Blu-ray: The Dreamers

★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE DREAMERS Bertolucci revisits May '68 via intoxicated, transgressive sex

Bertolucci revisits May '68 via intoxicated, transgressive sex, lit up by the debuting Eva Green

Isabelle (Eva Green) leans over, her long hair catches fire from a candle, and Matthew (Michael Pitt) devotedly snuffs it out. She doesn’t miss a beat at this real-life accident, consumed already by The Dreamers’ closed world of a Left Bank apartment in May ’68, where sexual transgression stands for the barricades and baton charges outside.

Album: Justice - Hyperdrama

★★★ JUSTICE - HYPERDRAMA French electronic dance stalwarts return in fine fettle

French electronic dance stalwarts return from eight-year break in fine fettle

Justice are a couple of super-suave rock star analogues. Leathers and aviators, yes, but with a very Parisian insouciance. Their music is the same. It has a rocker-friendly je-ne-sais-quoi, but air-brushed with the glitzy sci-fi futurism one might expect from a couple of guys whose origins lie in design.

High & Low: John Galliano review - Kevin Macdonald charts the fashion designer's rise and fall

★★★★ HIGH & LOW: JOHN GALLIANO Charting the fashion designer's rise and fall

Galliano's latest show has been widely acclaimed but can he be redeemed after his racist outburst in 2011?

“Fashion has a very short memory. Maybe that’s part of its charm,” says Robin Givhan of The Washington Post in Kevin Macdonald’s documentary. Whether anyone can forget John Galliano’s drunken anti-Semitic and racist outpourings at La Perle, his local café in the Marais in Paris in 2011, followed by his sacking by Dior, where he’d reigned as creative director for 14 years, is doubtful.

Sargent and Fashion, Tate Britain review - portraiture as a performance

London’s elite posing dressed up to the nines

At the turn of the 20th century, London’s smart set queued up to get their portraits painted by American-born artist John Singer Sargent. Sitting for him was a performance, a way to show the world just how rich, glamorous, clever or important you were. And everything – from the pose to the hair, jewellery and clothing – was stage-managed to create the best impression.

Zineb Sedira: Dreams Have No Titles, Whitechapel Gallery review - a disorientating mix of fact and fiction

★★★★ ZINEB SEDIRA: DREAMS HAVE NO TITLES, WHITECHAPEL GALLERY A disorientating mix of fact and fiction

An exhibition that begs the question 'What and where is home?'

The downstairs of the Whitechapel Gallery has been converted into a ballroom or, rather, a film set of a ballroom. From time to time, a couple glides briefly across the floor, dancing a perfunctory tango. And they are really hamming it up, not for the people watching them – of whom they are apparently oblivious – but for an imaginary camera.

The New Look, AppleTV+ review - lavish period drama with more width than depth

★★★ THE NEW LOOK, APPLETV+ Lavish period drama with more width than depth

Ben Mendelsohn's tender performance as Dior anchors the spectacle in emotional truth

The frocks, the pearls, the chicest branding of any perfume in the world… Sorry, this is not what The New Look is about, for those who swooned at the V&A’s recent Chanel exhibition. 

Manon, Royal Ballet review - a glorious half-century revival of a modern classic

★★★★★ MANON, ROYAL BALLET A glorious half-century revival of a modern classic

Fifty years on, Kenneth MacMillan's crash-and-burn anti-heroine is riding high

It’s 50 years since the first, damning reviews of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Manon declared it to be too long and lumbered with terrible music. One of them also said that the title role was an appalling waste of the ballerina who, in the title role, was reduced to “a nasty little diamond-digger”.

DVD/Blu-Ray: Passages

★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: PASSAGES Clothes play a starring role in Ira Sachs's painful love triangle

Clothes play a starring role in Ira Sachs's exploration of a painful love triangle

“I had sex with a woman. Can I tell you about it, please?” says film director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) to his husband Martin (Ben Whishaw), a printmaker. Tomas is full of excitement about his night with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos); Martin is resigned, pale, doesn’t want the details. This always happens when you finish a film, he says. Take a nap, relax. But Tomas has thrown their relationship into crisis.

Issy Wood, Study for No, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris review - too close for comfort?

★★★★ ISSY WOOD, STUDY FOR NO, LAFAYETTE ANTICIPATIONS, PARIS One of Britain's most captivating young artists makes a big splash in Paris

One of Britain's most captivating young artists makes a big splash in Paris

To take a trip into the world of Issy Wood is to be embraced by paradox. A richness of imagery that can at time shock with its blandness and at others seduce with a sense of wonder; a perfectly accomplished surface that reveals, with familiarity, a labyrinth of unexpected depth and sensuality; a confrontation with the glitz of hyper-reality that’s constantly playing with the illusory nature of all images; collections of apparent trivia bathed in an aura of mystery.

Mark Rothko, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris review - a show well worth the trip across the Channel

★★★★★ MARK ROTHKO, FONDATION LOUIS VUITTON, PARIS A show well worth the trip

Abstraction with emotion and soul in a landmark retrospective

The vast and various spaces of Frank Gehry’s monumental Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris suit the needs of the thrilling Mark Rothko exhibition now inhabiting its labyrinthine multi-storey suite of galleries.