Culture

This set of melodramatic interconnected tales is a visual delight - but take a cushion, says Duncan Wu

The Church was the heart of medieval life, says Gary Day, full of symbolism, beauty and grotesqueries

Combining an academic life with travel writing isn't easy but, as Matthew Reisz discovers, the results can be fascinating

An outdated, stylised reality is a missed opportunity for a more interesting narrative, laments Will Brooker

The murder of a Hell's Angel on the M40 exemplifies the lurking barbarism of men, says Gary Day

Christina Riggs takes a clockwise tour around an exhibition that draws on fresh ways of thinking about Nile Valley civilisation

Philip Dodd finds moments to cherish in Terence Davies' meditation on a tortured relationship

Alan Ayckbourn's plays are full of gentle humour and sharp insights into all human life, says Gary Day

Twilight has a largely female fan base. It is time to re-evaluate female fan pleasure, says Will Brooker, and be alive to its magic

Philip Dodd is disturbed by a vision of hell, where the audience is forced into unendurable complicity

Martin Scorsese's film shows that none of life's strings can last, says Gary Day

Paul Binski savours some magnificent illuminated books collected by English kings and queens - take a long, close look, he advises

The glamour, the imagination, the fabulous frocks - as Will Brooker says, we can all be queens for a day

The harsh realities of the drug business on a Hackney estate give Gary Day food for thought

Mike Bartlett poses big questions about belief in his ambitious new play, but his aims are partially derailed by a lack of nuance and depth, Deborah Bowman finds

A restrained portrayal of love resists the clichés of romance and the New York film, says Duncan Wu

Choosing the life of a nun is not easy, finds Gary Day, but their days are filled with silence and contentment

Experiments with light can astound and delight us aesthetically and intellectually, says Gary Day

Can life-writing gain fresh insights when biographers cross the gender divide? Matthew Reisz hears academic authors' views

The emptiness of the landscape reflects the bleak heart of a new German thriller, says Philip Dodd

A diverse collection of artworks from the Weimar period focused on sex and death make an astonishing show, Peter Hill says

Will Brooker explores the unsettling juxtaposition of self and other in Lynne Ramsay's skilful adaptation

Joanna Lumley's honeyed charm wins over everyone she meets on her tour of Greece, says Gary Day

Sheila McTighe on a fresh look at Claude's working process, at his embodiment of place and at his idealisation of the pastoral

The sterile detachment of an alienated half-life gives way to the pain of rebirth, observes Will Brooker

Doing dishes, scrubbing floors and 'not screaming' are the lessons of the child bride, says Gary Day

Duncan Wu doesn’t quite buy Morgan Spurlock’s less-than-burning questions about commercial sponsorship

Alex Danchev applauds an artist whose depiction of events that others shy from aims to make the 'inexplicable more explicable'

Bringing comedy into the tale of a man whose suburban life falls apart doesn't work for Duncan Wu

The embodiment of sex appeal, Shirley Bassey's sheer vitality obscures her self, says Gary Day

Despite its sci fi-action trappings, Doctor Who is tinged with sadness, says Will Brooker. When you travel the vortex, time is the only constant companion

Melancholia obliterates all around it, figuratively and literally, in Lars Von Trier's latest film, says Philip Dodd

Campus comedy may be stuck in the past but the school hall is full of innovation, says Gary Day

Patrick Hannay reflects on the waste and diversion of energy by a movement that purported to cure a cultural malaise

Duncan Wu finds drama in the smallest gesture in a finely nuanced account of an unexpected passion

Hilary Mantel's work is suffused with undercurrents and with what might have been, says Gary Day