Film

Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston died Saturday at the age of 84. Heston, who starred in epic films such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments, later made a name for himself as a conservative activist.

Fresh Air's film critic says the new Rolling Stones concert film doesn't quite penetrate the band's m--teries — but that the director is a master of style, and the band is tighter than ever.

Jules Dassin, an American filmmaker who worked in Europe for nearly 30 years, died this week in Athens, Greece. He left the U.S. in the early 1950s, blacklisted for his youthful membership in the Communist Party.

Fresh Air film critic David Edelstein reviews Stop Loss, a film about a decorated Army sergeant (Ryan Phillippe) who resists an order to serve another tour of duty in Iraq on the grounds that he has already fulfiled his contract with the military.

Director Arthur Penn changed the face of cinema with his film, Bonnie and Clyde. The graphic realism of the last scenes have influenced television and movies since the film's release in 1967.

Actress Zooey Deschanel has made a move from the big screen to the indie-rock stage, recently co-founding the group She and Him. Deschanel joins Fresh Air to discuss her music and her band's new album, Volume One.

The DVD set Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 consists of five pre-Hays Code movies: The Divorcee, A Free Soul, Night Nurse, Three on a Match, and Female.

Writer, director and Oscar winner Anthony Minghella died of a brain hemorrhage Tuesday at age 54. Minghella's screen credits include The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.

In Michael Haneke's new film, a wealthy American family opens the door of their secluded vacation home to two strangers — who proceed to torture them in a series of sadistic games. David Edelstein has a review.

When a Portland teenager accidentally kills a security guard at the local skate park, he pulls into himself rather than talking to the police. Gus Van Sant's film explores the teen's thoughts and actions in a free-form style that critic David Edelstein calls "a raging success."

The actor won an Academy Award for his performance in Spike Jonze's Adaptation. His latest project is Married Life, about a 1940s philanderer who still loves his wife — enough, in fact, to kill her rather than divorce and disappoint her.

Fresh Air's film critic reviews The Other Boleyn Girl, a costume drama from director Justin Chadwick. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson play sisters battling for the affection of England's King Henry VIII.

Director Brett Morgen joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss his new film, Chicago 10. The film mixes trial footage and animation to tell the story of the "Chicago 8" — protesters held accountable for violence that erupted with police outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.

Critic John Powers reviews Where to and Back, a newly released DVD trilogy from the late Austrian director Axel Corti. Written by Georg Stefan Troller, the films are loosely based on Toller's life as a Viennese Jew who took refuge in the United States as a teenager and then returned to Europe as an American soldier during World War II.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Be Kind, Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def, and directed by Michel Gondry.

Fresh Air's film critic reviews the sci-fi action-adventure Jumper. The film stars Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels); it's directed by Doug Liman, whose other films include The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, which sounds like a horror film — and in some ways, Edelstein says, actually is. It's been nominated for an Academy Award.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, a new film about a young woman's illegal abortion in Ceausescu's Romania, won the top prize at Cannes and has just opened in the U.S. It's a fierce and unsentimental film; Terry Gross talks to Mungiu about growing up in a totalitarian state, and why he wanted to make the movie.

The introduction of sound to movies left audiences hungry for "talkies" and paved the way for the early operettas of German-born Jewish film director Ernst Lubitsch. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new DVD collection of Lubitsch's early works.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a new film by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, follows two women trying to arrange an illegal abortion in the repressive days of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship.