In July 1987, 38 years ago this week, a Nazi war criminal, the “Butcher of Lyon”, was sentenced to life in prison by a French court for crimes against humanity. Four years earlier, in 1983, the BBC reported on how France felt about this reckoning with its dark past. Klaus …

Alamy One of show business’s most glamorous – and notorious – images, there’s more to this 1957 snapshot of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield than might first appear. On the night of Sophia Loren’s “Welcome to Hollywood” dinner party in April 1957, Jayne Mansfield walked into the exclusive Romanoff’s restaurant …

Brook Rushton From Superman to I Know What You Did Last Summer – these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month. A24 Eddington Best known as the horror auteur who chilled audiences with Hereditary and Midsommar, Ari Aster moves on to state-of-the-nation satirical …

The National Gallery, London (Credit: The National Gallery, London) They helped to make Vincent van Gogh among the most famous and influential painters in the history of art. Why did sunflowers obsess him and so many other artists before and since? When we think about Vincent van Gogh, most people …

Getty Images Cited as one of the first representations of black queer popular culture, Ma Rainey’s sensational Prove It on Me Blues is a landmark song that had a profound and lasting effect. One night in 1925, a party in a Chicago apartment was broken up by police. Such raids …

Pixar (Credit: Pixar) Pixar’s Elio has had the worst-ever box office opening for a film from the animation studio. It’s part of a wave of original family cartoons failing at the box office. In big-time animation studio Pixar’s new cartoon, Elio, a boy is beamed up from Earth and into …

Ana Blumenkron/ Netflix (Credit: Ana Blumenkron/ Netflix) From Lena Dunham’s new Netflix rom-com, set in London, to the return of Michael C Hall’s murderous Dexter and a stunning new wildlife series. Greg Gayne/ Amazon Prime Video (Credit: Greg Gayne/ Amazon Prime Video) 1. Ballard  Long-running series don’t often die; they …

Alamy Almost 55 years ago, Michael Eavis hosted the first of his legendary music festivals. In 1970, the BBC visited his Somerset dairy farm to find out what made it so unique. “I think this is the quickest way of clearing my overdraft,” said Michael Eavis on 18 September 1970 …

Courtesy of Svenskt Tenn archive Scandinavian interior style is not all about pared-back, minimalist living and functional, identikit furniture. Here’s why the century-old Svenskt Tenn idea of abundance, exuberance and “luxe cosiness” is resonating now. The stereotypical image of Swedish design is of pale wood, neutral, tasteful tones and pared-down, …

Alamy Twenty years ago, Ang Lee’s drama about the love between two male sheep herders was finally released after a long struggle to get it made. It was a watershed moment for gay representation that balanced playing by Hollywood’s rules and changing them. When it was released in 2005, Brokeback …

Rebecca Laurence and Lindsay Baker Bloomsbury, Knopf, Penguin Random House From multigenerational family sagas to speculative dystopias – the very best fiction of the year so far. Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie More than 10 years have passed since Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s acclaimed Americanah, …

Serenity Strull/ BBC/ Getty Images (Credit: Serenity Strull/ BBC/ Getty Images) Today’s youth are harking back to the messy hipster aesthetic of the late 2000s and early 2010s – and at the heart of that was French designer and queen of cool, Isabel Marant. A long time ago (2011) in …

Miya Mizuno Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have reunited for a follow-up to their 2002 classic. It has visual flair, terrifying adversaries and a scene-stealing performance from Ralph Fiennes. 28 Years Later is part zombie-apocalypse horror, part medieval world-building, part sentimental family story and – most effectively – part Heart …

Lionsgate Action blockbuster From the World of John Wick: Ballerina has been one of the summer’s big flops so far – and its muddled title could be to blame. Last week saw the release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – a spin-off of the Keanu Reeves gun-fu …

Apple TV+/ F1 (Credit: Apple TV+/ F1) Brad Pitt plays a long-in-the-tooth former Formula One star in a “slick and shiny” new summer popcorn film from the team behind Top Gun: Maverick. Brad Pitt’s character in F1, Sonny Hayes, has had a tough time. As shown in de-aged and big-wigged …

Alamy (Credit: Alamy) Back in the 1980s, Disney commissioned a sequel to The Wizard of Oz which was as scary as it was unconventional. It was a box office failure, but has since become a cult classic. The films we watch as children often leave the deepest marks. Walter Murch’s …

Getty Images Forty-three years ago this week, the BBC reported on the death of Roberto Calvi, an Italian banker whose body was found in strange circumstances in the centre of London. His bank was linked to the Vatican, a masonic group and the Mafia – and his murder left many …

Getty Images With his famous wig and shades, Warhol cultivated a mysterious, enigmatic persona. Now a new exhibition with unprecedented access reveals the man behind the elaborate façade. Bob Adelman Estate/ Westwood Gallery NYC Andy Warhol, pictured here with his Flower paintings at The Factory in 1964, was famous for …

Alamy Blending the style of The Rolling Stones with African beats and instruments, Zambian group Witch were revolutionary – then disappeared. No one could have predicted their amazing return. In the early 1970s, Zambia produced a unique music scene of its own creation. Zamrock, as it became known, was the …

National Trust Images, Matthew Hollow Viscountess Astor by John Singer Sargent, 1908 (Credit: National Trust Images, Matthew Hollow) The rich, glamorous, American women of the gilded age who married into the English aristocracy faced some challenges – but they were resilient, formidable characters. As TV’s The Buccaneers season two begins, …