News

Steve Martin is a legend in the world of comedy, film, and music, known for his sharp wit, unique performances, and versatility across many creative outlets. At 78, the star of “Only Murders in the Building” continues to entertain audiences with his effortless charm and unparalleled talent. Despite being in the spotlight for decades, there are still many aspects of his life and career that remain lesser-known or surprising. Here are seven fascinating facts about Steve Martin that offer a deeper look into his remarkable journey.

1) He started his career at Disneyland Steve Martin. | Image via Instagram

Long before he became a household name, Steve Martin honed his craft at Disneyland. From ages 10 to 18, he worked various odd jobs in the theme park, including selling guidebooks and performing at Merlin’s Magic Shop in Fantasyland. It was here that Martin learned the art of performing magic tricks and developed his comedic timing,...

Steve Martin has had so many phases in his nearly 60-year career that he’s now recognizable for at least a half dozen different projects. Younger fans who primarily him from his popular Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” might not be aware that he once starred in multiple hit family comedies, like “Father of the Bride” or “Cheaper by the Dozen.” Others who are familiar with Martin’s extensive film work might not necessary know he’s a gifted banjo player who has frequently played with singer-songwriter Edie Brickell. But anyone born in the last three decades can be forgiven for not knowing that Martin was once the biggest stand-up comedian in America. In the ’70s, he played to enormous sold-out stadium crowds and his act became so well known that it eventually embedded itself within the American consciousness. Many if not most people of a certain age...

A career-best Cate Blanchett embodies the cold center of Todd Field’s audacious character study of a composer grappling with her sins

• More on the best films of 2023

• More on the best culture of 2023

Before her personal and professional downfall, Lydia Tár occupied a hallowed slice of the cultural consciousness – a virtuoso pianist and vaunted maestro, protege of the great Leonard Bernstein, the first female conductor of the Berlin philharmonic, an Egot winner and author of an acclaimed memoir. The type of singular and status-signaling cultural figure who commands the room at a New Yorker talk and basks in the glow of trailblazing achievements while shrugging off the weight of feminism (or the term “maestra”). Her success was, in her view, on artistic terms alone.

Tár is a fictional character, played superlatively by a career-best Cate Blanchett, but Todd Field’s film so specifically captures the trappings of highbrow celebrity,...

For 24 years, The New Yorker has leaned on the talents of actors, writers, and others from the world of Hollywood to be a part of its annual New Yorker Festival, which will be held this year Oct. 6-8.

The ongoing Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes have thrown a wrench in many plans that have traditionally relied on Hollywood talent, but the festival will go on, New Yorker editor David Remnick tells The Hollywood Reporter. And there will still be plenty of star power.

The New Yorker, of course, is not owned by a struck company, but SAG has advised its members not to promote projects from studios that have not signed interim agreements, and the Condé Nast-owned publication has had to adapt accordingly: “We faced a challenge or two,” Remnick says.

“I think a lot of the navigation is on the side of the talent, and what they...

Cate Blanchett is wonderfully commanding as the sociopath musical megastar whose life is crumbling around her but it is the steely menace in Todd Field’s film that is simply delicious

The great crack-up of Lydia Tár, the Berlin Philharmonic’s entirely fictitious but docudramatically real-seeming chief conductor, has given the cinema its greatest spectacle, its greatest provocation and its greatest pleasure. If there is any justice, it will be producer-director Todd Field, with fellow producers Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, who will be invited up on stage at the end of the evening to receive the climactic best picture statuette.

Cate Blanchett is wonderfully commanding as the haughty sociopath musical megastar, the monster who is disdainful of the philistinism and stupidity that surrounds her, the European-American exotic with the preposterous accent on the “A”. Blanchett also gives us something faintly preposterous, but seductive and intimidating in her speaking voice: resonant,...

Writer-director Todd Field’s “TÁR” is a singular film on many levels, even as it pays homage to the morally complex, often open-ended narratives of the 1970s like “Five Easy Pieces,” “The Conversation,” and “The Last Detail.” Field’s character study of a totally original protagonist is both a detailed anthropological study of the international classical music scene and a novelistic epic that avoids preexisting cinematic reference points. But perhaps its most distinctive quality is its richly textured cinematography, for which director of photography Florian Hoffmeister won the top prize at Camerimage and is now nominated for an Academy Award.

Hoffmeister’s imagery is highly expressive, with lighting that subtly delineates the scenes in which renowned conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is performing (whether it be on a stage or at a one-on-one lunch with a colleague) and the moments where she is “authentic,” whatever that may mean in the...

This article contains Tár spoilers.

For the last 10 minutes of Todd Field’s Tár, an elusive yet beguiling character study about an elite musician’s fall from grace, the fate of Lydia Tár remains a mystery. We know that Lydia, as played with an erudite augustness by Cate Blanchett, has been exposed to be many things: a sexual predator, a manipulative employer, and a relentlessly selfish spouse. Even her name is an embellishment, with the disgraced Egot winner returning to her forgotten childhood home where her estranged brother calls her Linda. In this context, it isn’t a stretch to imagine the accent mark on her surname is similar affectation—a pretension that reveals a flattering self-regard and overbearing pretension.

But after her brother surmises she hasn’t the faintest idea about what her life really is—accusing her of not knowing “where the hell you came from or where...

Since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and its subsequent U.S. release on Oct. 7, Todd Field’s “Tár” has become a rare thing: a much-discussed art-house film that demands your attention, if not your obsession. On repeat viewing, Cate Blanchett’s performance as the famous conductor Lydia Tár deepens and becomes more complicated, beautiful and upsetting, as the enigmatic layers of Field’s screenplay continue to unfold for the audience. Now, Variety is exclusively exhibiting the script for the first time.

In Variety’s Jan. 5 cover story, Field and Blanchett discussed the making of “Tár,” why they were interested in this story, and how they created this character. They had met a decade earlier over dinner to discuss a project with Joan Didion that ended up not happening, and Field had written Lydia Tár — a character he’d been thinking about “for about 10 years,” he said — for Blanchett alone.

“TÁR” is now the target of an “anti-woman” debate.

The satirical film starring Cate Blanchett as fictional conductor Lydia Tár came under fire from very real female conductor Marin Alsop, who is even mentioned in the movie. Blanchett’s character, an acclaimed lesbian conductor, is accused of preying on young musicians, and the film charts her fall from grace in both her personal and professional spheres. Critics have drawn comparisons between Alsop and Tár, with both being Leonard Bernstein prodigies, both married to fellow musicians, and both leading prominent orchestras.

“I first read about it in late August and I was shocked that that was the first I was hearing of it,” Alsop told The Sunday Times. “So many superficial aspects of ‘Tár’ seemed to align with my own personal life. But once I saw it I was no longer concerned, I was offended: I was offended as a woman,...

Marin Alsop, the female conductor namechecked by Cate Blanchett in her latest film “Tár,” has slammed the project, saying it offended her “as a woman… as a conductor…as a lesbian.”

Blanchett is already being tipped for an Oscar for her performance as Lydia Tár, a lesbian conductor who is accused of being abusive towards young women.

A number of viewers, including New York Times writer Zachary Woolfe, have spotted parallels between Alsop and Tár, such as the fact that both are Leonard Bernstein protegees, both are lesbians, both are married to orchestral musicians (with whom they have children) and both were, until recently, the only women to lead a big orchestra

And in the film’s first act, in a scene in which Tár is being interviewed by real-life New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, she even namechecks Alsop, saying: “As to the question of gender bias, I have nothing to complain about.

Cate Blanchett is not an actor who skims a screenplay when she’s considering it. “I read scripts very, very slowly,” she says, “but this one I read incredibly quickly. I knew from the get-go that it was about really big things — metaphysical, existential things that I was interested in — so I read it very quickly and said yes immediately.” She turns to Todd Field, the writer-director of the film in question, “Tár,” and says, “And you crashed your car.”

On this chilly Sunday afternoon in mid-November, Blanchett has made the long trip to Los Angeles from Australia, where she’s been in production. She’s here to attend the Governors Awards as a formidable Oscar contender, having given one of the most rapturously reviewed performances of her career as Lydia Tár — troubled, lesbian, world-famous conductor of a major orchestra in Berlin. She’s sitting next to Field, who, it’s true,...

“It’s an absolute privilege to see somebody indulge themselves in the way that (Cate Blanchett) did. She totally immersed herself in (the role). It also raises the stakes because Todd (Field) is a very meticulous director. He has an amazing visual sensitivity. These are two people who I would say pay cash,” believes Florian Hoffmeister, the German-born cinematographer for “Tar.” “Their styles are very brave, so it raises the bar. It also puts some weight on your shoulders.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Tar” tells the fictional story of the triumphant rise and stunning fall of Lydia Tár (played by Blanchett), considered one of the world’s greatest classical composer-conductors, whose career is threatened by allegations of misconduct. The movie from writer-director Field is conceived as the tale of an actual artist rather than a scripted narrative and has received generally positive reviews, including many raves. It was...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSMuch-loved genre filmmaker Albert Pyun (above) has died. Working mostly with low-budgets, and often making films for the direct-to-video market, Pyun’s career spanned five decades and included films such as The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), Cyborg (1989), and the popular cyberpunk film series Nemesis. Cynthia Curnan, Pyun's wife and producer, had recently requested messages from fans to pass onto the filmmaker, who had been ill for a number of years prior to his passing.It seems that Paul Thomas Anderson is planning to start shooting his next feature in July 2023. Little is yet known about the new project, but a casting call has been listed for a “15-to-16-year-old female of mixed ethnicity who is physically athletic and excels at Martial Arts.” Previous...

By Ben Miller

I can't say I went into Todd Field's TÁR, only his third film, with any sort of expectations.  Rave after rave of Cate Blanchett's performance piqued my interest but I wanted to go in with fresh eyes so I didn't read them. The opening credits hit.  We're in for something different.  Then we get Lydia Tár's introduction and her interview with Adam Gopnik.  All the way on board. The next two hours were magical, transfixing.  This is a perfect film. It might be my new number one of the year!  Everything was working.  The tone, the supporting players, the drama, the comedy.  Nothing was missing.

But then we reached the last 15 minutes. Spoilers Ahead - Read Only If You've Seen TÁR...

This review originally ran Sept. 1, 2022, for the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere.

If for nothing else, Todd Field’s “Tár” – a razor-sharp, post-post-MeToo character study that premiered on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival – should be heralded for offering a neat corollary to Chekhov’s Gun, a theatrical theory that states that if you introduce a gun in Act 1, you’d better fire it by Act 3.

Call this version Gopnik’s Speech. Because no film could open, as “Tár” does, with such a long and portentous introduction to the main character (She’s at the top of her game! She’s on a nickname basis with Leonard Bernstein! She’s a bloody Egot!), delivered by the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik playing himself, without clearly signaling its intent: for the two-and-a-half hours that follow, our poor protagonist will have nowhere to go but down.

And down she will go,...

Todd Field’s first film in 15 years is a surprising triumph, one of the few to take on the knottiness of so-called ‘cancel culture’ and succeed

The film Tár opens with the dual lenses of celebrity. First, in private, through a screen: Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tár sleeps in a private jet, curled into the chair, face obscured by an eye mask. We see her through someone else’s phone – an assistant, a flight attendant, a friend? – filmed in the style of an Instagram live overlaid with private, mocking text. She’s a vulnerable cipher, surveilled, alone.

Next, in public, in a theater – the vaunted conductor commands the room of a New Yorker talk, hosted by the magazine’s Adam Gopnik, playing himself. Writer and director Todd Field’s incantation of this particular ritual of elitism is so spot-on – the crisp spotlight, the ripples of polite laughter, his erudite fawning,...

There are a lot of enticing questions that haunt “Tár,” Todd Field’s rapturously fascinating, dread-fueled, immersive drama about a symphony orchestra conductor, Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), who is living an above-the-clouds existence of art and fame and sensuality…until she isn’t. The movie, which feels like a documentary directed by Kubrick, is a kind of reality-based hifalutin humanistic tabloid puzzle thriller, one that deliberately withholds pieces of information, a tactic some viewers have a problem with, though I think it’s integral to the movie’s mind-game greatness.

“Tár,” as driven by Cate Blanchett’s extraordinary performance, brings us right up close to Lydia: her passion on the podium, the hyper-articulate fury with which she discusses the intricacies of music and everything else, her spy-like maneuvers. At moments we’re practically in sync with her breathing. Yet aspects of her remain in the shadows — hidden from the world and,...

Cate Blanchett stars as Lydia Tár in director Todd Field’s TÁR, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features

Todd Field’s drama TÁR is built on a tour-de-force performance by Cate Blanchett as fictional renowned classical music conductor and composer Lydia Tar, the head of the prestigious Berlin Symphony Orchestra and an accomplished woman who is an Egot, winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

Lydia Tar is truly a rare bird, one of a handful of female conductors who hold the position of musical director of a major symphony orchestra, in a field that remains dominated by men and in the past has been hostile to women conductors. Achieving and holding such a position takes more than musical talent, but takes charm, intelligence, and social skills in navigating a minefield of professional situations. We first meet Lydia Tar as she is being interviewed in front...

You probably have a favorite Cate Blanchett performance — if you’ve watched the Australian actor over the last three decades or so of her career, there are undoubtedly a few turns that rank higher than others in your personal Cate canon. Maybe you go for the big dramatic swings: Think Blue Jasmine, the forever unstable heroine of Woody Allen’s character study that won Blanchett her second Oscar; or the title character of Carol, Todd Haynes’ swooning adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel that lets her give a masterclass in repression and passion.

Cate Blanchett’s performance in “Tár” is riveting, playing the Egot-winning German composer Lydia Tár. The Todd Field film centers around themes of art, lust, obsession and power.

Cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister delivers Field’s vision and Blanchett’s portrayal of a complicated character who falls from grace through long takes and intense close-ups.

Audiences are first introduced to Lydia Tár, classical composer-conductor and superstar, as she sits down for an interview with the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. The interview is shown in real-time.

Hoffmeister says the scene was about putting the audience in the room. “After three minutes, you think you’re sitting there watching this event,” he said. He adds that the idea was not to move the camera. “We were just there. We didn’t try to guide the audience in terms of importance by panning. We were just there and it was about finding the right angle.

Tár Review — Tár (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Todd Field and starring Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Sylvia Flote, Sydney Lemmon, Mark Strong, Adam Gopnik, Allan Corduner and Artjom Gilz. In the riveting and powerful new drama, Tár, Cate Blanchett has the role of a lifetime in a [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: TÁR (2022): Cate Blanchett Delivers a Tour de Force Performance in a Masterfully Woven Dramatic Film...

Early in Todd Fields’ Tár, Lydia Tár (played by Cate Blanchett) — a world renowned conductor; the rare maestro to cross over into something approaching mainstream recognition, with the money, orchestral appointments, sycophants, and New Yorker coverage to prove it — makes a decision. She is at the height of her career. She has already toured the circuit of major orchestras in America and beyond (her current gig is with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), already hit Egot status, already accomplished enough, lived enough, to merit a major autobiography, to be titled Tár on Tár.

Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is back and better than ever in Focus Feature’s latest drama, “Tár.”

Written and directed by Todd Field, the intense film gives audiences a peek behind the veil at what it really means to hold absolute power over others. Centering on an award-winning composer who has accomplished more in her career than many, the drama interrogates if acclaim is worth its sacrifices.

Here’s how to watch “Tár” when it comes out on Friday, Oct. 7.

When Does “Tár” Come Out?

“Tár” opens in limited release on Oct. 7.

Is “Tár” in theaters or streaming?

The drama will premiere in select theaters beginning Oct. 7, and will be playing exclusively in theaters. However, since this is a Focus Features release, we can expect it to stream on Peacock at some point in the next few months — perhaps as early as November or December. Another Focus Features release,...

Plot: In the days leading up to the debut of her magnum opus, musician Lydia Tár’s carefully compartmentalized life begins to shatter amid rumors of inappropriate, predatory conduct.

Review: Tár marks director Todd Field‘s first movie in sixteen years, and for lack of a better term, it’s a banger. Like In the Bedroom and Little Children, it’s a deeply layered work, but it’s a shattering portrait of the privilege of prestige and talent. Cate Blanchett delivers perhaps a career-best performance in the lead.

Many will call this the “cancel culture” movie, and to some extent, it is. It’s a nuanced portrait of an artist watching their world crumble around them in real time. Tár is being hoisted on her own petard here, but many critics have taken to calling this film “anti” cancel-culture because Field evokes some empathy for his central figure. That said,...

Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár in Todd Field’s Tár. Photo: Focus Features From its very first moments, Tár announces itself as an event. It’s not just another movie—it’s an immersive visual and aural experience. The credits play in full at the beginning, backgrounded by eerie music.

Cate Blanchett plays a conductor who orchestrates her own undoing in Todd Field’s return to filmmaking, “TÁR.” It’s her career-best performance since she told Therese Belivet “I like the hat” in 2015’s “Carol,” and her latest role allows her to dig into the sinews of her gifts while also reflecting on her own public-figure status and genius. Here in Field’s fictional universe that mirrors our wobbly own, she’s playing Lydia Tár, the most famous female conductor in history, and a woman whose interpersonal dealings with protégés, peers, fans, and colleagues become her inevitable destruction. Watch the final trailer for the film below before Focus Features opens it theatrically on October 7.

The movie is set primarily in Berlin, where Lydia lives with her partner Sharon and small, adopted Syrian daughter. A self-described “U-haul lesbian,” Lydia is preparing to record Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony with the German...

At the end of the 1970s, while working as a bat boy for the Portland Mavericks, Todd Field had a bright idea: why not make a stringy-shaped gum (call it Big League Chew) so that kids could mimic the tobacco chewing players on the plate? In 1980 he and his partner sold it to Wrigley’s. He was 16 years old.

Field knows a lot about ideas. He probably knows a phrase like “inside baseball,” too. You’ll find evidence of both in TÁR, his first film in 16 years. For much of its first hour Cate Blanchett (eating up scenery as the eponymous conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic) is made to deliver slightly unconvincing takes on the world of classical music. For the next two she is totally remarkable, stretching out those talents in a work that responds in turn. TÁR is an effort of tremendous skill and restraint, beginning with a...

It’s hard to say that something has been worth the wait when that wait has been 16 years, which is how long it’s been since Todd Field’s previous feature, Little Children. All the same, it’s very good to have this fine filmmaker back on the scene with Venice Film Festival competition entry Tár, a weighty new drama that creates an exceptionally detailed portrait of a promethean artist eventually hoisted on her own petard.

Smart upscale audiences hungry for an absorbing high-end drama about a brilliant female conductor who might be her own worst enemy will luxuriate in this very of-the-moment look at the international classical music scene; probably never has a commercial American film devoted itself so intently and comprehensively to fashioning a many-layered portrait of what a top-tier contemporary musician actually does on a day-to-day basis.

It takes a while for this nearly three-hour odyssey to achieve lift-off but,...

“TÁR” is so much more than the Great American Movie about “cancel culture” — a phrase that it humiliates with every movement — but this dense and difficult portrait of a female conductor’s fall from grace also demands to be seen through that singular lens from its very first shot. Todd Field’s thrilling, deceptively austere third film exalts in grabbing the electrified fence of digital-age discourse with both hands and daring us to hold onto it for 158 minutes in the hopes that we might ultimately start to feel like we’re shocking ourselves.

“TÁR” is a provocation full of slow-motion suckerpunches and the driest of laughs (even its accented title is a knowingly pretentious in-joke) and yet Field seems as uninterested in trolling his liberal audience as he is in patronizing them. That sounds like a tough needle to thread for a film so micro-targeted that it opens with a long,...

Venice film festival: The actor is utterly magnetic as an imperious maestro in this ultra-stylish drama with a shocking climax

No one but Cate Blanchett could have delivered the imperious hauteur necessary for this engrossing movie from writer-director Todd Field, about a globally renowned conductor heading for a crisis or crackup or creative breakthrough. No one but Blanchett has the right way of wearing a two-piece black suit with an open-necked white shirt, the way of shaking her hair loose at moments of abandon, the way of letting her face become a Tutankhamun mask of contempt. She holds the screen for two and a half hours, aided by Florian Hoffmeister’s epic cinematography, a tour de force of control, effortlessly keeping us waiting and guessing for an almost tantrically deferred climax. And when it comes, it is certainly shocking, if a little melodramatic and even absurd in ways that this...

Todd Field’s TÁR simulates ethical complexity to “call into question” cancel culture, which—no matter what Gina Carano, Peter Vack et al. have to say about it—is not an unprecedentedly bold or unthinkable move; millions of Americans are waiting to nod in vociferous agreement. The titular Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) first speaks at the New Yorker Festival, in onstage conversation with the magazine’s Adam Gopnik as himself. This prolonged opening (somewhere around 15 minutes) provides an excuse for a lot of expository background: Tár is an Egot honoree, a revered modern conductor, a lesbian who’s also the first woman appointed to lead a […]

The post Venice Film Festival 2022: TÁR first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“Tár,” written and directed by Todd Field, tells the story of a world-famous symphony orchestra conductor played by Cate Blanchett, and let me say right up front: It’s the work of a master filmmaker. That’s not a total surprise. Field has made only two previous films, and the first of them, the domestic revenge drama “In the Bedroom” (2001), was languorous and lacerating — a small, compact indie-world explosion. His second feature, “Little Children” (2006), was a misfire, though his talent was all over it.

But “Tár,” the first film he has made in 16 years, takes Todd Field to a new level. The movie is breathtaking — in its drama, its high-crafted innovation, its vision. It’s a ruthless but intimate tale of art, lust, obsession, and power. It’s set in the contemporary classical-music world, and if that sounds a bit high-toned, the movie leads us through that world in a...

Click here to read the full article.

The international world of classical music viewed through a famed conductor’s preparations to record Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 might seem like rarefied subject matter, strictly for highbrow aficionados. But Tár is a mesmerizing character study, its fine-grained details extending with needling precision into the shadowy recesses between its oblique scenes. The key talking point will be Cate Blanchett’s astonishing performance — flinty, commandingly self-possessed and ever so slowly splintering under pressure. But no less notable is the return of writer-director Todd Field with a forensically crafted major work, 16 years after his last feature.

Opening Oct. 7 following the fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and New York, the Focus Features release is an intimate portrait of an artist possessed by her work, an exploration of the transportive vitality of great music and a clear-eyed consideration of cancel culture. While there’s likely to...

On May 9 730pm PBS Poetry in America will air 'Finishing The Hat' - Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim is widely hailed as the greatest modern American musical theater composer. Series creator Elisa New speaks with Broadway stage actors including Melissa Errico, writer Adam Gopnik, and others to explore Sondheim's singular ability to blend lyrics and music-using as their case study this song from his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Bill Maher says there’s “overcrowding” among the Democratic presidential field and some of the candidates should “get the f–k out.”

Maher weighed in on this week’s two-night Democratic debate and said time’s up for half of the 20 candidates who qualified for the match-up.

“Look, there’s too many people in this race, right?” he said Friday night on HBO’s Real Time.

Maher then turned to his guest panel, made up of author Max Brooks, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik and MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid, and told them he was going to cull the field of presidential hopefuls, although he did give his guests veto rights.

“I’m going to get rid of ten of them right now,” Maher quipped while holding a stack of the candidates’ headshots.

It's time for some of these candidates to Gtfo. Watch @BillMaher cull the Democratic herd with @MaxBrooksAuthor,...

"A story becomes universal when something is also personal." The Orchard has released a lovely official trailer for a documentary called Invisible Essence: The Little Prince, an examination of the literary profundity of, and a closer look at the author behind, the beloved book The Little Prince. The film presents a fascinating new look into the genius of The Little Prince, published as Le Petit Prince, as well as the life and experiences of French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who first published the book in 1943. The film features appearances by Rupi Kaur, Mark Osborne, Adam Gopnik, Stacy Schiff, Éric Emmanuel Schmitt, Olivier d’Agay, and François d’Agay. This honestly looks rather wonderful, I'm very curious to check it out. New Us trailer (+ poster) for Charles Officer's doc Invisible Essence: The Little Prince, from YouTube: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's transcendent story suggests an ethical philosophy about life and a...

Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast to play the famed musical composer, Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming biopic of his life titled, The American.

The film will be adapted from the Humphrey Burton biography on Bernstein with a script by Michael Mitnick. True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga will take the helm on the project.

Structured in five movements, like a symphony, The American follows Bernstein from conducting the New York Philharmonic at the age of 25 and through a meteoric rise to fame, all while struggling both personally and publicly to be everything that everyone expected him to be, most of all himself.

Also in the news – Halle Berry eyed for John Wick 3 role

“Like many people, Leonard Bernstein found his way into my life and heart through West Side Story when I was a kid,” Gyllenhaal stated. “But as I got older and started to learn about the scope of his work,...

Jake Gyllenhaal will portray “On the Waterfront” and “West Side Story” composer Leonard Bernstein in “The American,” the next film from director/producer Cary Fukunaga. Nine Stories, the Oscar-nominated actor’s (“Brokeback Mountain”) production company, will produce the biopic with financier Bron Studios. International sales will commence at this month’s Cannes Film Market; shooting starts this fall.

A Massachusetts-born Harvard graduate, Bernstein was just 25 when he was named Assistant Conductor for the New York Philharmonic, where he later served as Music Director for 11 years. He oversaw Carnegie Hall and New York Symphony Orchestra concerts, plus others in London, Milan, Tel Aviv, and more. During his career, Bernstein’s televised performances won 11 Emmy Awards, plus a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1985. “On the Waterfront” earned him an Oscar nomination. Five days after he retired from conducting in October 1990, Bernstein died from mesothelioma at age 72.

“Like many people, Leonard Bernstein found...

Jake Gyllenhaal is set to produce and star as Leonard Bernstein in “The American,” with Cary Joji Fukunaga directing and producing.

Bron Studios will produce and back the film, which begins principal photography in the fall. Sierra/Affinity will handle international sales of the project during the Cannes Film Market.

.

The screenplay, from Michael Mitnick, is based on the biography “Leonard Bernstein” by Humphrey Burton. In five movements, like a symphony, “The American” follows Leonard Bernstein from conducting the New York Philharmonic at the impressive age of 25 through the meteoric rise to fame, all while struggling both personally and publicly to be everything that everyone expected him to be, most of all himself.

The project is an original idea, developed by Nine Stories, Gyllenhaal’s and Riva Marker’s New York-based production company. Gyllenhaal and Marker will produce alongside Bron’s Aaron L. Gilbert, Fukunaga’s Parliament of Owls and Martha Parker.

Exclusive: In what shapes up as another very strong Cannes title for next week, Jake Gyllenhaal is set to produce and star as Leonard Bernstein in The American, with Cary Joji Fukunaga directing and producing. Bron Studios will produce and finance a film that begins principal photography in the fall. Sierra/Affinity will sell international territories and Endeavor Content is repping North American rights.

Michael Mitnick adapted the script from the Humphrey Burton biography Leonard Bernstein. Structured in five movements, like a symphony, The American follows Bernstein from conducting the New York Philharmonic at the age of 25 and through a meteoric rise to fame, all while struggling both personally and publicly to be everything that everyone expected him to be, most of all himself.

The film was developed from scratch by Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker through their Gotham-based Nine Stories production banner. It marks another Nine Stories-produced vehicle for Gyllenhaal to play a non-fiction character,...

A new season of The History of the World in 100 Performances with Adam Gopnik begins on Monday, April 30, with a look at the 1956 original Broadway premiere of My Fair Lady. The season continues with explorations of the scandalous 1913 premiere of The Rite of Spring and the evolution of Hamilton. With discussion led by New Yorker essayist and best-selling author Adam Gopnik, these free events include live performance alongside audio and video clips as each panel explores these landmark moments in the performing arts.

A new season ofThe History of the Worldin 100 Performanceswith Adam Gopnikbegins onMonday, April 30, with a look at the 1956 original Broadway premiere ofMy Fair Lady.The season continues with explorations of the scandalous 1913 premiere ofThe Rite of Springand the evolution ofHamilton. With discussion led byNew Yorkeressayist and best-selling author Adam Gopnik, these free events include live performance alongside audio and video clips as each panel explores these landmark moments in the performing arts.

This article originally appeared on Real Simple.

What do you get for the father who has everything? He already has every power tool on the market, season tickets to see his favorite teams, and enough cool techy toys to last him a lifetime. Although he might not fancy himself a big reader, there’s nothing more thoughtful, or personal, than a book picked just for him.

The great thing about giving books as gifts is that even the father who thinks he’s learned it all can still explore a new world, learn more about his favorite hobby, or be...

Long Wharf Theatre, under the director of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joshua Borenstein, presents the world premiere of The Most Beautiful Room in New York, a new musical with book and lyrics by Adam Gopnik and music by David Shire, directed by Edelstein.The production will take place beginning tonight,May 3, and runningthrough May 28, 2017 on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below...

Last Friday night, Adam Gopnik and Melissa Errico entertained at one of the most exciting new performance spaces in Brooklyn called National Sawdust,already celebrated for its innovative programming. Recent performances featured Julie Taymor and Renee Fleming, and upcoming is a an evening with Patti Smith and a Celebration of Laura Nyro which will feature Melissa Errico and Jeanine Tesori, directed by Michael Mayer. Scroll down for photos from the concert...

The second installment of the new David Rubenstein Atrium series The History of the World in 100 Performances With Adam Gopnik, on Tuesday, March 8 at 730 Pm, spotlights Judy Garland's triumphant 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall. Through commentary and performance, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, Wnyc host Jonathan Schwartz, and actress, singer Melissa Errico delve into what is widely considered one of the greatest nights in show business history. The event will be live-streamed, free-of-charge, and available for 24-hours at lincolncenter.orglc-live.

Today and tomorrow,November 18th and 19th at 7pm in New York City, Tony Award-nominated singer amp actress Melissa Erricoreturn sto Joe's Pub 425 Lafayette St. in 'Sing The Silence,' an entirely new, autobiographical cabaret show co-written with Adam Gopnik The New Yorker about how one singer's descent into 100 days of silence -- total silence -- compelled her towards an inventory of a lifetime's experience, on and off the stage.

Everyone knows Woody Allen. At least, everyone thinks they know Woody Allen. His plumage is easily identifiable: horn-rimmed glasses, baggy suit, wispy hair, kvetching demeanor, ironic sense of humor, acute fear of death. As is his habitat: New York City, though recently he has flown as far afield as London, Barcelona, and Paris. His likes are well known: Bergman, Dostoevsky, New Orleans jazz. So too his dislikes: spiders, cars, nature, Wagner records, the entire city of Los Angeles. Whether or not these traits represent the true Allen, who’s to say? It is impossible to tell, with Allen, where cinema ends and life begins, an obfuscation he readily encourages. In the late nineteen-seventies, disillusioned with the comedic success he’d found making such films as Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977), he turned for darker territory with Stardust Memories (1980), a film in which, none too surprisingly, he plays a...

At last night's gala benefit for The Moth, a non-profit dedicated to the art of storytelling, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels shared a few memories of Adam "McA" Yauch with The Huffington Post.

In the early 80s, McDaniels' group, Run-d.M.C., and Yauch's group, the Beastie Boys, were label-mates on Def Jam Records -- and tag-team partners locked in combat with music's status quo. Today, both groups are safely ensconced in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but it wasn't always obvious that they were destined for immortality.

"You know, it was early, so people thought Run Dmc's a fad, Beasties is a fad, you know, all of this is a fad," McDaniels said. "Run-d.M.C., we crossed over with the rock -- but then it was Run-d.M.C. and the Beastie Boys that took it to venues. We started playing Madison Square Garden, L.A.

Celebrated storytelling organization The Moth will hold an entire evening based around stories about food in early September. Tickets are on sale now. 

On September 13, at the Moth mainstage (7 East 7th Street), a cast of noted food personalities will tell stories about food. The event will be hosted by Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi and features stories from restaurateur David Chang, author Adam Gopnik, fellow Top Chef-fer Gail Simmons and comedian Lisa Lampanelli among others. 

The Moth is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of storytelling. Each storyteller has ten minutes to tell a story, which must fit into the nightly theme. ...