This year, two movies about the great Baroque composer are due to be released. Why the sudden fascination with a man who died 270 years ago? Jonathan Brown reports
i Newspaper
 
TheIPaper
The Independent around the web
E-break Time
Independent Crossword

Harriet Walker: Equality in relationships, as on the dancefloor, is an illusion

It's terribly unfashionable to say it, but women will never reach complete parity with men. How can we, when we still rely on them not to dump us and one day to pop the question?

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel split

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel have ended their four-year relationship.

DVD: The Illusionist, For retail & rental (20th Century Fox)

Directed by Sylvain Chomet, from a screenplay written by Jacques Tati in 1959, this gorgeously hand-drawn cartoon sees an ageing French conjurer trying his luck in Edinburgh, where he shares a boarding house with a young girl.

DVD: The Illusionist (PG)

Fans of Sylvain Chomet's wonderful Belleville Rendez-Vous will find the director in a slightly gentler mood here.

Heaven knows we're beautiful now

We're taller, healthier and more attractive than ever. But are we also more boring? Harriet Walker looks beneath the surface of the new beauty

Screen Talk: Blood money

For the first time, Hollywood is admitting that it pays to be long in the tooth – but only if you're a vampire. Bloodsuckers are big business, worth an estimated $7bn across all entertainment, since Twilight hit the big screen two years ago.

The Illusionist (PG) <br/>Salt (12A) <br/>The Expendables (15)

You have to smile, but Tati's magic show remains a hat without a rabbit

Film of the week: The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet, 79 mins, (PG)

Starring Jean-Claude Donda, Edith Rankin, Didier Gustin

The A-Team (12A)

The Karate Kid looks a model of coherence and charm next to The A-Team. Please tell me the TV show wasn't quite so fatuous as this farrago of action stunts and non-liners (the opposite of a one-liner).

The Illusionist, Edinburgh Film Festival

Magic show from the Jacques pack

Valentine's Day (NC)

At first sight Garry Marshall's all-star ensemble looks to be a Short Cuts-lite – Short Cutlets, if you will – until it establishes its tone of flabby sentimentality and you realise it's more like an LA version of Love, Actually. There's even a sickeningly precocious kid who declares his love to an adult.

Jessica Biel: Out of this world

Jessica Biel has shed her pin-up image but exudes sex appeal even when playing an alien, as Gill Pringle discovers

Katie Price proves a big draw for cybercrooks

Katie Price was named the UK's "most dangerous celebrity in cyberspace" by internet researchers today.

Jessica Biel: 'I fight against prejudice every day'

Jessica Biel has two men in her life at the moment &ndash; Justin Timberlake and No&#235;l Coward. But as James Mottram discovers, she only wants to talk about one of them
Career Services

Day In a Page

Ten things we’re looking out for at E3 2012

Ten things to look out for at E3 2012

From Wii U to The Last of Us we consider this year's show
Come dine (online) with me

Come dine (online) with me

Move over TV chefs, hello YouTube stars
Next in line – but public just can't warm to idea of Charles in charge

Next in line – but public just can't warm to idea of Charles in charge

'Independent' poll finds less that half want him to take throne as ministers moan of interference
Nothing's sacred: the illegal trade in India's holy cows

Nothing's sacred: the illegal trade in India's holy cows

Andrew Buncombe reports from Kaharpara on a bloody war between rustlers and border guards
Mogul grounded: Desmond gives up his jet deal

Mogul grounded: Desmond gives up his jet deal

Media tycoon's company pays £1m to cancel his order for a £36m private jet after drop in profits
How Ai Weiwei built a pavilion in London – by remote control

How Ai Weiwei built a pavilion in London – by remote control

The artist tells Clifford Coonan how he used Skype to escape confinement in Beijing
Nature, nurture... or neither? The new twist in an age-old argument

Nature, nurture... or neither?

The new twist in an age-old argument
Radio 4 to shed its cosy image with a 'sexy' Ulysses drama

Radio 4 to shed its cosy image with a 'sexy' Ulysses drama

New station controller wants to reflect the current period of 'turmoil and uncertainity'
Alcohol: I drink therefore I am

Alcohol: I drink therefore I am

New guidelines warn Britons to drastically reduce their boozing. But is a life without liquor worth living? Hell no, says John Walsh
The Cable News Nightmare: CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis

The Cable News Nightmare

CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis
Like a barbie, but better: The Big Green Egg can griddle, roast, and smoke food - and even make pizza

The Big Green Egg: Like a barbie, but better

It can griddle, roast, and smoke food - and even make pizza...
The 10 Best chopping boards

The 10 Best chopping boards

Whether you want to dice veg, chop meat, or just slice up a salad, there’s a surface here to suit every culinary need.
Flat and fabulous: From wraps to foccacias, our appetite for new and exotic breads knows no limits

Flat and fabulous: Exotic breads

Lucy McDonald visits the bakeries of Tel Aviv to to find out what we'll be eating next.
Brendan Rodgers: Just like Mourinho... only different

Brendan Rodgers: Just like Mourinho... only different

Obsessive, ambitious, eager to learn and with no playing career; can the Northern Irishman be Liverpool's Special One?
Gary Lewin: Players need winter break

Gary Lewin: Players need winter break

The England physio tells Patrick Barclay that this spate of injuries is due to the non-stop demands of the Premier League