Arts & Life

Photo Virginia Thoren in an undated photo. “You were a camera and eyewitness to a golden age — the rebirth of Paris after the war,” the New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham once wrote to her. Credit Virginia Thoren Collection, Pratt Institute Libraries Virginia Thoren, an advertising designer who had …

Photo The violinist Leila Josefowicz and the pianist John Novacek at Zankel Hall in November 2015. See listing below. Credit Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times Our guide to the city’s best classical music and opera. BERNARD FOCCROULLE at the Church of the Ascension (Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.). An …

That deep sense of purpose was in his mind when he thought about how to use other dance genres, as well as Step Afrika’s past works, in “The Migration.” He wanted, he said, the production to have a cohesive narrative “that people could follow without it feeling like we were …

Guillermo del Toro’s latest film, “The Shape of Water,” is not easy to classify. It genre-hops through fantasy, science fiction, thriller and romance to tell the tale of a mute janitor (Sally Hawkins) at a laboratory who falls for an amphibious, scaled creature (Doug Jones). Imagery expresses the story better. …

It’s a scenario ripped from the headlines: A grief-stricken family member is summoned to meet the coffin of a fallen soldier, and complications ensue. And it brought Laurence Fishburne to tears. “I wept through the movie — I was so moved by it,” he said of Richard Linklater’s “Last Flag …

“This is an old master painting,” he said. “But because it’s extraordinarily highly valued, they inserted it into their biggest-ticket auction and artificially tried to create context with the Warhol.” Photo Leonardo’s “Salvator Mundi,” or “Savior of the World,” dates from about 1500. Credit Reuters Christie’s has billed “Salvator Mundi” …

Photo Rosie O’Donnell, left, and Frankie Shaw in “SMILF,” a show created by Ms. Shaw for Showtime. The twins Alexandra and Anna Reimer play the toddler Larry, center. Credit Danielle Levitt/SHOWTIME Children are blessings who bring joy and meaning to parents’ lives. However. That “however” — the back-wrenching, stressful sweat …

“SMILF” revives the tradition of unruly antiheroines that was Showtime’s signature brand under the channel’s former president of entertainment, Robert Greenblatt. Series like “Weeds,” “Nurse Jackie,” “United States of Tara” and “The Big C” — all created by female showrunners — flaunted characters who kicked against the constraints of conventional …

Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos — and anything else that strikes them as intriguing. This week, N.E.R.D. snaps back to life, Bruce Springsteen contributes a song to a film about veterans coping with PTSD, and …

FLESH AND BLOOD A former convict (Mark Webber, who wrote and directed) readjusts to life outside prison in a film that fuses documentary and fiction elements. For instance, Cheri Honkala, the Green Party’s 2012 vice-presidential candidate — and Mr. Webber’s mother — plays a vice-presidential candidate running with Jill Stein. …