abstract:John Robbins is an illustrator, educator, and former host of the public television program Cover to Cover, which aired in the United States and Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s.
As if in homage to that lost work, Robbins operates on the mural principle, moving gaily and with high technical fluency from penniless actors (John Turturro and Emily Watson) to sincere socialites like Countess La Grange (Vanessa Redgrave) and a ravishing Fascist named Margherita Sarfatti (Susan Sarandon).