Smelly da Vinci, drug cartel musical 'Emilia Pérez', 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' 'Wild God' - here's what to consume in Europe this weekend.
ADVERTISEMENTCiao! Welcome back for another friendly roundup of things to do, watch and hear this weekend and beyond.
While our focus has very much been on the Paralympics and 81st Venice Film Festival beginning - and everyone else's on the Oasis reunion - September's tilt towards Autumn also brings a breeze of new art shows and cinema releases ahead of awards season, along with some fantastic local festivals and events.
From Renaissance smells to drug cartel musicals, we've narrowed things down to the following.
Exhibitions
'Leonardo da Vinci and the Perfumes of the Renaissance' at the Château du Clos Lucé (Amboise, France)
Leonardo da Vinci was known for being great at many things - but how many of you would name fragrance creation and collection among them? An exhibition in central France is highlighting this little-known fact about the 15th century Italian polymath, inviting guests to experience an "olfactory and immersive journey into the world of Renaissance perfumes, following the intertwined destinies of Leonardo da Vinci and his mother Caterina."
It includes six sensory spaces, where visitors can sniff out what it might have been like to wander through the courts of Venice, Florence and Milan in the very times that Da Vinci himself once did. There are also over 60 of his reconstructed works of art and objects to on display, including the necklace from 'Lady with an Ermine'. Unlike a lot of immersive exhibits, this is a truly multi-sensory event that's cleverly constructed to uncover fascinating and previously unrecognised elements of Da Vinci's works. It also highlights a growing trend in the use of scents at exhibitions to instigate a more intimate, revealing and inclusive encounter with art. See (and smell) it soon - closing on the 15 September 2024.
'LAIKA: Frame x Frame' at the BFI Southbank (London, UK)
For fans of Coraline and ParaNorman, the BFI's new(ish - it opened 12 August) exhibition is a must. Dedicated to the award-winning stop-motion animation company LAIKA, who worked on the aforementioned films and others like Kubo and the Two Strings and The Boxtrolls, it showcases the armature-arousing intricacy of their creations and delves into the stories behind them. It's also free - and being presented alongside a season celebrating stop motion animation in cinema. Just don't leave with buttons for eyes.
Festivals and events
'Jazz in the Park' (Transylvania, Romania)
As if the fairytale-esque setting of Transylvania's Ethnographic Park couldn't be any more magical, it will be host to an annual jazz festival from 30-1 September. Limited to 7,000 people per day, it's very much a community event that sees nearly every local getting involved and the entire village becoming a glowing hub of creativity and support. In 2019, it even won the title of Europe’s Best Small Festival at the European Festival Awards. This year, there will be 40 concerts across four stages, along with six delicious restaurants to try, workshops to take part in and much more. Find tickets here.
'ALL CAPS' (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Paint the town red! And blue, and green, and all the colours because one of the world's biggest street art festivals returns from 1 September to 8 September in Rotterdam's Beverwaard district. Running for the past six years, the event sees everything from walls to cars painted with murals by incredible international artists, the neighbourhood transformed by an explosion of creativity and character. There will be music and food too, plus entry is free!
Movies
Public service announcement: UK-based readers - a reminder that it's National Cinema Day on 31 August. The initiative, which was started by Cinema First, the Film Distributors' Association and the UK Cinema Association in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to encourage people back to the big screen, it sees over 630 cinemas across the country selling tickets for just £4. In other words, there was never a better time or excuse to cancel all pre-existing plans and watch movies all day.
Emilia Pérez
A Spanish-language melodrama/musical about a Mexican cartel boss called Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón) that wants to become a woman, it's hard to imagine how such an audacious idea could actually work. But it does, with French director Jacques Audiard delivering "a bold and brilliant swing for the fences, a perfectly orchestrated folly with a fully realised vision that never plays it safe," according to Euronews Culture's David Mouriquand, who reviewed the film following its premiere at Cannes this year where Gascón and the principle female cast shared the best actress prize. The cast also includes Selena Gomez as Manitas' wife, and Zoé Saldaña as the lawyer he kidnaps and tasks with finding a doctor to perform the desired surgical procedures.
ADVERTISEMENTVenice Film Festival 2024
The 81st Venice Film Festival is officially underway, having opened with Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on the 28 August (read the review for that one here). Known as the awards season whisperer, its line-up is richly varied (and a little bit steamy), with some of the most anticipated movies both inside and outside of Competition, including Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, Luca Guadagnino's Queer and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s period drama Harvest. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for all reviews and news updates from the Lido - including our latest review for Pablo Larraín's Maria Callas biopic, starring Angelina Jolie.
TV show
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime Video)
It was, quite possibly, Amazon's biggest ever gamble: the first season of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power', which premiered in 2022, had a budget of $1 billion (roughly €898,425 million) making it the most expensive TV show ever made. Did it pay off? Well, viewership was high and reviews generally positive, with Euronews Culture's Giulia Carbonaro writing, "it manages to recreate an entire world - universe, if you like - of epic proportions that feels realistic and lived-in" but also noting, " it falls into the trap of giving us what we already know and love, instead of bringing something truly original to the table."
ADVERTISEMENTNow, after a long interlude, the second season has arrived and continues to unfurl the events of the fabled Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. While not all those who wander are lost, this show does have a tendency to dilly-dally in its own spectacle - we're hoping it leads to some more eventful storylines this time around, especially considering the wait time!
Music
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Wild God
It's been a good year for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds fans, with a TV adaptation in the works for Cave's book "The Death Of Bunny Monro", three major album anniversaries to celebrate, and now - finally - the release of the band's 18th studio album 'Wild God'.
"It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious,” Cave said in a statement, adding: “There’s no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.” The album follows 2019’s ‘Ghosteen’ and shows, once again, the Seeds' remarkable ability to continuously evolve their sounds in ever more interesting and deeply prophetic ways, while still touching on idiosyncratic familiarities. Read our full review here.
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