How Jane Birkin Became the Queen of It Girls
On this week’s podcast, Joan Juliet Buck remembers the British girl who conquered Paris and how her style still influences women
“The Morandi of His Era”
An exhibition in Frankfurt honors Carl Schuch, the long-neglected 19th-century painter who is only now getting his due
Gore Vidal at 100
“A narcissist is someone better looking than you are”
Don’t Call Richard Osman Cozy
The author discusses the Helen Mirren–led adaptation of his best-selling book The Thursday Murder Club, his podcast, The Rest Is Entertainment, and why he considers “cozy crime” a reductive label
The Mirror and the Megaphone
Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt is the first great film about cancel culture
Every Child Left Behind
David Lan’s new play, about the plight of refugee children post–World War II, questions the meaning of home in a shattered world
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss Geoff Dyer’s memoir of growing up in postwar England, a Pulitzer-winning nature writer’s account of summers in Newfoundland, and a story of a Taoist priest visiting the Mayans
Robert Redford
At a time when our country feels like it’s on fire, it’s hard to imagine a world without the actor—and his friend Paul Newman
Maria de la Orden’s Guide to Madrid
The Spanish fashion designer and co-founder of La Veste shares her go-to spots in her hometown
Hail, the Conquering Hero
In Salzburg, the French countertenor Christophe Dumaux stuns as Handel’s Julius Caesar
Passion on the Potomac
A new book hints at an affair between Jackie Kennedy and Robert McNamara spanning J.F.K.’s death, the Vietnam War, and several marriages
Matisse vs. the Nazis
Despite a teaching post in San Francisco and a visa to Rio de Janeiro, the artist chose to stay in France and pursue his “degenerate” art during W.W. II
Fawlty Reasoning
How has Fawlty Towers, one of the most offbeat, provincial, inappropriate, and heavily excoriated shows of all time, remained popular for 50 years? Nobody quite knows …
The Man Who Would Be Rockefeller
On this week’s podcast, Jonathan Alter takes us inside the story of the con man who grifted his way into the American establishment
Emily Fairn
With roles opposite Martin Freeman and Willem Dafoe under her belt, the 26-year-old Liverpudlian is now starring in House of Guinness
Let Them Eat Cake!
From fans to feathers, paintings to pumps, an exhibition in London traces the evolution of Marie Antoinette’s tastes in fashion and decoration
Agitrons,Waftaroms, and Neoflects, Oh My!
Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker’s Lexicon of Comicana—a lovingly ironic send-up of comic-strip conventions—remains the gold standard, 50 years on
The Chairman in Profile
Gay Talese and Edward Sorel, the writer and illustrator of “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” on the origins, aftermath, and eventual sanctification of the greatest profile in magazine history
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch
Two mystery books unfolding on either side of the Atlantic, and a new Maigret TV show set in present-day Paris
Downton and Out
With the last of the Downton Abbey movies in theaters, Lily James, Matthew Goode, and other cast members recall working with Maggie Smith and how Downton-mania spread across the pond
