By Peter Hellman
A densely written 600-page doctoral dissertation became the unlikely germ for David Cronenberg’s $20 million blockbuster ‘A Dangerous Method.’
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By Peter Hellman
For the past three years, auction prices for mainstream wines, especially those from famed Bordeaux chateaus, have been on a roll. Energized by deep-pocketed Asian collectors, the prices of top wines, led by Chateau Lafite Rothschild, have well outpaced the U.S. stock market. One evening in late September, it was the turn of kosher wines, still very much a niche category, to try to get in on the action.
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By Peter Hellman
Renaming a street in a tiny French village should have been of no consequence to anyone other than its inhabitants. But when the municipal council of Tremblois-lès-Carignan (population 115) in the Ardennes region voted to change the name of Rue Pétain to Rue de Belle-Croix, it marked the end of an era. Theirs was the last street in France named for the white-mustachioed Marshal Philippe Pétain, hero of Verdun in the Great War.
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By Peter Hellman
To the joy of East Coast surfers, the swell was up in September from Bill, the first hurricane of the season. As the big waves rolled in at rock-bound Point Judith, R.I., dozens of the faithful bobbed among them, vying for the thrill of the ride. Their surfboards were decorated with a wide range of motifs: flowers, lightning bolts, Goth skeletons, butterflies, palm trees, stylized waves and pure abstractions worthy of Ellsworth Kelly. You might have even spotted a “born again” surfer riding a surfboard emblazoned with Christian imagery.
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By Peter Hellman
In Paris, art gazers have been lining up in droves for “Picasso and the Masters,” this season’s blockbuster show at the Grand Palais. There’s also “Picasso and Manet” at the Orsay and “Picasso and Delacroix” at the Louvre. Never before has the mighty Spaniard’s communing with — and cribbing from — great artists of the past been so massively documented.
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