Blue Jasmine, Serpentine Sackler Gallery
A review of the week's cultural highlights. Cate Blanchett stars in Woody Allen's San Francisco-set Blue Jasmine, and Zaha Hadid designs the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery.
Cate Blanchett stars in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine - new territory for him as much of it's set in San Francisco. He's rumoured to be back on form: will the West Coast and a plot that owes a debt to A Streetcar Named Desire inspire a great film?
Back in New York, Thomas Pynchon, author of V, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason and Dixon, has always divided readers between those who are geekily entranced by his vision and wordplay and those who just can't work out what's going on. Bleeding Edge is thought to be one of his most readable novels yet, set between the burst of the dotcom bubble and 9/11.
The acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid's Serpentine Sackler Gallery has just opened in Kensington Gardens, London. It adds what one critic has already described as a Mr Whippy extension to an old gunpowder store: does it add up to a successful gallery space? There's a visit to the opening exhibition, Adrian Villar Rojas' Today We Reboot The Planet.
A play that first ran off-, then on-Broadway, The Lyons, is a darkly comic view of a dying man and his family - does the telling of home truths make for good drama? Opening at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, it stars Isla Blair and Tom Ellis.
And James Spader stars in The Blacklist, a new US drama about to begin here on Sky Living. It has elements of Silence of the Lambs, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔland and 24 - can it carve out its own distinct place?
Ekow Eshun, Susannah Clapp and Kerry Shale join Tom Sutcliffe.
Producer: Sarah Johnson.
Last on
Clip
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A relief that there isn't an analyst at every corner
Duration: 01:35
Chapters
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Blue Jasmine
Duration: 09:21
Bleeding Edge
Duration: 09:51
The Lyons
Duration: 07:02
Serpentine Sackler Gallery
Duration: 07:31
The Blacklist
Duration: 06:05
Blue Jasmine
Blue Jasmine is on general release in UK cinemas, certificate 12A.
Bleeding Edge
by Thomas Pynchon is published by Jonathan Cape.
Μύ
The Lyons
is at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London until 16ΜύNovember 2013.Serpentine Sackler Gallery
TheΜύΜύis open in Kensington Gardens, London from 10am-6pm, Tuesdays to Sundays. Admission is free.ΜύCredits
Role Contributor Presenter Tom Sutcliffe Interviewed Guest Susannah Clapp Interviewed Guest Kerry Shale Producer Sarah Johnson Broadcast
- Sat 28 Sep 2013 19:15Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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Saturday Review
Sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events, with Tom Sutcliffe and guests