The best things to do, hear, see or watch in Europe this week

Ah, October. It’s mostly rainy, cold and dark – a weird crinkle in the year that makes you just want to daydream under a blanket or buy a soup maker and sack off societal responsibilities.

There’s also the faint whiff of cinnamon and excitement though – and not just because Daniel Day-Lewis might be coming out of retirement (he probably does smell like cinnamon).

Arts venues across the continent are unveiling fantastic new exhibitions, including two major ones on Claude Monet in London and Berlin, and a stunning showcase of over 75 Asian bronze masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. While our main picks are admittedly London-heavy, this list of 14 extraordinary art exhibits highlights the many others happening elsewhere.

Then there’s the cinema. So much cinema!

As well as our movie suggestions below, the Sebastian Stan-starring A Different Man also hits cinemas this week, while the Reykjavík International Film Festival is already underway until 6 October, BFI’s London Film Festival begins on 9 October and Festival Lumière 2024 on 12 October.

For those dwelling in London, there’s a new restaurant specialising in bugs. When inviting your friends, expect crickets.

Lastly, if you like your cultural suggestions like you like your coffee – hot, sweet and served with puns, we’d recommend checking out our tailored suggestions for International Coffee Day (1 October) because let’s be real – every day is International Coffee Day.

Exhibitions

‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’ at the National Portrait Gallery (London, UK) 

Few 20th century artists have captivated like Francis Bacon, whose dark and disturbing paintings speak to the swirling sinus of psychological torment, and have gone on to influence countless other artists. Yet, remarkably, it’s been nearly twenty years since we’ve had an exhibition dedicated to his portraits – until now. Opening on 10 October and running until 19 January 2025, The National Portrait Gallery will showcase more than 50 of Bacon’s paintings, spanning his portraiture from the late 1940s through to his self-portraits and images of friends and lovers in the early 1950s onwards. There will also be rarely-seen photographs of Bacon from the Gallery’s Collection, some of which were taken by iconic photographers Cecil Beaton and Bill Brandt. It’s both intimate and unsettling, the paint-stroked pools of a distortedly brilliant mind that swim with blotted flesh and sallow secrets.

‘Jose Maria Garcia de Paredes: Meeting spaces’ at the Museo ICO (Madrid, Spain)

In celebration of a centenary of the birth of renowned Spanish architect José María García de Paredes, this extensive retrospective exhibition includes more than 400 pieces from the “García de Paredes Archive”. Throughout his life, Paredes shaped modern Spanish architecture, becoming one of the 20th century’s most influential figures whose legacy continues to be felt today. A collaboration between the ICO Foundation and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the exhibition covers four decades of Paredes’ career, from 1950-1990, and features unpublished images of projects such as the National Music Auditorium. On until 12 January 2025.

‘Frieze London’ in Regent’s Park – and across the city (UK)

Frieze! It’s time for Regent’s Park’s annual October makeover, in which one of the world’s leading contemporary international art fairs populates the space with bombastically brilliant art. Beginning 9 October until 13 October, this year’s edition – alongside its sister fair Frieze Masters, which looks at art history – includes everything from the erotic dot-to-dot works of Dean Sameshima to a newly curated section titled ‘Smoke’ curated by Pablo José Ramírez. Away from its park hub, galleries and museums all across the city will be spotlighting some of the very best contemporary art for the entire week.

‘I’m Not Okay (An Emo Retrospective)’ at the Barbican Music Library (London, UK)

If you’re not ok and your eyeliner is heavy, good – this one’s for you. This new exhibition in London is celebrating all things emo, a subculture that exploded in the 2000s and tends to be associated with sensitivity, shyness, or a bucket-load of angst (find out more here). Other emo essentials included: Tight / skinny trousers, band t-shirts, studded belts, jet-black hair and clothing, sweeping straightened fringes, listening to bands like Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy – and sometimes posing for MySpace pictures with the word ‘RAWR’ written on the palm of your hand. Much to millennials delight (and horror) these blunder years will be immortalised through a collaboration between Barbican Music Library and the museum of Youth Culture, with a series of digital and 00s phone images that capture the essence of a generation’s teenage melancholy and identity-searching. See, it’s not just a phase!

‘Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit’ at the Tate Modern (London, UK)

The late American artist Mike Kelley left behind an astonishing body of influential works – and the Tate Modern is staging the UK’s first major survey of them. From drawings to performances and multimedia installations (including the pictured ‘craft sculptures), the full range of his unique style of ‘dark pop art’ is captured in this career-spanning showcase. It’s a rare chance to discover – or re-discover Kelley’s boundary-pushing catalogue and immerse yourself in the questions that arise from it; how institutional structures shape our roles in society and internal beliefs. See it until 9 March 2025.

Events

‘The Dubrovnik Good Food Festival’ (Croatia)

Local wines, gourmet foods and a beautiful location? This one’s an easy sell. The Dubrovnik Good Food Festival takes place from 10th – 16th October and is all about celebrating local culture and cuisine in good company! From exquisitely grilled fish to the wonderfully named dirty macaroni (Šporki Makaruli), Croatia – and Dubrovnik in particular – is home to some of the most mouth-watering meals and palette pleasing wines you’ll ever try. Alongside all the eating and drinking, dessert workshops will be taking place, events with celebrity chefs and much more. Dobar tek!

Movies

Joker: Folie À Deux

Put on a happy face because Todd Phillips’ highly-anticipated sequel to 2019’s Joker has arrived at European cinemas, all singing, all dancing. Part jukebox musical, part courtroom drama, Folie À Deux stars Joaquin Phoenix back in the titular role of Joker AKA Arthur Fleck, who’s facing trial for the murder of five people. After being signed up for a musical therapy class, he meets Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga) and the two begin a bad romance that unravels in glitz n’ garish golden Hollywood-inspired musical numbers. It’s a bold idea, but does it really give the people what they want? For Euronews Culture’s David Mouriquand, who reviewed the film, that’s a no: “Folie À Deux is a hollow show that is gimmicky in the extreme.” Still, a snazzy-soundtracked way to clown around at the cinema – and maybe for others, the punchline will hit. 

The Outrun 

In life’s most painful moments, when it feels as though our soul has crumpled in on itself and we’re left in a state of forlorn flatness, the energetic tug of nature can be at its strongest. Nora Fingscheidt’s film adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir “The Outrun” explores this through the lens of Rona (Saoirse Ronan), a 29-year-old recovering alcoholic who returns home to the Orkney Islands. It’s a powerful portrayal of addiction and the untangling of self against environmental entropy, with Ronan giving one of her best performances yet, the simmering internal wounds of her character captured with tender – and at times eruptive, authenticity. While often overly metaphorical and fidgety in its storytelling, this is cathartic cinema for those that can relate – and long to jump into the ocean and swim with seals.

Sitges Film Festival (Catalonia, Spain)

The annual Sitges Film Festival is currently underway, ending on 13 October. It’s got an excellent lineup filled with horror highlights, including The Substance, The Devil’s Bath, Irish gem Oddity and one of our Venice Film Festival favourites, 2073, which is also due to screen at the upcoming BFI London Film Festival. It’s a genre-bending documentary hybrid set in a dystopian future that’s not to be missed – and we interviewed its Oscar-winning director, Asif Kapadia.

Television

Heartstopper (Netflix)

When it first aired in 2022, ‘Heartstopper’ was hailed as a return to joyful, soul soothing television at a time when people were steeped in true crime documentaries, gritty HBO dramas and still grappling with the psychological fallout of a pandemic. Based on the webcomic and graphic novel by Alice Oseman, it’s a queer coming-of-age rom-com that centres on the relationship between a schoolboy named Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) who falls in love with his classmate Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). We’re continuing to watch their relationship evolve in this third series, alongside the relationships and sexual identity issues their friends are facing – but any drama is dipped in sugar. Unlike most shows that deal with the complex inner worlds and traumas of LGBTQ+ characters, it’s a rare one that just allows itself to be happy – and we’re all the happier for it, too.

Music

Public Service Broadcasting: ‘The Last Flight’

Through the use of voice recordings and evocative melodies, British band Public Service Broadcasting’s latest album pays tribute to aviation legend Amelia Earhart, who, in 1937, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe. Despite the mystery and melancholic elements that have come to define much of Earhart’s legacy, the album navigates this sonic translation of a human being’s fragments with surprising optimism. It’s an album that’s full of life; a flight for the soul that sweeps you up above the clouds in an exhilarating – and at times deeply moving – experience. David Mouriquand loved it and gave it a glowing review, which you can read here.

Coldplay: ‘Moon Music’

If Coldplay were a snack, it would be a single scoop of yellow vanilla ice cream. Quite nice, but ultimately sickly sweet and unfulfilling, digested with a sense of bitter resentment and unresolved yearning. You wanted Pistachio instead.

The Chris Martin-led British rock band who took the charts by storm in the oughts, with the melancholic mood of tracks like ‘Yellow’ and ‘Clocks’ becoming go-to’s for soundtracking the sad backstories of contestants on UK reality TV shows. Basically, they’ve never been very cool – the boat shoes of music, if you will.

Their new album does little to rectify this image, with cheesy lyrics (“Baby, it’s my mind you blow / It feels like I’m fallin’ in love”) and bland tracks that feel like floating in a watery cup of tea. The title track, ‘Moon Music’, a collaboration with Jon Hopkins, has a promising ambience – but mostly it’s a wet flannel of forgettable and often cringe-inducing songs.

Then again, maybe we’re being overly judgemental. Maybe you’ll like it.

In the words of Peep Show’s Super Hans: “People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can’t trust people, Jeremy.”

Yep, listen to Public Service Broadcasting instead.

See you next week.