Arts Fuse Editor

Film Review: Take a “Drive,” She Says

September 16, 2011
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In “Drive,” director Nicolas Winding Refn crafts a cool, tight and stylish film that gets away with a lot. He managed to make a movie that works as some kind of bizarre but wonderful Michael Mann/Jean-Pierre Melville/Quentin Tarantino mash-up, helmed by star Ryan Gosling, who described it as a “violent John Hughes movie.”

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Music Feature: Fervent Prayer — Galeet Dardashti crafts new rituals from the old

September 13, 2011
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Galeet Dardashti is a trailblazing musician: she is the first woman in her celebrated family to perform Persian Jewish music

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Film Review: “Contagion” — Virus infects world, world dies, world loots, scientists try to develop vaccine.

September 10, 2011
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Despite its serious script and premise, “Contagion” is somehow able to retain a subtle element of “fun,” an admirable feat for a movie in which scores of people die in nearly every scene.

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Coming Attractions in Film: September 2011

September 2, 2011
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The beginning of a not-bad fall film season in New England, with some Woody Allen classics, an Iranian melodrama among the youth set, an appearance by a legendary Japanese experimental film maker, and a couple of high-grade action flicks.

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Classical Music Review: Hooray for Film Night at Tanglewood

August 25, 2011
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The Tanglewood team of Morgan Freeman, Gil Shaham, and John Williams served up an evening of memorable performances of music from the movies.

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Poetry Review: Pierre-Albert Jourdan — Writing that Wagers on Beauty

August 23, 2011
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For French writer Pierre-Albert Jourdan, paradox and its close kin aphorism were ways to approach the ineffable, the infinite, the immanent, and above all the state of unity between self and world that he devotedly, passionately sought.

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Film Review: “Senna” — A Documentary where Raw Sport and Raw Talent Meet

August 21, 2011
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Narrative holes and esoteric tendencies aside, SENNA is remarkable for its feat of compiling what must have been hundreds if not thousands of hours of Formula One footage. The film is surprisingly cinematic and has a vintage, if not sometimes grainy, appearance.

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Movie Review: “Attack the Block” Wimps Out

August 20, 2011
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Despite its entertainment value, ATTACK THE BLOCK ends up shirking its potentially subversive setup for the tried-and-true route of moral redemption and a vapid political stance

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Poetry Review: Poet Philippe Jaccottet — Teasing the Secret Out of Things

August 17, 2011
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Philppe Jaccottet is one of Europe’s most prolific and distinguished poets. This tome comprises selections from his later works, the bulk of which are prose poems whose urgency reflect a heightened awareness of death.

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Book Review: The Woman Who Killed Princess Diana?

August 15, 2011
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Perhaps the novel is not the most original read, but AN ACCIDENT IN AUGUST contributes to the growing number of literary meditations on the evolving pathology of celebrity,

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