Film

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new Ethel Merman collection, "I Get a Kick Out of You."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new movie "French Kiss," starring Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan.

Writer/Director Kayo Hatta. Her film "Picture Bride," is the story of a young woman who moves to Hawaii as a "picture bride." Picture brides were Japanese women who moved to Hawaii in order to marry the Japanese plantation workers who settled there. The women would only have seen a picture of their future husband before they were married. The film is Hatta's first commercial release and the first Hawaiian production to gain a commercial release, and also won the 1995 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for best dramatic film.

Gallagher is starring in two soon to be released films, "The Underneath," and "While You Were Sleeping." The New York Times said, "the first hit of summer is here," about "While You Were Sleeping." Gallagher has been on the acting scene for over two decades but only recently garnered commercial success. Gallagher is well known on Broadway as the star of "Guys and Dolls."

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Kiss of Death." It stars David Caruso, Samuel Jackson, and Nicolas Cage.

Critic Ken Tucker review the "beautifully lucid" movie about artist R. Crumb, directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Producer/ Director Terry Zwigoff recently released a new documentary "Crumb." The film was shot over seven years and follows the life of Robert Crumb, the famous underground artist who popularized character's such as Mr. Natural, Flakey Foont and Keep on Truckin'. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary and cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival.

Scorsese is one of the most influential men of contemporary film. He's helped restore four classic films from the 1950s which he says had a profound influence on his own work: "Force of Evil," "Johnny Guitar," "Pursued" and "A Double Life."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new film "Don Juan de Marco" starring Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway -- a cast full of attractive magnetism.

Director Winifried Bonengal made the film "Profession: Neo Nazi," which follows Ewald Althans, a rising leader on Germany's neo-nazi scene. Althans is different from the stereotypical neo-nazi: intelligent, successful and well-dressed. The move ignited one of the fiercest debates on documentary film making in Germany's history. It was barred from many states and the distributor was forced to withdraw it from circulation.

Roth has been in many recent films such as "Tom and Viv" and "Pulp Fiction." He is currently in the new release "Rob Roy."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Priest," the new movie that has been condemned by many in the religious community.

Al Franken is a writer and actor on "Saturday Night Live." His characters have included the one-man mobile uplink unit, Pat Robertson, Paul Tsongas, and Stuart Smalley, host of "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley." In 1992, Franken published a book under Stuart's name; Stuart's new project is an upcoming movie called "Stuart Saves His Family."

Milo Miles reviews an anthology of music by the original bluegrass pioneer. Monroe is also featured in the film "High Lonesome."

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a five-cd set of all of the Oscar winning songs of the last 60 years.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new film starring Jessica Lange. He says its focus on message over narrative makes it a poor fit for the big screen, better suited for network TV.

Egoyan's newest movie won the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival at the 1994 awards. Exotica is considered his breakthrough movie. Andrew Sarris of the New York Observer says when the movie ended, "I sat stunned in the theater...Exotica [was] high on my ten best list."

Tamahori made the New Zealand film "Once Were Warriors." It takes a front-line look at an urban Maori family plagued by poverty, violence and alcoholism. The movie recently became the top grossing film in New Zealand history. Star Rena Owen joins the conversation later in this segment.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the Egyptian-born director's "Exotica," which centers on characters in a strip club.

Frank Cardon is one of three teenagers who was given a video camera for a year to record his daily life in North Philadelphia. His footage is part of the documentary Teen Dreams. Cardon says he wanted to show a world composed of a lot of angry people trying to survive.