Along with its rich cultural history and scenic beauty, Provence, France is known for its copious sunny days—a fitting attribute…
Mind Forward Examines the Pioneering Field of Brain-Computer Interface
For those suffering from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or ALS, the technology behind brain-computer interface (BCI) can be nothing less than life-changing.…
Up and Away — Can eVTOLs Really Change the Future of Transportation?
A documentary by Bloomberg explores the high-flying potential of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs), but also some of its…
Brian and Charles — A Quirky Story of Creator and Friend
In director Jim Archer’s subtly humorous mockumentary about a lonely inventor and his defiant invention, the powers of creation and…
A Rebel in Venice Dives Deep Into One of the 16th Century’s Greatest Painters
With its polished visual style and cast of insightful experts, this 2019 documentary offers viewers an engrossing, in-depth portrait of…
This Time Will Be Different — Four Good Days Tackles Addiction, Change
While Four Good Days isn’t exactly uplifting, spending a mere 100 minutes watching the heart-wrenching, true-to-life movie feels like more…
Thoughtful and Perceptive, Boiling Point Serves Up a Timely Dish
That a toxic and unrelenting work environment isn’t good for the mind and body is hardly breaking news. But Boiling…
The Alpinist Shows Audiences a Free Soloist Who Found Bliss in Climbing
In a film about a free solo rock climber—one of the very best in the world, no less—you can expect…
In The Holdovers, Snideness Turns Into Sympathy
With its small circle of contrasting characters and tight-knit holiday setting, The Holdovers serves up laughter, wit, and a reminder of how little…
Changing Demographics on an Island Nation
An increasing elderly population combined with a decreasing birth rate poses urgent problems for the future of Japan. To what…
A Poetic Reminder to Soak Up Life’s Simple, Everyday Delights
Directed by Wim Wenders, the Oscar-nominated movie Perfect Days could have benefited from diving deeper into the past of its…
On Stage and Off: Pianoforte Takes Us Behind the Curtain of the International Chopin Competition
With infectious charm and energy, Pianoforte invites viewers into one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world. The…
General Magic: A Tale of Innovation and Failure
The tech company General Magic typified what it means to pour your heart and soul into a dream. An engrossing…
Quirky and Endearing, Robot Dreams is a Feast for the Eyes and the Heart
Robot Dreams is a playful yet thoughtful examination of friendship, identity, and what it means to experience the unpredictable nature of life.
Power, Profit, and a “Celestial Land Grab” in Wild Wild Space
The future of space, particularly our relationship with low Earth orbit, is explored in a thoughtful documentary by tech journalist…
Nowhere Special, A Profound Meditation on Loss—and Love
Nowhere Special is not an easy film to watch. It’s about a dying father in his early thirties who must,…
Taming Silicon Valley: A Fervent Call to Action
In the last decade or so it’s become more apparent than ever that social media companies and other tech giants…
Resurrecting a Relationship — Afterword Explores AI, Grief, and The Future of Human-Computer Interaction
Thanks in large part to modern medical technology, there’s a lot that separates us from those who lived thousands or…
Can Astronauts Reach Mars Without Going Stir-Crazy? Red Heaven Highlights a NASA Simulation
If NASA succeeds at getting human beings safely to Mars and back—a mission they hope to accomplish by the 2030s—it…
Love and Lament in Los Alamos: a Biopic of Mathematician Stanislaw Ulam
Adventures of a Mathematician is a movie inspired by the memoir of Stanislaw Ulam—a brilliant Polish mathematician who came to…
Chasing Bright Medusas: A Wealth of Insights into a Literary Giant
Willa Cather did some of her best writing in an attic study. It’s an ironic contrast to the expansive settings…
Relevant and Thoughtful, Objectified Explores the Impact of Industrial Design on Our Everyday Lives
One summer day, when I was seven or eight years old, I got the urge to make something. I wasn’t…
Art Was Her Country — A Documentary on the Outcast Life of Leonora Carrington
Always going against the grain, the surrealist painter Leonora Carrington experienced considerable isolation during her lifetime. Family strife and a…
Painting America Delves into the Life of the Celebrated Illustrator, Norman Rockwell
By the end of his career, Norman Rockwell had illustrated over three hundred covers for the Saturday Evening Post and…
Towering Hubris and a Company in Shambles—the Fall of WeWork
In a documentary that revolves around the arrogant and buzzword-slinging ex-CEO that is Adam Neumann, there are a lot of…
Botero Glorifies the Columbian Artist but Never Goes in Depth on the Merit of His Work
Botero starts out pleasantly enough, but over the course of its 90 minutes it becomes saccharine and oversaturated with praise.…
The Last Flight Chronicles the Descent of Powerful ex-CEO, Carlos Ghosn
With the gigafactory-sized exception of Elon Musk, heads of auto manufacturers aren’t normally the subject of international news cycles. Yet…
Drip, Splatter, Drink: A Documentary Dives into the Chaotic Life of Jackson Pollock
When he drank, Jackson Pollock could be mean, combative, and downright nasty. He engaged in everything from malicious insults to…
Eye Spy With My Little Eye Takes Us into the World of Kandinsky
An erudite man with many diverse talents, Kandinsky ultimately devoted his life to the multisensory and spiritual realms of art.…
An Abstract Theft — A Stolen de Kooning Comes Home
Nearly forty years ago, Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre was snatched from a museum. A few years ago it resurfaced. An…
A Documentary on Thomas Hart Benton Shows the Multifaceted Life of the Regionalist painter
Though standing just 5’3” tall, Thomas Hart Benton, like the large and vibrant murals for which he’s known, was a…
Designing America Showcases the Life and Works of Frederick Law Olmsted, Mastermind of Central Park
Central Park has brought smiles and fresh air to countless people from all over the world. With its 800-plus acres…
The 99% Invisible City Shines Light on “The Hidden World” of Urban Design
Written in short, digestible sections, this engaging and quirky book about the “invisible” elements of cities helps open our eyes to both the incredible ingenuities—and byzantine bureaucracies—that are a part of our urban communities.
Flowstate Flies Us Into the Passionate Culture of FPV Drones
Drones are quickly becoming a part of our everyday lives. Whether we experience these versatile flying machines directly or indirectly,…
Lions and Tigers and Bears! — A Documentary on Henri Rousseau, Painter of the Jungle
These days, if you want to get your artistic creations out into the world, there are plenty of avenues in…
Capturing the Whole of French Society — an Educational Film on Honoré de Balzac
Balzac’s caffeine habit was accompanied by a far more important one: long, concentrated stretches spent writing.
A Documentary Takes Us Inside the Dutch Giant ASML, Master of EUV Lithography
It feels like a plot spun from the mind of a Hollywood screenwriter — a high-octane, geopolitical thriller tailormade for…
Vision without Sight: Monika Demonstrates the Power of Personal Agency
The young protagonist of a short movie, Monika, shows that external forces in one’s life don’t have to get the final say
A Documentary Shows the Dark Side of Pegasus Spyware, but Lacks Context
All of us worry about the security of our phones and devices, especially as an increasing amount of our lives…
The Dissident — A Gripping Documentary That One Wishes Were Fiction
The man that many see as being responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi—including the CIA—lacks for almost nothing. With…
In Surveillance State, Two Seasoned Journalists Examine China’s Watchful Eye
As unsettling as the best dystopian novels can be, none can compare with the real world horrors which plague the…
Good Night Oppy — Twin Rovers, Human Parents, and a Relationship Forged Forever
As far as I know, there are no squeaky toys inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena, California. I…
The Turning Point Provides a Snapshot of the year 1851 in the Life of Charles Dickens
If you stroll down the aisles of a bookstore (or hop online) you’ll likely come across some spectacularly bold titles.…
From Dangerous Colombian City to Beacon of Inspiration — Medellín’s Transformation
Medellín once made headlines for its civil wars, rampant poverty, and unmitigated violence. Now it’s an exemplar of Smart Cities,…
The Big Nine Forecasts How Tech Titans Will Shape Our Future and Humanity
Neil Postman, the distinguished cultural critic who died in 2003, wrote prolifically on digital technology and its impact on culture…
Folly, Hubris, and the American West — John Williams’ Butcher’s Crossing
Books, and particularly novels, possess such dynamic and interesting lives. Once written, a novel can become an unexpected best seller,…
Unfulfilled Dreams and the Hollywood Facade — Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust
Tod Hackett, a fresh Yale art grad, is the first character we met in Nathanael West’s zany, wild, and thoroughly…
The Age of Innocence Brought to the Screen: Martin Scorsese Adopts Edith Wharton
One of Martin Scorsese’s most well-received films—and there are many—is Taxi Driver. It came out 1976; it was the same…
Carson McCullers’ Southern Gothic Novella, The Ballad of the Sad Café
It was only about a month ago that I first heard the name Carson McCullers, the writer from the American…
The American Short Story Film Series —The Blue Hotel
In this gripping film adaptation of Stephen Crane’s short story, viewers are transported to a modest hotel in the backwater…
L.A. Theatre Works’ Engaging Stage Adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ The Jungle
A 1992 production of The Jungle is a compelling and creatively-conceived adaptation of one of America’s most famous novels When…
Looking for some different reads? Check out the Chawton House Library Series
Everyone knows of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, of Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskill, and George Eliot. Many also know…
Cézanne et Moi — A Tale of Two Artists and a Friendship in Flux
I don’t know whether artists have more interesting or tumultuous friendships than anyone else. I would suspect that they don’t.…
Film review: God’s Little Acre (1958)
The signs that something is a little zany about Ty Ty Walden and his financially-ailing Southern family aren’t too hard…
The Red Pony — Steinbeck’s Profound Novella Packed with Life Lessons for Every Age
The Red Pony, Steinbeck’s novella written during the 1930s, still finds its way into the hands of middle school students.…
The American Short Story Film Series Puts “Paul’s Case” on the Screen
Poor Paul; always the oddball. His own father finds him bizarre, and when we first meet him in Willa Cather’s…
Review of The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel
My own experience of encountering, and then finally reading, John Williams’ great novel of 1965 is probably similar to that…
Cup of Gold — Steinbeck’s Debut Novel about Happiness and Meaning
Set in the 17th century, the lonesome, perpetually dissatisfied protagonist of Cup of Gold is none other than Henry Morgan
Jack London’s Semi-Autobiographical Novel, Martin Eden, Brought to the Screen
On nearly every page of Jack London’s thoroughly gripping 1909 novel, Martin Eden fights with himself and the forces around…
Inside Blackwell’s Asylum — A Film Adaptation of Nellie Bly’s Undercover Reporting
Certain words are likely to come to mind when watching 10 Days in a Mad-House, a movie based on a…
Sounder — A Poignant Movie about Family and Fortitude
Adapted from the novel of the same name, Sounder tells the story of a struggling African American family during the…
An Early and Late Novella of Eliza Haywood — The Rash Resolve and Life’s Progress
There’s no shortage of female characters in 18th-century novels that have a rough go of it. But Emanuella, the protagonist…
The Looking-Glass for the Mind: 18th-Century Didactic Stories for the Youthful Reader
Richard Johnson’s The Looking-Glass for the Mind (1787) — a free-spirited adaptation of Arnaud Berquin’s L’Ami des Enfans — is…
An Unadorned Look at Life, Love and Marriage in Elizabeth Griffith’s The Delicate Distress
One of the distinct delights of great literature is that regardless of a work’s author, age, or original language readers…
Rumor and Revelation — Eliza Haywood’s The Injur’d Husband
Shortly into the The Injur’d Husband, a minor character named Sanfsoy — chatty as can be — lets drop to…
The Giddiness of Youth and Reality’s Brusque Introduction: Frances Brooke’s The Excursion
The star of Frances Brooke’s 1777 novel is Maria Villiers, a passionate go-getter who longs to experience life outside of…
Exhibition on Screen: The Artist’s Garden Delves into Fascinating Territory
Gorgeous to look at and filled with history, culture, and art, The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism shows how painting and…
Charlotte Lennox’s Henrietta and Its Bold Eponymous Heroine
It’s a feat less visually dazzling than a tightrope walker slowly moving between two high-rise buildings, but Henrietta, the protagonist…
An Engrossing Drama about the Talented and Tragic Sculptor, Camille Claudel
There aren’t many bigger names in the history of sculpture than Auguste Rodin, the French artist of the 19th century.…
A Brilliantly-Acted but Narrow Biopic of J.M.W. Turner
Fierce, grumpy, and unfailingly devoted to his craft, the genius that resided in J.M.W. Turner seems to have left little…
Romance Novels as Reality — Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote
Arabella, the protagonist of Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote (1752), is not the adventurous, engaging, and larger-than-life figure that Don…
Royal Swedish Opera’s Powerful, Harrowing Production of Madame Butterfly
I can think of few gloomier stories, in any medium, than that of Madame Butterfly’s: the young, innocent girl at…
Layers of Meaning in Britten’s Hauntingly Beautiful Peter Grimes
There are so many staggeringly good scenes in Benjamin Britten’s opera of 1945 — scenes that are particularly well-staged in…
Struggle, Love, Loss: La Bohème in a Time of Pandemic
It’s a story that begins simply enough. A small group of free-spirited artists—high on life and exuberantly passionate—contend with the…
In Search of Haydn Offers an In-depth Portrait of the Brilliant Composer
As a composer, one can’t do much better than to be graced with the magnificent titles of “Father of the…
A Visually Stunning Production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
The central plot of Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin — the novel in verse which Tchaikovsky used for his 1879 opera…
A Gem of Goethe’s — Hermann and Dorothea
There are two major works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — the German polymath of the 18th and 19th centuries…
An Intriuging But Shallow 1957 Film of Torquato Tasso’s Great Epic
Certain epic poems, despite their brilliance and exceptionally vibrant relationship to companions in the genre, are scarcely heard of anymore.…
A Succinct Introduction to the Homeric Epics — Barbara Graziosi’s Homer
Barbara Graziosi’s compact and to-the-point book, titled simply Homer, offers a smoothly written and reader-friendly introduction to a host of…
A Documentary Explores the Obscure Danish Painter Vilhelm Hammershøi
Though much of the world is now slowly and cautiously returning to a semblance of normal life, it was only…
The Strange and Wonderful Experience of Encountering the Kalevala
The Kalevala — Elias Lönnrot’s ambitious compilation of Finish stories published in the middle of the 19th century — is…
Homer on the Screen: A ’90s Miniseries of The Odyssey
In terms of TV years, the 1997 miniseries The Odyssey, directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, feels like something of a relic.…
A Short, Splendid Documentary on the Mabinogion
Like so many of the stories that make up the Western canon, the Mabinogion has its origins in an oral…
Tasso’s Female Protagonists in Jerusalem Delivered
The central characters in Torquato Tasso’s Renaissance epic, Jerusalem Delivered (1581), are unique individuals with distinct stories, struggles, sacrifices, and…
All’s Well That Ends Well — Gil Polo’s Enamoured Diana
Ah, love. That indescribable feeling of warmth and bliss. Something that makes the heart beat faster than the wings of…
Beautiful Landscapes, Tormented Lovers — Jacopo Sannazaro’s Arcadia
Published in 1504, Jacopo Sannazaro’s Arcadia had a long literary tradition behind it — well over 1,500 years — with…
A Slice of Montemayor’s 16th-Century Diana — The Story of Belisa and Arsileus
With the multiplicity of stories that Jorge de Montemayor intricately weaves together in his 1559 Diana, it’s inevitable that readers…
An Epic Under the Radar: Tasso’s Adventurous, Youthful, Love-Infused Rinaldo
Torquato Tasso, if his name rings any bells at all, is best known for his epic poem Jerusalem Delivered. Its…
Healing Through Hopkins — The Powers of Poetry
On a late December morning, I began the first of many trips out to my car. A gorgeous sun was…
When Pablo Became Picasso — A Documentary on The Beginning Chapters of the Artist’s Life
It’s not always easy to like Picasso the man. He treated others, especially women, as provisional muses who could be…
The Beethoven Project shows the Joys, Rigors of Concert Life
DW-TV’s documentary (2010) follows the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as they go through an intensive three months of rehearsals in the…
An Intensive Dive into the Mind of Paul Klee — The Silence of the Angel
Paul Klee, the wildly imaginative and influential artist of the 20th century, is presented in this rather somber and slow…
Bauhaus 100: A Documentary on the influential movement in the year of its centenary
History is replete with examples of fervent creativity arising out of chaos. The inception of the Bauhaus movement, shortly after…
The Cardboard Bernini — An Intriguing Film of Missed Opportunities
Art, from its very beginning, has been connected with the mysterious, the uncontrollable, and the ephemerality of our earthly lives.…
England’s Explosive Novelist: BBC’s The Heart of Thomas Hardy
Born in 1840, Thomas Hardy developed into a consummate writer and one of England’s greatest novelists. At Max Gate (a…
The Strange, Beautiful World of Andrew Wyeth Explored in a Documentary
Not all subjects of documentaries are well suited for the medium. The story of some artists can be better and…
A BBC Documentary Tells The story Behind Handel’s Famous Oratorio
Is any act ever completely selfless? It’s a rather popular question — though not a particularly interesting one, if you…
DW’s The Germans — Frederick and the Empress
Bold and ambitious to a degree which could have easily wrecked his plans for a dominant Prussia, Frederick the Great…
Rodin, A Documentary on the Sculptor, Shows His Rise To Fame, Immortality
The narrative arc of Auguste Rodin’s artistic life is stupendous. Whether you admire his work or not, it’s a trajectory…
DW’s The Germans — Luther and the Nation
Forget about where one might stand theologically, there are a multiplicity of ways to tell the story of Martin Luther…
An Ode to the Powers of Music and Love in Itzhak
Of the seven and a half billion people on the planet, only the most minute fraction of beings have the…
DW’s The Germans — Barbarossa and the Lion
The Romans had a name for Frederick I, the man who entered their territory and was crowned emperor by Pope…
DW’s The Germans — Otto and the Empire
Otto I, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 962, doesn’t have the same place in the popular imagination as his…
A Subdued Yet Powerful Documentary — Beethoven: A Portrait
In this slow-paced, thoughtful, and charming documentary — now some thirty years old — Balint Vazsonyi and Anthony Qualye explore…
Two Great Artists in the Midst of the Reformation — The Cranachs and Medieval Modern Art
Lucas Cranach’s workshop must have been a perpetually busy place. One can imagine it full of a prodigious energy and…
DW’s The Germans: Charlemagne and the Saxons
If any example were ever needed to show that near polar-opposite traits can emanate from a single human being, Charlemagne…
A Documentary shows Blockchain’s Power to Change Cities and Lives
It wasn’t that long ago that blockchain, Bitcoin, and other related technologies carried an air of unfamiliarity, if not outright…
Painting Home — John Constable and His Native Suffolk
John Constable, born in 1776 and just a year after J.M.W Turner, never achieved the fame or success of his…
Nature and Man Beautifully Collide in the Paintings of J.M.W. Turner
By the end of J.M.W. Turner’s life, he had captured the past fifty years of Britain’s vastly transformed world with…
A BBC Documentary Sheds Light On the Dark World of Vermeer
The man who painted some of the most ethereal, calm-inducing, and subtly majestic scenes of everyday life might have experienced…
Glasgow’s Grand Collector — A Look at William Burrell & His Work
Nowadays virtually everything is collected and stored, whether intentionally or not. Data and pictures, records and documents of all kinds,…
A Biography-Centered Documentary On Spain’s Greatest Painter
It’s one of the most famous paintings in the world, capable of puzzling both scholars and average museum-goers alike. Containing…
Outcast 19th-Century Artists Turned Celebrities of Their Time: BBC’s The Pre-Raphaelites
Formed in 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood — like the second-generation Romantic poets before them — was a group of ardent…
Better Late Than Never: Britain and its Renaissance
BBC2’s documentary, A Very British Renaissance, spans three episodes and captures the birth and development of the Renaissance in England.…
Reviving Rubens — a documentary on the prolific Flemish artist
The number of ways to describe Peter Paul Rubens, the famed artist of the 17th century who exemplified the Baroque…
Waldemar Januszczak Offers a Portrait of the Life and Times of England’s First Great Painter
Is it a blessing or a curse to live during one of the most tumultuous times in the history of…
Review of Bitwise: A Life in Code
Review of The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer’s Odyssey
As readers of Edith Hall’s The Return of Ulysses will quickly become aware (if they are not already), there is…
David Ferry’s new translation of the Aeneid
It’s amazing how reading a different translation of a piece of literature can almost instantly provide fresh thoughts as well…
The saving value of technology in Imaging the Iliad: A Digital Renaissance
It’s easy enough to forget that the great literary and philosophical works of classical antiquity are available to us only…
A Painter and His Milieu — PBS’ Cezanne in Provence
The relationship between artist and home is one of the most fascinating dimensions of the creative process. Even for those…
Two Documentaries on the Gallipoli Campaign
Once strewn with tens of thousands of dead bodies — many of them rotting for weeks as they lay in…
PBS’ documentary on the War of 1812
The War of 1812 is not the only war to be dubbed a “forgotten war.” Others, like the Korean War,…
Review of The Golden Age of the Classics in America: Greece, Rome, and the Antebellum United States
Published just under a decade ago, many readers will find the contours and topics of this book to be more…
Review of Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and Beyond
There are a few things one can be certain of when approaching classical literature. First, and something always to keep…
Spectatio 
You must be logged in to post a comment.