Front Row - 05/03/2010

Hollywood film magazine editor Stephen Gaydos discusses the dramas surrounding this year's Oscars ceremony. The human tragedy of Chernobyl lies at the heart of The Door, Oscar-nominated for Best Live Action Short Film. Irish film director Juanita Wilson discusses the difficulties of shooting in the affected area, still highly radioactive almost 25 years after the disaster. Next week's film release, The Kreutzer Sonata, relocates Tolstoy's controversial story of a wife-murdering maniac to contemporary Beverly Hills. Tolstoy wrote the story in direct response to hearing Beethoven's Opus 47 for violin and piano, commonly known as The Kreutzer Sonata, but it was so shocking that it could not be published. Front Row investigates why with Biographer AN Wilson, violinist Daniel Hope and film maker Bernard Rose. American Artist Jenny Holzer is known for her use of words and text in large scale LED installations and light projections, often in public places. This week Baltic Mill in Gateshead opens an exhibition of her work including LEDs alongside paintings and sculptures. Katrina Porteus reviews. American novellist Amy Bloom talks about her new collection of short stories, Where the God of Love Hangs Out, sex for the elderly and attempts to write a musical for Barbra Streisand and Francis Ford Coppola.