.. 10 | TUESDAY,JUNE 4, 2013 INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE Culture venice biennale Serendipity spices a surprising Biennale

VENICE Below decks the main saloon has been transformed into a mysterious, dark-blue sea cave, padded from floor Yo ungest-ever curator to ceiling with crocheted and stitched picks 150 artists, double soft submarine forms, pulsating with fairy lights and gently vibrating with the total of 2 years ago the ship’s engine, evoking visions of the womb and of Jonah in the belly of the BY RODERICK CONWAY MORRIS Whale. The only installation in Venice to Sea levels may be rising and economies match this in size and complexity is shrinking but the expansion of the Jacob Hashimoto’s ‘‘Gas Giant’’ at Venice Biennale goes on regardless. Palazzo Querini Stampalia (through Twenty years ago 53 countries were Sept. 1). He has filled the upper story of represented at the Venice event. This the palazzo with a beautiful, billowing, year there are 88 national pavilions, cloudlike, thread-suspended sequence of around 8,000 translucent pearly, pat- ART REVIEW terned disks and panels through which visitors wander as in a delightful light- with Angola, the Bahamas, Bahrain, filled dream. Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Kuwait, the Mal- In the Russian Pavilion at the dives, Paraguay, Tuvalu and the Vati- Giardini, the conceptual artist Vadim can officially appearing for the first Zahkarov re-stages the ancient myth of time. Zeus’s seduction of Danae in the form of Portugal achieved a first by sailing a shower of gold as a comment on the its pavilion all the way from Lisbon and materialism and greed of modern times. parking it outside the Giardini, or Cas- Visitors can observe from a gallery gil- tello Gardens. This seaborne represent- ded coins tumbling from the ceiling ation takes the form of the ‘‘Trafaria above onto the floor below, where they Praia,’’ a decommissioned passenger form an enormous heap. Access to the ferry boat that used to ply the waters of lower floor is restricted to women, who the Tagus, transformed over a period of are handed transparent umbrellas to protect them from the cascading lar- gess, and invited to pick up coins and deposit them in a bucket, which is peri- odically hoisted up and its contents poured onto a conveyor belt to replenish the supply of coins falling from above. Maxim Kantor was the artist chosen to represent Russia at the national pa- vilion in 1997 and returns to Venice with ‘‘Atlantis,’’ an extensive exhibition of recent paintings and graphic works at Palazzo Zenobio (through Sept. 10). At left, a giant rag Here, canvases of Atlantis, disappear- doll with its intern- ing beneath waves, and other apoca- al organs spilling lyptic visions act as metaphors for the out, created by crises of modern Western civilization, Paul McCarthy, is accompanied by Mr. Kantor’s satirical an exhibit at this graphics of historical and contempor- year’s Venice Bien- ary life and politics. The artist, who is nale. Below, a For its first-ever exhibition, the also well-known in Russia and else- nearly eight-foot, Vatican has chosen works of a where as a novelist and cultural com- or 2.4-meter, sculp- group artists representing the mentator, took up residence seven ture of a blond first 11 chapters of Genesis. years ago on an island off the west coast woman in a blue of France. This experience has given suit by Charles rise to new departures in his painting in Ray. The Biennale a year by Joana Vasconcelos and her the form of striking new expressionist is often considered team of 30 painters, seamstresses, car- images of the beaches, dunes and sea- a barometer of the penters, metalworkers and electricians scapes around his new home. state of contem- into an inside-and-out work of art that Watery themes also characterize in- porary art. will take visitors on regular excursions stallations at the Arsenale. An improb- PHOTOGRAPHS BY CASEY KELBAUGH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES around St. Mark’s Basin throughout the able escalator (surely the only one in Biennale. Venice) conveys visitors to the circular, The exterior of the vessel has been en- domed chamber of the United Arab cased from stern to prow in a wrap- Emirates pavilion, where they find around frieze of over 7,000 traditional themselves surrounded on all sides by tin-glazed, blue-and-white, hand-painted Mohammed Kazem’s 360-degree film of ‘‘azulejos’’ tiles depicting 20 kilometers, heaving waves. The idea is ‘‘to experi- or 12 miles, of the Lisbon skyline. It is in- ence what it is to be lost at sea, to walk spired by the ‘‘The Great Panorama of on the waters unafraid,’’ but is also re- Ripples of rumination Lisbon’’ of 1700, which was itself in- markably effective at stimulating sen- spired by panoramic prints of views of sations of seasickness. VENICE Mr. Gioni said he chose ‘‘The Encyc- Venice from the 15th century onward. ART, PAGE 11 lopedic Palace’’ because it best reflects the giant scope of this international Talk turns serious show and what he called ‘‘the impossib- at Biennale after frenzy ility of capturing the sheer enormity of the art world today.’’ of spending at auctions In addition to Mr. Gioni’s Biennale, which includes 158 artists, nearly dou- BY CAROL VOGEL ble the number in the two previous ones, there are pavilions representing They park their hulking yachts with 88 countries. Many occupy spaces in the names like ‘‘Lady Nag Nag,’’ ‘‘Wally’s Giardini, the shaded gardens that have Love’’ and ‘‘Sea Force One’’ on the been home to the Biennale for more choppy waters of the lagoon just out- than a century. Others can be found in side the main entrance to the Venice Bi- the Arsenale, the nearby medieval net- ennale. Every two years, scores of su- work of shipyards, or scattered around perrich collectors arrive here by sea, the city in cloisters, palazzos, medieval joined by museum directors, curators, warehouses and disused churches. artists and auction-house experts. They Among the first-timers is the Vatican, come to see and be seen and to take the whose group show examines the biblic- temperature of contemporary art al story of creation. There are countless today. collateral events too, like an exhibition But amid the glamorous parties and by the artist Rudolf Stingel, who the people-watching —celebrities like covered the Palazzo Grassi with his Elton John and Tilda Swinton were own Persian-inspired carpeting on here, along with Milla Jovovich, who which he hung his abstract and Photo performed in a glass box atop a Byz- Realist paintings. antine-style palazzo —there was also By the time the Biennale ends on serious talk about the contrast between Nov. 24, officials estimate nearly this Biennale and the recent spring auc- 500,000 people will have come to see it. tions in New York, in which Christie’s But it is Mr. Gioni’s show that an- sold nearly a half-billion-dollars’ worth chors the Biennale. In two parts —a of art in just one night. central pavilion in the Giardini and in That frenzied moment of spending the Arsenale —it features self-taught seemed like another world altogether and outsider artists alongside super- compared with this year’s Biennale, stars like Ryan Trecartin, Robert Gober which opened to the public on Saturday and Danh Vo. and is about discovery and looking While there are paintings, drawings closely, not conspicuous consumption. and sculptures dating back 100 years, ‘‘Half the people I’ve seen here seem there are also works made just months to be en route from the art fair in Hong ago. In a circular darkened room at the Kong to Art Basel,’’ said Thomas P. entrance to the pavilion in the Giardini Campbell, director of the Metropolitan are 40 pages of Carl Jung’s ‘‘Red Book,’’ Museum of Art. ‘‘Yet this Biennale is an illuminated manuscript on which he anything but commercial. Massimiliano worked from 1914 to 1930. Off this space has managed to bring together a sur- are galleries displaying an eclectic ar- prising and interesting group of artists ray of artworks including Shaker draw- in an exhibition that is both thought- ings, modern miniatures inspired by provoking and engaging.’’ late-16th-century Mughal drawings by Mr. Campbell was referring to the contemporary Pakistani artist Im- Massimiliano Gioni, the Biennale’s 39- ran Qureshi; abstract canvases by the year-old artistic director, who has Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af chosen ‘‘The Encyclopedic Palace’’ as Klint and meticulously carved wild and the theme of this year’s supersize mythical animals dating from 1870 to As crowds poured into the show for Dickerman, a curator of painting and event. It is taken from a symbol of 1900 by the woodcarver Levi Fisher the three-day invitation-only preview sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art 1950s-era Futurism —an 11-foot, or 3.3- Ames. last week, museum curators could be in New York. meter, architectural model of a 136-sto- In the central gallery there is also an seen taking pictures of the wall labels Tobias Meyer, director of contempor- ry cylindrical skyscraper —that was enigmatic performance piece by the with their smartphones because there ary art at Sotheby’s worldwide, called created by a self-taught Italian-Ameri- British-born artist Tino Sehgal, the win- were so many artists they had never the show a ‘‘game changer.’’ can artist named Marino Auriti and ner of this year’s Golden Lion award for heard of. ‘‘It finally addresses the theory of was intended to house all the knowl- best artist in the Biennale; two or three Everyone had theories about what contemporary art that is based on edge of the world. While Auriti’s dream individuals sit on the floor improvising they were seeing and why. Jung, on the unearthing of the subcon- CASEY KELBAUGH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES (ABOVE); PHOTO BY GIORGIO BENNI, COURTESY OF MARCO TIRELLI (TOP) was never realized, his model serves as their own music, humming and chant- ‘‘It’s saying that something in this scious,’’ he explained. ‘‘The art world ‘‘The Encyclopedic Palace,’’ by the self-taught artist Marino Auriti, is serving as the Bien- the centerpiece and symbol of the exhi- ing while responding to one another in old art needs to be incorporated into right now is all about Pop and global nale’s centerpiece. Top, ‘‘Untitled’’ 2012, by Marco Tirelli at the Italian Pavilion. bition. movement and gestures. contemporary practices,’’ said Leah BIENNALE, PAGE 11 .. THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TUESDAY,JUNE 4, 2013 | 11 venice biennale film books culture

Angola to Vatican, new nations take a turn ART, FROM PAGE 10 dramatic events. Palace’’) —at the large Central pavil- man knowledge. And in the first room The Chilean pavilion across the way In the Italian pavilion, also at the Ar- ion in the Castello Gardens and the Cor- of the Central Pavilion is a glass case contains a large tank filled with opaque senale, Giulio Paolini and Marco Tirelli derie (Rope Walk) in Arsenale —from containing Carl Gustav Jung’s ‘‘Red green water. Every three minutes a me- illustrate how disciplines like math- a 136-story tower designed by an ama- Book,’’ a compendium of visions, ticulously realized, glistening scale mod- ematical perspective, which dates back teur Italian-American architect, dreams and fantasies that he spent 16 el in resin of the Giardini with its trees to the Renaissance, can still be used Marino Auriti, in the 1950s. years compiling. and national pavilions rises from the today to produce vibrant and intriguing A model of this tower greets visitors At 39, Mr. Gioni is the youngest-ever deep, before slowly sinking back again. works of art. Mr. Tirelli’s extraordinari- in the entrance to the Corderie. Auriti’s curator of the event. He has chosen For its first-ever exhibition at the Bi- ly subtle use of perspective, light and hope was that this gigantic edifice, over more than 150 artists, twice as many as ennale, ‘‘In Principio,’’ the Holy See has sfumato shading to produce sculptural 2,000 feet, or 600 meters, high and cov- were featured two years ago, and his chosen the work of a group of artists to forms on flat surfaces is displayed here ering sixteen blocks, would be built in selections look back at the art of the represent ‘‘the first eleven chapters of in an absorbing array of his works on Washington as a repository of all hu- past 100 years as much as they explore the Old Testament book of Genesis.’’ paper. the state of the contemporary art But the combination of pictures, pho- Massimiliano Gioni, the artistic direc- Watery themes characterize world. Quite a number of the artists tographs and sculptures is so opaque tor of the 55th Biennale, takes the over- installations at the Arsenale. that Mr. Gioni displays are or were, like and allusive, not to say elusive, as all title of his shows, ‘‘Il Palazzo Encyc- Auriti, amateurs, and not a few of them scarcely to begin to do justice to such lopedico’’ (‘‘The Encyclopedic in the grip of various obsessions and idées fixes. The overall effect is visually rich and diverting and has the virtue of being different from recent Biennales, although in its inclusion of historical and unusual pieces has echoes of the COLUMBIA PICTURES/SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT (ABOVE); COLUMBIA PICTURES, VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (BELOW) edition curated by Jean Clair in 1995. Will Smith, above, plays a general called Cypher Raige, who crashes to Earth in his space- To mention but a sample of the obses- ship with Jaden Smith, below left, his real-life son, who plays Kitai Raige onscreen. sional cases: After his death in 1992, the American Morton Bartlett was dis- covered to have a substantial collection of winsome, handcrafted Lolita dolls that he himself had modeled out of clay, and of photographs of them with and Life lessons on Earth without their clothes on; Arthur Bispo do Rosário, a Brazilian visionary, spent five decades in a mental institution, during a family outing where he created over 800 tapestries, robes and sculptures; and the Japanese After Earth. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. he and Dad have landed on a now seem- commercial photographer Kohei ingly pristine, healed world teeming Yoshiyuki devoted countless nights BY MANOHLA DARGIS with cawing, clawing menace and some during the 1970s to snapping with in- cute baby critters. But Cypher is made frared film voyeurs spying on couples A father-son encounter session tricked of sterner, righter, more rational stuff. having furtive sexual encounters. out with science-fiction clichés and The story kicks in slowly after a Beyond the realms of art as pycho- steeped in motivational uplift, ‘‘After debris storm downs Kitai and Cypher’s pathology, there are a good number of Earth’’ opens with a teenager, Kitai spaceship and they fall to Earth in a serendipitous surprises. Imran Qure- Raige (Jaden Smith), washing out from smashup that looks like someone dec- shi, for example, has reinvented the some kind of ranger academy. It’s a orated the set with wet toilet paper and Mughal miniature by replacing courtly plastic wrap. There, they trade bitter scenes and portraits with everyday fig- MOVIE REVIEW words, clench their jaws and hold back ures from contemporary life in Paki- the tears amid long pauses and inert ac- stan, still executing the pictures with bummer because all he wants to do is tion scenes, most involving Kitai racing exquisite care using traditional gou- please his father (Will Smith, Jaden’s through the dense woods and confront- ache and gilding techniques. And the father), a heroic if unfortunately named ing digitally rendered animals. Belgian Thierry De Cordier has re- general, Cypher. Daddy Dearest has For the most part it is an uninterest- cently created a series of majestic risen having honed tremendous self- ing slog alleviated only by the occasion- paintings of mountainous seas that em- control and a useful protective tech- al unintended laugh and moments of body and convey a palpable sense of nique, ‘‘ghosting,’’ which renders him visual beauty. Mr. Shyamalan torpedoes awe, even fear, in the face of wild invisible to the monsters plaguing hu- his movies with overweening self-seri- nature. man civilization: the nonbearlike Ursa. ousness. But here and there he also of- These shrieking creatures are intro- VADIM ZAKHAROV 55th Venice Biennale of Visual Arts. Castello duced in one of those opening exposi- In the Russian Pavilion, Mr. Zahkarov restages the myth of Zeus’s seduction of Danae in the form of a shower of gold coins as a comment Gardens, Arsenale and other venues. tional heaves that filmmakers use to on the greed of modern times. Access to the lower floor is limited to women, who are given umbrellas to shield them from the cascade. Through Nov. 24. sketch in the who, what, when, where and why, oh why. In this case, the back story goes, after ruining Earth, humans relocated to Nova Prime, where they wear a lot of white and decorate their homes with flowing sailcloths. It’s a nau- Rumination rather than commerce at Biennale tical motif that winds though the movie, which was directed by M. Night , FROM PAGE 0 the universe that is shown at the begin- ganize the pavilion, ‘‘and the hope for Shyamalan, who wrote the script with culture and dispersing images via the ning of the Arsenale exhibition. This year’s Biennale is about the future of women.’’ Gary Whitta (‘‘The Book of Eli’’) from a fers up an image —as with a close-up of Internet whereas this is about explor- The American photographer Cindy discovery and looking closely, Crowds stood in rapt attention at the story by Will Smith. There’s even a nod Kitai’s face dusted with glistening snow- ing the deepest sense of oneself and the Sherman organized a section where not conspicuous consumption. Romanian pavilion, where five dancers to ‘‘Moby-Dick’’ shortly before Cypher flakes —that rises out of the torpor. genesis of art. It is the antidote to War- visitors are greeted by a giant rag doll, acted out artworks from past Bien- and Kitai’s spaceship crashes to Earth, Those images are few and far between hol and Koons.’’ created by Paul McCarthy, whose in- nales. Using performance as a vehicle throwing them together for the usual in a movie that loses its way long before In past years the scrappy raw spaces ternal organs are spilling out. Nearby is graphic posters by the artist Edson for questioning identity and history, and less-so life lessons, like: ‘‘Root your- Kitai reaches the belching volcano that of the Arsenale seemed endless and a nearly eight-foot-tall sculpture of a Chagas depicting the complex contra- they posed as paintings by masters like self in this present moment. Danger is leads to his inevitable destiny. Will confusing. But this year Mr. Gioni enlis- blond woman in a blue suit by Charles dictions of a post-independent African Chagall, Matisse, Mondrian and Klimt. very real. But fear is a choice.’’ Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, ted the New York architect Annabelle Ray as well as photo albums by metropolis. They also re-enacted installations by Casual students of Scientology may are producers on ‘‘After Earth,’’ which Selldorf to reconfigure the space into a Norbert Ghisoland of early-20th-centu- In the Russian pavilion, the artist artists including Mona Hatoum and find their ears pricking up at those suggests that there was no one on the coherent museumlike suite of galleries ry portraits that were discovered in the Vadim Zakharov created an environ- Yinka Shonibare as well as sculptures maxims because fear and its overcom- production who could really say no to where visitors could see an intriguing family attic by his grandson in 1969. ment based on the Greek myth of Dan- by figures like Rodin and Vito Acconci. ing receive a lot of play in ‘‘Dianetics,’’ him. An often affable screen presence, selection of paintings, sculptures, Many of the standout pavilions were ae, who was locked in a room by her fa- ‘‘We went into the archives and a foundational text by the creator of he spends much of the movie in a chair videos and objects. There are remnants inspired by Mr. Gioni’s theme of reflect- ther, a king, yet impregnated by Zeus in looked at everything from 1895 and have Scientology, the pulp science-fiction on the spaceship pursing his lips and wa- from a 200-year-old church imported ing on the past, as is the case with this the form of a shower of gold. Only wom- included works that were political but writer L. Ron Hubbard. ‘‘There are five tering his eyes. It’s a calamitously one- from Vietnam by Mr. Vo and a lounge- year’s winning national pavilion, from en are allowed in the first-floor gallery, also things we liked,’’ said the dancer ways in which a human being reacts to- note, unpersuasive performance that’s a like space where new videos by Mr. Angola. Located in two floors of the where they are handed clear plastic and choreographer Manuel Pelmus, one ward a source of danger,’’ he wrote in match to that of Jaden, a pretty teenager Trecartin —asurreal mash-up of col- Palazzo Cini Gallery at San Vio, a mu- umbrellas to protect them from a of the artists who created the work. ‘‘It’s ‘‘Dianetics.’’ ‘‘These are also the five with jumpy eyebrows whose character lege kids behaving badly —play con- seum that is rarely open to the public, shower of gold coins raining down from our way of writing our own history.’’ courses he can take on any given prob- remains an insufferable brat. Once upon tinuously. The winner of this year’s Sil- are walls covered with old master the ceiling, and every woman was al- lem.’’ These options are attack, flee, a time, Hollywood parents gave their ver Lion award for a promising young paintings of madonnas and saints. Be- lowed to take a coin. ‘‘It’s about how ONLINE: MORE VIEWS OF THE BIENNALE avoid, neglect or succumb. Kitai would children sports cars as gifts. These days, artist, the Paris-based artist Camille side them on the floor, for the taking, money corrupts,’’ said Udo Kittelmann, For a slide show of photographs of the understandably like to split —1,000 apparently nothing less than a big- Henrot, has a video about the history of are neat piles of 24 large-format photo- a curator from Berlin who helped or- event, see global.nytimes.com/art years after humans abandoned Earth, screen vanity project will do for Junior. PEOPLE An espionage insider takes on the spy genre ALICIA KEYS said that she was going ‘‘Slave Labor (Bunting Boy),’’ by the forward with a July 4 performance in Tel Red Sparrow. By Jason Matthews. 434 pages. on their blinis when they read how graffiti artist BANKSY, was auctioned Sun- Aviv that has drawn calls from other Scribner, $26.99. Simon & Schuster, £12.99. much has been revealed about their day by the Sincura Group in London for artists to cancel as part of a larger cul- tradecraft. The author’s unrelentingly over £750,000, or about $1.1 million, tural boycott of Israel. Ms. Keys is BY CHARLES CUMMING bleak depiction of the post-Soviet es- Bloomberg News reported. The mural scheduled to perform as part of her first piocracy also rings depressingly true. made its first splash in May 2012, when it trip to Israel. But musicians like ROGER The undisputed master of spy fiction, This is not to say that ‘‘Red Sparrow’’ appeared on a wall in the Turnpike Lane WATERS and writers like ALICE WALKER John le Carré, worked for British intelli- is perfect. I think it was a mistake to neighborhood of North London. When it have publicly asked her cancel to protest gence for several years before the inter- give Vladimir V. Putin a walk-on part, was removed and put up for auction in Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. national success of his third novel, ‘‘The and some of the character names Miami in February, neighborhood activ- Spy Who Came In From the Cold,’’ al- (Korchnoi, Ustinov, Delon) are oddly ists were outraged. Tony Baxter, direc- The actor MARTIN SHEEN has an upcom- lowed him to retire from the secret chosen, given their real-life antecedents. tor of the Sincura Group, told BBC News ing role in New Mexico —that of mentor world to become a full-time writer. Perhaps in homage to the culinary spy- that he could not divulge the owner of at a drama workshop for American Indi- master Len Deighton, Mr. Matthews the piece but insisted it was being sold an youth. The Farmington Daily-Times BOOK REVIEW has chosen to end each chapter, save the legally. reported that Mr. Sheen will be in the last one, with a recipe. The technique is Le Carré’s real-life experience as a charming at first, but it has the effect of spy is not unique in the genre, at least undermining whatever suspense the au- in its British incarnation. John Buchan, thor has built up in the preceding pages. Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham These are minor faults, however. Al- and, of course, Ian Fleming all served though Mr. Matthews may have a rose- as intelligence officers in the first half tinted view of the C.I.A., he is terrifically of the 20th century. More recently, a good on the turf wars and enervating bu- number of spy novels have been writ- reaucracy of espionage. There are sev- ten by Stella Rimington, the director of eral digs at the F.B.I., which his former MI5 from 1992 to 1996. colleagues will cheer to the rafters.

MATT SMITH, ALICIA KEYS, MARTIN SHEEN, WILL SMITH Things are rather different on the A 33-year career as an intelligence of- American side of the pond. With the ex- ficer would make Mr. Matthews, at a ception of Charles McCarry, there conservative estimate, a novelist in his hasn’t been a first-rate American spy SIMONE MASSONI mid-50s. That’s late to be getting into Somewhere, the Daleks are waving Navajo Nation community of Shiprock novelist who claims to have worked as the writing game (although Raymond their telescopic appendages in celebra- this week to work with children and an intelligence officer before turning plot, which swings convincingly between corrugated and stained, and he Chandler did publish ‘‘The Big Sleep’’ at tion that another Doctor has been exter- adults at the drama workshop, which will his hand to fiction. Moscow, Helsinki, Athens and Washing- slouched with the familiar casual au- the age of 51). ‘‘Red Sparrow’’ some- minated. But there is no joy among fans produce a 45-minute video starring both Until now, that is. Jason Matthews is ton, begins with echoes of Fleming’s thority honed on the razor strop of de- times feels like a novel written by a man of ‘‘Doctor Who,’’ the long-running Brit- Mr. Sheen and the children. (AP) a 33-year veteran of the C.I.A. who, ac- ‘‘From Russia With Love’’ — an attract- cades of Soviet officialdom. His tie was in a hurry, an impassioned former spook ish science-fiction series, whose lead ac- cording to the news release in front of ive Soviet ‘‘sparrow’’ is used to compro- askew, his suit was a washed-out brown desperate to download everything he tor, MATT SMITH, will depart at the end of A box office era ended over the week- me, ‘‘served in multiple overseas loca- mise a randy Western spy —and ends that recalled low tide at the beach.’’ knows and feels about Russia and the the year, BBC News said. According to end, as WILL SMITH, once Hollywood’s tions and engaged in clandestine collec- with an extended homage to the denoue- As you might expect, the author also murky world of spying. Does that mean the lore of ‘‘Doctor Who,’’ Mr. Smith is most dependable summer performer, tion of national-security intelligence.’’ ment of le Carré’s‘‘Smiley’s People.’’ possesses an extraordinarily deep ‘‘Red Sparrow’’ is a one-off and that Mr. the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, and failed to draw at North American theat- Lord knows how he got the manuscript What distinguishes ‘‘Red Sparrow’’ knowledge of his subject. I have rarely Matthews will now disappear into the the third actor to portray the character ers. Mr. Smith’s ‘‘After Earth,’’ a Sony of ‘‘Red Sparrow’’ past the redacting from so many of its ilk is not merely Mr. encountered a nonfiction title, much shadows? I certainly hope not. since the series was revived in 2005. He Pictures Entertainment movie that cost committee at Langley, but he has Matthews’s skill as a writer. He is smart less a novel, so rich in what would once has played the role since 2010, when he $135 million to produce and $100 million turned his considerable knowledge of and fluent, with a terrific ear for dialogue have been regarded as classified infor- Charles Cumming’s latest novel, ‘‘A For- succeeded DAVID TENNANT. No actor (or to market worldwide, earned about $27 espionage into a startling debut. and a gift for effective characterization. mation. From dead drops to honey eign Country,’’ is available in paperback. actress) was immediately announced to million from Friday to Sunday —18 per- The novel pits an ambitious, hot- Here he describes a Russian spy chief: traps, trunk escapes to burst transmis- play the next regeneration of the Doctor, cent less than the lowest prerelease ex- headed rookie spook, Nathaniel Nash, ‘‘He looked to be 50 years old, with a sions, Mr. Matthews offers the reader a ONLINE: BOOK REVIEW PODCAST so, as Mr. Smith suggested, let the spec- pectations. against a gorgeous Russian intelligence red-veined tetrahedron for a nose. His primer in 21st-century spying. His Listen to a discussion about the latest ulation commence. PHOTOGRAPHS: EPA, EPA, REUTERS, EPA officer named Dominika Egorova. The eyes were dull and watery, his teeth former foes in Moscow will be choking best sellers. global.nytimes.com/books