High School Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman’s Reality Fictions

Frederick Wiseman's 42nd documentary in 50 years of film-making has just been released. What's he making movies about, anyway?
Old movie theater

Weirdly Enough, Movies about TV Prepared America for TV

Ironically, it was movies that helped accustom American viewers to television in the first place, writes Richard Koszarski.
Winnetou

Why East Germany Loved the Wild West

During the Cold War, both the West and East Germany film industries made popular westerns. Yes, westerns. What was that all about?
Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis: French Film Master

Jerry Lewis was lionized in France as a film auteur, a genius of movie-making. What did the French know that Americans didn't?
Roloff Family

Little People on TV: Educational or Exploitative?

Little people have been used for entertainment purposes in royal courts from ancient Egypt to medieval Europe. But can this be more than exploitative?
Marilyn Monroe

The Many Meanings of Marilyn Monroe

The life, times and image of Monroe has been expounded upon tirelessly in the decades after her tragic death at age 36.
Jeanna Moreau

Jeanne Moreau and the Birth of Cool

The French actress Jeanne Moreau worked with directors Truffaut, Duras, Buñuel, Renoir, Antonioni, Fassbinder, and Orson Welles.
Mae West

How The “Fag Hag” Went From Hated to Celebrated

At its core, the relationship between single women and gay men has longstanding historical roots.
Dan Rather

Dan Rather on Dan Rather

Dan Rather's ruminations on politics and morality feel so 2017. This interview he gave in the '70s lends insight into how seriously he takes journalism.
70s Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman

In 1942, William Moulton Marston wrote an incredibly charming essay in defense of comics, and describing how he created Wonder Woman.