San Francisco
Robert Frank
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art celebrates the 50th anniversary of the US publication of Robert Frank’s The Americans with its exhibition Looking In, which opens on May 16 and features all 83 photos from the work, which has been hailed by many critics as the most important photography book published since the second world war. The Swiss photographer’s casual, almost haphazard style belies a dark, singularly insightful message: his photographs of ordinary Americans’ daily lives – at parades and lunch counters, in office buildings and public parks – exposed currents of angst, inequality and loneliness that ran beneath 1950s society and have inspired countless Leica-toting street photographers ever since. A retrospective of Frank’s film work accompanies the show throughout May and June. Closes on August 23.

Singapore
Singapore Arts Festival
The biggest event on Singapore’s arts calendar opens on May 15 with a dance spectacle by the acrobatic French troupe La Compagnie Malabar on Marina Bay. The play The Crab Flower Club (June 3-5), commissioned for the festival, is the showpiece of director Goh Boon Teck, who uses music by Franz Liszt to update The Dream of the Red Chamber, the seminal 18th-century novel by Chinese author Cao Xueqin. Other highlights include Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Sutra (pictured), a modern dance performance featuring acrobatics by Shaolin monks and an Antony Gormley-designed set (May 22-24), South African Mark Dornford-May’s adaptation of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (May 28-30), and Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet performing Aluminum, choreographed by Mats Ek (June 5-6). Events continue until June 14.

Madrid
Stuttgart Ballet
The internationally renowned company’s signature production of Romeo and Juliet opens on May 13 at the Teatro Real. Venerated artistic director John Cranko’s setting of Shakespeare’s play to the music of Sergei Prokofiev was first performed in 1962; the energetic, high-drama piece has since become one of the staples of 20th-century choreography. Friedemann Vogel plays Romeo; the FT’s Clement Crisp praised his intense, emotive turn in the role last year. Alicia Amatriain is his opposite number, and music is provided by the Madrid Symphony. Performances run nightly until May 16.

Paris
Nuit des Musées
Museums across Europe throw open their doors on May 16 for the fifth annual Museum Night. Lectures, concerts, guided tours and movie screenings are some of the special events offered at many sites, and access to scores of collections is free from about 6pm to midnight. Paris gives culture-seeking visitors some of the best options (though other capitals may beg to differ): the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’Orsay are all participating. The more interesting programmes are often to be found at smaller venues, however: the Musée Rodin offers a night-time tour through its sculpture garden; the Musée Carnevalet hosts piano, choral and dance performances; and the Musée de l’Orangerie has invited soundscape artist Louis Dandrel to complement Claude Monet’s Les Nympheas with an original composition.

Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Christian Boltanski
La vie possible, focusing on the French artist’s works from the past 15 years, opens on May 15 at the Kunstmuseum. Boltanski’s installations and sculptures are simultaneously meditative, theatrical and sepulchral: he employs ready-made objects, archival photographs and lighting effects to stimulate viewers’ collective memory and to reflect on human needs and identity. Boltanski’s preoccupation with death and loss is evident in the shrine-like assemblages of his signature 1980s Monuments series, which invite us to ponder the fleeting nature of childhood. A detail from his ‘Les ombres bougies’ (2008) is pictured. Runs until September 6.

Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
The 62nd Cannes Film Festival opens on May 13. The jury, headed this year by French actress Isabelle Huppert, will consider 20 films for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. Among the contenders are Pedro Almodovar’s Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces), a film noir about a car-crash survivor’s lost love, and submissions from former winners Ken Loach (Looking for Eric), Lars von Trier (Antichrist), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) and Jane Campion (Bright Star). The stars of tomorrow are on show in the festival’s Un Certain Regard selection for feature-length films by young directors, and also in the Short Films and Cinefondation selections. Screenings continue until May 24.

Dublin
Between Metaphor and Object
Between Metaphor and Object, opening on May 14 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, examines trends in sculpture over the past 20 years. The members of the loosely defined “New British Sculpture” school abandoned minimalism and conceptualism in the 1980s in favour of a return to a figurative, expressionistic style. This show focuses on their works, including pieces by Anish Kapoor, Julian Opie and Antony Gormley. The show is the last chance to see the Imma’s collection of works from Zurich’s Weltkunst Foundation, which the museum will return in 2010 after a 16-year loan. Runs until April 2010.