Weddings Matrimania: The changing face of India’s weddingsBBC Culture - By Fiona MacdonaldThe Bangalore photographer Mahesh Shantaram captured the shifts unfolding in Indian marriage celebrations. He tells Fiona Macdonald about what he describes as “outtakes from weddings”. It’s no secret Indian
Culture Top Boy: The show like nothing else on TVBBC Culture - By Sarah HughesThe British version of The Wire won plaudits – and then was cancelled. Now it’s back, after being rescued by the rapper Drake. Sarah Hughes gives it five stars. Television audiences across the world tend
Film (UK) For Sama and the female perspective on warBBC Culture - By Hugh Montgomery“Everything we know about war we know with ‘a man’s voice’. We are all captives of ‘men’s’ notions and ‘men’s’ sense of war. ‘Men’s’ words. Women are silent.” So writes the Nobel prize- winning journalist
Film (UK) Can cinema still shock?BBC Culture - By Kaleem AftabHorrifically violent Holocaust drama The Painted Bird has prompted walkouts at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. But should we be happy that filmmakers can still cause outrage? At this year’s Venice
Charli XCX Charli XCX: ‘I make sober sex pop’BBC Culture - By Chris ChafinIn addition to being one of today’s most exciting and deeply weird pop stars, Charli XCX is the songwriter behind two of the biggest international hit songs of the past decade: Iggy Azaela’s Fancy, and
Fred Rogers TIFF review: A Beautiful Day in the NeighbourhoodBBC Culture - By Caryn JamesTom Hanks stars as children’s TV host Mr Rogers in “something rare – a warm-hearted film that even cynics can love”. Review by Caryn James. Anyone even slightly aware of who Fred Rogers was – the soft-spoken,
Culture Pata Pata: The world’s most defiantly joyful song?BBC Culture - By Arwa HaiderOne of the most infectious songs ever made was first released in 1959. Arwa Haider looks at how Pata Pata has endured over the following six decades – and what it meant for those living under apartheid
Film (UK) Toronto International Film Festival review: Knives OutBBC Culture - By Caryn JamesStar Wars director Rian Johnson has gone back to his playful, genre-bending roots with this all-star murder mystery. But the result is only just fun enough, writes Caryn James. Both old-fashioned and Rian
Culture William Blake: The greatest visionary in 200 yearsBBC Culture - By Kelly GrovierA champion of the imagination, William Blake is celebrated in a new retrospective at London’s Tate Britain. Kelly Grovier looks at how the painter and poet helped us “dream outside the sphere”. The Romantic
Downton Abbey Film review: Downton AbbeyBBC Culture - By Caryn JamesThe popular TV show has been adapted for the big screen, and the result is “delightful fun, even though the plot is obvious almost to the point of stupidity,” writes Caryn James. If you’re going to elevate
Culture The first eco-warrior of designBBC Culture - By Andrea WatsonWilliam Morris is known for his beautiful plant patterns – but he also foretold the climate crisis. He was an environmental visionary and way ahead of his time, writes Andrea Watson You’d be forgiven thinking
Film (UK) Toronto International Film Festival review: The GoldfinchBBC Culture - By Caryn JamesAnsel Elgort stars in this adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, that is “too emotionally muted for its own good”. “I don’t have to tell you about loss,” Nicole Kidman says softly to Ansel Elgort,
Culture Book review: The Testaments by Margaret AtwoodBBC Culture - By Laura FreemanThe much-anticipated follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale is finally here. It is chilling and intense, but does it live up to its predecessor? Laura Freeman gives her verdict. Strange the things that stay
David Copperfield The Personal History of David Copperfield: Four starsBBC Culture - By Caryn JamesArmando Iannucci’s new film is an “enjoyable romp” that’s “gloriously cast”, says Caryn James. Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield is so imaginatively conceived and so gloriously
Film (UK) The best films of 2019 – so farBBC Culture - By Amy CharlesCinema-goers have already been delighted with this year’s silver-screen offerings, including Avengers: Endgame, Us and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Jordan Peele’s surreal, laugh-out-loud horror film,
Albums Ten albums not to miss in SeptemberBBC CultureNatasha Khan returns with her first Bat For Lashes record since 2016's The Bride. In Lost Girls, Khan introduces us to Nikki Pink, who exists in a strange parallel universe "in which gangs of marauding
Culture Does ‘the perfect dress’ exist?BBC CultureIn a new video series, The Secret Life of Clothes, Shahidha Bari explores what the clothes we wear can tell us about ourselves. Cinderella is the ultimate girl in a great gown. A version of her narrative
Edgar Allan Poe The story of cannibalism that came trueBBC Culture - By Hephzibah AndersonEdgar Allan Poe was a prophetic master of macabre twists and turns. But most uncanny is the book he wrote about a ship wreck – and how life imitated art, writes Hephzibah Anderson. Literary prophecy has
Film (UK) Two stars for Soderbergh’s disappointing The LaundromatBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberOldman, Banderas and Streep star in this telling of the Panama Papers scandal. It’s “a light, larky skim over the subject” – way too light, in fact, says Nicholas Barber. The award for this year’s best
Film (UK) Venice Film Festival review: The KingBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberDavid Michôd’s gloomy historical drama The King stars Timothée Chalamet as a brooding and sensitive King Henry V with Robert Pattinson as the evil Dauphin. Nicholas Barber takes a look. Timothée Chalamet’s
Culture How India’s ancient myths are being rewrittenBBC Culture - By Akanksha SinghModern writers are retelling India’s legendary Hindu tales – often through a feminist lens. Why is this important? Akanksha Singh takes a look. Storytelling is an innately human quality; one that crosses
Film (UK) Venice Film Festival review: Wasp NetworkBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberPenélope Cruz and Gael Garcia Bernal star in a Cuban spy thriller by French director Olivier Assayas that is glamorous but also genuinely insightful, writes Nicholas Barber. Olivier Assayas’s vibrant,
Film (UK) Venice Film Festival review: JokerBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberJoaquin Phoenix stars as Batman’s arch-nemesis in a new origin-story movie. But is this dark, dingy drama any better than any of the other supervillain films? Now that Hollywood studios are running out
Culture How Britain fought Hitler with humourBBC Culture - By Kristina MooreheadThe BBC’s German Service used satire to reach ordinary Germans in World War Two. Its aim was to break the Nazi monopoly on news within the Third Reich. It’s a late night in London in 1940, and Austrian
Film (UK) Venice Film Festival review: Ad AstraBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberBrad Pitt stars as an astronaut extraordinaire in a space-travel movie full of rollicking action. But is it as good as its zero-gravity predecessors, asks Nicholas Barber. The Venice Film Festival has
Film (UK) Ten films to watch this SeptemberBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberFrom Downton Abbey’s silver-screen debut to Hustlers, and the sequel to hit horror It, Nicholas Barber picks the films not to miss this month. This may be a first: a horror sequel which is released just
Film (UK) Venice Film Festival review: The TruthBBC Culture - By Nicholas BarberThis year’s event gets underway with Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s delightfully French comedy starring Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, writes Nicholas Barber. Hirokazu Kore-Eda has been
Culture Style, beauty and black identityBBC Culture - By Precious AdesinaAn exhibition explores style, beauty and black identity. Are we getting any closer to proper representation – and a real understanding, asks Precious Adesina. In matters of taste and beauty, fashion has
Tommy Shelby Is Peaky Blinders the most violent show on TV?BBC Culture - By Sarah HughesAs the super-stylish British gangster drama returns for a fifth series, its goriness is set to divide opinion more than ever, writes Sarah Hughes. Stylish suits, sharp words and violent misdeeds. It can
