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

BBC to exonerate Judas in Jesus Christ drama

The BBC is to screen a new drama about the final week in the life of Jesus Christ which appears to exonerate Judas and Pontius Pilate. Producers of The Passion have portrayed the men in a sympathetic light because they believe they have been"very harshly judged" by history. Judas is portrayed as torn between his loyalties to Jesus and Caiaphas, who organised the plot to kill Jesus. Pilate, played by James Nesbitt, is shown struggling to manage his

Gallery buys playwright painting

The only known portrait of a Jacobean playwright whose contemporary renown rivalled Shakespeare has finally been purchased by the National Portrait Gallery after an appeal. The likeness of John Fletcher, by an unknown artist, has been bought from the 7th Earl of Clarenden for £218,000. Donations to the gallery's appeal included £50,000 from The Art Fund and £2,700 from a raffle at the house in Rye, Sussex, where the writer was born. Fletcher, a vicar's son, was born in 1579 and died of the plagu

Dickens statue 'against wishes'

Plans to erect a statue of Charles Dickens in Kent, where he lived for many years, have been criticised. Experts say it would be against the dying wishes of the Victorian novelist, who specified in his will that he did not want a memorial erected. Medway Council, who say the idea is in its very early stages, has said it will take guidance from the Dickens family about whether a statue would be appropriate. His great, great grandaughter, Liz Dickens, told BBC South East Today she would be delight

British hold a poll on whether the time has come to build a statue to Dickens

THIS is the world's only full-size statue of Charles Dickens. And it's on the other side of the Atlantic in Philadelphia. The Americans, who loved Dickens, sent it to England as a tribute to the author - but it was returned to sender because of a "no memorials" clause in his will. Do you think the time has come for a statue to b

UK: History of the world to be told in 100 museum pieces

WHEN the novelist H G Wells wrote his history of the world, he kept it short. The writer Julian Barnes’s humorous attempt at the same subject was contained in a mere 10½ chapters. But there will be no such brevity in the latest attempt to chronicle human history. The British Museum and its director, Neil MacGregor, are planning to tell the story of civilisation in 100 episodes. The series, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, is the brainchild of Mark Damazer, the network’s

New Museum at Gettysburg Battlefield to Open in April

he public is going to be allowed into the new museum and visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park starting April 14. The facility is part of a $125 million project that will also preserve the park's artifacts, archives and battlefield and create an endowment for future needs. The cyclorama, an 1884 oil painting designed to place viewers in the middle of the climactic battle, is still in the process of being restored. It is scheduled to be open to the public i

Two New Shows Cast Light and Darkness on Early Cultures in the Americas (Review/Field Museum in Chicago)

As you reach the close of the ambitious exhibition “The Ancient Americas” at the Field Museum in Chicago, after viewing remarkable pottery displays and large-scale evocations of the great empires of the Incas, Maya and Aztecs, you reach a darkened gallery with a display case labeled “When Worlds Collided.” At its base is a single object: a tilted, disembodied head of an Aztec stone statue. The room is a memorial to the cultures celebrated in the show and to the many who died in the

"Chicago 10"--Another review. More disappointment. But ...

"Chicago 10,” which opened in theaters a few days ago, is one of the most exciting movies ever made about any aspect of the 1960s. It is also among the most frustrating; for it turns out that excitement is only just so much of a virtue in a documentary film. Sensation minus context is desensitizing. And in a number of ways “Chicago 10″ marks an almost complete triumph of visual intensity over historical memory. Yet it is also the product of some impressive digging in

Mystery of Leonardo's lost work 'almost solved'

The mystery surrounding Leonardo Da Vinci's lost masterpiece, the Battle of Anghiari, is on the verge of being solved, according to an art historian leading the search. Professor Maurizio Seracini said he will use a revolutionary new technology to discover whether the fresco, which has not been seen since 1563, lies behind a wall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. "This is an incredibly important moment," he said on Tuesday. Prof. Seracini, who is men

Bach bust displayed in Berlin--Is this what he really looked like?

A modern reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's head — using computer modeling techniques — shows the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight underbite, his large head topped with short, silver hair. The bust, unveiled in Berlin on Monday, was created by anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson in her lab at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Rather than use Bach's actual bones, which are buried at the St. John's Church in Leipzig, Germany, Wilkinson worked from a c

Jack the Ripper returns (London/Exhibit)

Jack the Ripper is about to return to the part of London he made his own private killing ground in one of history's most infamous unsolved crimes. But in a country that has made headlines in the past week with the conviction of two serial murderers, the inhabitants of the now prosperous but once poverty-ridden East End of London need have no fears. The return of the 19th century prostitute killer is in the form of an exhibition looking at the era, the area, the victims

Comics criticized for calling Maori "cannibals" and Asians "Nips"

Ironic fun or racist rubbish - that's the debate triggered by an anthology of war comics which describe Maori as "cannibals" and Asians as "Nips". Anzacs at War is a recently released compilation of 12 stories originally published by Scottish company DC Thomson, whose titles included Beano and Dandy. The first is Maori Challenge set in the North Island during the Land Wars of 1866. Pakeha soldiers are glorified, while Maori warriors are

New film explores fate of Nazi Germany's "Titanic"

A new television film about the sinking of a Nazi ship carrying thousands of German refugees at the end of World War Two has lifted the lid on one of Germany's most painful memories. The film, to be broadcast on Sunday and Monday, tells the story of the former Nazi cruise ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea on Jan. 30, 1945. As many as 9,300 people died -- believed to be biggest loss of life on a single ship. Yet the tal

Gun that killed JFK assassin in pop culture auction

It is billed as the best pop culture collection ever assembled -- ranging from the gun used to kill the assassin of President John F. Kennedy to the Wicked Witch of the West's hat from "The Wizard of Oz." Collected over the past 25 years by South Florida property developer Anthony Pugliese, the collection, which also includes a whip and the holy grail from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," will be put up for auction next month in Las Vegas. Arla

When Is a Cigar Not a Cigar? When It Tries to Kill Castro (TV Documentary)

Now that Fidel Castro has resigned as president of Cuba, it seems likely that illness and age will finally be allowed to accomplish what two generations of Cuban exiles have been unable to, despite obsessive zeal and the help of the American government. For a quick and entertaining roundup of their attempts, Sundance Channel is offering the well-timed American television premiere of “638 Ways to Kill Castro,” a 2006 British documentary being shown Monday night. The title refers to t

Storm saved Mick Jagger from assassination

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger only survived an assassination attempt by Hells Angels members nearly 40 years ago because a boat carrying his would-be killers was swamped in a storm, according to a new BBC documentary. The details of a plot to kill the British rocker were revealed by an FBI agent as part of a series, "The FBI at 100," which is to be aired on BBC Radio 4 on Monday. Tom Mangold, who presents the series, told Britain's Sunday Telegraph newsp

ABC News gets peak at hidden art treasures in Teheran

Click on the SOURCE link to watch this video montage.

NYT Verdict on "The Other Boleyn Girl": A slog

More slog than romp, “The Other Boleyn Girl” tells the salacious story of two hot blue bloods who ran amok and partly unclothed in the court of Henry VIII. Best known for losing her head to the king, first metaphorically, then literally, Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman, saucy), along with her sister, Mary (Scarlett Johansson, sedate), entered the court of the king (Eric Bana, brooding and glowering) when he was still wed to Catherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent). A man of considerable and changeable app

NYT pans documentary: Chicago 10 (2007)

“Chicago 10,” Brett Morgen’s semi-animated, semi-documentary attempt to make the ’60s cool for a new generation of kids, does the opposite. It is a narrow, glib dollop of canned history, an affirmation of received thinking rather than a challenge to it. Squandering 40 years of hindsight, Mr. Morgen is content to trot out the tired mythology of the era one more time. His mélange of styles and techniques shows visual ingenuity, but not much in the way of historical insight. He takes the intricate,

The Cold War-Era Assault on Comic Book Culture, Revisited

As gamers eagerly await the release of Grand Theft Auto IV — with the inevitable gale of moralistic bloviation in its wake — they could do much worse than to browse a stack of pre-1955 comic books. For intense gore, inventive mayhem, and sociopathic behavior, GTA has nothing on EC Comics' Crime SuspenStories or Charles Biro's lurid Crime Does Not Pay, which first hit stands way back in 1942. Trashy comics were the NC-17 videogames of their day, and their suppression remains a sad chapter in US c