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Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg first made a name for himself with horror movies. His remake of The Fly is considered a classic of the genre. But his more recent films take him into more disturbing territory. NPR's Bob Mondello says that's especially true of Spider, starring Ralph Fiennes, which opens today in New York.

An artist in Cologne, Germany, is working to memorialize individual victims of the Nazis. He's embedding thousands of small concrete blocks, each topped by a brass plate, in sidewalks across the country. Each of these so-called "stumbling blocks" bears the name, and fate, of one person killed by Adolph Hitler's regime. Kyle James reports.

A softly lit oil portrait of a young woman with a pearl earring is one of Johannes Vermeer's best-known paintings. The new film Girl with a Pearl Earring brings the story behind the famous image to the silver screen. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

A Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left tells the story of a family that includes poet Jean Boudin, journalist I.F. Stone and political radical Kathy Boudin. Kathy Boudin was recently released from prison for her part in a 1981 armored truck heist organized by the Weathermen. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with author Susan Braudy.

Several zoos across the country now sell paintings done by animals. The Houston Zoo, for example, offers a $500 experience, in which you can sit and watch an orangutan make a painting just for you. Gigi Allianic, spokeswoman for Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, talks about animal art.

Rescue Dawn, the first Hollywood feature from German New Wave director Werner Herzog, is the true story of Dieter Dengler, the only U.S. pilot to sucessfully escape from a North Vietnamese-controlled prison. This dramatized version, starring Christian Bale as Dengler, marks the second time Herzog has told the story.

The Eisner Awards, given out at the annual Comic Con, recognize work in comics, graphic novels and other pop writing. But voting for the Eisners involves more than a ballot with nominees: Judges are locked in a hotel room and must defend their nominations.

Alan Cheuse reviews the Girl Who Played Go, by Shan Sa, a novel following a two characters' intersection at the 3,000-year-old game of Go, played with black and white stones. The novel debuted last year and has just been published in paperback.

The animated movie Home on the Range, opening in U.S. theaters Friday, is the last hand-drawn feature Disney will make at its studios in Southern California. As computer-generated animation becomes the film industry standard, many now-unemployed artists who animate by hand say theirs is a disappearing art form. Hear NPR's Kim Master.

Carroll Musical Instrument Rentals is a a huge warehouse in New York City that rents all types of exotic bells, whistles, and acoustic effects to orchestras, movie studios and musicals across the country. Hear commentator Miles Hoffman and NPR's Bob Edwards as they take an audio tour of the warehouse.