Call it, if you will, a camp for adults coming out of the cold. The Paradisus Princesa del Mar, an all-inclusive, reasonably-priced ocean-side resort in Varadero, Cuba, caters to tourists in dire need of a break from the grip of miserable winter weather. Not surprisingly, most of its visitors are Canadians. On a direct […]
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s masterful movie, Leviathan, an allegory on the dismal state of contemporary Russia, leaves a viewer pessimistic about its future direction. Since the rise of Vladimir Putin, Russia has lurched ominously toward authoritarianism. Putin, having exhibited little tolerance for dissenters who question his policies or threaten his grip on power, has imprisoned political opponents […]
Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is in her prime as the first scene in Still Alice unfolds. Happily married, with three well-adjusted, adult children, she’s a successful academic at a major American university. And, at the age of 50, she looks great and can probably look forward to additional personal and professional milestones. As she and her family […]
It’s been around for more than 50 years, providing its devoted readership with a ceaseless stream of trenchant and challenging articles. The New York Review of Books, founded in 1963 by Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein, is read as much for its book reviews as for its comments on current affairs, culture and science. The […]
Ricky Jay is to card tricks what Bobby Fischer was to chess — an incomparable performer. Jay, arguably the greatest sleight-of-hand artist working today, will be profiled by PBS in its American Masters series on Friday, Jan. 23 at 9 p.m. Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice, directed and produced by Molly Bernstein and Alan Edelstein, is […]
Saudi Arabia is a schizophrenic state oscillating between pragmatism and extremism. Supposedly “moderate,” Saudi Arabia helps keep oil prices in check and expresses a readiness to sign a peace accord with Israel if the Israeli government fully accepts the Arab League peace plan, which was unveiled in 2002 and again in 2007. As the price […]
Aomar Boum, a Moroccan ethnographer, has written a rigorous, refreshingly candid account of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Arab world. Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco, published by Stanford University Press, is something of a rarity in this field. As he writes in the introduction,“Although a few scholars have […]
Bolshevik troops seized the Belorussian city of Minsk — a historic Jewish center — in July 1920, ending successive Polish and German occupations and liberating its Jewish population from czarist oppression. By the same token, the new Soviet order banned Jewish political and cultural organizations outside the Communist party, including Zionist groups, and began closing […]
As Two Days, One Night gets under way, Sandra (Marion Cotillard), a mother of two young children, is resting peacefully, her eyes shut. It will be one of her last moments of tranquility for a while. Minutes later, as she removes a hot tart from the oven, she takes a telephone call that will upend her […]
Natchez, which overlooks the mighty Mississippi River and the flatlands of Louisiana, had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the United States before the Civil War. Prosperous due to its network of cotton plantations, worked by the descendants of African slaves, Natchez showed off its wealth through stunning architecture. Landowners who […]