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Behind the Candelabra, Chagall at Tate Liverpool

A review of the week's cultural highlights, including Michael Douglas as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra, and Chagall: Modern Master at Tate Liverpool.

Steven Soderbergh's film Behind the Candelabra tells the story of flamboyant piano star Liberace and his five-year relationship with a young lover, Scott Thorson: Michael Douglas plays Liberace and Matt Damon Thorson. It failed to find a distributor in the US until HBO backed it but was then selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Is there substance under the sequins?

Chagall: Modern Master at Tate Liverpool is a major new exhibition which takes an early decade in the artist's life, 1911-22. It was a time during which he travelled to Paris and married his childhood sweetheart and gives a opportunity to witness the impact of movements such as Cubism and Orphism in his work.

Strange Interlude won Eugene O'Neill the Pulitzer Prize but its 5 hour running time and its experimental asides to the audience mean that it isn't performed as often as some of his other work. With abortion, mental illness and adultery at its heart, will its dramatic impact resonate in this new shortened version at the National Theatre, with Anne Marie Duff?

The Returned began life as Les Revenants, a French film which was adapted into a television series. It was a great hit there and now Channel 4 have taken it on as their first subtitled drama for decades. Will this Alpine tale of the Undead wow the British?

Hammond Innes was a master of adventure and suspense but his works have been less read since his death in 1998. Now Vintage are re-issuing several of his works, including his early success The Lonely Skier and his great bestseller The Wreck of the Mary Deare. Do they stand the test of time?

Historian Kathryn Hughes and writers and journalists Sarfraz Manzoor and David Aaronovitch join Tom Sutcliffe.

Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Available now

45 minutes

Strange Interlude

continues at the National Theatre, London, until 1 September 2013.

Behind the Candelabra

Behind the Candelabra is in cinemasΒ in key cititesΒ from 7 June 2013, certificate 15.

The Returned

transmits on Channel 4 on 9 June 2013 at 9 pm.

Hammond Innes: The Wreck of the Mary Deare and The Lonely Skier

The Hammond Innes collection is re-published by Random House.

Chagall: Modern Master

The exhibition continues at Tate Liverpool until 6 October 2013.

Broadcast

  • Sat 8 Jun 2013 19:15

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