Monocle Weekend
Edition: Saturday

Those who have reached for an Emily Dickinson anthology in the midst of an emotional crisis will understand how a literary fix can alleviate – or at least provide some perspective on – a bad temper. Public-sector officials, including the UK’s health secretary Matt Hancock, are also recognising the value of cultural consumption for the benefit of mental health (see Monocle, issue 120). So it makes sense that the latest “pharmacy” to open in Florence should dispense books rather than beta blockers. The Piccola Farmacia Letteraria is a bookshop that offers “literary solutions for real problems”. Its 4,000-strong catalogue is divided into 70 categories, all corresponding to an ailment from depression to insomnia. Bookmark it.

India has been in the movie business for nearly as long as Hollywood: the first Bollywood film, Raja Harishchandra (pictured), was released in 1913. To celebrate the history of the movement, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is in Mumbai today to open the new National Museum of Indian Cinema. The museum, which cost INR1.4bn (€17.3m) to build, will take visitors on interactive tours charting the evolution of Bollywood and Indian cinema, from the arrival of cameras to the golden age of the 1960s. There appears to be an emphasis on inspiring young film-makers: one exhibition hall is dedicated to teaching children the science and technology behind cinema. Lights, camera...

Paris is even more elegant than usual this weekend: the French capital’s men’s fashion week and design tradeshow Maison et Objet are overlapping. Fashionistas are gathering at runway shows by Hermès and Celine but there’s another key attraction: the city’s menswear tradeshows and showrooms. Buyers do important business here: Paris Fashion Week occurs after menswear galas in London, Florence and Milan, so most buyers prefer to browse there before placing their orders for the forthcoming season in the French capital. They’ll be visiting stellar multibrand showrooms dotted across Le Marais, such as The News – which features brands including Officine Générale and Needles – and the city's leading tradeshow, Man.

This weekend the spotlight is on San Francisco as the two art fairs, Fog Design + Art and Untitled, return to town. This year the latter has moved to Pier 35, next door to Fisherman’s Wharf with views of Alcatraz and Treasure Island, while Fog is showcasing modernist art at the nearby Fort Mason Festival Pavilion. Over the past few years, these fairs have helped build the Bay Area’s cultural profile on a global scale by attracting galleries such as internationally positioned David Zwirner, Galerie Chantal Crousel from Paris and Nunu Fine Art from Taipei. What sets Fog apart is its focus on combining art and design and, therefore, making the show more approachable to new collectors, particularly freshly minted coders from Silicon Valley.

How Luke Dale-Roberts created South Africa’s most talked-about restaurant, a 100-year-old Austrian juice brand reinvents itself and the week’s top news from the US.

The soft power of the world’s largest country has taken a hit of late. We look at Russia’s ups and downs in our animated nation survey.