Today’s highlights
Art
A farmer’s protest
Three parallel exhibitions celebrate a great Dutch artist whose career began after a great deal of crying over spilt milk
‘The Prince’ under the hammer
A 1532 first edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince, which are vanishingly hard to come by, has just come on the market
Antonio Calderara, the changing man
Once a painter of charming small-town scenes, Antonio Calderara radically departed into the abstract. But was this shift as sudden, or surprising, as it seems?
Frank Auerbach, the German who painted London
Sent from Berlin to London to escape the Nazis, artist Frank Auerbach – who died earlier this month – painted his new surroundings over and over again
Through glass, darkly
As arguments about Notre-Dame’s restoration rage on, a new exhibition gathers together stained-glass windows that caused their own controversy in the 1930s
What two suits and a parrot say about modern art
A London exhibition featuring Joseph Beuys and two more key conceptual artists feels dated if occasionally thrilling
Books
A literary year of grifters and drifters
A beautiful memoir about the ugly side of Europe tops our round-up of 2024’s best non-fiction
Capturing space and time in Kazakhstan
Photographer Andrew McConnell set out to record cosmonauts in Kazakhstan – but found the local people infinitely more fascinating
How Thomas Mann taught Germans to chill out
First published in 1924, his masterpiece Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) is a highbrow ode to chilling
Black Doves is festive fun at its most lethal
Our editor-at-large’s rundown of the pick of the week’s streaming, cinema, theatre and books
Will AI kill off the book trade?
An Israeli startup’s plan to use AI to publish 8,000 books a year sounds like the death of quality
‘The Prince’ under the hammer
A 1532 first edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince, which are vanishingly hard to come by, has just come on the market
Music
When British pop went European
How British music turned away from America and learned to love the continent
Italy’s new cultural boom
The Italian constitution sets an obligation for the government to promote a crucial part of the nation’s identity
Switzerland votes ‘oui’ to Eurovision
After Nemo’s 2024 victory, Eurovision has become increasingly political for the Swiss
Letters: Opinion divided on our Shit List
Our annual round-up of the people Britain could do without has stirred up some strong views
James Beattie and his timeless cello
The forgotten Scottish philosopher’s legacy resurfaced last week when his historic cello was played for the first time in 220 years
The scandalous success of Mina Mazzini
The flawed star who floored a nation
Film
The film that put Netanyahu in court
The Bibi Files paints a devastating picture of the Israeli prime minister and his family
Silvana Mangano, the star who shunned the spotlight
For a woman who never desired the limelight, Silvana Mangano achieved cinematic immortality almost in spite of herself
Jazz, colonialism and the cold war
An astounding, eccentric documentary uncovers a murky assassination plot involving Belgium, the CIA and Louis Armstrong
How an Italian made America’s greatest gangster movie
The troubled birth and lasting genius of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America
Black Doves is festive fun at its most lethal
Our editor-at-large’s rundown of the pick of the week’s streaming, cinema, theatre and books
Killing time on the Costa del Crime
How Stephen Frears’ The Hit – the first movie based on British gangsters exiled in Spain – finally lived up to its name
Theatre
The best interpretation of The Tempest I’ve ever seen
Sigourney Weaver shines in her west end debut in Jamie Lloyd’s powerful new production of Shakespeare’s final solo-authored play
What’s the point of reproducing this Mel Brooks classic?
Patrick Marber’s unremarkable revival delivers polite laughs only
Black Doves is festive fun at its most lethal
Our editor-at-large’s rundown of the pick of the week’s streaming, cinema, theatre and books
An Oscar Wilde reboot that’s not earnest enough
Max Webster’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest fails to commit to doing something truly innovative
Only a humbug could resist John Simm’s Scrooge
The Old Vic’s Dickens classic still carries a powerful message about poverty and greed
The actress pursued by misfortune and tragedy
Her young daughters grieving before a grave she didn’t occupy was not even the worst tribulation to afflict the life of the Hungarian
Great European Lives
Silvana Mangano, the star who shunned the spotlight
For a woman who never desired the limelight, Silvana Mangano achieved cinematic immortality almost in spite of herself
The little machine with a higher gear than the rest
The intensity he displayed in the saddle was an extension of his personality. He was spiky, surly and could bear a spectacular grudge
The needle through which Europe was threaded
An adventurous romantic life lent almost a Zelig-like quality to the writer, constantly drawing her towards the centre of events
The actress pursued by misfortune and tragedy
Her young daughters grieving before a grave she didn’t occupy was not even the worst tribulation to afflict the life of the Hungarian
The bohemian travel writer always drawn back home
The troubled journalist forged her place in and around a world to which she never quite belonged
The man who was born twice
The relationship between Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau was one of the great romances of 20th-century European culture