Bon Iver's ‘SABLE, fABLE': Euronews Culture's verdict
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Listening to Bon Iver brings to mind a quote from Julie Buntin's novel 'Marlena': '
I want to go home but what I mean, what I'm grasping for, is not a place. It's a feeling. I want to go back. But back where?
'
That feeling, of searching for some intangible comfort, has always been core to the band's output. Ever since the solitary creaks and layered vocals of debut album 'For Emma, Forever Ago', recorded in a remote Wisconsin cabin, Bon Iver has become synonymous with a woodsy, folkloric feel — their music a liminal space in which quiet transitions emerge and emotions thaw.
It's an identity that frontman Justin Vernon has been trying to escape throughout his almost two-decade career, each new album more distant from the last via increasingly abstract electronic experimentation.
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Bon Iver's 'SPEYSIDE': Euronews Culture's verdict
From the dense dreamscapes of 2011's 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver' to the prism pop of 2016's '22, A Million', listeners are always being taken somewhere new - yet the feelings conjured remain the same. Few other artists have the ability to capture longing in the same way; the endless cycles of our minds attempting to find acceptance.
Six years after 2019's 'i,i', it feels like Vernon has finally reached the place he's been yearning for.
Told in two parts, 'SABLE, fABLE' is Bon Iver's most optimistic album yet - a sparkling embrace of change, hope and the beauty to be found within life's ephemerality.
Composed in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the first three tracks —
released as an EP last year
— mark the beginning of an emotional arc, starting from a place of anxiety. In 'THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS', Vernon tries to expel it — his trademark repetitions turning thoughts into noise into nothing: '
I would like the feeling / I would like the feeling / I would like the feeling gone.
'
This restlessness settles as we transition into 'SPEYSIDE', a calming contemplation of contrition that cradles guilt while letting it gently slip away into acceptance: 'I really know now what had hold on me'. While the discomfort lingers, the music slows — and learns to sit with it.
Many of Bon Iver's best, and most notable works have emerged from regret and heartbreak — caught in the gentle swells of tracks like 'Skinny Love' and 'Wisconsin'. But 'SABLE, fABLE' is the first time we hear Vernon truly move beyond that cycle. It's a sadness broken by the scattered solidarity of piano keys and saxophone wails of 'AWARDS SEASON', lyrics flickering with a new-found hope: '
I can handle / Way more than I can handle.
'
The rest of the album is vibrant with the sweetness of being in the moment, the funky fizzles of 'Everything Is Peaceful Love' hitting like warm rays. That soaring croon of '
And damn if i'm not climbing up a tree
' reminds us we can rise above the wreckage of painful experiences — and find contentment.
Even when wrestling with the confusions of desire in tracks such as 'Walk Home' and 'If Only I Could Wait' (a collaboration with Danielle Haim), there's serenity to every tumbling harmony and tender piano melody. The familiar elements are still there: glitching soundscapes and falsetto, but no longer imprisoned in the wilderness of rumination.
If Bon Iver's music once felt like grasping for a feeling, 'SABLE, fABLE' is the release — a recognition that true comfort comes from being at peace with the present. Wherever that may be.
Bon Iver - 'SABLE, fABLE'
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'SABLE, fABLE' by Bon Iver is out now.
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Euronews
3 days ago
- Euronews
Falling in Love 'is possible only in Berlin' says Jean Paul Gaultier
"I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen." Thus begins William Blake's 230 year-old poem 'The Garden of Love'. And what a bloom has it inspired in the shape of musical sensation Falling in Love, at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin. "I just remember how it was the first time I read the first two lines," writer and director Oliver Hoppmann explains. "I went to the Garden of Love and saw what I never had seen. And that was just, wow, that struck me, because there's pretty much everything in there for a show. There's a reference to nature, to love, I mean, what else do you need?" Well, it turns out what else you need are a supporting team of 60 performers, 50 musicians and countless backstage and office staff. Oh, and an audience, which now collectively amounts to half a million spectators. Some of whom, much to my initial dismay, clapped along rather a lot. The show centres on a young, creative but rather lost character called 'You', a deaf poet whose inability to conform leaves them dejected until an immersion into the lost Garden of Love opens a realm of possibilities. A magical place where they may finally find words, and a voice that is heard. That it is a spectacle is doubtless. From the get-go, Falling in Love showers you with light, with colour and with a wow factor that doesn't ever really go away. Your eyes dart left, right, up, through, beyond, and at every shift there is a new colour, a new depth, another stonking guitar-riff. And while you're blown away by the sheer magnitude of this visual carnival, the remaining part of your senses will not be surprised to discover that the entire thing has been curated by the French fashion stylist Jean Paul Gaultier. "Jean Paul and I, we've known each other for quite some has become a friend of our house because he loves the shows at Frederickstraße Palast," continues Hoppmann. "He travels here privately to see shows. So we have been in regular contact. And when we came to that idea of that new show, that poem, that garden of love, we said, okay, who could be that person who brings that spark in a couture way to that?" There is of course only one answer. Enter Jean Paul Gaultier. "I have had the pleasure and the privilege to design again many costumes for Falling in Love, but I also worked with other designers: Matières Fécales and Sasha Frolova. The challenge was to choose great collaborators who would share my and Oliver's vision for the show. And after our initial meetings and exchange of ideas and first sketches I was happy to give them almost a carte blanche for their sections of the show," Gaultier explains to Euronews Culture. The layered production design and the scale of that design gives you a tangible 360 degree sensation. The costumes are truly spectacular with echoes of Gaultier's iconic outfits in The Fifth Element but also The Hunger Games which, although designed by Judianna Makovsky, betrayed a Gaultier influence in places. "I have some codes that are part of my style and my fashion vocabulary," he says. "The corset and the cone bra is one of them. I always want to create something new but at the same time I use my fashion codes as my vocabulary." Theatrically it shares some elements with the We Will Rock You musical that ran for 12 years in London, and not just the wall of guitars. The flagrant pantomime nature that pervades much of the interaction is a common by-product of writing it large. And this is as large as indoor theatre gets. From the kick-off number Diamond City, it's clear the show is going to be a kaleidoscope. And you need such a thing when the whole audience is not bilingual and therefore the jokes sometimes fall flat. The audiences have comprised many nationalities but the top five are France, Switzerland, the US, Austria, and Denmark. There is cheeky titillation (the lower cheeks to be precise) and super-hench pecs on show in a celebration of athletic prowess and beauty. Choreography and technical elements come together to form something genuinely beautiful; a dancer abseiling down a waterfall enchants the mind while a wonderfully-engineered fountain dance is candy-popping fun. And all the camp, kitsch, multicoloured vibrancy sometimes finds its way into the audience. There's no fourth wall here. We're allowed into the pop video, the dream, the trip. The guitar-toting character of Leon is part game show host, part Worf from Star Trek. I wonder if all this colour has left characterisation as a second thought. The colours don't really inhabit the character types they represent in any physical or vocal way which leaves us having to try to recall them. Gaultier himself admits his greatest challenge on this production "was the soloists and how best to express their nature and their feelings through the costumes." There is something tribal about the colours here. We have three camps: red, green and blue, all in their various ways offering modes of expression to the poet to colour their world. The theme of deafness and isolation is encapsulated by the character of 'You', which brings a profound level of meaning to the carnival. "I try to focus on vision, on touch, on vibrations," says Justyna Woloch, who plays the deaf character of 'You'. "There is, built into the stage, a vibration plate in the middle of the hexagon that was purposefully made for people with hearing problems to be able to feel when to really be on the music and not be off the beat." Woloch is not deaf but took over from deaf performer Hearns Sebuado when she took the role of 'You'. "The plate helps me as well because, of course, I hear music and I immediately start moving but I really consciously have to try to stop hearing it, which is really hard. And so many times during the show I'm touching the vibration plate and trying to really block out all the sound." To illustrate the genesis of this element of the show, Hoppmann tells me about a deaf poetry slam that he attended 10 years ago where he suddenly understood the frustration of those with hearing impairment. "I'm a hearing director in a room of non-hearing people with performers on stage who are only using sign language, German sign language, to recite their poems. And I didn't have a clue what they were saying. There were, like, verbalisations and an audio description." "There was a verbal translation for people who were hearing and couldn't understand sign language," he recounts. "But, you know, a director always wants to be ahead of time, right? You want to know what comes next, what happens next. And I couldn't because I had always to wait until I got the translation. I really felt it. I'm the last person in the room that understood." It is without a doubt impressive that the themes of deafness and isolation are part of something so vast, loud (in both colour and sound) and inclusive, and the Palast itself plays a fundamental part in the proceedings. With an unrivalled stage area of 2,854 square metres, and near-perfect sight lines for the whole audience, as well as a trailblazing air-conditioning system via the actual seats, unusually visual treats can be clearly observed in comfort. Also playing a role is the wider geographical context. The inimitable city of Berlin. "I love Berlin," admits Gaultier. "I have been coming regularly for years. There was still the wall dividing the city the first time I visited. And this show is possible only in Berlin with its unique history and unique feeling." Disco ball shoulder pads, bike helmets, glitter g-strings with regency wigs run amok on the enormous stage. Every number is a brilliant pop video leaving little room for sentiment but plenty of fuel for entertainment. Gaultier is resolute on what's important. "It is a show, a Grand Show and I think it is most important that the audience enjoys themselves, that they enjoy the story, the music, the dancing, the special effects, the costumes. Whether that enjoyment is through form or the substance is not crucial for me," he says. Another thing that will not have escaped the audiences are the extraordinary number of crystals in the design. This is thanks to a partnership deal with Swarovski who provided a staggering 100 million crystals in all cuts and colours, which I am assured is a new world record in live entertainment. I'm not convinced there was an old world record to beat but it certainly fits the 'sky's the limit' remit. Profundity may be hard to detect among a sea of crystals but there are important themes at work amongst the glitz. There's an anthropological callback to Levi Strauss in the play's symbolic handing-over of the written word from the character of 'Me' and then to the character of 'You'. Walls created by isolation are broken, which takes on its own emotional evocation after the confinement of the global pandemic. The astonishing acrobatic performers (audiences genuinely screaming with disbelief at the physical feats) fall out of windows onto trampettes and ping back up again only to throw themselves out again is a nice metaphor for human romantic behaviour. The silly shapes we bend ourselves into for love and visibility. And on the philosophical note, when quizzed about upcoming fashion trends, Gaultier responds with something that probably should be on a poster. "I don't look at fashion as much as I used to. And trends are just trends but the style is something that stays. If you are too fashionable then very quickly you become unfashionable. As the French say La Mode se démode." Falling in Love is booking until 5 July 2025.
Euronews
6 days ago
- Euronews
Sex, sleaze and subversion: Inside London's new grindhouse cinema
On an unassuming street in central London, a red-painted building peeks at passersby — its facade plastered with a close-up of The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. Inside, I'm watching Ruggero Deodato's The Washing Machine, an Italian murder mystery involving psychosexual mind games, fridge fornication, and bleeding appliances. It's the kind of filmic fever dream only The Nickel would dare to screen: a new micro cinema in London founded by filmmaker and programmer Dominic Hicks. Imbued with the frenetic spirit and sleazy charm of retro American grindhouse theatres, it's a shrine to the deranged gems of exploitation cinema: gritty, boundary-pushing B-movies. Or as Hicks puts it: 'A safe place for weirdos and outsiders.' June's inaugural screenings include everything from Todd Browning's silent horror The Unknown, to Roman Polanski's erotic thriller Bitter Moon, to David Winters' Cannes-set giallo The Last Horror Film. The programming embraces an anything-goes approach, inspired by the edgy offerings of London's infamous Scala cinema. 'I like films where the beauty in them comes through how the audience receives and nurtures them in their collective imagination,' Hicks tells Euronews Culture. 'Whether it's the practical effects, or the score, or the bad acting that they find really quotable — it belongs to the audience in the long run.' The Nickel might be small, but in an era of digital disconnection and algorithmic ennui, it's part of a growing movement across Europe: DIY film clubs and hyperlocal venues that counter the monoculture of streaming services and multiplexes. From Liverpool's trans-inclusive 'Paraphysis Cinema' to the feminist-themed 'Tonnerre' in Paris, these repertory pop-ups represent a desire among cinephiles to discover subversive oddities as intended: with an audience. 'These community spaces are an opportunity to bring people back together to have conversations about movies,' Hicks says. 'You don't have to all feel the same, but the idea of being challenged, or getting the giggles together about some strange little forgotten gem, is always going to be entertaining.' This idea of confronting discomfort together is key. Namwali Serpell, writing in the New Yorker, recently lamented the rise of 'new literalism' — a cinematic trend where movies like The Substance and Anora heavy-handedly spell out their meanings and politics. Exploitation cinema, in all its moral ambiguity and tonal absurdity, offers a thrilling antithesis. 'I actually prefer, particularly when you look at the films of the 70s, how murky those movies were — that it's not abundantly clear if the filmmakers had the right morals,' Hicks explains. 'For me, that doesn't mean it's actually promoting poor morals. I think audiences are intelligent enough to challenge what they're seeing.' Before raising nearly £14,000 (€16,640) for its permanent space, Hicks ran The Nickel as an event programme for his local pub and The Cinema Museum. Much of what he shared was on rare 16mm prints, tapping into the sensory ambience of physical formats. Similar to the revival of vinyl, the crackle and click of film reels have become a way for people to connect with art more tangibly. 'You can't come close to the aesthetic experience of watching an original film print being projected in public when you're streaming things digitally,' Hicks says, citing one magical moment at The Cinema Museum when the projector got stuck and burned a film print: 'Everybody was just delighted. It was like we'd seen a shooting star.' Though The Nickel is still under construction when I visit, the vibe already feels special. Obscure physical media lines the entrance's shelves, their lurid covers begging to be fondled. Meanwhile, the dimly-lit basement bar is set to double as a communal hub for film-related workshops. 'Ultimately the plan would be to have everybody create projects together, then we can screen them here,' says Hicks, excited at the prospect of working 'on weird shit' with others. At a time when cinemas face a precarious future, The Nickel's vision is ambitious and comfortingly optimistic. According to the Independent Cinema Office (ICO), almost a third of UK independent cinemas are under threat, with London institutions like The Prince Charles launching petitions against redevelopment. But Hicks doesn't believe cinema will die — just its commercial models of old. 'I think we're seeing a return to that neighbourhood, smaller, independent cinema, because multiplexes don't give people a compelling enough reason to leave their sofas,' he explains. 'But I have faith that people won't surrender something so essential as the experience of going to the movies. I really hope not, anyway. And if they do, it'll be a hill worth dying on for me.' As the end credits of The Washing Machine roll, the room fizzes with the excitable energy of a shared (and sordid) little secret. Away from the anodyne streaming output, there's a quiet rebelliousness in The Nickel's embrace of mess, madness and misfits — a reminder that cinema's darkened rooms are often where we feel most fully seen. The Nickel cinema opens in London on 11 June. An image of five elderly women having a giggle while sharing spring rolls in a quiet corner of Sichuan has been crowned the world's best food photograph. Titled simply as "The Elderly Having Delicious Food", the heartwarming photo by Chinese photographer Xiaoling Li has taken the top prize at this year's World Food Photography Awards, beating nearly 10,000 entries from 70 countries. Shot in Shuangliu Ancient Town, the image captures what Li describes as a 'Dragon Gate formation' - a Chinese phrase for neighbours gathering to chat, gossip, and share stories over food. 'They eat the famous Sichuan snack 'spring rolls,'' says Li. 'Food makes these people happy; they enjoy a beautiful and joyful life.' The awards, sponsored by Tenderstem® Bimi®, were announced in a glittering ceremony at London's Mall Galleries, hosted by chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi. The competition spans 25 categories - from 'Bring Home the Harvest' to 'Food in the Field' - and celebrates the many ways food weaves through our lives, cultures, and stories. 'These Awards showcase the power of photography in telling incredible food stories from around the world,' said Dave Samuels, Brand Director at Tenderstem® Bimi®. 'No matter how the world changes, food remains at the heart of our lives.' A selection of the winning images will be on display at Fortnum & Mason from 2 June and the Museum of the Home from 3 June to 7 September. Below, feast your eyes upon a few of our favourite winning images from this year's competition.
Euronews
27-05-2025
- Euronews
Iran summons French diplomat over praise of Palme d'Or-winning film
Iran has summoned France's representative in protest after the French foreign minister praised the Cannes-winning Iranian film as 'a gesture of resistance against the Iranian regime's oppression.' Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot had praised It Was Just An Accident after it won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film by famed dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi centers on a man, Vahid, who abducts his suspected captor after being tortured in prison. To satisfy pangs of doubt, he decides to confirm his suspicion by bringing the man, locked in his van, to other former prisoners for identification. Panahi, who was back in Cannes for the first time in 15 years due to a travel ban in Iran, drew on the experiences from his own imprisonment as well as the stories of detainees around him. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for our review of It Was Just An Accident and our full debrief of Panahi's win in this week's Culture Catch-Up. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the French minister was summoned over his 'interventionist, irresponsible and instigative allegations,' the state-run IRNA news agency reported. 'Spare us Iranians the lectures. You have no moral authority whatsoever,' Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X, citing France's approach to Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. Last week, France threatened 'concrete action' against Israel if the country didn't halt the offensive in Gaza and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid. However, the statement was mostly dismissed as empty threats. Immediately following the award's announcement, the Iranian state news agency had announced a more muted celebration of the award, crediting the country's film industry for winning a second Palme d'Or after Abbas Kiarostami's 1997 drama, Taste of Cherry. In Iran, film productions need to receive script approval from the government to shoot in public. Panahi refuses to do that, knowing they won't allow him to make the films he wants to, and It Was Just an Accident was filmed without cooperation. Iranian state TV called the film a mixture of 'lie and smearing' as well as an 'underground' film produced without required permits in Iran. State TV also chastised Panahi for not mentioning the plight of the Palestinians in his acceptance speech. The Mizan news agency, an arm of the country's judiciary, reported on the win as part of the 'Political Cannes Film Festival,' suggesting that the prize was given to Panahi because of his political leanings. However, pro-reform media outlets and activists praised Panahi. 'This victory is no accident — it is the result of a tireless dedication to exploring humanistic values and human rights,' said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who was also previously imprisoned at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Panahi was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in anti-government protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's This Is Not a Film on an iPhone in his living room. Taxi (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car - and ended up winning that year's Golden Bear at the Berlinale. Panahi was arrested in 2022 when he went to the Tehran prosecutor's office to inquire about the arrests of two other Iranian filmmakers. A judge later ruled that he must serve six years for an earlier sentence on charges of propagandizing against the government from 2011 that had never been enforced. In early 2023, Panahi went on a hunger strike and was released from Evin Prison. Panahi said he would not seek asylum in another country, despite the risks of additional imprisonment. 'It's simple. I'm unable to live here,' he said last week in Cannes. 'I have no ability to adapt to a new country, a new culture. Some people have this ability, this strength. I don't.' On Monday, Panahi touched down in Tehran's international airport to cheers. One person was heard shouting "woman, life, freedom" as Panahi passed through the airport - a phrase that became the slogan for protests that broke out across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022. In his acceptance speech at Cannes, Panahi said, "What's most important now is our country and the freedom of our country," and called for Iranians to "join forces". He added: "No-one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do, or what we should not do."
