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Blue Jasmine, Serpentine Sackler Gallery

A review of the week's cultural highlights. Cate Blanchett stars in Woody Allen's San Francisco-set Blue Jasmine, and Zaha Hadid designs the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery.

Cate Blanchett stars in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine - new territory for him as much of it's set in San Francisco. He's rumoured to be back on form: will the West Coast and a plot that owes a debt to A Streetcar Named Desire inspire a great film?

Back in New York, Thomas Pynchon, author of V, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason and Dixon, has always divided readers between those who are geekily entranced by his vision and wordplay and those who just can't work out what's going on. Bleeding Edge is thought to be one of his most readable novels yet, set between the burst of the dotcom bubble and 9/11.

The acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid's Serpentine Sackler Gallery has just opened in Kensington Gardens, London. It adds what one critic has already described as a Mr Whippy extension to an old gunpowder store: does it add up to a successful gallery space? There's a visit to the opening exhibition, Adrian Villar Rojas' Today We Reboot The Planet.

A play that first ran off-, then on-Broadway, The Lyons, is a darkly comic view of a dying man and his family - does the telling of home truths make for good drama? Opening at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, it stars Isla Blair and Tom Ellis.

And James Spader stars in The Blacklist, a new US drama about to begin here on Sky Living. It has elements of Silence of the Lambs, Homeland and 24 - can it carve out its own distinct place?

Ekow Eshun, Susannah Clapp and Kerry Shale join Tom Sutcliffe.

Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Available now

45 minutes

Chapters

  • Blue Jasmine

    Duration: 09:21

  • Bleeding Edge

    Duration: 09:51

  • The Lyons

    Duration: 07:02

  • Serpentine Sackler Gallery

    Duration: 07:31

  • The Blacklist

    Duration: 06:05

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine is on general release in UK cinemas, certificate 12A.

Bleeding Edge

Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon is published by Jonathan Cape.

The Lyons

The Lyons is at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London until 16 November 2013.

Serpentine Sackler Gallery

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is open in Kensington Gardens, London from 10am-6pm, Tuesdays to Sundays. Admission is free.

Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterTom Sutcliffe
Interviewed GuestSusannah Clapp
Interviewed GuestKerry Shale
ProducerSarah Johnson

Broadcast

  • Sat 28 Sep 201319:15

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