The filmmaker's latest project, Moonrise Kingdom, recently opened the Cannes Film Festival. It's the story of a 12-year-old girl and boy who fall in love and then make a pact to run off into the woods together.
Wes Anderson's latest film is the story of a 12-year-old girl and boy who merge their imaginative worlds on an island off the coast of New England. Critic David Edelstein says Moonrise Kingdom will appeal to Anderson's longtime fans as well as anyone who appreciates good cinematography and design.
You've heard guitarist James Burton even if you don't know it. Ever since he was 15, he's been recording behind a bewildering number of artists, from Ricky Nelson to Ray Charles. He also managed to put out some records on his own. Rock historian Ed Ward shares his story.
Parents should be paying very close attention to the digital media their children are using, says child advocate James Steyer. "Young people in particular often self-reveal before they self-reflect," he says. "There is no eraser button today for youthful indiscretion."
You might not recognize the name Randall Poster, but you're likely familiar with his work. Poster picks out and licenses music used in commercials, TV and film. He worked closely with director Wes Anderson on films like Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom.
The pianist's new album features some of the most difficult etudes ever written for solo piano by the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti. "Ligeti took the piano to places it had never been before," he says, "and makes demands of the pianist and the mind that had never been made before."
Have you thought about switching to barefoot running? New York Times exercise columnist Gretchen Reynolds did -- and promptly injured herself. She details what she did wrong -- and how to keep your own feet healthy -- in her new book, The First 20 Minutes.
The classical music world lost one of its legendary figures last week. The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau died ten days short of his 87th birthday. He was one of the most recorded classical singers in recording history. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz was one of his admirers.
In The Right-Hand Shore, Christopher Tilghman returns to the racially charged landscape and the crumbling plantations of his book Mason's Retreat. Fresh Air critic Maureen Corrigan calls the prequel "the real deal."
The stand-up comedian and star of In Living Color was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his portrays of Sporting Life in the opera Porgy and Bess. "I think the character of Sporting Life is a salesman so he has to be flamboyant, the life of the party," he says.
Actor and writer Sacha Baron Cohen is famous for taking his characters — Ali G., Borat, Bruno — into the real world, interacting with people who have no idea that they're dealing with a fictional character. But his new movie, The Dictator, is a scripted comedy about a tyrant on the loose in New York.
Carlos Fuentes, one of the most influential writers in the Latin American world, died Tuesday at a hospital in Mexico City. He was 83. Fresh Air remembers the prolific author with excerpts from a 1987 interview.
In 2003, Donna Summer appeared on Fresh Air to talk about her memoir, Ordinary Girl, her hit Love to Love You Baby and her collaborator, record producer Giorgio Moroder. We remember Summer -- who died Thursday at the age of 63 -- with excerpts from that interview.
The British hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, who created some of the most iconic hairstyles of the 20th century, died on May 9 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. Fresh Air remembers the trendsetter with excerpts from a 2011 interview.
Yemen is now considered to be "the greatest external threat facing the U.S. homeland in terms of terrorism," says investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill.
There was Ali G, Borat and Bruno -- and now, in The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen has a new character to add to his repertoire: the capricious ruler of an oil-rich country who travels to the U.N. to assert his right to have nuclear warheads.
In her new book, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, Florence Williams offers her take on why breasts are getting bigger and developing earlier, why tumors seem to gravitate toward the breast, and how toxins from the environment may be affecting hormones and breast development.
The actress is nominated for her fifth Tony Award for the Broadway musical Porgy and Bess. "There's very few quiet moments for Bess," she says. "They're all very big, very emotional. ... And to commit to that night after night is very difficult.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Horst Faas, who captured iconic moments during the Vietnam War, has died. In 1997, he talked to Terry Gross about covering the conflict. "Being in Vietnam and being around a major story of the time was always a great shot of adrenaline," he said.
