Monocle Weekend
Edition: Saturday

It’s fast approaching the time of year that sees New York thermometers ratchet up and humidity go into overdrive. Everyone needs a summer escape and for some there’s nothing better than the dark air-conditioned embrace of the cinema. The Quad, a newly restored movie multiplex in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, is serving up a season of what it has billed “Cool Movies”, running until 13 July. The classic film selection is designed to make you travel to colder climes, from the snow-blanketed terrain of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service to the gloomy and disturbing Swedish flick Winter Light, directed by Ingmar Bergman, about a pastor who has lost faith in God. It may be hot outside but these snowy scenes will have you shivering in no time.

This week Vienna’s Baroque-style town centre was added to Unesco’s World Heritage in-danger list due to the potential construction of a 66-metre high-rise near the 19th-century Stadtpark. The historic neighbourhood joins 53 properties – including Syria’s ancient city of Aleppo – on the Unesco register, which states that “the list may include only such property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage as is threatened by serious and specific dangers”. In this case the threat is not war but a towering hotel-and-luxury-apartment development, complete with an indoor ice-skating rink. It’s designed to give the city an “attractive and modern” feel but what Vienna is cherished for is its historic beauty. Tourists aren’t going to crane their necks out of the horse-drawn carriages for a dime-a-dozen high-rise: it’s the ornate opera house and Hofburg that will be remembered.

At an age when many have long since retired, 73-year-old entrepreneur Marie-France Cohen is just getting started. The founder of Parisian fashion shops Bonpoint and Merci has just announced her third retail project: Démodé, which means “outdated” in French. “What is beautiful is never outdated,” says Cohen, who has set up the business with her step-daughter Stephanie and her friend Elysa Masliah. Yet nothing about the business is old-fashioned: the online shop, which will offer original designs and collaborations, is keen to invest in pop-up shops around Paris. Its first home will be the legendary Parisian Bistrot Tourrette on the left bank come September. Cohen has always known how to bring something new to the table and Démodé looks set to deliver.

“Let me live in the wild tonight,” sings Lucy Rose on “Strangest of Ways” from her new, third LP Something’s Changing – and she did live wild. The Brighton-based singer-songwriter checked her Spotify statistics and found that her music was streamed in Mexico City more than any other location. So she decamped to Latin America (all of it) for a few months to play guerrilla gigs, write and attract a fulsome fanbase for this new album of warm and wise sparkly eyed folk, rock and soul-centric pop. You’ll want to believe that this record was made in a shotgun shack on the muggy outskirts of Lima but no: she took her experiences back to Brighton. Rose’s tour has taken her from Delhi to Santiago and will now see her play Bristol and Falmouth. It’s a small word indeed.

Ben Rylan looks at why depictions of Superman’s hometown, Smallville, seem to always reflect postcard perfect images of nostalgic America.