Search results for

The new film The Quiet American -- based on the Graham Greene novel -- comments on western attitudes toward Vietnam in the 1950s. Michael Caine stars. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

The Hours is a new film based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the writer Virginia Woolf and two women living in a later time who Woolf profoundly influences. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore star. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to writer Verlyn Klinkenborg about his new book, The Rural Life, a collection of essays about life in the countryside in different parts of America. Klinkenborg lives part of the week in New York City, and part of the week on a farm in upstate New York.

Film critics say 2002 was a roller coaster of a year for movies, with staggering hits and blockbuster bombs. NPR's Bob Edwards talks with Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan about the 2002 booms and busts and the cinematic prospects for 2003.

The much-examined life of Christian spiritual giant Francis of Assisi is explored anew in a biography by theologian Donald Spoto. Reluctant Saint draws on a wealth of new material, including an ecumencial meeting in 1219 in Egypt between Francis and the leader of Muslim forces in the Fifth Crusade. Spoto speaks with NPR's Liane Hansen.

David Rockefeller, grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller and a chief architect of the family's philanthropic efforts, has published his memoirs at age 87. He speaks with NPR's Scott Simon.

The documentary Rocks with Wings, set to air on PBS, highlights an all-Navajo high school girls' basketball team crowned New Mexico state champs in 1988. It also tells the tale of the filmmaker who spent 14 years on the project. Paul Ingles reports. Correction: This story contains an error about the Lady Chieftains basketball team's record. The story stated that the team won state championship titles every year from 1988 through 1995. The story should have said that the Lady Chieftains won four state championship titles between 1988 and 1992, and made it to the state finals in '93, '94 and '95. We regret the error.

The second installment in the Lord of the Rings story opens in movie theaters Wednesday. Frodo and Gandalf are back in The Two Towers, and NPR's Bob Mondello has a review.

National Book Award Finalist Look at Me is a complex tale of intersecting lives, at the center of which is a successful fashion model. NPR's Renee Montagne speaks with author Jennifer Egan about a major theme in the novel, the dark side of America's "image culture."

The Great White Way embraces the hip-hop roots of slam poetry with Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. It's part of entrepreneur Russell Simmons' mission to bring hip-hop culture to the masses. He owns a record company, a film company, and the clothing line Phat Farm. Karen Michel reports.