It's impossible to remain indifferent to the controlled ferocity of Haneke's films. An in-depth article on the director from the Times with a slide-show commentary.

Quoted: "I like to show my students ‘Triumph of the Will,’ by Leni Riefenstahl, then something by Sergei Eisenstein — ‘Battleship Potemkin,’ for example — and then ‘Air Force One,’ the movie in which Harrison Ford plays the U.S. president. Each of these films has a distinct political agenda, but all make use of exactly the same techniques, all have a common goal — the total manipulation of the viewer. What’s terrible about the Harrison Ford film, though, especially terrible, is that it represents itself as simple entertainment."

They look like such nice people... includes a slideshow.

Quoted: they realized they had a scrapbook of sorts of the lives of Auschwitz’s senior SS officers ...rather than showing the men performing their death camp duties, the photos depicted, among other things, SS men singing cheerily to the accompaniment of an accordionist, Höcker lighting the camp’s Christmas tree, a cadre of young SS women frolicking and officers relaxing, some with tunics shed, for a smoking break.

Saw this Fellini movie for the first time a week ago. It slows noticeably after the humour and verve of the first 75 minutes. Not for everyone. Highly recommended.

Quoted: A statue has become a blazing symbol of Italy’s legal and moral battle against foreign museums and private collectors.

Quoted: In Krakow, a new generation of non-Jewish Poles is rediscovering a culture that was nearly annihilated by the Holocaust.

I suppose this is one way to come to terms with a ghastly past.

Quoted: The architect in charge of efforts to complete Antonio Gaudí’s unfinished masterwork La Sagrada Familia says the building is threatened by a planned train tunnel.

Quoted: A scenic Swedish town of 60,000 people last year took in twice as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States, almost all of them Christians.

Quoted: Wrapped in a luxurious skin of colorful cast-glass panels, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is the most gorgeous work to date by Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk.

Quoted: Even if you buy nothing, the 19th century shopping arcades of Paris are full of atmosphere for the post-modern tourist.