Name: Gotham City - Gymnastics
Uploaded: 2020-03-24T16:04:19.000+01:00
Duration: 306 s
Description: Gotham City is Batman's eternal playground but is also New York's darker sister. What inspired the cityscape of one of the most famous cities to never exist?

Flick Flack

Gotham: la città di Batman tra realtà e finzione

Gotham, el origen de la ciudad de Batman

Gymnastique

Skąd nazwa Gotham City?

Gotham City

Gotham City is Batman's eternal playground but is also New York's darker sister. What inspired the cityscape of one of the most famous cities to never exist?

program_content

Gymnastics

 What inspired the cityscape of one of the most famous cities to never exist?

program_playNext

In 2019, Les Indes galantes was performed at the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, hip hop style. This baroque opera, composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau, is an ode to colonial exoticism, and its reworking is the brainchild of Bintou Dembélé, the first black woman to choreograph a ballet at the Paris Opera.

In 2019, Les Indes galantes was performed at the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, hip hop style

Operatic Hip Hop: Dance Decolonised

Would you attend a gallery exhibition with the paintings turned to face the wall? Probably not. And yet curators find a huge wealth of information about the painting based off of the clues left on the back of the canvas and its frame.

Would you attend a gallery exhibition with the paintings turned to face the wall? Probably not...

The Picture Behind the Picture

We've all experienced lockdown in the past year, but one artist has been doing his own self-imposed lockdowns for years. For Abraham Poincheval, confinement is just another form of artistic expression.

For Abraham Poincheval, confinement is just another form of artistic expression

Confined for Art

They cry, they cry and they faint at the Beatles or One Direction concerts: they are the fans. One might think that this isn't a recent phenomenon. In the 19th century, a pianist prodigy drew big crowds. His name: Franz Liszt. Long before beatlemania, there was "Lisztomania".

Long before beatlemania, there was "Lisztomania"

Franz Liszt, the First Rock Star

In many French cities, there are feminist messages hastily pasted across the walls, denouncing rape and violence against women. They come from a long tradition of feminist protest first sparked off by Oympe de Gouges.

In many French cities, there are feminist messages hastily pasted across the walls, denouncing rape and violence against women

Street Art Takes on Patriarchy

How can an artist unblock writer's block and free themselves of the fear of the blank page? Producer and musician Brian Eno has found the solution: a card game. Called Oblique Strategie", it gave artists inspiration when they had none. David Bowie composed his unforgettable Heroes thanks to this very strange game.

David Bowie composed his unforgettable Heroes thanks to this very strange game

The Game That Saved David Bowie

If Monopoly today is a cheerful celebration of capitalism, it actually didn't start off that way. Its creator, a working class woman who barely made any money from it, had devised the game as a way of denoucing the worst excesses of unfettered capitalism. 

Let's give credit where credit is due: the creator of Monopoly was a working class woman who barely made any money from it

When Monopoly Was Anti-Capitalist

Taboo since ancient times, periods are also taboo in art. But thanks to a generation of feminist artists determined to end the shame around menstruation, period blood is making a big splash in the art world - even if social media has yet to catch up. 

A generation of feminist artists are determined to end the shame around menstruation

The Art of Menstruation

Designer Erik Spiekermann explains how he created the map for Berlin's newly unified public transport network, just after reunification and the fall of the Berlin wall.

Designer Erik Spiekermann explains how he created the map for Berlin's newly unified public transport network

How a Map Healed Berlin

Federico Fellini is renowned for his extravagant productions. On the sets, there was often a mixture of creativity and chaos. But why did the filmmaker make his actors recite numbers and pasta recipes rather than scripts?

Federico Fellini's creative process was chaotic but legendary

Carbonara Alla Fellini

At the first hint of sadness, out comes the pints of icecream and the sad power ballads. But why is listening to sad music our idea of a good time? Does sad music make us happy?

Why is listening to sad music our idea of a good time?

Why Do We Love Sad Music?

In old paintings, the subjects never smile. Up until the 18th century, every figure was sombre and strict-looking, because smiling was considered uncouth. 

In old paintings, the subjects never smile

Why Do Old Portraits Look Grumpy?

The Dreamachine is a cylinder that generates a psychedelic light that triggers strange visions in the people who look at it: it's a drug-free high. Its inventors even thought it would replace TV.

The Dreamachine triggers a drug-free high in th people who look at it

The Dreamachine Trip

In a time before social media and dating apps gay people communicated their sexual preferences to one another with a subtle code of colour-coded hankies. What is left of this practice today?

The Secret Code of Love

From Baudelaire to Cocteau to Hemingway, artists have often chosen the company of cats. This artist-animal relationship has inspired many works. Why are so many artists so obsessed with cats?

Why are so many artists so obsessed with cats?

Cats and Artists, a Love Story

Yes, football is art! And we have proof. On March 26, 1952, the France-Sweden match took place at the Parc des Princes. This was the first artificially lit football match in France. A genius painter, Nicolas de Staël, was there in the stands. The scene sparked off something special. 

Football is Art

You've probably never heard of Pamela Colman Smith, but you have seen her work. Known as Pixie, she illustrated a deck of tarot cards that went on to become world famous, and are still sold to this day. But the artist herself, a woman and a person of colour, died penniless, her name whitewashed from history. 

You've probably never heard of Pamela Colman Smith, but you have seen her work

Pamela Colman Smith, the Tarot Card Artist

We all spent a lot of time looking out the window during lockdown, but the artists always have. From Flemish paintings to Hitchcock, how does the window feature in the history of art?

We all spent a lot of time looking out the window during lockdown, but the artists always have

Art and Windows

From the earliest days of culture, women have been presented as sinners, even demonic beings. Starting with the most famous of them: Eve. In the 20th and 21st centuries, many of them became scapegoats: none more so than Yoko Ono. 

Women have been portrayed as evil throughout the ages, from Eve right through to Yoko Ono

The Yoko Ono Effect

Their whole life is spent in front of an audience, but most actors and musicians sick with stage fright rarely talk about how their nerves impact them. How to explain this paradox? Does stage fright help them?

Is stage fright an advantage for actors and musicians?

Is Stage Fright Good?

It's a sound you know, a shrill echo from beyond the grave you can hear everywhere, from 'Amityville' to 'Poltergeist' to 'The X-Files'. A sort of deep, wavy creak that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. It comes from a strange, little-known, unique instrument.

It's a sound you know, a shrill echo from beyond the grave you can hear everywhere, from 'Amityville' to 'Poltergeist' to 'The X-Files'

The Soundtrack to Your Nightmares

Tiny man shorts, long flowing hair, custumes and the exchange of perfectly timed insults... is wrestling pure performance or is it a legitimate sport?

Is wrestling pure performance or is it a legitimate sport?

Wrestling: All Sport or All Show?

The 17th century was the golden age of French theatre, but the Church thought of actors as prostitutes. They were excommunicated, refused the sacraments of marriage and religious burial. Why were they hated so much?

The Church excommunicated actors, refusing them the sacraments of marriage and a religious burial. Why the hate?

Why Does the Church Dislike Molière?

On the 8th of May 2016 the sculpture Him, by Italian superstar artist Maurizio Cattelan and representing Hitler kneeling in prayer, was sold for 13.3 million euros. But the sculpture was in fact a commission and came from the workshop of French artist Daniel Druet. So who really made this work of art?

Who Made Hitler?

Do you see elephants in the clouds? What about human faces on the trees? Don't panic, it's totally normal. This common ability is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists.

Do you see elephants in the clouds? What about human faces on the trees? Don't panic, it's totally normal

Pareidolia: Seeing Faces Everywhere

Rodin's Thinker is one of the most famous sculptures in the world, and has been reproduced all over the world, from San Francisco to Beijing. This pensive figure has been copied, adapted, and photographed in ways that make us think about what he's thinking. 

 This pensive figure has been copied, adapted, and photographed in ways that make us think about what the Thinker is thinking

What is the Thinker Thinking?

La Nouvelle Vague is the cinephile movement for cinephiles. If you missed the boat: at the turn of the 1950s, Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard, Rivette, Rohmer and others revolutionised French cinema. 

La Nouvelle Vague is the cinephile movement for cinephiles

La Nouvelle Vague

It is neither vegetable nor animal. It's intelligent but doesn't have a brain. The blob, weird and terrifying, looms large in movie theaters. And it's now also invaded computer games, comics, and even design and architecture.

The blob, weird and terrifying, looms large in movie theaters. And it's spreading...

The Blob: Science Fiction Takes Over

Do you have a box of old slides slumbering somewhere in a drawer? Did you think they weren't good for anything else except an occasional nostalgia evening with grandma and grandpa? The founders of the The Anonymous Project in Paris see things differently!

Meet the team on a mission to collect every single vintage slide in the world

A Second Life for Vintage Slides

The American anthropologist and mythologist Joseph Campbell isn't well known, but his cultural influence is huge. He inspired the narrative arcs of key works in pop culture such as the Star Wars saga, and Michael Jackson's album Bad. Countless screenwriters have adopted his ideas to create the Hollywood we know today. 

The American anthropologist and mythologist Joseph Campbell isn't well known, but his cultural influence is huge

The Joseph Campbell Formula

Art modelled on the great classics? Are they just plagiarised copies or innovative new artworks?

Reinventing Art

First there was (electric) light. Then there was the Internet. And finally, there was homo trollus: the common internet troll we've all grown to know and hate so well. Just what is it that drives them?

A rare look inside the mind of an Internet troll

The Art of Trolling

Why do penises on classical statues seem so small? Art historians and anatomists have the answer.

Small Penises on Classical Sculptures

420 is seemingly totally innocent number, and yet there's an entire global counterculture devoted to it. For some, it's a codename, a funny movie quote, or a bizarre myth. What's the true story behind 420?

420 is seemingly totally innocent number, and yet there's an entire global counterculture devoted to it

Dial 420 for Drugs

Belfast is probably the street art capital of the world. Since the 1970s the city’s murals have represented the heroes, hopes and identities of two divided communities. But since the end of the Troubles, could street art represent reconciliation?

Belfast is probably the street art capital of the world. Since the 1970s the city’s murals have represented the heroes, hopes and identities of two divided communities. But since the end of the Troubles, street art represent reconciliation?

Belfast: Street Art Capital of the World

Gymnastics - Cultural Brain Stretching

program_recommendations

In 1974, the French erotic film Emmanuelle broke audience records: almost 350 million viewers worldwide and a twelve-year run on the Champs Elysées in Paris. After the success of the sexually explicit Last Tango in Paris, Emmanuelle appeared at a turning point in French society: The sexual emancipation following May '68 in France. 

Queen of French Erotic Cinema

In 1974, the French erotic film Emmanuelle broke audience records: almost 350 million viewers worldwide and a twelve-year run on the Champs Elysées in Paris

Emmanuelle

In Japan, the “washlet” combines Western toilets with Japanese hygiene standards. A clever combination of comfort and cleanliness, they're considered a basic essential for people in Japan, although visitors may be left baffled as to how to use them. They have dozens of functionalities.

Gacha Gacha (1/9)

Japanese toilets make the bathroom experience a high tech luxury

Toilets, Perfected

Eating ramen in Japan is a unique sensory and auditory experience. Here, the noodles are noisily slurped up. Considered rude in the West, in Japan this every day gesture is imbued with meaning.

Gacha Gacha (2/9)

In Japan, far from being rude, slurping is all about appreciating ramen's unique palette of flavours

Zuru Zuru: The Sound of Street Food

In Tokyo, sounds blair at you from all sides: the traffic lights that sound like chirping birds, the beep that signals when you enter a shop, and most of all, the delicate and detailed train station jingles. Every station has its own aural identity, crafted by a dedicated composer who has been writing train jingles for decades. 

Gacha Gacha (3/9)

 Every station has its own aural identity, crafted by composer who has been writing train jingles for decades

Eki-Melody: Japan's Train Jingles

Almost every public place in Tokyo is spotless, rubbed and polished clean by government workers. But there are places even their hard-working hands don't quite reach: grimy neighbourhoods full of character and down-in-the-heel charm. And in those streets, roams an elderly ramen seller making his living feeding drunks in the middle of the night.

Gacha Gacha (4/9)

In grimy neighbourhoods full of character, an elderly ramen seller ekes out a living feeding drunks

The Old Ramen Seller

In Japan politeness is deeply codified depending on your place in the hierarchy. Where you stand in the lift, how you get into a taxi, and especially how you greet others, depends on your social standing. The concept of Ojigi is instilled in every Japanese child, and adults go on to hire consultants to make sure they get the nuances just right. But if it sounds deeply constraining, it is supposed to provide balance and stability.

Gacha Gacha (5/9)

In Japan where you stand in the lift, how you get into a taxi, and especially how you greet others, depends on your social standing

Ojigi, The Art of Deference

Peaches, M.I.A., Dorian Electra and King Krule: this Tracks special highlights the most impressive vocalists to have featured on the show. Gender fluid, subversive, and challenging, these are the artists that break boundaries across genres.

Tracks

Peaches, M.I.A., Dorian Electra and King Krule: this Tracks special highlights the most impressive vocalists to have featured on the show

The Best Vocalists of Tracks

In Japan, finger pointing is a technique that standardises security checks. This practice is a choreography of gestures that keeps trains running safely and on time. Pointing the finger in Japan, far from denoting blame, focuses the mind.

Gacha Gacha (7/9)

Pointing the finger in Japan, far from denoting blame, focuses the mind

Yubisashi Kakunin: It's Polite to Point

With his Stetson on his head and a cigarette in his mouth, Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997), was a singer-songwriter of incandescent, beautifully despairing country songs. He was an artist plagued by demons, often under the influence of alcohol and drugs, but he nevertheless wrote some of the masterpieces of American song, including "If I Needed You" and "To Live is to Fly", and managed to climb to the top of the charts in spite of himself with the song "Pancho and Lefty", first popularised by Emmylou Harris and then covered by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. His song 'Kathleen' was recently covered by Tindersticks.
 Troubled Troubadour
Through concert footage, film archives and interviews, this remarkable documentary sensitively traces Townes Van Zandt's formative experiences and existential and artistic ups and downs - from the beginning of his musical career, inspired by early Bob Dylan records and legendary blues bard Lightnin' Hopkins, to his untimely death. His managers, his children, his three wives and numerous musician friends shed light on his personality and reveal the affection they had for this troubled troubadour.

Portait of troubled Texan folk singer Townes van Zandt (1944-1997) who wrote beautiful and despairing country songs.

Townes Van Zandt: Be Here to Love Me

program_bonus

Bonuses and Extracts

program_external

Discover more

program_categoryMostViewed

Lena is a 17-year-old girl from a middle-class family who is experiencing her first love: secret night adventures and magical morning walks along the Danube. However, her dream world is shattered when she is raped.

A Film by Tereza Nvotová

Lena is a 17-year-old girl from a middle-class family who is experiencng her first love: secret night adventures and magical morning walks along the Danube. However, her dream world is shattered when she is raped.

Filthy

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Two sets of gay parents discover that their children are related via their biological father. This sensitive and humourous documentary follows the two families as they navigate how best to involve the siblings in each other's lives.

Two sets of gay parents discover that their children are related via their biological father

My Extraordinary Family

Darío Aguirre is from Ecuador, living in Germany with his wife. When the city of Hamburg unexpectedly invited him to become a German citizen, Darío revisits his rocky path to building a life for himself in Europe and wonders about who he has become. This film is about arriving and living abroad in a time when xenophobia is suddenly acceptable again in Germany, and society is struggling to find the right way to integrate new citizens.

 What it's like to live in Germany as a foreigner when xenophobia is suddenly socially acceptable again

How I Became German

Fasciae, hidden connective tissues, are largely unstudied parts of our anatomy. What role do they play in the organism? And could a better understanding of them help in finding a cure for back pain?

The Hidden World Under Our Skin

Fasciae, hidden connective tissues are largely unstudied. What role do they play in the human body?

Fascinating Fasciae

In France, the bungalow evokes holidays in the sun. In the UK, they are humble everyday dwellings for grandparents. But in Germany or the United States, they take on a very different form: they are a bourgeois luxury, a single-storey villa with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking nature. Inspired by the "bangalo", a traditional one-storey Bengal house open to the outside, this style was also a staple of colonial architecture. 

In the US and Germany, bungalows are a bourgeois luxury: a single-storey villa with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking nature

The Beauty of Bungalows

Concorde was the epitome of elegance, speed and glamour, linking London and New York in little over three hours. The British-French airliner was in a class of its own. But on the 25th of July 2000 tragedy struck which meant the end of supersonic flight. A look back at the birth and demise of the king of the skies.

Concorde: Myth and Tragedy

The pole vault is a discipline is based on the transformation of kinetic energy into elastic energy and then into gravitational energy. Athletes must play with energy, optimise it, transform it, and conserve it.

The Strongest of Them All

Athletes must play with energy, optimise it, transform it, and conserve it

Pole Vaulting: Overcoming Gravity

Since antiquity, scientists have tracked down the principles behind the movements of moving things, from planets to athletes. Running champions make sure of basic principles of physics developed by Newton to improve their performance. We take a look at the maths behind the movement. 

The Mechanics of Strength

Since antiquity, scientists have tracked down the principles behind the movements of moving things, from planets to athletes

Sprinting and Newton's Law

38 million Japanese live together in the most populated urban area in the world. No wonder that the people of Tokyo have taken over the roofs to have extra space. A traditional Japanese garden and tea house, along with a martial arts class, take to the skies in search of  tranquility.

A traditional Japanese garden and tea house, along with a martial arts class, take to the skies in search of  tranquility

City Rooftops: Tokyo

 French swimmer Florent Manaudou, German pentathlete Marvin Dogue and French sabre fencer Cécilia Berder all trained hard for the Tokyo Olympics, but the most important part of their training they say is in the mind. Mental conditioning is a growing science designed to get the best out of sports champions at a time when they could crumble under the pressure. At the beginning of World War Two, American airforce pilots struggled to face off against the Japanese fleet. Cue Bud Winter: in peace time, a sports coach, and in war, a mental conditioner who taught the pilots how to keep their head in the game even in life-or-death situations. Gradually, the idea that sportsmen and women were as much mind as they were muscle took hold. 

 For Olympic French swimmer Florent Manaudou, his greatest challenge is mental, not physical

Inside the Heads of Champions

Lebanon was already close to bankruptcy before the catastrophic explosion on 4 August in the port of Beirut.  Now hospitals and clinics destroyed in the blast need to be rebuilt but the funds are not forthcoming

ARTE Reportage

Lebanon was already close to bankruptcy before the catastrophic explosion on 4 August in the port of Beirut.  Now hospitals and clinics destroyed in the blast need to be rebuilt but the funds are not forthcoming.

Lebanon: Hospitals in Chaos After the Blast

The Chachapoyas of Peru fascinate archaeologists and historians. Between the 8th and the 16th centuries this reputedly fierce warrior people practiced an unusual mortuary ritual.

Archaeological Investigations

The Chachapoyas of Peru fascinate archaeologists and historians with their unusual mortuary rituals.

Chachapoyas: Living with the Dead

From the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Mozart’s opera – directed by Lotte de Beer – opens the festivities at the Aix-en-Provence opera festival. Conductor Thomas Hengelbrock leads a fine vocal ensemble that includes soprano Julie Fuchs, baritone Andrè Schuen and mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre.

Aix-en-Provence Festival 2021

Mozart’s opera – directed by Lotte de Beer – opens the festivities of the festival of lyric art in Aix-en-Provence.

Gymnastics - Cultural Brain Stretching

Operatic Hip Hop: Dance Decolonised

The Picture Behind the Picture

Confined for Art

Franz Liszt, the First Rock Star

Street Art Takes on Patriarchy

The Game That Saved David Bowie

When Monopoly Was Anti-Capitalist

The Art of Menstruation

Gotham CityGymnastics

You may also like

Emmanuelle

Toilets, Perfected

Zuru Zuru: The Sound of Street Food

Eki-Melody: Japan's Train Jingles

The Old Ramen Seller

Ojigi, The Art of Deference

The Best Vocalists of Tracks

Yubisashi Kakunin: It's Polite to Point

The most viewed videos on ARTE

Emmanuelle

Filthy

The New World of Xi Jinping

My Extraordinary Family

How I Became German

Fascinating Fasciae

The Beauty of Bungalows

Concorde: Myth and Tragedy