We bring you our guide to living well in the world’s capitals, from exhibitions to cinema, food, drink, fashion, music and beyond. Just call it culture and take it, it’s yours.

LONDON, FRIDAY 24th April – SUNDAY 26th April 2015

True Grit
This week the ICA is treating us to a retrospective programme focusing on Belgium’s movie-making brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne.

It all kicks off this weekend with the sibling’s breakthrough feature La Promesse. The plot follows 15-year-old Igor; living with his single parent father he is forced to confront the moral implications of the pair’s exploitative business in smuggling and housing illegal immigrants.

Filmed in the Dardennes’ austere industrial hometown of Seraing, Belgium, La Promesse is as raw as they come. Visually striking, it’s a poignant tale of moral awakening in the harshest of conditions.

La Promesse will be shown at the ICA, SW1Y 5AH on 24th April, 8:40
Book tickets here

Bonjour, Hermès!
Over at Saatchi’s West London gaff he’s transformed his gallery into a treasure-trove of all things Hermès.

Wanderland celebrates the quintessentially Parisian concept of flânerie, anglicised as ‘to saunter and stroll’ (but in that chic way the French pull off so effortlessly). The exhibition features over 4,000 items, many gathered from the Hermès archive; the museum collection of Emile Hermès at 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris and Hermès’ contemporary collections.

Alongside classic items such as bikes, watches and travel writing cases there is a zany ‘down the rabbit hole’ feel to the exhibition; upside down lampposts, a room of juggling canes, ‘his and hers’ salons and a candelabra made of champagne glasses.

Hermès: Wanderland runs until 2nd May at Saatchi Gallery, SW3 4RY

50,000 Fall fans can’t be wrong
Legendary Manchester post-punk band The Fall are always best summed up by the eternal words of John Peel, “They are always different; they are always the same”.

The most prolific man in music Mark E Smith (30 studios album under his belt) and his constantly changing gaggle of troubadours are back for their gazillionth UK tour and are hitting up Brixton this weekend.

Smith puts on a live show like no other, strutting up and down the stage barking incohesive yelps, lip permanently curled upwards like a bulldog ready to charge at each member of the crowd.

Unpredictable, uncompromising and uninhiberated. It’s music, but not as we know it.

The Fall play at Electric, Brixton on 24th April
Book tickets here

Street level mindset
Thirty years have passed since the ICA’s 1984/85 Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition, the artist’s only UK solo presentation. Marking this anniversary the ICA have invited art historian and Jungian expert Irene Cioffi Whitfield to present a lecture on the psychological life and work of The Brooklyn artist.

Without formal training he started out as a graffiti artist before translating his work from wall to canvas; forming an impressive oeuvre. In a time of minimalist, intellectual art Basquiat tore up the rule book, his individualistic collage style aesthetic was both expressive and compulsive, breathing new life into art.

He gigged with Vincent Gallo, dated Madonna and had Andy Warhol on speed dial, in a time when New York was the mecca of all things hip Basquiat was king of cool.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Matter of Life and of Death takes place at ICA London on 25th April at 2pm
Book Tickets here

Soak up the blues
Got Rockstar drinking habits? Whet your whistle at Black Dice, the new bohemian Mayfair drinking hole from the owners of Sketch and Andy Wahloo in Paris.

The whole place screams Rolling Stones circa 1967-1969, lavish peacock feather and leopard print fabrics, walls adorned with Rock ‘n’ Roll memorabilia and whiskey pouring freely.

Slouch back on Chesterfield sofas – there’s more leather here than in Bruce Springsteen’s wardrobe – whilst the likes of Cream, The Clash and The Rolling Stones pulsate from the speakers. Step in and channel your inner Jim Morrison.

Black Dice is located at 25 Heddon Street, Mayfair, W1B 4BH

TOP GALLERY IMAGE CREDITS:
1. Still, La Promesse 1996 © The Criterion Collection
2.Still, La Promesse 1996 © The Criterion Collection
3. The Fall at the Ranch, Manchester. 1977 photo by Kevin Cummins
4. The Fall photo by Mark Osbourne
5. Hermes: Wanderland 2015 photo by James Bort
6. Hermes: Wanderland 2015 photo by James Bort
7. Hermes: Wanderland 2015 photo by James Bort
8. Jean Michel Basquiat. Photograph © Lizzie Himmel.
9. Jean-Michel Basquiat. 1982 photo by Andy Warhol
10. Black Dice 2015, photo courtesy of venue