Arts And Entertainment Videos

Talkback: Enduring toys Some toys have real lasting power -- think train sets, building blocks and yoyos. They never go out of style.

Twilight Sage: New Moon The original director Catherine Hardwicke lost out on the sequel to Chris Weiz, whose previous works, such as the The Golden Compass, should have warned the producers that he has no idea of dramatic structure. Despite the urgings of the teenage girl inside me, it was all I could do to sit through two hours and ten minutes without drinking my own blood. What a bloated, self-important, crashing bore! The film is so long it literally leaves the actors straining for credulity. I was willing to stay with the moaning and quivering and heavy breathing for the first hour or so but the story is so repetitive not even a hundred naked male torsos could keep me from yawning. Even poor Kristen Stewart, who really is an excellent actress and carries the whole film, couldn´t be in every scene to keep it alive. Nor is it the first time a girl has discovered that the boys in town are a pack of animals. Even if the special fx on the were-wolves are spectacular, there comes a point where red contact lenses and ghoulish makeup can´t substitute for the genuine thrills of a plot. A Serious Man A Serious Man is about faith. It´s about a man struggling against the pull of other people´s moral orbits. It is also an ode to the Mid West Jewish American suburbs where Joel and Ethan Coen grew up in the late 60s, a world built on a grid of newly asphalted streets, with billiard-table front lawns and sparse gardens. The houses are modest and box-like, without architectural embellishments or bright colours. It´s the portrait of suburban blandness, where you´d almost expect people to become obsessed with finding ways to transgress, to break the rules, just to buck the mundane cycle. Trash &Treasure: Bigger than Life (1956) The 1950s is a period too often stereotyped and reduced to visual and other shorthand: picket fences and aprons, big skirts and suburban politeness. But today´s film, Nicholas Ray´s Bigger than Life, shows another side to those images. It may be melodrama, but there's a lot going on. Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls The Topp Twins, Jools and Lynda Topp, were a New Zealand phenomenon in the 1980s who managed to turn a street act into an international comedy sensation. There was something irrepressible and wholesome about these boisterous cowgirls which rendered their leftie politics, lesbian preferences, and gentle spoofs of populist archetypes so palatable they became mainstream national treasures. And they are still going strong, sending up the status quo, and the patriarchy, with the same gay abandon as they did when they captured people´s hearts as busking teenagers. Amreeka Borrowing its title from the Arabic word for America, this is the migrant genre movie dusted off and given a new coat of paint for the new millennium -- not the Irish, Italian or Polish American stories we´re used to, but familiar all the same. Set in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, it´s the story of Muna, a Palestinian woman who migrates to the US with her teenage son to live with her sister on the semi-rural Chicago fringe. As played by the big-haired, big-boned Palestinian actress Nisreen Faour, she´s a woman who faces challenges with a smile and resolute will -- a boxer´s stamina and courage she´s no doubt learned, in part, as a single mum. Interview: Cherien Dabis Writer-director Cherien Dabis's first feature, Amreeka, is a modern retelling of the migrant genre movie through the eyes of a Palestinian woman and her teenage son who come to Chicago to start a new life. A Palestinian-American herself, Dabis draws on personal experience to tell the story.

Antonia Fraser on writing historical biography It's been 40 years since the publication of Antonia Fraser's award winning biography Mary Queen of Scots.

By the standards of the early 20th century, Rupert Bunny was arguably Australia's most successful expatriate painter. He lived for almost 50 years in Paris, achieving a level of critical acclaim no Australian artist had yet enjoyed. This weekend a major exhibition of his work opens at the Art Gallery of NSW, showing more than 100 of his most significant paintings. The exhibition will continue until February 21, before moving to Melbourne and Adelaide.

Rove McManus surprised his Channel Ten TV audience on Sunday night by announcing they were watching his last-ever show. David Knox's picks this week are: The Einstein Factor(final) 6.30pm Sunday on ABC1 The Apprentice Australia (final) 9.30pm Monday on Nine

Wendy Matthews is one of Australia's most talented and most recognisable singers. She spans the genres from jazz and blues to rock, soul and pop -- to of course those beautiful ballads, and now she's adding country to the list. This week she performs the first in a series of country music sessions featuring the songs of Emmylou Harris, next year she's planning sessions focusing on Lucinda Williams, and last month she joined other Australian greats in their tribute to the legendary Joni Mitchell. Wendy Matthews and her guitarist Mick King talk to Fran, and perform an Emmylou Harris song.

John Banville: The Infinities The Infinities is a marvellous, funny, gently erudite and wise book and it's set in a crumbling house on a midsummer's day where a family is attending the deathbed of the paterfamilias, one Adam Godley.

Maarten Baas interview (Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards) Maarten Baas, although still in his early 30s, has made an international reputation for his radical and highly original approach to furniture design. Conserving the past We all have a stake in the past and in its tangible preservation, and we trust professionals to preserve our cultural heritage for the future. However, the concept and practice of restoration in all its forms are entangled in many contemporary theoretical debates and problems. Now a new book represents the first concerted effort to examine together the linked philosophies of the different arts of preserving and uncovering the past: the restoration of buildings, conservation of works of art, and editing of literary works to retrieve their original intended texts. Website accessibility This week in our regular trends segment we´re looking at a change for the better that´s sweeping the world-wide web. Over the past two years, some exciting things have happened in website design and computer technologies for hearing and visually impaired people. There´s a variety of applications on the internet now which allow users to hear text, increase font size and read what´s going on in a video through subtitles. But there´s still some way to go before the internet is a level playing field for people with hearing or visual impairment. Conversation: New Architecture Building Melbourne University Today By Design talks to Tom Kvan, Dean of Architecture, Melbourne University, and architect John Wardle, about their new partnership to design and build the new architecture building at Melbourne University. Also in this partnership is Boston-based practice Office dA. This Conversation will discuss the recent Workshops the group has had. The project was awarded to John Wardle and Office dA after a worldwide competition that attracted 132 entrants.

A New Literary History of America Greil Marcus says that the purpose of A New Literary History of America was to set American speech in motion.

Mad Men won the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. Matthew Weiner is the creator and executive producer, who was also one of the key writers and producers on The Sopranos. He's in Sydney as keynote speaker at the annual Screen Producers Conference to be held at the Westin Hotel from 17 to 20 November.

Off The Shelf with Philip Hensher It's always interesting to hear what people like to read, but even more so when that person writes and reads for a living. Napoleon's romantic novella Napoleon Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest military leaders in history, and his relationship with Josephine is one of the most enduring love stories. In Search of Hobart: Peter Timms On sighting Tasmania in 1642, Abel Tasman wrote dismissively, 'Too far for the spices, and too close to the rim of earth to be inhabited by anything but freaks and monsters.'.

Who said you can't make music that is fun in a very serious way? And when did cabaret have to have bright colours? They have wowed them from Edinburgh to Budapest to Melbourne. These local fellows combine Balkan, klezmer, folk, alternative country and gothic themes and sounds to create another place. This other place makes sense when you are there, but it is a little strange if you view it from outside. ABC Radio National Breakfast will open the portal to this other place -- will you step through?

If you´re going to collect anything you can be sure it´ll collect dust. In our show dedicated to the humble mote we get down the back of a sofa, sing along with Dustys – Slim and Springfield – dish the dirt on ochre and asbestos and take a trip with John Steinbeck. For music details please 'show transcript'

A new play explores the journey of two sisters from Melbourne to their father´s homeland in the Torres Strait and the post-war migration of their Dutch mother. Sisters of Gelam is about the universal search for identity, interwoven with contemporary and traditional song. A murdered Murri assassin returns from the dead to seek revenge in Nicole Watson´s award-winning manuscript The Boundary and we yarn with the Wadi Wadi elder Allan Carriage as he fishes off the point at Port Kembla south of Wollongong.

Anna Goldsworthy is the pianist with the Seraphim Trio and daughter of novelist and poet Peter Goldsworthy. Her book Piano Lessons is as much about growing up as it is about learning the piano.

Roy Howat is a Scottish pianist and scholar and he´s recorded numerous CDs and written widely on Debussy, Faure, Ravel & Chabrier. Now his magnum opus has arrived and it´s called The Art of French Piano Music. He´s talking about the composers in the book whilst illustrating at the piano.

FOODSTUFF: (1) Proto-Festive Fowl; (2) Cheesy Capsicum Campanelle; (3) Young Soup with Egg and Shrimp; (4) Sweet Tilapia Layer Melt

Multiple Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Norah Jones returns with her fourth studio album, The Fall. This album shows an evolving Jones with new collaborations from players and a new producer/engineer. The sound is more varied and finds her stretching ideas rather than following a path already travelled. In seven years and three albums, she has sold 36 million albums worldwide, and this record is possibly her best. Radio National is the first media organisation in Australia to have all of the tracks from The Fall available for listening on demand before the album's release.