Plenty of Gallic glitz this month as the creme de le creme of French cinema arrive on these shores. This year sees the unification of the French Film Festival UK and the Renault French Film Season, which means better films, a broader range of genres, more stars and greater coverage across the UK, which is magnifique all round. New films (on general release later in the year) being shown include Dominik Moll's Lemming (a Hitchcockian thriller with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Charlotte Rampling); Francois Ozon's Time To Leave (a deeply troubling, aggressively emotional story that follows the final months of a terminally ill young fashion photographer); Olivier Marchal's modern film noir 36 Quai des Orfevres; and Danis Tanovic's Hell, with Emmanuelle Beart. And if that sounds a bit heavy going for you, light relief comes in the form of Cockles And Muscles, Russian Dolls and Palais Royal! -- all of which give good old fashioned bed-hopping, farce and high jinks a fresh airing.

Away from the gala screenings and celebs on parade, established directors have a forum in the "Panorama" section of the festival. There's also a platform for new talent entitled "Discovery" -- although familiar faces like Ludivine Sagnier and Vanessa Paradis feature in this too. Focusing behind the camera, the jewel in the crown has to be the master class given by Bertrand Tavernier (Sat 04/03 at 6:30pm followed by the premiere of his new film, Holy Lola) who is the subject of the 2006 retrospective (01/03 till 12/03). Described by Martin Scorsese as France's leading director, the chance for a private audience with this luminary of French cinema is not to be missed.

NB: the Renault French Film Festival runs in London till 16/03.

Giveaway: we have three pairs of tickets for the Bertrand Tavernier master class and screening of Holy Lola to giveaway. They'll go to three randomely picked Flashers who can name Tarvernier's film that deals with the Vichy regime.

One only needs to take a cursory look around London to see how China's economic dynamism has had a noticeable effect in this country, ranging from the excellent Three Emperors exhibition to the very public co-operation in London's 2012 Olympic bid. As George Bush feels the political need to visit India, this debate will get to the heart of whether this country can repeat and possibly surpass China's economic feat. Key issues will undoubtedly be India's democracy and clearer adherence to the rule of law. Might this inherent ability to openly debate and deal with regional, economic and political tensions prove more durable than a one-party system or could it hamper the ability to further reform? Speakers include the eminent Lord Meghnad Desai, Emeritus Professor of Economics at LSE and David Wall, Associate Fellow in the Asia Programme at Chatham House. In today's global information-based world of mobile capital and "death of distance", political and economic developments in East Asia have a very real impact on us all; more importantly, the discussion concerning democracy and the appropriate ethical caveats for economic growth should resound with a universal importance.

NB: this debate is free but you must send an email to meetintern@chathamhouse.org.uk in order to secure a spot.

Following a series of short pieces for Resolution! and Choreodrome, Lapsus Corpi come back with an evening long show which explores and proposes the stage as a place where all performance wishes can potentially by realised. In their last piece, QUADish-ish, four performers used glow tape to redefine the stage area. Echoing the space shaping nature of dance, this two dimensional exercise suggested ideas of boundaries and conflict and revealed Efrosini Protopapa's strong scenographic talent.  For wish + qish the company will explore translation processes between word, image and action and look at ways in which audiences operate. If you are thinking of audience participation, don't worry, you will only be invited to think and wonder, feel and smile, and most of all enjoy the enthusiasm and talent of this fresh group of performers.

Phoenix Dance Theatre presents the world premiere of its new repertoire, with two new works co-commissioned by Sadler's Wells. The Leeds-based company is one of Britain's leading contemporary dance companies and this mixed bill includes daring works from some fantastic choreographers. Venezuelan-born Javier de Frutos has created a new work for seven dancers, Nopalitos, inspired by the Mexican festival the Day of the Dead, and featuring music from Lila Downs, known as "the singing Frida Kahlo". Arthur Pita has created Snow White in Black -- a Snow White in Hollywood, complete with sampled dialogue from the film Mommie Dearest, and a lip-synching Queen inspired by Faye Dunaway's performance as Joan Crawford. New choreographers Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer present Pave up Paradise -- a duet about Adam and Eve post-Eden. The piece features acoustic arrangements of Jeff Buckley, The Strokes and Gomez tracks. And if that's not enough, Phoenix's artistic director Darshan Singh Buller has created a solo piece called Laal, meaning red in Hindi. This will be his last season with Phoenix -- the company recently announced that it is looking for a new artistic director.

NB: the Phoenix Dance Theatre company performs at Sadler's Wells for three nights from 02/03 till 04/03.

Light, Phase, Loop: Steve Reich
Hayward Gallery
Thu 02/03 @ 8 and 9:30pm
Steve Reich's Come Out occupies an iconic position in the history of modern composition. Inspired by Terry Riley's early minimalist experiments, New York-based Reich deployed dual tape machines playing an identical recording, which -- thanks to the limitations of the analogue technology -- gradually moved out of phase with itself, creating a subtly modulating cascade of ghostly rhythms and cadences. The work lit the blue touch paper under Reich, who transplanted his tape experiments to percussion ensembles, single instruments and, later, the full orchestra. This show in the suitably ascetic environs of the Hayward (appropriate, as having been shunned by the classical cognoscenti, Reich's first performances were often in art galleries) is only the third time the piece has been aired in the UK. It's followed, chronologically, by two related successors: the stark Violin Phase and contrastingly lovely Six Marimbas, which marks the moment in Reich's considerable cannon when minimalist concept and harmonic beauty first cohered.

Icebreaker: Philip Glass...
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Tue 07/03 @ 7:45pm
For fans of 20th-century minimalist "Systems Music", this week is like all their Christmases coming at once, as, preceding the Reich concert by five days, they can also catch a concert featuring Reich's erstwhile compadre (they once ran a NYC removal firm together) and, latterly, nemesis Philip Glass (Reich is huffy that Glass won't acknowledge his influence). Like much of Glass' early work, Music With Changing Parts borrows heavily from Reich's template but is also characterised by passages of covert lyricism -- a trait that Glass has made overt over the ensuing years. Tonight's performance by the energetic Icebreaker ensemble also features selections from those other, very different, modernist pioneers Frank Zappa and Conlon Nancarrow, and there's even an earful of Erik Bunger's arrangement of KC And The Sunshine Band's That's The Way I Like It, which, if it isn't the "maximalist" yang to Reich and Glasses minimalist jing, we don't know what is.

NB: both these concerts have been programmed in conjunction with Dan Flavin: A Retrospective (runs till 02/04). The Icebreaker concert is also programmed to coincide with the iF Festival 2006 (runs till 09/04).

TAG?Me Vs The City, the much anticipated latest production by Jonzi D, is coming to town. Famous for pioneering hip-hop in Britain since the early '80s, Jonzi has reached household recognition through his work on Channel 4 and for curating the now essential Breakin' Convention annual festival at Sadler's Wells. With TAG..., Jonzi explores the idea of "physical calligraphy" by using the six dancers in his company as paints. The show follows the life of an obsessive graffiti writer and the narrative is driven entirely by visual imagery, samples, break-dancing and body-popping. Jonzi has gathered an exceptional team of artists for this piece; among them Ben Wachenje brings interactive video animation and UK Mixing Championships winner DJ Pogo spins the latest hip-hop tracks. Jonzi combines the skills of the best dancers on the circuit, a sharp eye for style and most of all a personality that is so endearing that you just cannot help falling in love with his work. So go and check out whether this perfect mix will get you poppin'.

NB: runs from Thu 02/03 to Sat 04/03.

Sometimes in life it's not enough to have been special advisor to Francois Mitterand, nor consulted for the UN on nuclear proliferation. Jacques Attali is a true Renaissance man. Remember him? Though he's produced volumes on music, global economics and history, he's more famous as "the" European central banker who spent a Renaissance budget on the building. A tad like Profumo, his PlaNet Finance, an NGO formed in '98 to help the poor develop, has been quietly moving along. He's also been busy producing a racy biography on the continued and important influence on this century of a certain 19th-century thinker: Karl Marx. Remember that bearded guy? It's apt to speak of Marx in this town, after all much of his ideas, and ideals, were developed in this city... just wander around the old British Library and touch his spirit. Maybe his "revolution" hasn't yet taken hold, but certainly his description of the world as "capital" is one of the more accurate maps we still use. Attali will be in conversation with that classic Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawn, with John Kampfner chairing.

NB: this event is part of Jewish Book Week 2006 (runs till 05/03).

Politics, love, jealousy, deceit, pain, killing, loyalty, solitude, grief -- all the messy, glorious, enthralling facets of life -- and Krzysztof Kieslowski confronted them all in his films. Now, a decade after his death on March 13, 1996, the NFT is undertaking a month-long re-examination of the films of the Polish writer-director, often hailed as the most important European art-house auteur of the late 20th century, and regarded as a successor to Andrei Tarkovsky. Covering the 20-year period of his feature film work, the season traces the journey from his earlier socio-political films such as The Scar (10/03 and 16/03) and Blind Chance (11/03 and 13/03), through his examination of modern spirituality in the form of the Decalogue films, the ten-part series of dramas inspired by the Ten Commandments and filmed on a Warsaw housing estate. His breakthrough set of films -- A Short Film About Killing (14/03 and 18/03) and A Short Film About Love (17/03 and 19/03) -- brought him international acclaim, and were followed by his later French-set and co-produced films, examining life through female characters: The Double Life Of Veronique (09/03) and the acclaimed, and visually arresting "Three Colours" Trilogy: Blue (24/03 and 25/03), White (24/03 and 25/03) and Red (23/03, 25/03 and 27/03).

The season also includes a selection of his favourite films: films that have influenced his work, and which range from classics examining the tribulations of life through childhood experience -- Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows (02/03 and 16/03), Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood (07/03 and 19/03) and Ken Loach's Kes (08/03, 12/03 and 26/03) -- through cinematic masterpieces including Orson Wells' Citizen Kane (04/03 and 10/03) and Fellini's La Strada (03/03, 04/03, 05/03 and 22/03) to the lesser known, and seldom screened The Pram (07/03 and 12/03) and Intimate Lighting (04/03 and 06/03).

NB: Krzysztof Kieslowski Revisited runs till 28/03.

"Rational recreation", the Victorian practice of using one's leisure time to do something constructive and self-improving returns to the East End, in the form of Rational Rec. This monthly event, mixing music, art, film, discussion and text, breaks out of its original home of the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club to host one of the Whitechapel Gallery's Friday Late Nights. Featured performances will be Helmut Lachenmann's Salut Fur Caldwell, showing his Musique Concrete Instrumentale technique of writing. Lachnmann's music is a totally different experience live: the listener is drawn in by what the performer is doing to the instrument to notice its tiniest nuances, sounds totally unlike those you would expect. This is another element of Musique Concrete Instrumentale, using acoustic instruments to substitute electronic sounds. The event will be performed by speaking guitarists, Anders Foristal and Hakon Stene of ensemble asamisimasa, and will be paired with a Phill Niblock piece, The Movement Of People Working for film and ensemble, where the film and music -- one slowly evolving chord -- interact and contradict with one another. It will be performed by the ensemble plus-minus, who take their musical philosophy from the Stockhausen piece of the same name. Recordings will be no substitute.

To be a jazz lover in London at the moment is an exciting prospect. An excellent range of venues have developed in recent years ,from intimate spaces like The Vortex and the Spitz to long established and consistently entertaining nights at the Jazz Cafe and Ronnie Scott's. Not to mention larger venues, like the Barbican, with their prestigious line ups. Musical creativity within jazz is also riding high mainly thanks to the innovative F-ire collective, continuing to expand and evolve within the genre and having spawned some extremely memorable bands, perhaps the most notable of which is Polar Bear (who share almost the same line up as Acoustic Ladyland). Yes, they were nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, how exciting for them... In reality they should have walked first off with the prize, but more importantly they have already created an intensely memorable form of experimental jazz. The Polar sound is underpinned by the inimitable drums of Seb Roachford, most certainly in possession of the finest hairdo in music. Roachford's freeform and unconventional drum patterns are complemented by the sublime contributions of other band members. From Pete Wareham's and Mark Lockheart's rasping sax, to the taut bass of Tom Herbert, to the amazing interludes of Leafcutter John, it's an incendiary noise. Go!

As electronica develops and matures on the live circuit, it seems only apt that those who were there in the first place are given an airing alongside the new. So tonight's Poke theme hovers around Acid and the celebration of two decades of sounds emitted by Roland's infamous TB-303 machine. So who better than rave pioneers 808 State. So much has been said before, that it's hardly worth repeating here. Needless to say expect classics, classics and more classics. They'd be foolish to do anything else. In support is rave legend-in-his-own-lunchtime Egebamyasi, whose name has been plastered on more flyers than we'd have hot dinners. He'll be playing live from an assortment of old-school drum machines and keyboards. Soma's Vector Lovers will no doubt be perfecting the art of "electrocrash". Also on the bill is the excellent Rob Hall from Manchester's Skam Records, playing dark undercurrents of techno and electro. As well as Keith Tenniswood's Radioactive Man alter-ego, expect basslines to make your teeth itch. 808080808080808!

Discount: when purchasing through TicketWeb, use promotion code "poke808".

Giveaway: we have three pairs of tickets to giveaway. They'll go to three randomely picked Flashers who can tell us the name of the record label that re-mastered 808 State's Newbuild and in what year was the original version released.

DMZ decided that the best way to occupy themselves during 2005 was for them to rearrange our innards through the meditative powers of bass. This lot wield low-end frequencies like sonic putty. Exactly one year on and they show no signs of letting up. As forward thinking as the music itself. Of course, all this preview will give you is hearsay. The only way to really understand it is to experience the 12k body rig sound system that acts as their basic channel. Digital Mystikz's and Loefah's obvious affiliation with dub means that classic 7"s from the Studio One era are seamlessly mixed in with their own twisted strains of dubstep. Also on the bill are the ever-effervescent Youngsta, a dedicated soldier who mans the desks at Soho's Black Market Records; Vex'd, whose soundtrackesque exploits will be given a bigger canvas on Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label; and Skream, the most talked about, in-demand dubstep producer around. If you are not in the know then we suggest grabbing Skreamism Vol I on Tempa. Virulent, dark and demanding, it's a sonic purity that we haven't heard since we last worshipped at the altar of Raster-Noton.

Electro originators Unique 3 have been the driving force behind Left Of Centre, which saw the likes of Afrika Bambaataa drive crowds wild in Middlesbrough for the last couple of years. It's now relocated to Jacks in London Bridge, a phenomenal ex-rave venue that has hosted some of our more auspicious knees-ups over the last couple of years. The line-up assembled for this, the inaugural London event, is certain to cater to all tastes. Vestax turntablism champion DJ Woody joins downbeat hip-hop heroes The Herbaliser -- whose fusion of live orchestral pomp and loping beats have led to their continued success long after people lost interest in the whole trip-hop phenomenon -- and Ninja Tune superstar/s DJ Food to cater for the heads looking for laid-back funk, while Depth Charge and Unique 3 provide the crazy electro and the DMX Krew pander to the breakers and poppers with an old-school hip-hop set. If you're looking to get a bit sweatier, check out 1Xtra's drum and bass supremo L Double. With names still being added to the bill, this is shaping up to be one of the most interestingly diverse collection of top-flight sounds that the capital's seen for ages.

Discount: when purchasing through TicketWeb, use promotion code "ninja8".

Giveaway: we have three pairs of tickets to giveaway. They'll go to three randomely picked Flashers who can tell us who is behind Unique 3.

Since his death, in 1997, of liver cancer, Martin Kippenberger has been getting all the attention of the art establishment that had shied away whilst he was still living: it is after all good to tell stories about an enfant terrible but less comfortable to actually have to work with one. The Tate show is the second major retrospective to be staged posthumously, alongside many smaller shows, as well as a strong increase in his commercial value. The exhibition is curated roughly chronologically and at times suffers from Tate's attempts to deconstruct it when really the viewer should just stand back and let the artist's chaotic madness wash over them. However it brilliantly spans his adventures in painting (some of which aren't actually painted by him at all -- two fingers to the fashionable German painters of the '80s); sculptures; and installations, of which room seven, the penultimate room, hosts arguably the most important work he ever produced. The Happy End of Franz Kafka's 'Amerika' sees him creating a surreal imaginary mass interview set up -- with a multitude of chairs and tables, seemingly awaiting for a multitude of perspective employees, looking for a multitude of opportunities. Kippenberger the jester holds his mirror up to America.

NB: runs till 14/05.

As part of the Architecture Foundation's remit to broaden the debate about what is architecture and bring it to a wider public, a series of four seminars that look at the ways people are informed about what architecture is have been scheduled for next week. This Is Architecture will explore in separate events the themes of communication, exhibition, education and participation.

Mon 06/03
The Image Of Architecture

Tue 07/03
Underage Architecture

Wed 08/03
Architecture On Show

Thu 09/03
Let The People Design

NB: the four seminars are free but you must register.

He was the first ever "Buster", nicknamed by fellow performer Harry Houdini who saw him fall downstairs and get up unscathed. Born the same year as cinema (with the initials JFK), Buster Keaton was performing theatre at the age of nine months, and a vaudeville star by the age of five. An accident-prone childhood made him the most resilient stunt man of the silents, his ability to cope with the rough and tumble so acute that his actor parents used to get arrested after shows. His worst injury was a train wreck, from which he made great comic currency: as he himself noted, "Give me a locomotive and... I find some way of getting laughs out of it."

The General (1926), perhaps his most famous film, was a multi-track Civil War comic masterpiece about rail-chases that pioneered and proliferated tracking shots (Keaton was a technical master as well as comic genius). The NFT's currently showing a range of his genius earlier work as both actor and director. The set of The General kept burning up in smoke; that smoke's now cleared but his films are still scorching. Alongside his technical mastery of film-making, the pathos of his hallmark slapstick is brilliantly dramatic and moving. Rush on down to see how work of the '20s is still golden. If you're not as supple as Keaton, you might buster rib laughing.

NB: the Buster Keaton season runs till 29/03.

Cambridge academic and renowned critic of English and intellectual history, Professor Stefan Collini has acquired a reputation as a robust defender of intellectuals, often focusing upon their profound influence within the moral life of the nation. Having published in the past on John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold and other notable moralists, his newest publication, Absent Minds: Intellectuals In Britain, questions the evolution of polymaths such as TS Eliot, George Orwell and Edward Said among others. This should be a cherished opportunity to listen to, and question, a leading intellectual literary and historical critic; unlike many in his field Collini also adopts the role of cultural commentator, actively dissecting today's society and provocatively questioning contemporary cultural assumptions and whether intellectuals are on the point of becoming extinct today.

NB: tickets should be booked in advance by sending an email to events@lrbshop.co.uk.

The bad boy of architecture Rem Koolhaas comes to London to chat with fellow Dutchman Cees Noteboom about the perception of time. As an underappreciated novelist, poet and travel writer, Nooteboom was once referred to by Nobelist JM Coetzee as "...too intelligent, too sophisticated, too cool...". Koolhaas makes good company as he frequently trades his academic robes for Prada suits, and when he does he exemplifies the architect as slick public intellectual. He is principal architect at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, known in art/architecture circles as OMA, and is directly responsible for such high profile projects as the recent Seattle public library where readers collide with each other in a series of ramps that cut through the book stacks. How can you not love Koolhaas, a man who refers to brand name shopping as "a megalomaniac accumulation of the obvious". Both authors are known to have pushed the limits of their respective fields and that mixes up high anticipation for an unusual evening of intellectual banter.

NB: throughout March, the Royal Festival Hall is hosting a series of talks on the perception of time called Stop The Clock (other highlighted speakers include Hilary Mantel and Ismail Kadare).

Have you ever encountered paintings that are both awkwardly salutary and possessing? These works and their subjects touch you with their quizzical gaze and whimsical doings. Kathrine Aertebjerg is a versatile painter, mastering the techniques of oil, acrylics and spray; altogether making for very clean paintings with no signs of the process or erased details. Her work aspires to be immediate and simple. But if this is so, it is only on a formal level. Because in her world of images, the animals and humans are all consanguineous, like the more brutal fairy tales that are more for adults than children, and the mythologies of the East where things are (forever) transforming and sometimes disappearing. At first, you might think you are just looking at some colourful illustrations for a fantastic children's book, but after a second look, ghosts and raw dreams reveal themselves. In one painting a man performs yoga by a burning flower, whilst in another an animal searches for missing scissors and in yet another a web-footed monkey spreads out its black pyramid wings. You are bound to lose yourself in the show's 39 paintings and watercolours.

NB: runs till 28/03.

This small, tightly organised gem of an exhibition brings together four female artists whose work delivers alternative visions of contemporary Chinese culture. Primarily photography-based, the work here puts a fresh spin on the tradition of artists re-imagining their environments. In her photographs and video, Cao Fei's action-hero youths play out elaborate scenarios in seemingly deserted (or undesirable) corners of a city, the supersaturated colours of their futuristic costumes leaping out against nondescript urban concrete and a leaden sky. Xing Danwen's large-scale pictures of architectural models comment on the surging expansion of China's cities. Digitally inserting a figure or two amongst the uninhabitable renderings of proposed property developments lends a decisive, mysterious edge to her images. Intriguing for the labour and inventiveness involved are Gayle Chong Kwan's foreboding photographs of landscapes created entirely of food from her shared Chinese, Scottish and Mauritian heritages, delving into ideas around sensorial memory, tourism and identity. A swirling, subtly luminous installation by Suki Chan explores (in)visibility; here, as with all these fictions, things are not always what they seem.

NB: runs till 29/04. China Contemporary: Fantasy Landscapes has been programmed to coincide with China In London 2006.

There's nothing like a military dictatorship to get the creative juices flowing. In Brazil's case, the '60s saw artistic anarchy in response to the government's rigid control of society. The movement was called Tropicalia, after artist Helio Oiticica's reconstruction of a favela shack, which brazenly questioned the cliches of Brazilian identities. This exhibition, despite being held in the concrete bunker that is the Barbican, is a colourful assault on the senses. The sounds of Afro Reggae performers keep the adrenalin pumping as you wander through mysterious labyrinths created in sand pits; through clothes hanging from scaffolding; as you play with experiments in technology and taste brightly coloured bowls of juice. It's all here -- painting, sculpture, film, design, theatre, architecture, fashion, music, workshops. All creative bases are covered to emphasise just how influential the Tropicalistas were (albeit short lived as two leaders were deported less than a year after its inception) and how the movement came to influence not just the artistic community, but the nation as a whole. (Runs till 21/05.)

NB: a film season and assorted events are also taking place in conjunction with the exhibition. Check the Barbican Tropicalia microsite for full details.

Educated in Japan and at the Kunstakademie in Duesseldorf, Yoshitomo Nara is renowned for his very particular brand of "anti-cute". His paintings, drawings and sculptures have been exhibited extensively around the world and his work has been the subject of recent major retrospectives at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. He recently featured in the Yokohama Triennale and later this year will exhibit at the Shanghai Biennale.

Yoshitomo Nara is currently exhibiting at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London (till 11/03).

To read the interview click here.

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the Capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

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