The SheerLuxe Culture List: February
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WHAT TO WATCH
Constellation
This eight-part conspiracy-based psychological thriller drama series stars Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks (we’ll say it, our favourite actor from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul). Landing on 21st February with three episodes, there will then be weekly episode drops every Wednesday. The show focuses on Jo, an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. An exploration of the dark edges of human psychology, Constellation follows her desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost.
Visit TV.Apple.com
The New Look
This gripping historical drama series stars the ever-brilliant Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior and Juliette Binoche as Coco Chanel. Inspired by true events and filmed exclusively in Paris, The New Look follows the fashion designers and their contemporaries as they navigate the horrors of World War II. As Dior rises to prominence, Chanel’s reign as the world’s most famous fashion designer is put into jeopardy. The ensemble cast is rounded out by Maisie Williams, John Malkovich, Emily Mortimer, Claes Bang and Glenn Close.
Visit TV.Apple.com
The Iron Claw
The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White is joined by Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany and Lily James in The Iron Claw. It tells the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports – and, if the trailer is anything to go by, their quest plays out against one of the best 80s soundtracks we’ve heard in ages.
Visit Picturehouses.com
The Taste of Things
Out on Valentine’s Day, this French love story was a Cannes winner last year. Peerless cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) has worked for the famous gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel) for 20 years. Bonding over a passion for gastronomy and mutual admiration, their relationship develops into romance and gives rise to delicious dishes that impress even the world's most illustrious chefs. But Eugenie is fond of her freedom and has never wanted to marry Dodin. So, he decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her…
Visit Picturehouses.com
Perfect Days
Legendary German director Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is a tender, shimmering film that celebrates the beauty of the everyday. Nominated for the Best International Film award at this year’s Oscars, it focuses on Hirayama, a man who’s content with a simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books and taking photos of trees. As the film progresses, unexpected encounters reveal more of his story in a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the world around us.
Visit Picturehouses.com
Mary & George
Mary & George is inspired by the unbelievable true story of Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore), who moulded her beautiful and charismatic son George (Nicholas Galitzine) to seduce King James VI of Scotland and I of England and become his all-powerful lover. Through outrageous scheming, the pair rose from humble beginnings to become the richest, most titled and influential players the English court had ever seen, and the king’s most trusted advisors. And with England’s place on the world stage under threat from a Spanish invasion and rioters taking to the streets to denounce the king, the stakes could not have been higher.
Visit Sky.com
New Model Agency
This forthcoming docu-series from Channel 4 coincides with London Fashion Week. It follows the models and team at inclusive model agency Zebedee Talent, where the roster of models includes the likes of Ellie Goldstein and Mollie, who was on The Traitors last month. The three-parter offers a fun and fresh take on the fashion industry, as well as being an important piece of television, putting models with disabilities and visible differences front and centre.
Visit Channel4.com
Mr & Mrs Smith
You know the story. Like the 2005 film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Mr & Mrs Smith brings together two lonely strangers, John and Jane, who have given up their lives and identities to be thrown together as partners – both in espionage and in marriage. Starring the always-excellent Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, this cleverly reworked new Amazon Prime Video series is just the kind of rollicking fun we’re craving for February.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
One Day
As we wait for David Nicholls’ latest novel to arrive in May, this lovely Netflix adaptation of his biggest hit – One Day – will help to pass the time. Like the novel – and the film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway – the series starts on 15th July 1988, and takes us through that same date every year up to 2007, focusing on the highs and lows of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew’s intertwined lives…
Visit Netflix.com
WHAT TO READ
Mad Woman by Bryony Gordon
Ten years on from first writing about her experiences of mental illness, Bryony Gordon still receives messages about the effect it has on people. Now perimenopausal and well into the next stage of her life parenting an almost-adolescent, just what has that help – and that connection with other unwell people – taught Bryony about herself, and the society we live in? What has she learned, and why have her views on mental health changed so radically? From burnout and binge eating to living with fluctuating hormones and the endless battle to stay sober, Bryony has started to question whether she got mental illness wrong in the first place. Mad Woman explores the most difficult of all the lesson she's learned over the last decade – that our notion of what makes a happy life is the very thing that's making us so sad.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
Fourteen Days by Various Authors
Set in a New York apartment building, Fourteen Days is a propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of neighbours has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice – from Margaret Atwood and R.L. Stine to Emma Donoghue and Celeste Ng. One week into lockdown, the tenants of a run-down apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop each evening and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants – some of whom have barely spoken to each other before now – become real neighbours. A heart-warming and surprising narrative, Fourteen Days is an ode to the power of storytelling and human connection.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
Butter by Asako Yuzuki
This cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer – and the journalist intent on cracking her case – has been translated into English for the first time. Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back. Inspired by the real case of a convicted con woman and serial killer, Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
Alex Michaelides is the bestselling British-Cypriot author and screenwriter behind psychological thriller The Silent Patient. His third book – The Fury – is narrated by Elliot Chase, who is about to tell you a story unlike any you've ever heard. On a small private Greek island, former movie star Lana Farrar – an old friend of Elliot’s – invites a select group to stay. It'll be hot, sunny, perfect, she says. A chance to relax and reconnect, and maybe for a few hidden truths to come out. Because nothing on this island is quite what it seems. Not Lana, not her guests – and certainly not the murderer, who is furiously plotting their crime.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
The Ladder by Cathy Newman
Journalist and presenter Cathy Newman’s latest book, The Ladder, brings together discussions between women about work, love, growth, challenge, the big decisions and the stories of their lives. Offering inspiration and wise counsel from influential women, this book is an insight and a trove of solidarity, turning over ideas of change, anger, illness, imposter syndrome, self-knowledge and purpose. Women interviewed include politicians like Nicola Sturgeon and Angela Rayner, scientists like Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, activists like Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, film-makers like Waad Al-Kateab, religious leaders like Rose Hudson-Wilkin, and broadcasters like Joan Bakewell.
Visit Amazon.co.uk
WHAT TO SEE & DO
The Handmaid’s Tale, ENO
This month sees the return of Annilese Miskimmon’s acclaimed production of The Handmaid’s Tale. Following its premiere in April 2022, it won the Broadway World Award for Best Classical/Opera Production, and was nominated for both Royal Philharmonic Society and International Opera awards. This rarely staged and outstandingly relevant opera is based on Margaret Atwood’s seminal dystopian novel of the same name. Set in a totalitarian state in which women, stripped of their identities and rights, are subjected to the whims of a patriarchal republic, this thought-provoking work magnifies issues of state control and the fragility of freedom.
Visit ENO.org
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