Film
Kristen Stewart
No longer just the bitey-lip teen from Twilight, Kristen Stewart has turned into a full-blown arthouse actor, starring this month in both Kelly Reichardt’s understated portrait of small-town malaise, Certain Women, in which she plays a browbeaten teacher, and Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper, where she plays the only slightly less browbeaten titular role, who can communicate with spirits.
Certain Women is in cinemas now; Personal Shopper is released Friday 17 March
BFI Flare
The London LGBT film festival begins on Thursday with a 2017 programme on the themes of body, heart, mind and winks and nudges (an exploration of camp cinema). Highlights – and there are many – include Park Chan-wook’s 1930s Korean-set take on Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith, the Daniel Mays-starring Against the Law and Jennifer Reeder’s Signature Move.
At BFI Southbank, SE1, 16 to 26 March
Events
Nocturnal City
Should clubs be granted similar status to classical concert halls? That’s what happens in Berlin where the famed Berghain nightspot was recently granted tax breaks acknowledging its cultural importance. This event wonders why London is so reluctant to place similar value on its music scene. The capital’s new night tsar, Amy Lamé, will be at the heart of a series of conversations that aim to offer a comprehensive overview, starting with this discussion at Somerset House, also featuring artist Laurel Halo, Berlin Community Radio and host Adam Bychawski.
At Somerset House, London, 11 March
Comedy
Rob Brydon
Before he and Steve Coogan (and Michael Caine, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Corbett et al) return to our screens this April for a new series of The Trip, Brydon is hitting the road. His new standup set tackles the onset of middle age, and features plenty of his peerless impressions – including a merciless take on his partner-in-crime Coogan.
Touring around the UK until 25 March
Music
Resistance Radio
An inventive sonic companion piece to Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, this fictional underground radio station sees the likes of Beck, Kelis and Sharon Van Etten reimagining the songs of the TV show’s era with the help of producers Sam Cohen and Danger Mouse.
Throwing Shade Live
The NTS host, one of the UK’s most promising DJs, plays cosmic R&B and expansive electronica for free in Tate Modern’s Tanks on 11 March, with visuals by exhibiting artist Wolfgang Tillmans.
French Touch
Sometimes it can feel as if every music genre under the sun has been raked over, but French Touch – the filtered house sound popular in the late 90s and early 2000s, which also spawned Daft Punk, is only just getting its dues. This exhibition of snaps, film and artwork from Noise of Art and east London’s Red Gallery documents the story of French electronic music, all the way back to 1901.
At Red Gallery, London, from 1 March to 9 April
Performance
Casanova
Bare chests! Corsets! Big hair! Scandal! Excess! Yes, it’s the world premiere of this production featuring possibly the friskiest male lead character known to the ballet world, Casanova. The Northern Ballet’s Kenneth Tindall choreographs and, if the picture above is any indication, some pretty impressive sets. Get in there quick: it runs for just a week from tonight.
At the Leeds Grand Theatre, 11 to 18 March
Exhibitions
Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun
This new show at the National Portrait Gallery brings together two artists from different eras, both of whom explore identity politics with an unnerving touch, often in identical poses: Cahun, one of the few female surrealists in André Breton’s circle; and Wearing, famous for wearing masks of others, inspired, perhaps by Cahun.
At the National Portrait Gallery, London, until 29 May
Michelangelo and Sebastiano
Following the America v Russia double header at the Royal Academy and Hockney at Tate Britain, the next art big hitter, at the National Gallery, rewinds to 1511 to explore the partnership between two great Italian mates, Michelangelo and Sebastiano. See some of their remarkable collabs from Wednesday.
