DVD: Victoria

DVD: VICTORIA Failed pianist turns getaway driver in a propulsive, one-take heist thriller

Failed pianist turns getaway driver in a propulsive, one-take heist thriller

Watching Victoria on home video is a good idea if you first hide the remote. It’s impossible to pause Sebastian Schipper’s ambitious heist thriller even for a few seconds without ruining its pleasurably disorienting effect: cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen shot it – digitally, of course – in real time in a single 138-minute take on 22 Berlin locations. It's unsurprising to learn that Schipper acted in Tom Tykwer’s kinetic Run Lola Run (1998) and has written with him.

Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century, BBC Four

REVOLUTION AND ROMANCE: MUSICAL MASTERS OF THE 19TH CENTURY, BBC FOUR The birth of the notion of musician as superstar

The birth of the notion of musician as superstar

Suzy Klein, writer and presenter of this three-episode series, is a trained musician and a ubiquitous presence in cultural programmes across a wide spectrum. This opening film, "We Can Be Heroes", was an engagingly populist piece about a complicated subject as she enthusiastically described a major cultural shift in the way musicians and composers engaged with patrons and audiences across Europe.

DVD: Battle for Sevastopol

Impressive Russian World War II sniper story with international dimension

The latest in a long tradition of Russian Second World War films, Sergei Mokritsky’s Battle for Sevastopol itself emerged out of conflict. Initiated as a "status" joint project between Russia and Ukraine well before relations between those two countries soured, production continued despite the rift that deepened between them. The film premiered in both on the same day in April 2015, earning considerable – and equal – box office success on both sides of a border riven by war.

theartsdesk in Göttingen: HandelFest 2016

Two big concert successes atone for one frigid staging in German Arcadia

What Auden called "the sexy airs of summer" arrived early in Göttingen this year. Frog action in the Botanical Gardens of the town's pioneering University may have been less clamorous than when I first came here in late rather than early May (the annual International Handel Festival usually begins whenever the Ascension Day holiday happens to be, so it's a moveable celebration).

Captain America: Civil War

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Rousing romp from the Marvel universe is funny, sad, satirical and spectacular

Rousing romp from the Marvel universe is funny, sad, satirical and spectacular

This rousing instalment from the Marvel universe shares self-evident similarities with Batman vs Superman, the latest effort from their DC rivals. In both films we see superheroes at loggerheads, and in each case it's because they find themselves in a changing world where it's no longer acceptable for super-beings to roam around the planet leaving massive swathes of collateral damage in their wake.

Europe: Them or Us, BBC Two

EUROPE: THEM OR US, BBC TWO Nick Robinson tiptoes cautiously through the minefield of Britain's relations with Europe

Nick Robinson tiptoes cautiously through the minefield of Britain's relations with Europe

The BBC opened its examination of the history of European togetherness with presenter Nick Robinson beaming at us from the top of those White Cliffs, looking out at the glistening sea which made us an island (until, of course, Mrs Thatcher supported the Channel Tunnel).

CD: Joachim Kühn - Beauty & Truth

The Doors meet contemporary European jazz

The youthful old master of European jazz raps on the Doors of Perception for his latest album, Beauty & Truth, with his piano trio of drummer Eric Schafer and bassist Chris Jennings. Their subject for analysis is The Doors’ “The End” and “Riders on the Storm”, delivering distilled and deconstructed versions of the band’s music and the singer’s intent – both dark, apocalyptic Sixties tone poems of dread and release, and both led by Shafer’s superb drumming, with Jennings’s supple double bass tacking between that and Kühn’s finely fractured piano lines.

We Made It: Guitar Maker Brian Cohen

WE MADE IT: GUITAR MAKER BRIAN COHEN The incredible one-man string band

The incredible one-man string band

Tucked away in a warren of residential streets in the older part of Guildford, The Old Glassworks looks like a lock-up garage, and seems to have been designed to repel unwanted attention with a private force-field of anonymity. Once you've been welcomed inside, however, you find yourself in an improbable wonderland of mysterious musical instruments, from lutes and rare 17th century guitars to members of the violin family in various states of deconstruction.

theartsdesk in Berlin: Three Ballets

THEARTSDESK IN BERLIN: THREE BALLETS Versatile Staatsballett shine in Cranko, Duato, and a classic Giselle

Versatile Staatsballett shine in Cranko, Duato, and a classic Giselle

In London, seeing the same ballet company do three different pieces in three different theatres over four nights would be some kind of festival. In Berlin, it's just business as usual – albeit quite a busy week! – for the hard-working Staatsballett.

theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Pierre Boulez

RIP PIERRE BOULEZ The Arts Desk Q&A from 2011: the godfather of the avant-garde on how he changed music forever

Godfather of the avant-garde on how he changed music forever

David Nice writes: it hardly seemed possible, but a pivotal figure in the 20th century music scene has died, two months short of his 91st birthday. As composer, Boulez now seems not so much a game-changer as a constant innovator in one of many strands among the possibilities of contemporary music. He even admitted in an Edinburgh Festival interview that he and his colleagues may have underestimated the role played by the audience in absorbing his avant-gardism.