Email Author Jessica Winter

2003 Stories by Jessica Winter

• Verdict on Aileen Sequel: The Execution Left a Lot To Be Desired

  published December 30, 2003

  On the day the state of Florida executed high-way-prostitute-turned-murderer Aileen Wuornos in October 2002, a crescent of death-watch reporters... More >>

• Different for Girls

  published December 16, 2003

  On the roster of holiday heart-swellers, this week brings a pair of distaff variations on pre-tested formulae: one a girls'-own Dead Poets... More >>

• The Innocence Mission

  published November 25, 2003

  After their arrival in Manhattan, the Irish family of In America makes the customary trip through Times Square, that commercial break in... More >>

• Mel Gibson's Jesus Christ Pose

  published November 4, 2003

  Generations ago, film exhibitors used to dread the springtime "Lenten slump," when many Catholics atoned for their sins by giving up the movies.... More >>

• What Lies Beneath

  published October 28, 2003

  A foredoomed day in the life of an American high school, Elephant (currently in theaters) achieves a cool, unnerving verisimilitude, and... More >>

• Gogol A-Go-Go

  published October 21, 2003

  Put in motion by rueful late-1960s emigrations, built from arranged marriages, and hurtling toward adultery and a new millennium, the debut novels... More >>

• It's DéJà Vu All Over Again as Bush and Gore Rerun for Office

  published October 21, 2003

  Even for those of us who still, to this very minute, find the phrase "Governor Schwarzenegger" funny to the point of hyperventilation, the season... More >>

• Dying as an Art

  published October 14, 2003

  "But now you have defined the whole thing, and handed it to the public," Ted Hughes wrote to A. Alvarez after the latter published a memoir of... More >>

• Broken Blossoms

  published October 7, 2003

  Where Baudelaire slurred together sex and death, Claude Chabrol blurs genealogy and morbidity in The Flower of Evil and throughout his... More >>

• Past Imperfect

  published September 23, 2003

  I've always thought that movies could be about simple, everyday things," says documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert. "The subject matters less... More >>

• World in Motion

  published September 23, 2003

  LONDON—On the borders of Afghanistan, that other country where America won the war but lost the peace, a massive refugee crisis grinds... More >>

• Of Human Bondage: Dogme Godfather Braves an Obstruction Course

  published September 16, 2003

  Lars von Trier is both revered and reviled for subjecting his characters—and, loosely speaking, his actors—to suffering and martyrdom,... More >>

• Rodriguez's Desperado Hours Drag, but Johnny Be Good

  published September 9, 2003

  The working title of Once Upon a Time in Mexico was Desperado II, and the working title of Desperado was El Mariachi... More >>

• A Pushover and a Prodigal Dad Face Off in Meadows Land

  published August 26, 2003

  Would you agree to plumb your personal life on national TV with the author of What Are These Strawberries Doing on My Nipples: I Need Them for the... More >>

• Unearthing a Lost NYC in Sargent's Great Train Robbery

  published August 26, 2003

  At the moment, New Yorkers hardly need another object lesson in nonchalant resilience during total municipal breakdown, but darkened encounters... More >>

• Hear My Voice

  published August 12, 2003

  Huge-voiced if small for her age, Scottish singer Lena Zavaroni won the British TV talent show Opportunity Knocks as a young girl in the... More >>

• Uncommon Knowledge

  published August 5, 2003

  The distance from the Statue of Liberty's cranium down to her chin is 17 feet, three inches. Upon reaching the 25th level of the Freemasonry... More >>

• Death Valley '74

  published August 5, 2003

  The hard-boiled private eye coolly strolls a few steps ahead of the audience; the slapstick detective gets absolutely everything wrong and then... More >>

• London Kills Me

  published July 15, 2003

  Among the dozens of cabbies canvassing passengers at an airport exit, one pickup line stands out above the rest. "I am here to rescue those who... More >>

• Katharine Hepburn, 1907-2003

  published July 8, 2003

  Around 1986, if memory serves, Life magazine ran a filler portrait gallery of Hollywood actresses, a glossy tribute to the female gaze:... More >>

• The Mirror and the Lamp

  published July 8, 2003

  At the close of Rocco and His Brothers, the youngest, Luca, runs his hand along a row of posters touting Rocco's recent boxing triumph, all... More >>

• Punch The Clock

  published July 8, 2003

  My friend Darian used to be in an improvisatory group of rescued-Casio archaeologists whose bleepy minimalism owed any and all melodic influence... More >>

• Behind the Musicals

  published July 1, 2003

  The baffling Oscar triumph of Chicago might represent a flat-footed step toward a broader studio confidence in the musical. But what if the... More >>

• Next Stop Wonderland

  published June 24, 2003

  Near the close of Heidi Julavits's The Effect of Living Backwards, the narrator, named Alice, muses, "Forge forward blindly, and you'll... More >>

• Lost and Bound

  published June 17, 2003

  Week two of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival features several documentaries that address the plight of refugees. In... More >>