Culture Digest: The best things to do, hear, see or watch in Europe this week

Struggling to know what to do this week?

As the chillier months settle in (and news about adult pacifiers circulates), there's a creeping desire to crawl under a duvet and hide from the world. But don't worry - we've found lots of exciting exhibitions, movies, TV and music to lure you back out.

From Paul Thomas Anderson's eagerly awaited new movie One Battle After Another, to Welsh musician Cate Le Bon's compositions on heartbreak, and a retrospective on renowned sculptor Prince Paolo Petrovich Troubetzkoy in Paris, the end of September is filled with treats.

Here are this week's handpicked highlights.

Exhibitions and events

Paul Troubetzkoy. The Sculptor Prince

When: 30 September - 11 January 2026 

Where: Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)

Described by George Bernard Shaw as the most "astonishing sculptor of modern times", Prince Paolo Petrovich Troubetzkoy's works remain world-renowned. From portraits of Tolstoy to Tchaikovsky, he was a master at capturing people with an emotive spontaneity that was highly sought-after by society's elite. This retrospective at Paris's Musée d’Orsay explores his fascinating legacy, along with the lesser-known aspects of his career and personal life, including his dedication to animal rights.

Gothic Modern

When: Until 11 January 2026

Where: Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)

As the spooky season approaches, fans of all things Gothic art should head to the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Spotlighting works by artists including Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz and Max Beckmann, ‘Gothic Modern’ explores how their dark symbolism and religious motifs were inspired by the mystical aesthetics and existential themes of medieval aesthetics.

Bonus highlight: A two-day festival dedicated to director David Lynch takes place in London 27-28 September. 

Movies

One Battle After Another 

Where: European cinemas 

When: 17 September 

Few events generate as much excitement amongst cinephiles as the release of a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Four years after his Oscar-nominated nostalgia trip, Licorice Pizza, he's back with offbeat thriller One Battle After Another. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, a directionless, paranoid stoner and ex-revolutionary, he finds himself on a mission against an old evil nemesis when daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) goes missing.

Bonus highlight: Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi about a young woman living in Gaza during the ongoing Israeli conflict, arrives in select French cinemas from 24 September.

TV series

Slow Horses

Where: Apple TV+ 

When: 24 September 

Gary Oldman returns as Jackson Lamb, a scruffy but sharp-tongued spy leading a group of MI5 rejects in the fifth season of Slow Horses on Apple TV+. Based on the novel London Rules in Mick Herron's Slough House series, this time insidious events are unfolding to the backdrop of a controversial mayoral election. Fast paced, tense, timely and often hilarious, it's a show that continues to serve satisfying genre thrills - and on this occasion, a flatulent Oldman.

Bonus highlight: The Savant, starring Jessica Chastain as a top-secret detective tracking online hate groups, streams on Apple TV+ from 26 September.  

Music

Cate Le Bon: Michelangelo Dying

When: 26 September 

Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon releases her seventh studio album, ‘Michelangelo Dying’, on 26 September. Having previously won the highly-coveted Hyundai Mercury Prize for her 2019 album 'Reward', Le Bon is known for her haunting, disjointed and abstract music and lyrics. This latest release perhaps tackles her more tangible subject matter yet: heartbreak. "[The album's] not really about him,” she told the Guardian, continuing, “[it's about] realising you’ve completely abandoned yourself in the throes of this all-encompassing love. The breakup was always like an amputation that you don’t really want, but you know will save you.”

Bonus highlights: American indie band Bright Eyes are releasing their 15th EP, 'Kids Table', on 26 September. Mariah Carey is also back with her sixteenth studio record, 'Here For It All'.