Eurofile
Today’s highlights
Art
Mice that roar: an everyday tale of determination
Tiny sculptures made by an 85-year-old
tell an epic tale at the Venice Biennale
No more Mr Venice Guy: the Biennale casts off its male, pale past
Russia is absent from this year’s edition of the world’s biggest international art exhibition. But the main talking point is a decisive move away from domination by white men
The beautiful and damned: Venice revisited
An exhibition highlights the wonders of the Venice serenaded by Canaletto and the dangers faced by the glorious city in the sea
Everyday Philosophy: Why we need analyses of atrocities
But, we also need art that exposes us to different ways of thinking about them
Heart of stone: how Donatello reinvented sculpture
A definitive, exhaustive exhibition of the Renaissance artist is a once-in-a-lifetime blockbuster of a show
The Picasso Museum falls victim to an unlikely art thief
The 72-year-old took what she thought was an unwanted jacket from the Paris museum. Her newly acquired coat was actually a work aimed to recreate the garment worn by Picasso
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Books
The greatest characters in European literature
CHARLIE CONNELLY comes up with the first half of his rundown of the top 20.
Multicultural Man: On the n-word
To render any word unspeakable and un-writable is to impose totalitarian double-think rather than advance the cause of racial justice
The flight of Russia’s greatest wit
When Teffi grew sceptical of the revolution, she headed for Paris, writing a masterpiece on the way
The revenge of tyranny
Across the world, democracy is in rapid retreat as populism, polarisation and post-truth have given the whip hand to a new breed of autocrat. The consequences are dramatic
Why won’t men read women?
The reluctance of men to explore the wealth of outstanding fiction by female writers is baffling
The TikTok book boom
How the video social network has raised sales figures and revived forgotten titles
Music
‘It’s not black music and it’s not white music, it’s people’s music’ – Dub War’s Benji Webbe on their political new album
The metal band’s frontman talks chartism, race and the curse of Goldie Lookin Chain
Red wine, black metal: Norway’s unlikeliest vintner
The frontman of one of Norway’s most notorious death metal bands has now turned his hand to Riesling
What happened at Eurovision?
Fanny Mendelssohn: The gifted composer denied a glittering career
She may have been at least as gifted, if not more so than her illustrious brother but Fanny was a woman, making any kind of career in music off limits
Turkish rap on trial
Dutch-Turkish rapper Murda is not the first artist from Turkey’s contemporary rap scene to face the censure of the authorities
How Nissan’s tone-deaf classical music advert backfired
A supposedly tongue-in-cheek advert for a luxury SUV caused a backlash among classical music lovers
Film
America’s real hero
Top Gun: Maverick confirms that, like it or not, Tom Cruise is a cultural phenomenon
Such sweet sorrow: Juliette Binoche defends her craft
The French star’s new film sees her scrubbing floors and emptying bins. But it’s actors who have it hard, she says
Quiet girl, big noise: banging the drum for the Irish language
A new film is a landmark moment for both Irish cinema and the language more widely
Ennio Morricone: the maestro of modesty
Everyone loved Ennio Morricone’s film
scores.. except the Oscar-winning
composer himself, as a documentary reveals
Inger Stevens: The actress who felt she was on borrowed time
What appears to be the inevitable tragedy of Inger Stevens began long before she arrived in Hollywood and long before she left Sweden for the US
Weapon of choice: why the war for equality in film is still not over
Audrey Diwan’s powerful abortion
drama Happening has completed a
clean sweep of major awards for female directors. But, she says, real equality is still far away
Theatre
Theatre Review: Middle is at best middling
If part two of David Eldridge’s trilogy of plays about relationships is a state-of-the-nation play, then all it has to say is that the nation is in a bit of a state, which will hardly come as a surprise to anyone
Theatre Review: Oklahoma! is a needless and misguided take on a classic
This utterly misguided take on an ancient musical will antagonise the
only people it’s likely to attract
Theatre Review: House of Ife sees a star being born
Newcomer Michael Workeye dominates this superbly written, but often intensely painful piece
Theatre Review: The Corn is Green is mind-numbingly tedious old hokum
The problem with Emlyn Williams’ story – the talented, impoverished young lad in a mining town being recognised by a plucky teacher – is that it’s been done before and better
Theatre Review: Jodie beats all comers in Prima Facie
The Killing Eve star’s stage debut is an important play, brilliantly acted, written and directed and with something worthwhile to say for itself
Heroes and villains: Ivo van Hove’s heavenly and hellish work
Ivo van Hove, the Bowie collaborator
with a taste for the spectacular, returns
with a timely, bloody war epic at the
Barbican
Great European Lives
Léo Valentin: The birdman who danced with gravity
The French daredevil whose luck ran out in front of two young future Beatles
Fanny Mendelssohn: The gifted composer denied a glittering career
She may have been at least as gifted, if not more so than her illustrious brother but Fanny was a woman, making any kind of career in music off limits
Helena Blavatsky: The idiosyncratic occultist who divided opinion
Guru or phoney, even in death Helena Blavatsky’s spiritual teachings continued to attract admirers
Inger Stevens: The actress who felt she was on borrowed time
What appears to be the inevitable tragedy of Inger Stevens began long before she arrived in Hollywood and long before she left Sweden for the US
Miguel de Cervantes: Spain’s ever-elusive greatest writer
Even inside his own monogrammed funeral casket the writer of Don Quixote remains an enigma
Michael Curtiz: The brusque workaholic director who brought the world Casablanca
His polymathic attitude to genres and prolific output mean he is rarely spoken of in the same awed tones as a Hitchcock or Capra, but Curtiz was as much of a craftsman as any Hollywood great