34 h. ago Ralph Fiennes stuns fans by getting into ‘phenomenal’ shape for new role

Ralph Fiennes has undergone a striking physical transformation for his latest role as Odysseus

Politics

38 h. ago The Last Of Us review: Season two's return is hilariously bad with two

Human society could collapse, and zombies might roam the land, but one glimmer of civilisation will never be extinguished. You'll always be able to see a therapist.

Politics

55 h. ago Harry Potter fans left gobsmacked by Ralph Fiennes 'unreal' body transformation

Ralph Fiennes treated fans to a sneak peek at his body transformation after posting two images of his built physique on social media and the response was as expected

Politics

66 h. ago Juliette Binoche on reuniting with Ralph Fiennes: ‘I know his desires. I know his dark sides’

The Oscar-winning French star talks to Adam White about her new film ‘The Return’, why it is dangerous to be a ‘prisoner’ to directors, and how on the set of ‘The English Patient’ she was ‘trembling all the time’

Politics

4 d. ago Hacks season four review – the return of this extremely funny, hugely raw comedy is a sheer pleasure

This moving, hilarious tale of two comedy frenemies is so good it should be one of the best-loved things on TV. Jean Smart’s performance is a masterclass in how to break an audience’s heartHacks should, by rights, be one of the biggest and best-loved shows on TV. It beat The Bear for outstanding comedy series at last year’s Emmys, and is a triumph of dazzling wit and some of the most lethal backstabbing ever committed to the small screen. In the UK, at least, it hasn’t made the largest impact: probably because, until recently, new seasons hadn’t streamed here since 2022. It recently found a home on Sky (thank goodness), just in time for this fourth outing, which comes complete with a load of starry cameos that HBO have demanded that journalists keep stumm about. If you thought that the toxic frenemy vibe between The White Lotus’s blond BFFs was lacking, say, 500% more shrieking; multiple HR complaints; comedy-flavoured barbs; and a drug-fuelled night out in Vegas, this is the show f...

Politics

5 d. ago Black Mirror season 7 review: Charlie Brooker delivers a welcome return to form

A starry cast aim for San Junipero levels of doomed love in the seventh installment of the hit sci-fi anthology series

Politics

5 d. ago The Return review – Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes bring fierce class to elemental Odyssey adaptation

Uberto Pasolini’s raw and urgent drama, from a draft by Edward Bond, sees a traumatised Odysseus face the shameful aftermath of warThe film world is on tenterhooks for Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Imax-epic treatment of Homer’s Odyssey, but Uberto Pasolini’s fierce, raw drama of the poem’s final sections, describing Odysseus’s traumatised return to Ithaca after the sack of Troy, may well give Nolan something to live up to. Pasolini collaborated on the script with screenwriter John Collee, evidently developed from a draft playwright Edward Bond wrote in the 90s; among other things, this film deserves attention as the final work from Bond (who died in 2024).The Return is an elementally violent movie about PTSD, survivor guilt, abandonment, Freudian dysfunction and ruined masculinity. Juliette Binoche is the deserted queen Penelope, enigmatically reserving her opinions and dignity, refusing to believe the absent king is dead and declining to remarry as the island descends into lawle...

Politics

2 w. ago Ralph Fiennes shares strict regime that made him drastically reduce body fat at 60

Actor transformed body for role in which he wears ‘one red piece of cloth’

Politics

2 w. ago ‘At 60, the bulk of your life is lived. What’s left now?’ Ralph Fiennes and Uberto Pasolini on their ripped and radical take on The Odyssey

The actor and director on why The Return took 30 years to make, their joy at persuading Juliette Binoche to join them – and the punishing regime that earned Fiennes his battle-scarred physiqueUberto Pasolini likes to say he has been thinking about adapting The Odyssey for 30 years – 10 years longer than it took Odysseus to win the Trojan war. A nephew of the director Luchino Visconti, the 67-year-old Italian film-maker has lived in London for 50 years. Pasolini, who won a Bafta for producing The Full Monty, first approached Ralph Fiennes to play Odysseus in 2011, after the actor had made his directorial debut with Coriolanus, believing Fiennes might also be able to direct the film.They got as far as a location scout in Turkey, where Fiennes, then about to play Prospero in a Trevor Nunn production of The Tempest, practised his “Such stuff as dreams are made on” speech in an abandoned outdoor amphitheatre at dusk. “It was me and two goats,” recalls Pasolini over a video chat. “I get t...

Politics

4 w. ago Hay Festival announces return of expert panel series The News Review for 2025

‘The Independent’ will host a selection of experts to dissect the day’s breaking news

Culture