Lust for Life Lust for Life
The afterlife of Italian poet, novelist, critic and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini brings to mind some familiar lines from Auden's "In Memory of W.B.
Jan 22, 2004 / Books & the Arts / George Scialabba
All You Need Is a Girl and a Gun All You Need Is a Girl and a Gun
Colin MacCabe's new book is more a provocative polemic than a rounded biography, but it deserves the highest praise for being inspired by the belief that in the early 1960s Jean-...
Jan 22, 2004 / Books & the Arts / David Thomson
The Fog of Cop-Out The Fog of Cop-Out
My dear friend and late Nation colleague Andrew Kopkind liked to tell how, skiing in Aspen at the height of the Vietnam War, he came round a bend and saw another skier, Defense S...
Jan 22, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Cockburn
The Hunt for Hussein The Hunt for Hussein
About a third of the way through the long, long flashback that is Crimson Gold, someone mentions that the main character, Hussein, needs to work outdoors because of his claustrop...
Jan 15, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Bad Boy, Good Manners Bad Boy, Good Manners
Few of the good things that reward the rising--or risen--young artist have not fallen to John Currin in recent days.
Jan 15, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
The Closest of Strangers The Closest of Strangers
Tony Kushner's latest play, Caroline, or Change, left me contemplating its curious title, which suggests an indecisive playwright. Why not just Caroline, or simply Change?
Jan 8, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Baz Dreisinger
Crimes and Misdemeanors Crimes and Misdemeanors
An indispensable work of art, especially at this moment in our history, Errol Morris's new documentary declares its theme before you even step into the theater. The Fog of ...
Dec 24, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?
"People try to be so fussy and particular when they look at politics," observes Zillah, a character in Tony Kushner's 1987 play, A Bright Room Called Day, "but what I think an un...
Dec 22, 2003 / Books & the Arts / William Johnson
Rebel Without a Cause Rebel Without a Cause
By the time that Jeanne Moreau cut the cake for his twenty-fifth birthday on the set of Elevator to the Gallows, Louis Malle had already been joint winner of an Oscar for his wor...
Dec 18, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Richard Vinen