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Features p2

The Ghost and the subtle delights of first-person cinema

Anne Billson: In the hands of a good director, first-person film narrative places us seamlessly inside a protagonist's head. Will technology kill it off?
F&M playlist

Our music team pick the songs or albums, old or new, they just can't turn off

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MGMT: 'We got a glimpse of fame and shrunk back'

From college pranksters to indie-disco stars – and back again? But if MGMT's new album really is commercial suicide, it's unintentional, they tell Alexis Petridis

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Ikonika: the woman pushing dubstep forward

Sara Abdel-Hamid – aka Ikonika – is one of UK dubstep's sharpest talents. She talks about getting inspiration from Madonna, videogames and her cat, writes Stevie Chick
Werner Herzog bags a bizarre voiceover role

Werner Herzog voices the role of a plastic grocery bag in a philosophical short film by much-tipped director Ramin Bahrani. By Chris Michael
Readers recommend resurrection songs: The results

Not just Jesus, but Lazarus, John Barleycorn and a couple of little boys who were pickled by a butcher – songs abound telling tales of those who rose from the dead, writes Paul MacInnes

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Ricky Gervais's ballad of Reading jail

With their new film Cemetery Junction, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant wanted to create a classic British tale of smalltown escape. Ben Walters goes on set and hears how they left irony behind

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Edgard Varèse: in wait for the future

His experiments anticipated electronic music and inspired artists from Morton Feldman to Chris Cunningham – but technology had to catch up first. As the Southbank Centre begins a tribute to Edgard Varèse, Gillian Moore explains why he was 50 years ahead of the curve

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I Am Love

Tilda Swinton plays a Russian in Milan in an elegant drama. By Peter Bradshaw
The Infidel

A secret birth certificate kicks off an identity-crisis comedy, starring Omid Djalili and written by David Baddiel. By Peter Bradshaw

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Whip It

Ellen Page stars in a sweet-natured directorial debut by Drew Barrymore. By Xan Brooks
DVD review: 2012

The Earth's crust gets unstable in Roland Emmerich's latest disaster movie, starring John Cusack. By Rob Mackie
DVD review: Henri-George Clouzot's Inferno

Documentary about a film that never was by the director of Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear. By Rob Mackie
Shelter

Julianne Moore stars in a creaky psychological thriller-horror hybrid. By Cath Clarke
I Know You Know

Robert Carlyle is terrific in a new film by Human Traffic's Justin Kerrigan, writes Xan Brooks
No Greater Love

Michael Whyte's labour-of-love documentary about a Carmelite convent in London. By Xan Brooks

Features p9

The Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt

It's one for the 50-quid blokes, but The Wild Hunt is joy none the less, says Will Dean
Scouting for Girls: Everybody Wants to Be on TV

Scouting for Girls might be a huge success, but they don't charm Caroline Sullivan
Lucky Soul: A Coming of Age

There's no justice when Duffy can become a star and Lucky Soul languish in obscurity. By Maddy Costa
Envy: Set Yourself on Fire

Yet another tiny British female MC produced by Prokofiev's grandson – and another winnner, reckons Alex Macpherson
Darwin Deez: Darwin Deez

Four good songs does not a debut album make, warns Michael Hann
Coheed and Cambria: Year of the Black Rainbow

A prog-metal concept album about a fictional galaxy? Count Jamie Thomson out
Click to download: Notorious B.I.G. meets the xx

Extrovert Notorious Big splices surprisingly well with the retiring xx on a superb new hybrid, writes Chris Salmon
Plan B: The Defamation of Strickland Banks

Three years ago he was a hoodie-clad rapper – now Plan B is living up to his name and changing tack. But is his soul-boy reinvention a dangerous game, asks Alexis Petridis
MGMT: Congratulations

MGMT's second album offeres diamonds lurking amid the distractions, reckons Dave Simpson

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By weight of Numbers

The Glasgow club scene is being revved up again by a new musical collective gunning for London's crown as the UK's dance capital. Dan Hancox pays a visit

Features p11

Meyerbeer: Il Crociato in Egitto

The latest recording of this piece that made Meyerbeer internationally famous is impressive if flawed, writes Tim Ashley
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

With his Russian National Orchestra on devastating form, Mikhail Pletnev does Tchaikovsky's original score supremely well, writes Tim Ashley
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love from Dee Dee

The larger-than-life Bridgewater brings out the parts of Billie Holiday's life not touched by tragedy, writes John Fordham
Gilberto Gil: BandaDois

Brazil's Gilberto Gil's voice, guitar work and range are as impressive, and this time he's backed by sons Bem and José, writes Robin Denselow
Herrmann: Citizen Kane; Hangover Square

Bernard Herrmann is for some the greatest of all film composers, but the brevity of most of the numbers on this disc leads to a sense of pithiness when you hear them without the visuals, writes Tim Ashley
Handel: Arias

This album comes with the subtitle Mezzo-Soprano Opera Arias, which is actually a misnomer as all the characters here are men, writes Tim Ashley
D'Albert: Complete Bach Transcriptions D'Albert: Symphony in F major; Seejungfräulein

Two discs give major insights into the controversial and eccentric painist-composer Eugen d'Albert, says Tim Ashley
Billy Jenkins: I Am a Man from Lewisham

Jenkin's combination of overpowering R&B and gospel and down-at-heel lyrics is still a cutting one, writes John Fordham
Kronos Quartet with Alim and Fargana Qasimov and Homayun Sakhi: Rainbow

The Kronos Quartet are known for the diverse collaborations and this excursion into Azerbaijani works with Alim and Fargana Qasimov features inventive arrangements around some powerful vocal work, writes Robin Deneslow
Arild Andersen: Green in Blue: Early Quartets

This box set series brings together double-bassist Arild Andersen's 1970s quartet sessions as a leader, writes John Fordham
Van Hove/Dunmall/Rogers/Lytton: Asynchronous

This quartet of veteran free improvisers impresses over two tracks recorded at the Europa jazz festival in 2008, writes John Fordham

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First sight: Samuel Maoz

The Israeli director of the war film Lebanon
Hail, Hail, Rock'n'Roll

Joe was the person who taught me the importance of having a musical partner in crime – someone who is lit by the same fire as you, writes Laura Barton