Must See: Renata Piotrowski on Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets and Season 9 of The Bachelor

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Let’s start with the series “Courtesans” 2017 – surprisingly, this British project passed me by, but I’m glad that I’m “catching up” – and I highly recommend it to those who love films in the historical drama genre. The scene is London in 1763, the focus is on the life of girls who earn a living as an ancient profession in city brothels of various sizes – from the prestigious to the simplest. Ladies dreaming of a well-fed life are forced to build relationships with cruel brothel owners, and with constables who arrange raids, and with their wealthy clients, who, with luck, can be promoted to the status of a mistress. The series is tough, sometimes cruel – and very believable, here you will not see postcard fashionable London, here – the whole dirty wrong side of a beautiful life. The first two seasons are consistently beautiful, it’s impossible to tear yourself away, the third one is more commercial, and after that the project was closed.

Pretty fresh premiere “Fantastic Beasts: A Dumbledore Mystery”, a British-American fantasy film by David Yates, one of the prequel-spin-offs of the Harry Potter film series. I didn’t watch the previous “series” and, unfortunately, I’m unlikely to watch it anymore: for two and a half hours of screen time, the story didn’t capture me – and the reviews on Kinopoisk only confirm my impression. Of course, an amazing cast, no doubt, fantastic graphics, but it is extremely difficult to understand the plot twists. And another disappointment is the almost wordless role of Alexander Kuznetsov: he looks amazing in the frame, but there is still little hope that such an episodic role can become a turning point in his career.

Ninth season of the show “Bachelor” – the most disastrous “Bachelor” in its entire history: there were no beautiful dates, there was obviously less money in the project, the “picture” became much poorer, and it all looks quite small-town, but there is one “but”: this is the most honest and most sincere season. Heroes often came here not for the sake of relationships, but for the sake of PR – but in this issue everything turned out differently, and that is why there were no dirty stories and intrigues. It seems that the girls really fell in love – and they were reciprocated, at least that’s how it was seen by the viewer.

And I recommend a cool domestic premiere – series “UZZZ”, released on the Premier online platform. This is a crime drama about showdowns in the most dangerous area of ​​Rostov-on-Don, where several crime bosses divide their zones of influence at once. The story is captivating and even a little frightening: this is real life, it boils, it is nearby, and Rostov has always seemed to me such a City-Father, where real men set their own rules. I think that the characters representing the younger generation are made “according to the patterns” of the sensational series “Euphoria”, the types of the main characters are very reminiscent of Zendaya and Jacob Elordi, but it turned out well. Separately, I want to express my admiration for the performance of Anton Kuznetsov and Gela Meskhi – both created incredible images on the screen, this is a 100% hit in the role. Watch everyone!

I recommend a seasonal exhibition (and part-time lecture hall) “Cultural project” – ideal for a busy Moscow schedule. No need to go anywhere on purpose, you can literally “on the run” about your business in the “City” have time to enjoy real art. Until the end of summer, they show a chamber retrospective of the artist Kerim Ragimov, who works with photo-based art: at first it seems that these are just photographs, but no, these are impressive watercolors!

Another important art event: on June 9, the Museum of Russian Impressionism opens an exhibition “Points of view”, in which, through a comparison of self-portraits and portraits of artists, the curators talk about the development of the portrait genre at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The exhibition features works by Ilya Repin, Boris Kustodiev, Robert Falk, Vladimir Tatlin, Zinaida Serebryakova, Natalia Goncharova and others. And the special project “Points of View: Fyodor Chaliapin” on the third floor of the museum invites you to look at the master of disguise Chaliapin through the eyes of the artist and the eyes of his contemporaries.