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Film

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Böcklin, 1896

Was There Ever an Original Version of ‘The Odyssey,’ and Do We Need to Worry About What Homer Would Think?

The earliest surviving fragments of the epic poem—the subject of Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster—date back more than 2,000 years. But oral storytelling about a hero named Odysseus is much older

The Draken Harald Hårfagre is not modeled after a single historic ship, but an amalgamation of many Viking vessels described in stories.

This Viking Longship Crossed the Atlantic Before Starring in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ as Odysseus’ Greek Galley

Hollywood stars including Matt Damon went to rowing camp to learn how to operate the vessel for the new film

The Creature Shop is located in Queens, inside the former Standard Motors building, a two-block-long behemoth with high ceilings and freight elevators capable of accommodating even the biggest birds. 

A Peek Inside Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Where ‘Sesame Street’ Characters and Other Whimsical Puppets Are Designed

Every weekend, the magical workshop opens its doors for the public to see how legendary film and television characters are made

Mushroom clouds from atomic bombs over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right) 

The Lost Memoir of a Hiroshima Survivor Was Rediscovered. Now, It Will Be Published as a Book and Adapted for Film

Nearly 80 years ago, Kiyoshi Tanimoto documented the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing during World War II. His manuscript was recently found in a U.S. library

A 1488 edition of the Odyssey, photographed by Naomi Wenger

The ‘Odyssey,’ One of the World’s Oldest Stories, Gets a Modern Spin With A.I.-Generated Audiobook Narration by the Voice Clone of an Oscar Winner

Meanwhile, other actors are pushing back against the use of artificial intelligence in creative projects, including through a new “human consent” registry tool

Director Steven Spielberg on the set of Disclosure Day, his latest UFO-inspired film

What’s Behind Steven Spielberg’s Lifelong Obsession With Flying Saucers and Extraterrestrial Visitors?

Half a century after “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the director returns to the subject of UFOs with “Disclosure Day.” His science fiction films are informed by his fascination with alien encounters in American suburbia

Later in his career, Harpo made appearances on television, always in character. 

A Rare Recording of Harpo Marx Speaking Publicly Was Mislabeled in an Archive for Decades. Now You Can Listen to the ‘Silent’ Comedian Yourself

The comedian of the stage and big screen thrilled millions of Americans without ever speaking a word, leaving many to wonder what his voice sounded like

The drawings were done by Stephen Verona, and John Lennon helped color them in.

Rediscovered Drawings John Lennon Helped Create for the Beatles Became One of Rock ’n’ Roll’s First Music Videos

An English collector who acquired ten of the drawings at an auction loaned them to the Liverpool Beatles Museum for a temporary exhibition

A still from the famous YouTube video known as “Charlie Bit My Finger,” which is included in the British Film Institute’s new archive of significant online videos

Which Memes Deserve Digital Preservation? See the Online Videos the British Film Institute Selected for a New Archive

Viral videos, tutorials, vlogs and livestream snippets produced across decades offer insight into modern culture and communication, archivists say. This material could be lost without efforts to save it

The Leonora Carrington exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris

No Mere Muse, This Influential Surrealist Artist and Feminist Gets Her Due in a New Biopic and Art Exhibitions

Leonora Carrington’s life and work are celebrated with the new film “Leonora in the Morning Light.” Meanwhile, an exhibition at the Freud Museum showcases for the first time artwork she created inside a psychiatric hospital

Brendan Fraser (left) as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Andrew Scott (right) as James Stagg in Pressure, a new WWII drama about the weather forecast for D-Day

Based on a True Story

One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here’s the Real Story Behind ‘Pressure,’ a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day

A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord’s success

Photographer Richard Avedon in his New York City studio in 1975

This Photographer Was Famous for Snapping Celebrities Like Marilyn Monroe, But His Images of Vietnam War Victims and Coal Miners Revealed the Surprising Power of Portraits

A new documentary about photographer Richard Avedon, directed by Ron Howard and debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, uses archival footage and contemporary interviews to weave the story of just how far his influence extends

More than 5,000 photographs, including these polaroids, from the archives of Mel Brooks will be donated to the National Comedy Center.

No Joke, Ahead of His 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks Donates His Hilarious Archive to the National Comedy Center

Thousands of notes, storyboards, early scripts and photographs belonging to the “2,000-year-old man” and EGOT winner will join material from Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers and George Carlin

Monroe in the 1952 film Don’t Bother to Knock

Marilyn Monroe Collections Assembled for Her 100th Birthday Cut Through Hollywood Glamour to Reveal the Star’s Human Side

A selection of the movie star’s clothing, jewelry and dark, personal letters will be auctioned for the big anniversary of her birth

The Critics Corner, Ernie Barnes, 2007, will be on display when the museum opens. 

The Creator of ‘Star Wars’ Loves Art That Tells a Story. Peek at the Collection of George Lucas’ New Museum Before It Opens This Fall

Adventure, comics, childhood, love and everyday life are among the dozens of themes that will guide the curation of the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles

An aerial view of the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge plant, circa 1945

Walt Disney Visited a Ford Factory in 1948. What He Witnessed There Laid the Groundwork for What Would Become Disneyland

A new book argues that the film producer’s trip to the River Rouge plant in Michigan inspired him to embrace the power of automation when designing the first Disney theme park

The new Smart Cinema theater collects biometric data to track in-the-moment reactions to on-screen action.

Why Do We Love Movies? This New ‘Smart’ Movie Theater Tracks Viewers’ Brain Waves and Heart Rates to Find Out

Researchers at the University of Bristol are studying the appeal of the cinema-watching experience by turning one theater into a biometric laboratory

A still from “Gugusse and the Automaton” showing the magician and his robot, Pierrot

A Rare 1897 Film Discovered in an Old Trunk in Michigan Features the First On-Screen Appearance of a Robot

Filmmaker Georges Méliès employed some of his signature special effects techniques to create comedy in “Gugusse and the Automaton”

The C-3PO head used in The Empire Strikes Back

This C-3PO Head From ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Just Sold for More Than $1 Million at Auction

The ‘Star Wars’ prop was likely the only C-3PO head from the 1980 film to appear on the collector market. It features working light-up eyes, including one with the original wiring

Gertrude Lawrence as Anna Leonowens and Yul Brynner as Mongkut in the 1951 Broadway production of The King and I. The musical turns 75 on March 29.

Based on a True Story

‘The King and I’ Spotlights an English Governess Who Modernized Siamese Society. The Real Anna Leonowens Exaggerated Her Influence and Lied About Her Origins

The beloved musical is loosely based on a Eurasian schoolteacher’s accounts of her time at King Mongkut’s court. These memoirs masked her mixed-race status and unfairly portrayed the monarch as a tyrant

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