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Geneviève Page, the alluring French actress who starred in such films as Belle de Jour, El Cid and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, died Friday. She was 97.

Page died at her home in Paris, her granddaughter, actress Zoé Guillemaud, told the Afp news agency.

In a career of more than 50 years, Page appeared in other notable films including Fanfan la Tulip (1952); Foreign Intrigue (1956), opposite Robert Mitchum; The Silken Affair (1956), with David Niven; John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix (1966); Mayerling (1968), directed by Terence Young; and Charles Vidor’s Song Without End (1960), where the director died mid-shoot and was replaced by George Cukor.

In 1967, Spanish director Luis Buñuel cast Page as Madame Anais, the owner and operator of the high-class brothel in Belle de Jour, an adaptation of Joseph Kessel’s 1928 novel.

The film centers on Severine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve), whose sexless marriage pushes her into prostitution — but only between the hours of 2 and 5 p.

Most moviegoers who witnessed the 2020 Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Palm Springs” probably did not expect that it would be the only traditional comedy nominated for Best Musical or Comedy at this year’s Golden Globes. After all, comedies (and dramedies) have disproportionately dominated the category for the past decade, while only eight musicals have managed to snag bids. However, the 2021 lineup turned out to be another deviation from the norm in a year full of them.

Joining “Palm Springs” is the unconventional mockumentary “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which takes the subversiveness of its predecessor to a whole new level. The other three slots are filled by “The Prom,” a standard musical adaptation of the Broadway musical, “Hamilton,” a live stage recording of the legit hit, and “Music,” an original musical drama. The last time three musicals competed against each other for the top honor was in 2008, and it only happened six times before that.

Actress Patricia Morison, who brought a touch of grace and style to even her anti-heroine film roles, has died at age 103. She passed at her Los Angeles home of natural causes.

Morison had a huge presence in films of the 1940s, and appeared in such classics as Song of Bernadette and Dressed To Kill opposite such stars as Basil Rathbone, Ray Milland, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, among many others.

Sporting long, flowing hair down to her hips, Morison often was portrayed as the villain in her many roles.

She also had an extensive Broadway career, appearing in the first staging of Kiss Me, Kate (based on a production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew) and with Yul Brynner in The King and I.

Morison was born in 1915 in New York and took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse, studied dance with Martha Graham, and made her Broadway...

"A very happy birthday to Liszt Ferenc, who was born two hundred years ago today," blogs Alex Ross, introducing a brief but — coming from the author of The Rest Is Noise — essential roundup.

Like many (many!) commentators today, Phil Harrell makes the case for Franz Liszt as the world's first rock star, here for NPR: "In the mid-19th century, Liszt was tearing up the polite salons and concert halls of Europe with his virtuoso performances. Women would literally attack him: tear bits of his clothing, fight over broken piano strings and locks of his shoulder-length hair. Europe had never seen anything like it. It was a phenomenon the great German poet Heinrich Heine dubbed 'Lisztomania.' … Liszt deliberately placed the piano in profile to the audience so they could see his face. He'd whip his head around while he played, his long hair flying, beads of sweat shooting into the crowd.