A Dolce & Gabbana exhibition in Paris, the return of ‘Severance’, a horror festival in Essex and Nicole kidman’s erotic drama ‘Babygirl’ – here’s what’s happening in Europe this week.
ADVERTISEMENTHello and a belated Happy New Year!
January might feel full of gloom but there’s plenty to look forward to – as evidenced by our 2025 previews of the most exciting TV, Books, Music, Fashion, Art, Films and Video Games coming up this year.
From a blockbuster Dolce & Gabbana exhibit in Paris, to horror film festivities in Essex and the arrival of Nicole Kidman’s steamy new film Babygirl – there’s something for everyone in this week’s round-up.
Additionally, if you’re wanting to catch-up with the recent Golden Globes winners, many featured in our Best Films of 2024 list. We’d also recommend searching out ‘The Bibi Files’, a damning documentary that Benjamin Netanyahu tried to stop being released, but could now be headed for an Oscar win.
Until next week, enjoy.
Exhibitions
From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana
When: 10 January – 31 March
Where: The Grand Palais (Paris, France)
When you think of the most famous fashion designers in the world, two instantly come to mind: Dolce & Gabbana. The Italian fashion powerhouse duo have been creating the ultimate in luxury couture since 1985, with a new show celebrating their enduring influence. The travelling exhibit, ‘From the Heart to the Hands’, has arrived in Paris, where ten rooms explore “the brand’s unconventional approach to the world of luxury… embracing humour, irreverence and subversion,” according to a statement. The designers’ multitude of Italian inspirations are explored through displays of traditional crafts like the Orsini Venezia, a furnace that produces gold-leaf mosaics, and Barovier & Toso, a famous Venetian glassmaker. For fashion and art fans alike, this is a fascinating insight into the evolution of two icons that set the pulse for high fashion.
Suzanne Valadon
When: 15 January – 26 May
Where: Centre Pompidou (Paris, France)
The first woman to paint a full-frontal male nude, French artist Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) remains a pioneer of modern art whose works defied both expectation and confinement. A trapeze artist in her youth, Valadon became a model for Impressionist artists following a fall – including Edgar Degas, who inspired her to try painting herself. Best-known for her depictions of unidealised female figures, caught in moments of casual reflection and nonchalance, she worked with a freedom that escaped the movements of the time to carve out a uniquely uninhibited vision. A full scale retrospective at the Centre Pompidou will showcase over 200 of her works, including a large number of drawings that have rarely been shown before.
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
When: 17 January
ADVERTISEMENTWhere: The National Gallery (London, UK)
Filled with more than 60 works from the final two years of Van Gogh’s life, including his infamous ‘Sunflowers’ painting, the National Gallery’s vast and visually captivating exhibition has proven so popular, they’re opening it for a rare 24 hours before it closes for good. What better time to view ‘Starry Night Over the Rhone’ than in the quiet solitude of 2am? Be quick getting tickets though – this one will sell out very quickly.
Fashion
Louis Vuitton × Murakami pop-up
When: 9 January
ADVERTISEMENTWhere: Brewer Street Soho (London, UK)
A little over twenty years since Louis Vuitton teamed up with Takashi Murakami in an era-defining fashion collaboration of joyful kitsch, the pair are back for a reimagining of their original collection. Split into two chapters, the first will include the iconic ‘Monogram Multicolore’ while the second, arriving in March, features the beloved ‘Cherry Blossom’ design. To inaugurate the launch, a series of pop-ups are taking place worldwide, including one in London displaying new and archival pieces within an interactive, Tokyo-inspired space.
Events
Horror-on-Sea Film Festival
When: 10 January -19 January
ADVERTISEMENTWhere: Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK
A small coastal town in Essex has become a hotspot for horror fans. Now in its 12th year, the Horror-on-Sea film festival is a scream-laced showcase of over 100 short and feature independent horror films that takes place across two weekends in January. The programme celebrates B-movies especially, and opens with the anthology film ‘Very Frightening Tales’ by Dale Fabrigar. Other world premieres include ‘A Final Exorcism’ about an elderly woman that believes she is possessed – although the priest is sceptical, and ‘Virus Detected’, following a late-night radio DJ receiving mysterious calls from a paranoid woman in the wake of an electrical storm.
Les Borges Blanques Extra Virgin Olive Oil Fair
When: 17 January – 19 January
ADVERTISEMENTWhere: Les Borges Blanques, Spain
It drizzles salads, coats carbs and Italian actress Sophia Loren even claimed to defy ageing by bathing in it – virgin olive oil is close to holiness. While most of us will only pay fleeting recognition to the wonders of this crude condiment, an annual fair held in Les Borges Blanques, Spain, goes extra (virgin olive oil) with a full festival of tastings, activities and even awards – focused on its local production in Les Garrigues.
Movies
Babygirl
Prepare to feel very thirsty – for a tall glass of milk. Since premiering in Venice last year, excitement for Dutch director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl has been building. An updated take on 80s erotic thrillers like 9½ Weeks and Fatal Attraction, it stars Nicole Kidman as Romy, a successful CEO and family woman willing to risk everything for an affair with a young intern (Harris Dickinson). As the pair delve deeper into dom/sub kinks, Romy’s long-suppressed sexual desires unravel her world in an exploration of control, communication, female desire – and the dangers of ignoring it. Our film critic David Mouriquand called it an “admirably sex-positive drama” and “a late-stage coming-of-age tale that deals with self-discovery and focuses on a woman’s vulnerability, shame, rage, and how she deals with slanted power dynamics.” Read his full review here.
ADVERTISEMENTNosferatu
Lovesick vampires don’t cry, they just stalk your subconscious and bring plague-riddled death to your hometown instead. The tale of Count Orlok, an ancient vampire from Transylvania that becomes obsessed with the wife of a property agent, has been told in many iterations – all based on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. Robert Eggers’ version feasts from F. W. Murnau’s 1922 classic silent film Nosferatu (which was sued by Stoker’s estate), and stays faithful to the original while bathed in the director’s own unique brand of mesmerising melancholic ambience. Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen, the ill-fated target of Orlok’s infatuations, in a striking performance of convulsing repression and possession. In our review, we called the film a “mighty feast for the senses” that manages to reclaim one of the greatest horror films of all time with remarkable confidence.
Check out our picks for the 25 Films You Don’t Want To Miss In 2025.
Television
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth
ADVERTISEMENTWhen: Streaming now
Where: Peacock, Sky Atlantic
It was the deadliest attack ever carried out in the UK. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board. A further 11 people died from the wreckage. A new series tells the true story of Jim Swire (Colin Firth), an English doctor whose daughter Flora was killed in the attack, and his obsessive quest for justice in the aftermath. Based on Swire’s and Peter Biddulph’s 2021 book ‘The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice’, it’s heavy and heartbreaking TV, but important too as a searing portrait of tragedy, grief and the desperate ways in which we seek to resolve it both within and outside of ourselves.
Severance
ADVERTISEMENTWhen: 17th January
Where: Apple TV+
It’s been nearly three long years since the elevator doors shut on the first season of ‘Severance’ – but unlike the show’s characters, our memories of it are still very much intact. Ben Stiller’s psychological drama revolves around a mysterious company called Lumon that requires its employees to undergo a procedure in which their work and personal life memories are split. After recently bereaved (or so we thought) former history professor Mark (Adam Scott) joins the team, alongside Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro), they begin to uncover the sinister secrets lurking between their divided selves. Here’s hoping season 2 brings some satisfying answers before clocking out again!
Check out our list for the Most Anticipated TV Series Of 2025.
ADVERTISEMENTMusic
Lambrini Girls: Who Let the Dogs Out
British punk band Lambrini Girls are bringing us all the loud and large Riot grrrl energy we need to put 2025 in its place. Their first official album release, ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ follows the band’s 2023 debut EP ‘You’re Welcome’. It’s a frolicking and furious excretion of feminine and societal rage, tackling everything from eating disorders to police corruption and gentrification; a scream into the void of another year that feels both cathartic and craze-inducing. In short: exactly what we need right now.
Ethel Cain: Perverts
If you’re looking for a soundtrack to capture the bleak, oppressive gloom of January’s dark days – Ethel Caine’s new release is it. Not the most encouraging sell, admittedly, but the 26-year-old’s fourth EP is hard to recommend as something enjoyable – more as an experience. Its sounds hum with the soft fuzz of liminality, sinister strings, hungry whirs and mumbled vocals. A boldly experimental and heavily ambient project, it captures a horror movie state of mind that might discombobulate fans of her more mainstream and Americana-imbued 2022 album ‘Preacher’s Daughter’. If you want to feel weird and a little bit spooked, give it a listen.
ADVERTISEMENTCheck out our picks for the Most Anticipated Albums Of 2025.
See you next week.
