at Perugia University and part of the team monitoring the statue's state of conservation, said that cracks which been repaired during a 2004 restoration marking the 500th anniversary of the statue's creation had re-appeared. A seminar in Florence tomorrow

James Bond author Ian Fleming was electric transport advocate, manuscript reveals

The writer also proposed the introduction of park and ride schemes, long before environmental concerns became fashionable. The article, entitled If I Were Prime Minister, was written for The Spectator in 1959. It also includes a suggestion to turn the Isle of Wight into a louche theme park with casinos and the most luxurious brothels in the world. According to James Taylor, the curator of the Imperial War Museum exhibition, the slightly tongue-in-cheek article is inte

"America, Empire of Liberty" launches on BBC Radio 4

On Monday afternoon, Radio 4 launches one of its most ambitious history projects of recent years. America, Empire of Liberty will tell the story of the United States – from the times of the first settlements in the country back in 12,000 BC, through to the present day. It will consist of 90 fifteen-minute episodes, split into three runs of 30 episodes each. Among Radio 4’s history series, only the Nineties’ This Sceptred Isle, a history of Britain, and Neil MacGregor’s forthcoming history of the

Princess Margaret portrait on display

The 1957 painting by Pietro Annigoni, an Italian artist, depicts the young Princess in an English rose garden. Viscount Linley included the portrait in an auction of his mother's possessions at Christie's in 2006, arguing that he needed to meet a £3 million inheritance tax bill following her death in 2002. The Royal Family were said to be saddened at the prospect of losing the painting, a favourite of the Queen. It was sold for £680,000, three times its

The cold war wasn't just about bombs. It was about cars, shoes and kitchens according to a new exhibition

In 1959, Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev made a rare public appearance together at Moscow's newest landmark: the American National Exhibition. A few days before the opening, the two men strolled through the pavilions, bickering flirtatiously for the press, and pretending to admire US handiwork. When they entered the re-creation of a Long Island kitchen, however, the tone changed. Khrushchev averred that Russian kitchens were longer-lasting than American ones and that, in any case, he doubted

Moscow street named after Solzhenitsyn

As Alexander Solzhenitsyn was laid to rest last month, President Dmitri Medvedev decreed that he be memorialized "for his extraordinary contribution" to Russian culture. Among other things, a Moscow street should be renamed for the great chronicler of Russia's turbulent 20th century. In short order, the office of Mayor Yuri Luzhkov announced that Bolshaya Kommunisticheskaya Ulitsa, or Big Communist Street, actually one of the prettiest, quietest and most well-preserved str

Unknown Mozart work discovered

A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart, a researcher said Thursday. The 18th-century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as an important find. Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer. "This is absolutely new," Leisinger said in a telephone intervie