In Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, The Christophers, Ian McKellen’s once-celebrated artist hasn’t put brush to canvas for decades. Creating his cluttered, crusted-over studio was a gift of a project for production designer Antonia Lowe
In his enchanting documentaries about the natural world, the French film-maker approached his subjects with intellectual rigour and an eye for wonder
Mackenzie Crook’s BBC sitcom perfectly conveys the contradictions of a realm where nothing much is allowed in public and anything can happen in private
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s classic can sometimes be a byword for whimsy, but its use of CGI was far ahead of its time
In ‘Pompei: Beyond the Clouds’, the film-maker turns living in the shadow of Vesuvius into pure cinema
Sabrina Carpenter held her own against the diva in a Muppet Show anniversary special, but Rakewell can’t help wishing that visual artists could also get in on the act
From the Comédie Française to the National Gallery, the documentarian’s portraits reveal the painstaking work that goes into creative expression
The dystopian series asks whether creativity has any value when everyone thinks the same way
The late Hungarian film-maker’s epic studies of apocalyptic gloom have never seemed more ravishing or more timely
The film-maker’s attempt to preserve his memories on CD-ROM has been rendered obsolete by advances in technology. Is the book version of Immemory an adequate replacement?
A book about Academy Films is most valuable for pointing us to the director’s music videos and ads for clues about his film-making style
Gallerists come off badly in features by Cathy Yan and Hlynur Pálmason, while Michaela Coel plays a forger in the new Steven Soderbergh
In Amsterdam, a superstar of art-house cinema is haunting the galleries of the Eye Filmmuseum with a little help from her friends
The classically trained actor’s most famous role was Sybil in Fawlty Towers: a character who once seemed like a battle-axe, but is clearly a feminist icon
The news that Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly are tapping out as hosts of Strictly Come Dancing has put Rakewell in a spin
Before the release of her latest film, the director sat down with Apollo to talk about the thrills and spills of making an art-heist movie
Heist films are the most glamorous kind of crime film – and art heists make for the most glamorous kind of heist film
A survey of the Canadian artist’s work shows how the moving image can bridge the gap between the past and the present
The film-maker seemed almost as comfortable in front of a camera as behind it – and in Nemai Ghosh he had the ideal photographer
Rakewell sings the praises of Claudia Cardinale, who has died at the age of 87
The painterly splendour of Kubrick’s film is widely recognised, but its relationship with 18th-century art is thornier than it seems
The European Fine Art Fair plays a prominent role in the ‘Sex and the City’ sequel’s latest season, but its workings have left Rakewell scratching his head
Sixty years after the film’s release, locals are still surprised by visitors re-enacting a few of their favourite things
The ups and downs in the lives of photographer Joel Meyerowitz and the writer and artist Maggie Barrett makes for documentary dynamite
