Citizen Kane

Question: In the "Meeting Mr. Kurtz" chapter of Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, he writes that of the three movie versions of the book Heart of Darkness, two weren't even set in Africa. He notes Apocalypse Now as one and I e-mailed him asking whether Werner Herzog's excellent Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) was the other. He said it wasn't but couldn't remember the other title, though he said it was set in the time of the Spanish Civil War. Do you know what Hochschild was referring to?

Answer: I don't know and my research didn't turn up what I would call a definitive answer. But I think it might be Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón's El Corazón del Bosque (1979), which is set 10 years after the Spanish Civil War. It revolves around a young man who sets out on a journey deep into the heavily forested Spanish hills in search of a legendary loyalis read more

Question: When Pedro Almodovar won the best original screenplay Oscar for Talk to Her (2002), the announcer said as he was walking up to the stage that it was his second nomination, the other being for best director for the same film. But didn't he win an Oscar for All About My Mother (1999) in the foreign-language-film category? I know that the nominees in that category are actually the countries where the films were released and produced, but why does the director get to accept the award, not the producers? Do Oscar winners who are absent the night they win still get to receive their statuettes even if it's long after they won? And finally, what happens if your Oscar is stolen or broken — can you get a new one?

Answer: Wow, you are full of questions! The director gets to accept the award because the Academy say read more

Question: A strange subject came up at work the other day. Who was the actor on the Paul Masson wine commercial of several years ago who said, "Drink no wine before its time?" Thank you.

Answer: Actually, Chris, that's sell no wine, as in, "We will sell no wine before its time." And that was no mere actor, mind you. That was the late, great Orson Welles, who, together with writer Howard Koch, scared the bejesus out of the entire country by convincing listeners of the too-real radio production War of the Worlds that we really were being invaded by aliens in 1938.

Welles, who was overweight and being treated for a heart condition and diabetes at the time of his death in 1985, was an actor, producer, writer and director who worked on 60 movies in his lifetime after kicking off his long showbiz career on the stage. He shilled for Masson and other companies for what he termed "grocery read more