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Composer Stephen Schwartz has provided the music and lyrics for Broadway hits from Godspell to his latest, Wicked. He discusses the patchwork of artistic influences, from Beethoven to Sting, that have influenced his popular, emotionally powerful style. NPR's Neva Grant reports.

The new action-adventure film Van Helsing centers on the venerable doctor, an expert on vampires who masterminded the counterattack on Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel about the blood-sucking count. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with writer Gilbert Sorrentino about Hubert Selby, Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn, who died Monday. Sorrentino grew up with Selby, says he made literature out of a kind of language that few writers dared use before. He was not the rough hewn person characterized in his prose. His inspiration was growing up on the streets.

Michael Moore's documentary about President Bush's war on terror -- Fahrenheit 9/11 -- has won the Palme d'Or, top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The politically charged film explores the links between the Bush family and Saudi Arabia. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer and Los Angeles Times film critic Ken Turan.

Coffee and Cigarettes, from iconoclast director Jim Jarmusch, is the culmination of years of filming vignettes centering on coffee shops. The movie features a variety of performers, from Tom Waits to Iggy Pop and Steven Wright. NPR's Bob Mondello has a review.

After disappointing returns from The Alamo and The Punisher, Hollywood awaits next weekend's opening of Van Helsing. It's a traditionally slow time of year for movie theaters. Los Angeles Times critic Ken Turan speaks with NPR's Bob Edwards about why that is.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a horrific disaster -- and the full story was far worse than corrupt politicians of the time made known. Now author James Dalessandro uses fiction to set the record straight in his new novel 1906. He speaks with NPR's Cheryl Corley.

best known as the screenwriter for 1985's My Beautiful Laundrette and 1987's Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. He's written a script for a new film -- The Mother -- and has a new novel out called The Body. Both mark a departure from his socio-political stories about being a person of color in England. Now the subject of aging takes center stage. Frank Browning reports.

Evangelical protestant Gospel music is surprisingly popular in traditionally Catholic France. Winning converts and inspiring new trends, it's a hit both in churches and in stores. NPR's Nick Spicer reports.

Paul Winfield, the third African American nominated for a best actor Oscar, died Sunday of a heart attack. He was 62. Winfield earned his Academy Award nomination for his turn in the 1972 film Sounder. In 1995, he won an Emmy for his portrayal of a federal judge in the TV show Picket Fences. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.