Exiled in Style
Picasso, Chaplin, Churchill, Woolf—they all came to Villa Mauresque, in Cap Ferrat, W. Somerset Maugham’s well-appointed refuge from England’s sodomy laws
Nick Pinkerton
A fixture of New York’s downtown film scene discusses writing the script for The Sweet East, starring Euphoria heartthrob Jacob Elordi, which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival
A Cavalcade of Depravity
Shakespearean actors, Penthouse Pets, 3,000 Roman costumes, 450 gallons of fake blood, and Gore Vidal. Was Caligula the most ambitious porno ever made—or the raunchiest historical epic?
Graydon Carter takes us inside the Cannes Film Festival
On this week’s podcast, our Co-Editor discusses the festival’s allure and AIR MAIL’s big party at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc
Go Figure
The Belgian figurative artist Luc Tuymans, who has a new show at David Zwirner, recalls the moment he decided to start painting again—and why he works so fast
The French Twist
The key to mastering French style: look like you don’t care, even when you do
Romantic Baroque, Baroque Romance
Seong-Jin Cho’s Handel Project
A Summer Odyssey
Emma Cline has communed with the Manson family and channeled Harvey Weinstein. For her new novel, she infiltrates the Hamptons
Ghostwriters with Benefits
Victoria Beckham’s former ghostwriter on the perilous mistake Prince Harry’s ghostwriter has made: liking his subject too much
Not Your Mother’s Tartuffe
At Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Molière’s masterpiece gets a 21st-century makeover
Murder, They Wrote
This month’s best mystery books put the spotlight on veteran sleuths
Rodney Smith’s Leap of Faith
A new book of nearly 200 images, many never before published, chronicles the photographer’s trajectory from a student of theology at Yale to one of the great artists of our time
Is This the French Riviera’s New Fantasy Island?
On this week’s podcast, Alexander Lobrano reports on what could be the next getaway for the .1 percent
Sinqua Walls
For the remake of White Men Can’t Jump, the actor takes on Wesley Snipes’s classic role
All in the Family
The Romanovs author Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses his latest book, a sprawling “family history” of humanity from the Stone Age to the drone age
Reality TV Gets a Makeover
The new series Jury Duty, from veteran Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, blurs the line between documentary, sitcom, and Truman Show–esque drama
In the Rehearsal Room
A new play about Richard Burton and Sir John Gielgud offers a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes politics of the theater
