Director Francois Girard's The Red Violin features an evocative Academy Award-winning soundtrack by John Corigliano, with violin solos performed by Joshua Bell. It is one of the most beautiful movies about music I have ever seen -- apart, that is, from its unlikely and unfortunate demonstration of how one might go about playing a glorious instrument while engaging sexual intercourse

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In Repose In the water she lay in repose, the hot bath always a quiet time, her arm was stiff, the water was cold. Many nights we often slept alone, she in her small bed and I in mine, in the water she lay in repose. Up for toilet, my regular stroll, three am bathroom […]

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Ted Turner offered $100,000 for proof the Tasmanian Tiger lives and, 16 years later, The Bulletin upped the ante to $1.25 million, while a tour operator subsequently put up $1.75 million. None of these efforts has produced anything close to a verified sighting. All we have is a myth, a movie and a light wash of political correctness

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When I was asked to review this book, my first thought was: What can I write about Dylan that I haven’t already said in a previous essay, “Ain’t Gonna Work on Bob Dylan’s Farm No More” (Quadrant, December 2016)? None of the observations I made back then have changed. If anything, some of my views, […]

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As with the Frankenstein, Mummy and Dracula tales, the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still and other films of the period have been subjected to some very sorry retellings indeed. Sometimes the original version is the best -- a simple truth this latest and lacklustre remake of The Midwich Cuckoos establishes beyond doubt

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The Day the Law Decreed They Wear the Star How could they know? No one could see that far. At first, spat on, or cursed, they crossed the street and then the Law decreed they wear the star. Two triangles, an amber avatar, not to comply meant heavy penalties. How could they know? No one […]

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Originally, Gustave Eiffel's marvel was scheduled to be demolished after twenty years, but due to its enormous international popularity, it remains standing and will continue to do so most likely in perpetuity. A new film chronicles how, why and with what in mind the tower came to be built

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  Fracture A small thing. Insignificant, really. Out of play, or spite, the crossing of a line no one saw, a slight— imagined or real—a single hairline crack. At first, a bruise, a smart, built-up pressure beneath pushing edges apart. Some space, some denial, some bandaging. Family resumes as before. The mark fades. Out of […]

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The backstory to the making of The Godfather, a movie that pulled off the neat trick of being both a blockbuster and a work of art, was as much a character-driven saga as the Mario Puzo page-turner on which it and its sequel were based. The Offer recounts that novel-to-screen story over ten engrossing, if not entirely accurate, installments

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Netflix's Against the Ice takes its share of cinematic liberties with the actual story of two stranded arctic explorers, up to and including an entirely fictional encounter with a hungry polar bear. But indulge the plotline's embroidery and what remains is a visually striking and largely true story of adversity and endurance

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