Jenny Hval’s music sneaks up on you. Her latest album, “Innocence is Kinky” (Rune Grammofon), may at first seem pristine and icy, but give it time and it morphs into something more ragged and confrontational. The Norwegian artist uses her music to confront topics that people aren’t all that comfortable with, especially sexuality and gender issues, and the bite comes through. In a recent phone conversation with ARTINFO, Hval talked about why she started recording under her own name, being labeled “transgressive,” and an album of sonnets that she never got around to.

When did you start working on the new album?

I released my previous album and had no shows booked, so I thought, “Oh, I have to do something.” That was the start of it, just having a bit of time. And then, I got offered to do a silent film concert — this is two years ago — and I had to compose all new music, so that was when a lot of the material started happening. I think a lot of the material has gone through different stages because I’ve been working in different mediums — I’ve been playing with my band for a long time, and working on my own for awhile doing sound installations, and writing a lot of text for a book and catalog. This project has just sort of kept coming with me to all those things.

At what point did it start to take the form it was released in?

I think that was probably the sound installation work. That was about a year ago. It was also called “Innocence is Kinky,” but it was a different entity from the album, and some of those ideas are still changing. I don’t really like when things are not changing. A lot of my old music I can’t play anymore. It’s become boring. I like to keep alive the experience where something is happening, the creation of something.

You’ve released four albums, but the first two were recorded as Rockettothesky. Do you consider those separate from what you’ve put out under your own name?

No, it’s the same project. It was just something I needed to get rid of to move on to more confrontational material. I got very sick of that name and it also felt like I was putting on some kind of armor by using a name that was very cutesy. It also had a bit of a phallic issue.

Do you feel like you have more freedom recording under your own name?

Using my own name, there’s nothing more and nothing less; it’s just what I do. I think it makes me think less about image. When I started recording stuff, which was kind of when I started to feel like a musician, I started recording and I didn’t just record songs — I recorded a myriad of other things too, like spoken word pieces and sound design and lots of different things that didn’t fit in a large setting with a band, or on an album that was a pop album.

How do you feel about being labeled a transgressive artist?

I’ve always kind of reacted to any kind of label with a bit of disgust. I used to hate being a pop artist. I don’t really mind what other people think of my music, but it’s just that kind of labeling thing is easy to accept when it’s someone else, and so hard to free yourself from when it’s about you. I don’t actually mind being called transgressive, although I’m not sure I can follow up on the label with what I do next. I don’t feel like I need to.

Do you feel like people are trying to trap you in a box?

Well, people do that all the time. But I guess that’s a lot to do with how you trap yourself. I’m always getting sick of what I’ve been called for awhile, then I feel I need to do something that’s not that. But as I grow older I hope I’ll care less about it. I don’t really think there’s a hierarchy between forms. I used to think that pop music was on the lower end, and that being an experimental artist was higher up. It’s not a sign of any kind of quality to be called experimental — it can be the opposite, it can just mean, “I don’t understand it.”

Regardless of what it’s being called, it seems like your music makes people feel uncomfortable. Is this your intention?

I think if I’m trying to confront something, I do it as I work. The only person I’d be confronting when I make things — unless it’s in a live setting — is myself. So if there’s a problem there, I probably have it as well. I guess at a certain level, I do want to confront. I’m always torn between kind of creating a flow that’s nice to listen to and interesting, and breaking that down and putting up a mirror — “Look at yourself!”

So you like making people uncomfortable?

I do like that emotional response. And I like having that emotional response to other things as well. To other art. I think those moments are really valuable. And I really like experiencing them myself as a listener. At the moment I’m really enjoying the YouTube comments to my latest video [for the title track]. I’m constantly reading the comments. It’s like a giant collective therapy session. I sometimes wonder why people comment when they just have this emotional outlook, but in this case I think it’s very interesting, because people are showing a type of vulnerability. Some of them are of funny.  Some of them are just kind of like, “I hate it,” but some of them are showing insecurity.

How have you noticed a change in yourself as an artist since the beginning of your career?

I’m making things that are more like the way I am, and less what I want to be like. When I started out, a lot of the songs were quite pretty. And I couldn’t live with it. I think I have become freer, but it does take a lot of time. I kind of think, why didn’t I do riot girl, because I’m becoming more and more aggressive in my work.

Where do you go from here?

I’m at a point where I’m just doing stuff. I have no idea what it’s about. We’ll see. I’m not very good at following up. When I say that I’m doing something, I usually do something else afterwards. I once told a journalist I was about to do an album of sonnets, which I’m very glad I didn’t do, and probably will never do.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Follow @BLOUIN_PA

WHO:

The Wordless Music Orchestra, the New York-based in-house ensemble of the Wordless Music Series, who collaborate with artists across many genres. Since their inception in 2006, they have performed with acts as varied as Arvo Pärt, Tyondai Braxton, John Cale, and William Basinski. “At the moment,” New Yorker music critic Alex Ross wrote, “there is no more inventive music series in New York.”

WHAT:

A live performance of the score to “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” the celebrated 2012 film directed by Benh Zeitlin and composed by Dan Romer. “Originally the film, because it was an independent, fairly low-budget production, a lot of the music you hear in the score was essentially small groups of musicians — four, six, eight people — who are miked very closely and whose instruments are being made to sound like a much bigger orchestra through studio manipulation,” Wordless founder and producer Ronan Givony told ARTINFO in a phone conversation. “For these performances, it’s the first time the music is allowed to breathe and develop with a much larger ensemble.”

The group will perform to a new cut of the film with only dialogue and sound effects, so the orchestra is not playing over itself. But the music will not be a carbon copy of the original. “A lot of the original film was essentially improvised. They were not really written out or notated in the way a more conventional composer might,” Givony said. “So it’s certainly a piece of music that existed, but the form it will take for the shows will be a new thing and will be a pleasant surprise for a lot of people.”

WHEN:

Thursday, August 8, at 8 p.m.

WHERE:

Prospect Park, as part of Celebrate Brooklyn, a summer-long festival that offers free, outdoor cultural events. The program was created in 1979 to bolster the then staggering performing arts scene in Brooklyn. Now, they need no help, as the events regularly attract thousands of people. 

WHY:

“The film obviously stands on its own. It’s a classic movie and it’s something people will be watching for a long time,” Givony said. “Typically, when an audience sees an orchestra or band accompany a film, it’s almost always movies from the ’20s and the ’30s, and it’s always the same suspects — Buster Keaton, “The Passion of Joan d’Arc,” “The Man with the Movie Camera,” all that.

“We love those movies too, but the impetus of this project was to work with something contemporary, let’s work with a young director, and a young composer. It’s inevitably going to be a different thing hearing a soundtrack embedded in a movie versus a 20-piece band. Musically, and cinematically, and being able to watch it in public, outdoors — we were really knocked out at the invitation to do it.”

Follow @BLOUIN_PA

From October 16 to December 16, 2013, the Pompidou Center will present “Planet Marker,”  a wide-ranging retrospective of the work of Chris Marker, filmmaker, video artist, visual artist, writer, and creator, who died in July 2012. Films, videos, installations, books, CD-roms, and websites will be part of the event schedule. “Chris Marker was part of all the cultural and technological revolutions,” the museum said in a press release. “Today his work is still just as alive and current and remains a source of inspiration for numerous artists the world over.”

With almost 200 films and videos, the cinematic programming will offer a unique perspective on Marker’s work. Divided into several “Markerian zones” (“When the Century Took Shape,” “The Use of the World,” “Japanisms,” “Sovietisms,” “Views of the Worker’s World,” “Resistances,” and “Canal Chris”), the works in the show will include Marker’s own films, films in which he participated, and movies “that he loved, defended, or inspired.” This last category includes Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” Alain Resnais’s “Je t’aime, je t’aime,” Isaac Julien’s “Territories,” and Alexander Medvedkin’s “Happiness.” Some films will be introduced by filmmakers, actors, and intellectuals, including Agnès Varda, Isild Le Besco, Bernard Eisenschitz, and Régis Debray.

An exhibition will focus on Marker’s literary and multimedia production through installations, sites, and collections in the Pompidou Center, with which Marker regularly collaborated starting in 1978. Every Saturday evening at 6:30, a series of discussions of Marker’s work will feature participants including Paul Paviot, Kiki Picasso, Hervé Serry, and Agnès de Cayeux. “Planet Marker” will also involve readings at the Pompidou Center’s library and will include several new sound creations and multimedia performances in homage to Marker’s science-fiction film “La Jetée” (which inspired Terry Gilliam’s “Twelve Monkeys”).

The emphasis of “Planet Marker” is firmly on cinema, and it coincides with the re-release of several of Marker’s films in the theater and in restored versions on DVD. These two months of celebration will offer a chance to see “Sans Soleil,” “Level Five,” “Letters from Siberia,” “La Jetée,” “Junkopia,” “Le Fond de l’Air Est Rouge,” “Vive la Baleine,” “The Last Bolshevik,” “Le Joli Mai,” “Far from Vietnam,” and “Sunday in Peking.”

Michael Kors is hitting the mark with high-end and aspirational consumers thanks to its laser focus.  The luxury brand’s profits jumped 82 percent, with strong sales in stores and online and its stock on Wall Street soaring too.

Despite the continued global art market boom, Sotheby’s reported second-quarter and half-year (through June) earnings yesterday, showing just a slight gain in profit, citing fierce competition for high-end consignments and an uptick in total expenses.

For the second quarter — typically a major contributor to earnings  since it includes results from the May New York auctions — the house reported revenue of $304.9 million, roughly even with the $304 million reported one year ago. Net income was up, to $91.7 million, or $1.33 a share, from $85.4 million ($1.24 a share). This was largely due, however, to a $6.8-million income tax benefit realized in this year’s second quarter.

The house said auction commission revenues were “positively impacted by the buyer’s premium rate increase that took effect on March 15 and contributed an additional $19.8 million of second-quarter revenue.”

In terms of the areas the company is focusing on, CEO Bill Ruprecht cited the importance of new buyers from China and the Middle East as well as upgrades to the auction house’s digital platform. “We believe these will better serve our clients and enhance the long-term value of the franchise,” said Ruprecht in a conference call with analysts and investors following the earnings release yesterday afternoon.

Sotheby’s continues to invest in China and emerging markets and “expects those investments to greatly benefit future results as interest from new markets continues to grow.” Ruprecht noted that 22 percent of first time buyers at the house’s worldwide spring sales were from Asia. Five years ago just 21 percent of Sotheby’s sold lots were purchased by buyers from new markets. Today that figure has nearly doubled, to 39 percent — well over a third.

Sotheby’s also announced that it will launch private selling exhibitions in London this autumn, under its existing “S|2” label, adding to existing private selling exhibitions in New York and Hong Kong. “Private sales and private selling exhibitions are an increasingly important part of Sotheby’s business as the company leverages experts’ expertise and experience with a low level of associated expenses,” according to the second-quarter earnings report. For instance, in Hong Kong this fall, Sotheby’s will present a selling exhibition of Pop art entitled, “From Warhol, With Love,” which will focus primarily on the his works on paper as an attractive entry point for new collectors.

Rommel Dionisio, a research analyst with Wedbush Securities who follows Sotheby’s, released a report this morning noting that second-quarter results were “in line with our own estimates but a bit shy of consensus forecasts (which proved to be a bit overzealous in light of the recent commission rate increase).” Consensus forecasts for revenue had been $318 million, or about $13 million above what Sotheby’s realized. Said Dionisio: “The impact of the price increase was, as we had anticipated, partially offset by competitive press to win high-value consignments for some of the major spring auctions.”

Ruprecht said as much during the conference call, noting that while the house saw “significant sales growth in Impressionist, modern and contemporary art…We continue to see fierce competition for high-end consignments and as a result, lower auction commission margins.”

Dionisio maintained his “outperform” rating on Sotheby’s stock and a price target of $49, noting “rising levels of global wealth…should continue to fuel increased demand in the art auction market, particularly in the emerging Asian markets.”

This morning Sotheby’s shares were trading around $44.20 on the New York Stock Exchange, down a notch from the close at $44.91 in trading yesterday.

Actor Dustin Hoffman has undergone treatment for cancer, the Oscar-winner's publicist confirms.

Hoffman's publicist, Jodi Gottlieb, declined to say what kind of cancer or when the "Tootsie" star was diagnosed.

The news was first reported by People Magazine, where Gottlieb said the cancer had been "detected early and he has been surgically cured."

The 75-year-old actor is set to undergo further preventative treatments to protect against the cancer returning, People reported.

Hoffman, who won the best actor Oscar for his roles in 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and 1988's "Rain Man," made his directorial debut with the 2012 comedy-drama "Quartet".

He is set to star alongside Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. in the Jon Favreau-directed comedy "Chef," which is set for release next year.

Much like the restaurant business, you won’t know a commercial gallery is going to hold until it surpasses the five-year mark — and even then it’s dicey. But the first 12-36 months are where all the magic happens: where the spark of audacity and the buffeting of ambition are most deeply felt, followed by an inspired process of innovation. As the economy slowly begins to regain its legs, and Canada’s art market awakens to its contemporary talent, BLOUIN ARTINFO Canada profiles eleven commercial galleries shaping the country’s contemporary artworld. These span three major art centers — Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal — as well as relative outposts like Edmonton and Halifax.

Parentheses, Halifax

A commercial venue focused on representing work “where street art, the artist-run, and the salable” collide, the Halifax-based Parentheses is bringing fresh alternatives to a small art community overrun with not-for-profits and underrepresented talent. Owners and curators Dave Hayden and Kevin Lewis opened the space in 2011, though only officially inaugurated their own storefront gallery in March of this year. Hayden, a surgeon and collector, and Lewis, a NSCAD graduate and artist, approach their task with disparate skills. “We wanted to fill the void. It was challenging but salable art we were after,” says Lewis. Producing “one-off” solo and group shows in place of a set roster (for the moment), and featuring talents like James Kirkpatrick, Saddo, and muralist Other (a.k.a. Troy Lovegates), Lewis admits they’re focused on showcasing work that their community can foster. “We’re not just speaking to the converted. We’re positioned in north Halifax, so it’s an up-and-coming neighborhood and bearing social-economical issues; we’re trying to integrate the community. Working with street art gives us that access,” he says. Since opening their storefront gallery space, Lewis says the duo have had to rise to the challenge. “This has totally changed things, it’s a more serious venture, we have to make rent. But we’re being taken more seriously, now, too.”

Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver

After last year’s closure of the co-directed Blanket Contemporary, gallerist Sarah Macaulay wasted no time initiating her first independent commercial venture. Macauley & Co. Fine Art was inaugurated shortly after Blanket’s closure, and carried over many of its artists. Presenting a powerfully contemporary turn on the idea of West Coast “Canadian art,” with artists Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and Beau Dick leading the pack (respectively redressing totemic idols and traditional potlatch masks in expressionist figuration and irony), and popular young artists like “Wendy” author and illustrator Walter Scott illuminating Macaulay’s focus on the contemporary and idiosyncratic, the dealer explains her niche as being intrinsically tied to Vancouver. “I have always felt that its geographic isolation has contributed to the production of interesting work. Vancouver itself does not supply a great deal of stimulation other than pretty vistas, so a person has to dig deep. It creates a rigorous environment,” she says. “There have never been many galleries in Vancouver. I became aware of a young generation of painters who were making really interesting work, but were rarely visible due to the dominant (photo) conceptualist work that Vancouver had become known for.” Though that market has expanded since Blanket Contemporary’s 2005 inauguration, Macaulay says there’s still more work to be done. “Nobody wanted to show Vancouver painting, so naturally, I felt like it was an interesting thing to do. Needless to say I didn’t have dollar signs in my eyes, although over the years, many of these artists are now widely collected. Today Vancouver is much more open to different agendas.”

Nicolas Robert Gallery, Montreal

Housed in Montreal’s historic gallery enclave, the Belgo Building, Nicolas Robert’s eponymous gallery has managed to establish itself apart. Opening his doors in 2011, the gallerist (who began as a collector in 2000) places an emphasis on abstract geometric painting and contemporary photography. He describes his focus, saying “think shape, color, minimal, and formal art,” and represents a diminutive roster of seven artists, including emerging talents like Joe Lima and Christian Knudsen, fast-accelerating artists like Lorna Bauer, and projects involving banner names like Robert Houle. “I think a stronger relation between Montréal and other major Canadian cities would benefit each other,” he says. “The Canadian arts community tends to ‘work in silo.’  [But] Montreal is a living pool of talented artists. I didn’t have any doubt in opening the gallery in this city, in the heart of Montreal’s cultural scene.”

Tomorrow Gallery, Toronto

Approaching its two-year anniversary this fall, the young and internationally-minded Tomorrow Gallery is actively raising the bar for Canada’s commercial artworld, while regularly impressing itself of those of New York and Europe. The gallery’s focus on young and international talent — with a unique approach to straddling commercial and artist-run agendas — has its directors (Tara Downs, Alexander Hardashnakov, and Hugh Scott-Douglas, all under the age of 30) receiving laurels from the likes of Jerry Saltz and repeated coverage on Contemporary Art Daily, while making waves at New York’s NADA art fair. The gallery, positioned in Toronto’s underdeveloped (but actively evolving) industrial west end, continues to evolve and emerge, its gallerists shifting their relationships to the enterprise as international opportunities continue to pull them away. Downs became associate director of Berlin’s Tanya Leighton Gallery this spring, though continues to manage Tomorrow from afar. Scott-Douglas, meanwhile, moved to New York last year, pursuing his increasingly successful art practice with a lauded exhibition at L.A.’s Blum and Poe, and a secondary market coup in the UK, this summer. He is now cited as a “creative consultant” with the Toronto gallery. Meanwhile, Hardashnakov, himself a respected and well-represented artist, appears to be holding down the fort. With emerging stars like Egan Frantz, Pinot Noir, and Mike Goldby studding their roster, and Downs talking about developing a satellite project space in Berlin, Tomorrow’s site lines continue to expand beyond the foreseeable future.

Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, Montreal

Another tenant of Montreal’s Belgo Building, Hugues Charbonneau opened his gallery in 2012. With a focus on abstract two-dimensional work, and including in his roster standouts like Jean-Benoît Pouliot and Séripop, the dealer helped open Montreal mega-gallery Arsenal, and previously worked at art publication, esse, before beginning his solo venture. “I had the chance to begin very early in life,” he explains, citing his nearly two decades as an art instructor, curator, and publisher. “I worked for the big machines of the art market in Canada and I collaborated with the big players in New York. By the time I opened the gallery, I had closed all the possible types of transactions you could imagine and I could analyze the art scene from multiple points of view.” Representing a manageable roster of ten artists, the gallerist explains that “the gallery is of an average size, small enough to remain a laboratory. I have observed the limitations and traps of fast growth; the idea is rather to take the time to present art in the right context and to commit to show it often enough to allow people to understand how an artist is evolving and what a given artistic production is really about.”

Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal

Following in his father’s footsteps, Montreal-born, Paris-raised Antoine Ertaskiran opened a new space for contemporary art in 2012, complete with an enviable and eclectic roster of artists. He quickly positioned the Montreal gallery to become a major force in the city’s small but discerning market. Ertaskiran has already presented eleven exhibitions and shown at fairs including New York’s VOLTA. Along with neighbors Fonderie Darling and Arsenal, Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran joins a wave of cultural revitalization in Griffintown, a former industrial neighborhood now home to art spaces, residential lofts, and an emerging tech sector. In recent shows, Michael A. Robinson’s stunning assemblages of lights, lamps, and cameras glimmered in the gallery’s open spaces, while Sayeh Sarfaraz’s psychologically charged installations of children’s toys employed a cunning sense of scale. Keep an eye out for upcoming exhibitions such as the searing political commentary of Dominique Blain and Jacynthe Carrier’s lyrical film work.

Telephone Booth Gallery, Toronto

With a background in working with both non-profit and commercial galleries, artist and gallerist Sharlene Rankin inaugurated her own gallery in 2010, opening the Telephone Booth Gallery in Toronto’s west-end Junction neighborhood. Focused on “materials and process-oriented work,” with standouts like Frances Thomas and the collective Iron Men on her roster, Rankin says she “can see a love of fine craft coming through” her exhibition practices and artist selections. Looking back, she says, “a latent love of fiber and textiles surfaced, as well as an interest in glass and porcelain. I love process-oriented and labor-intensive artworks.” She says, “the artwork that has been my focus for the past three years has largely concentrated on themes surrounding the domestic, feminine, and memory as well as a little urban grittiness. It is funny, I do like things that are delicate and lovely and then something kind of dark that reminds one of their mortality." Discussing what she perceives to be lacking in the Canadian artworld, Rankin says, “more sales.” Obviously, she’s working to change this.

Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver

An engineer by training, and a collector by habit, the Vancouver-based Wil Aballe began young, developing an admitted “obsession” with the practice of buying art. Following a successful three-year stint programming for the city’s Contemporary Art Society, the young dealer recently opened a space in his apartment. Discussing this transition, Aballe says that “rumors had started” that he would open his own space, “and it was only a matter of time before that prophecy was fulfilled.” Aballe's inaugural show featured 2013 RBC Painting finalist, Sean Weisgerber, in January 2013. Citing Germany’s Galerie Daniel Buchholz and Vancouver’s The Apartment as precursors to his domestic project space, Aballe explains his interest in conceiving of “something as ‘a gallery’ without setting it up as an antiseptic white cube. I believe art is most interesting out of the context of a gallery, within someone’s domestic space, where it is integrated within a life, as well as the other elements and objects within that space.” His 2014 program promises a focus on video art, and several off-site projects, performances, and installations.

Erin Stump Projects, Toronto

Erin Stump continues to hold her ground on Toronto’s competitive Queen West strait, her eponymous Erin Stump Projects a regular must-see space for its promotion of cutting-edge installation work and abstract painting. Stump focuses on emerging contemporary Canadians, though they don’t tend to stay emerging for long. Her roster includes bright light Vanessa Maltese, whose painting career took off last year, winning her the 2012 RBC Canadian Painting Competition and several high-profile shows and collaborations. Also featured are artists Robyn Cumming and Winnie Truong. Stump got her start with Toronto gallerist, Katharine Mulherin, co-launching the dealer’s adjunct gallery Board of Directors in 2008. She opened her solo gallery, ESP, in April 2011.

Dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton

David Candler opened dc3 Art Projects in September of 2012, immediately impacting the northern prairie town’s spare contemporary art ’scape with an ambitious commercial project. Only six months after opening his doors, the dealer — a longtime collector and self-professed “artworld advocate” — could be spotted at Montreal’s niche (but increasingly winning) art fair, Papier, doing what we suspect he’ll be good at doing elsewhere: uniquely representing Edmonton in the country’s metropolis-centered roster of commercial galleries. Dc3 Art Projects focuses on emerging to midcareer talent, bringing sculptors like Blair Brennan and  Sean Caulfield, and painter Tammy Salzl, out of their provincial fold. Candler does this with an inventive slant, for instance showcasing Brennan's heavy steel-encased book sculptures and Caulfield's immense wood-blocks among Papier’s sometimes too-literal interpretation of its chief medium. Candler is seeing results (one work “was acquired by a prominent Quebecois celebrity,” he hinted), and we suspect he’ll continue to do so at this year’s Art Toronto, and with upcoming projects that include work by banner names Manon de Pauw, Marcel Dzama, and Neil Farber.

Simon Cooper Cole, Toronto

Named one of BLOUIN ARTINFO Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in early 2013, Simon Cooper Cole is proving himself a worthwhile inclusion. The gallerist, 30, who runs an expansive storefront space in downtown Toronto, recently opened a second gallery space in the city, while continuing to push a young generation of abstract material sculptors amidst a spectrum of international talent. Cole founded his first gallery, Show & Tell, in 2008, establishing the more soberly-titled Cooper Cole Gallery a few years later. “My interests have always been focused on showing international artists locally and Canadian artists abroad. I think to be a relevant participant in the global art world, this is an absolute must,” he says. Cooper Cole participates in numerous international art fairs, gaining a broad reputation for being one of Canada’s top destinations for tomorrow’s stars in contemporary art. 

Drab and dilapidated wheelchairs are being transformed into rolling works of art. An enterprising hospital in the Philippines is raising awareness and cash money for the disabled with an unusual and eye-catching exhibition.  After the show, the hospital plans to auction off the art-covered wheelchairs to benefit rehab patients.

EDINBURGH — The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is now underway, with more than 2,500 shows and 24,000 performers providing a diverse range of theater, comedy, dance, and music. The festival is the biggest cultural event in the world, and choosing from the line-up is an overwhelming task. Here are ARTINFO’s five top picks.

1. “Three Lions”
This play is that rare delight — a near perfect production. The subject matter is a hilarious dramatization of the fateful trip to Switzerland by David Beckham, Prince William, and Prime Minister David Cameron as they sought to win the bid to host the football 2018 World Cup. William Gaminara’s script is tight and well-observed, the direction seamless, and the acting faultless and compelling. A must-see, and likely to be a big hitt long beyond the Fringe.
Runs at The Pleasance until August 26

2. “A Bic For Her”
Bridget Christie’s comedy show should be required viewing for all men and women — not just for its incisive arguments and compelling views on feminism, but because she is a master of the art of stand-up. Taking on everyone from Stirling Moss and Beyonce to Margaret Thatcher and lads’ magazines, the show is non-stop laughs, yet Christie leaves you with a moving and inspiring message.
Runs at The Stand Comedy Club until August 25

3. “Anna”
This dark, serious show looks at the life of the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Set in an underground corridor, it explores her investigations, the people she helped, the threats she received, and her assassination. It is designed to be uncomfortable viewing — both physically and mentally – and it works. Powerful and unsettling with a stand-out performance from Marnie Baxter as Anna.
Runs at Summerhall until August 25

4. “Making News”
With work, this show could be brilliant. As it stands, it’s an interesting, reasonably entertaining insight into the world of BBC politics with moments of comedic genius and a strong conclusion. But two performances make it worth seeing — Dan Starkey, a joy to watch in anything, and the brilliant comic Hal Cruttenden.
Runs at The Pleasance until August 25

5. “The Events”
The pre-festival controversy around David Greig’s new play — which looks at what happens in the aftermath of a massacre — made it one of the most highly anticipated shows at Edinburgh this season. Happily, it lives up the hype, with a powerful script and clever staging.
Runs at The Traverse until August 25

Follow @UK_ARTINFO

There’s a Laurel and Hardy quality about the two-man road crew in the Tribeca-premiered indie “Prince Avalanche,” at least initially. Alvin (Paul Rudd) is uptight, bossy, and superior; Lance (Emile Hirsch) is gormless, sheepish, and easily mystified. Alvin patronizes Lance, who oafishly rebels. They bicker and make up.

David Gordon Green’s affecting low-key buddy comedy (or is it a drama?) is set in rural central Texas in 1988, a year after a wildfire decimated 43,000 acres, killing four, according to the opening titles. Images of the conflagration segue into Alvin and Lance camping peacefully in the woods at night and then working, less harmoniously, at their backbreaking job of painting yellow lines and gumming reflectors on the region’s blacktops.

Based on the Icelandic film “Either Way“ (2011), the movie exudes the same Southern languor as Green’s “George Washington” (2000) and “All the Real Girls” (2003); the cinematographer Tim Orr brought a flat, naturalistic look to all three. Yet the strongest analogue is “Old Joy” (2006), Kelly Reichardt’s minimalist study of a 30-something father-to-be reuniting with an unsettled college friend on a camping trip in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Where the latter is deliberately atonal, “Prince Avalanche” undermines its affability with somber notes.

Alvin, who hired Lance for the summer gig, is the boyfriend of Lance’s sister, Madison, so the two are potential brothers-in-law. That they are already brothers-in-loserdom is emphasized by their wearing matching bib-and-brace overalls, like boat restorers Stan and Olly in “Towed in the Hole” (1932). It’s not the blue-collar uniform itself that suggests failure, of course, but the pair’s hapless demeanor when thus attired. They are like baby men — especially Hirsch, who but for the absence of an anarchic gleam might be mistaken for a post-adolescent Jack Black.

The two men’s opposing values — which gently, if inevitably, coalesce as their individual circumstances change — are primarily driven by their attitudes to women. Alvin is monogamous and sends money home to Madison, a stay-at-home single mother and poet (whom Lance thinks a user); his immediate dream is the German vacation they’ve talked about taking in the fall.

Lance’s dream is to get laid the coming weekend — preferably with a friend’s hot girlfriend he’s already made out with in a bathroom. As becomes clear, he has a habit of “trading down” if he can’t sleep with his first choice. Though not otherwise odious, he treats women selfishly and irresponsibly. The reassurance he needs from them can only be found in urban situations, so he’s ill-at-ease in the country (the character is the flipside of Hirsch’s obdurate outdoorsman, Christopher McCandless, in 2007’s “Into the Wild”).

Alvin, in contrast, loves being alone in nature, seemingly a rationalization of the unsociability that is harming his relationship with Madison. Though scarcely gloomy, Rudd’s performance makes one wish he’d one day play a major depressive.

Their agendas are challenged by the film’s only other speaking characters. Alvin comes across a spry but shaken old woman (Joyce Payne) scrabbling in the ashes where her house used to be. He gently tells her that her pilot license, which she’s looking for, was probably burned. Her admission of having lost her strength since the fire moves him, and his proud self-sufficiency starts to feel hollow.

A rogueish old truck driver (the late Lance LeGault), who shares his beer and spirits with the boys whenever he sees them, gets Lance alone when Alvin is in town. He counsels him not to risk developing feelings for a woman so he can stay free, yet his coarse advice sews in Lance a seed of doubt about its wisdom. In the cases of both Alvin and Lance, the dawning of new considerations about how to live among one’s fellow humans is tacit. Credit to Green for that, though the vandalism that results from their joint catharsis as newly bonded best buds trashes the reflective mood. It may save viewers who expected a dudes-in-the-woods gag-fest from falling asleep.

“Prince Avalanche” will be released in theaters August 9.  

Follow @BLOUIN_PA