Eindhoven, Netherlands/ Stefano Boeri Architetti It’s been 10 years since the creation of the first vertical forest, Milan’s Bosco Verticale. How has it inspired other buildings – and affected their residents’ happiness and health? In 2007, Italian architect Stefano Boeri witnessed the frantic construction of a city in the Dubai …

Getty Images The Profumo affair led to a government minister’s resignation on 5 June 1963. In 1983, Christine Keeler talked to the BBC about her part in a story of sex, lies and Cold War paranoia. “For 20 years, I think I’ve just been a newspaper clipping, I’ve never really …

Photo of Lighthouse, 2025/ Alamy Banksy’s new mural in Marseille is not the first image he has connected to the history of ideas. From Plato to Foucault, a Banksy expert reveals the philosophy behind these popular artworks. Which is the real you, the person you are now or the one …

BBC Former US President Bill Clinton and best-selling author James Patterson sat down with the BBC to discuss how real life informed their new political thriller, The First Gentleman. What happens when the president’s husband is put on trial for murder? That’s the conundrum at the heart of former US …

Guerrilla Girls It’s been 40 years since the controversial activist group Guerrilla Girls formed. Their most powerful campaign, the “naked poster”, broke new ground – and has had a lasting influence. On a Sunday morning in New York in 1989, a few women perused the permanent collection of the Metropolitan …

Getty Images From Sex and the City to its sequel, heroine Carrie Bradshaw has always pushed the boat out with her fashion. But her latest choice of headwear has shocked viewers like never before. There was other news unfolding around the world on 20 May, 2024, but in one corner …

A24 From Materialists to 28 Years Later – these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month. A24 Materialists Celine Song’s bittersweet debut, Past Lives, was nominated for two Oscars in 2024. For her follow-up, Song has moved from a delicate semi-autobiographical drama to …

Getty Images Twenty five years ago, the rapper provoked outrage with his second LP, which shot him to superstardom, and was notorious for its offensive lyrics. Now it has become an even more divisive listen. Eminem’s second studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP, is almost instantly an act of provocation. …

No Ju-han/ Netflix From the final series of Netflix’s gruesome dystopian thriller to the return of the Emmy-winning series set in a Chicago restaurant – and Owen Wilson in a golf comedy. Apple TV+ 1. Stick Golf has been the source of some goofy, wildly popular films, with Bill Murray …

Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images) To reach Everest’s summit Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had to climb sheer rock, while battling treacherous ice and a deadly lack of oxygen on the most dangerous part of the mountain. Seventy-one years ago, they shared their victory with the BBC. “I think my …

Rebecca Laurence, Hugh Montgomery and Nicholas Barber This year’s Cannes Film Festival finishes today – and from the hundreds of titles that premiered, here are the ones which are going to be big talking points all through 2025. 1. Die, My Love With the combined star power of Jennifer Lawrence …

Fred Hayes/ HBO (Credit: Fred Hayes/ HBO) Succession showrunner Jesse Armstrong’s dystopian feature film debut, premiering on HBO, has “timely resonance” in this “high-tech moment”. What if tech bros ruled the world? What if they already do? Jesse Armstrong’s close-to-reality satire, Mountainhead, exposes that thin line between those actually holding …

Set in the military dictatorship of 1970s Brazil, this buzzy crime drama, which has premiered in Cannes, “makes up in pulpy excitement what it lacks in subtlety”, and “bursts with sex, shoot-outs and sleazy hitmen”. One of the biggest sensations of this year’s awards season was I’m Still Here, an …

Following a record 15-minute standing ovation at its world premiere, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is winning rave reviews and generating the biggest buzz from the Cannes Film Festival. Did the Cannes Film Festival save the best for last? Norwegian Joachim Trier is one of the last directors to premiere in …

Courtesy of the Cannes Film Festival After years of imprisonment and travel bans in his native Iran, Jafar Panahi returns to Cannes with a furious but funny revenge thriller that takes aim at oppressive regimes and could scoop the Palme d’Or. The film opens with a long, unbroken, deceptively charming …

Cannes Film Festival In this period drama, premiering at Cannes, two of Hollywood’s buzziest male actors play lovers making music together – but the film could do with far more passion and urgency. Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain was released 20 years ago, but there haven’t been many period dramas about …

Focus Features Wes Anderson and the cast of The Phoenician Scheme tell the BBC about how they made the film, and about its formidable young star, and daughter of Kate Winslet, who plays a pipe-smoking trainee nun. One of the trademarks of a Wes Anderson film is the guaranteed tranche …

Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival After winning the Palme d’Or for the shocking Titane, out-there French director Julia Ducournau is back at Cannes with another nightmarishly weird film – but it’s an unsatisfying watch. One of the most anticipated titles at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was Alpha, written and …

Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images) When Midnight Cowboy came out 56 years ago this week, it instantly upended Hollywood’s idea of a mainstream hit. A bleak tale of loneliness, sexuality and survival in New York, it was powered by career-defining performances from its lead actors. “I did have problems with …

Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival (Credit: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival) Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star in Lynne Ramsay’s ‘surreal’ and ‘intense’ study of postpartum depression that has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of cinema’s most searing portraits …