La Provence is the local daily paper and it has listings for films and cultural events (www.laprovence-presse.fr). Also try La Marseillaise (www.lamarseillaise.fr).

To buy tickets for events online try La Fnac (tel: 0892 683 622; www.fnac.com), Virgin (tel: (04) 9155 8411; www.virginmega.fr), FranceBillet (tel: 0892 692 192; www.francebillet.com) or Ticketnet (tel: 0892 390 100; www.ticketnet.fr). Tickets are also often available directly from the venues.

Music: The Opera de Marseille, 2 rue Molière, 1e (tel: (04) 9155 1110; ) is the main venue for classical music and opera. Big rock and pop concerts take place at Le Dome, 48 avenue de Saint-Just, 4e (tel: (04) 9112 2121), or at the Palais des Sports, 81 rue Raymond Teisseire, 9e (tel: (04) 9117 3040), sometimes also at the Stade Vélodrome, boulevard Michelet, 8e. Le Moulin, 47 boulevard Perrin, 13e (tel: (04) 9106 3394; www.lemoulin.org) is a popular small venue hosting big names.

Lots of theatres, such as the Théatre Toursky (see below) and churches (see Abbaye de St Victor in Key Attractions) also have recitals and gigs. La Friche la Belle de Mai, 41 rue Jobin, 3e (tel: (04) 9504 9504; www.lafriche.org), a former squat in a disused factory complex, has become a thriving alternative cultural centre featuring concerts of all kinds, exhibition, theatre etc. It is well worth checking out too. So is Dock des Suds, 12 rue Urbain V, 2e (tel: (04) 9199 0000; www.dock-des-suds.org), a very ‘in' venue which hosts a variety of events throughout the year.

Theatre: The Théatre National de la Criée, 30 quai de Rive Neuve, 7e (tel: (04) 9154 7054; www.theatre-lacriee.com) is the main theatre in Marseille, showcasing a wide variety of productions, but there are plenty of other theatres throughout the city, including La Minoterie, 9-11 rue d'Ozier, 2e (tel: (04) 9190 0794; www.minoterie.org); Théatre Toursky, 16 passage Leo Férré, 3e (tel: (04) 9102 5835 or 0820 300 033; www.toursky.org); and Théatre Off, 9 rue Nau, 6e (tel: (04) 9133 1292; www.theatreoff.com). Small local theatres like La Baleine qui dit ‘vagues', 48 rue Barbaroux, 1e (tel: (04) 9148 9560; http://labaleinequiditvagues.org) and the Chocolat Théatre, 59 cours Julien (tel: (04) 9142 1929) also put on interesting plays, some for children.

Dance: The Ballet National de Marseille (tel: (04) 9132 7272; www.ballet-de-marseille.com) performs at the Opera de Marseille (see Music above).

Film: Cinemas in the centre of town include UGC Capitole, 134 La Canebière, 1e (tel: 0836 686 858); Pathé Madeleine, 36 avenue Foch, 4e (tel: 0836 68 20 22); Cinema Le Prado, 36 avenue du Prado, 6e (tel: (04) 9137 6713), Le Chambord, 283 avenue du Prado, 8e (tel: (04) 9125 7111) and Le César, 4 place Castellane, 6e (tel: (04) 9137 1280), all showing mainstream movies. For arthouse cinemas, try Les Variétés, 37 rue Vincent Scotto, 1e, and Le Miroir, a real gem in the Vieille Charité (tel: (04) 9114 5888), which showcases little known movies from around the world.

Too many movies have been shot in Marseille over the years to list them all here. Among the most famous are, maybe not surprisingly, gangster movies: Borsalino (1970), starring Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo, two of the most famous French actors ever, and The French Connection (1971), with Gene Hackman. Both brought the city some fame, if not exactly the kind it needed to help its reputation. The movies that really put Marseille on the map, however (at least for the French) is the famous Marcel Pagnol's trilogy, La Trilogie Marseillaise, which includes Marius, Fanny and César (all shot in the 1930s). So did Marius et Jeannette (1997). Acclaimed director Bertrand Blier shot two of his movies in Marseille, Trop Belle Pour Toi (1989), a comedy starring Gérard Depardieu, Carole Bouquet and Josiane Balasko, followed a few years later by 1,2,3 Soleil, with Anouk Grinberg and Marcello Mastroiani. More recently, the Chateau d'If has been the setting for many a movie inspired by Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo novel, including The Man in the Iron Mask, starring Leonardo di Caprio (1998), and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce.

Literary Notes: Marcel Pagnol's famous trilogy, César, Marius and Fanny, which takes place on the quays of the Vieux Port, is a nostalgic portrayal of a friendly, colourful city, in keeping with descriptions of the city by other Provençal authors such as Fredéric Mistral or Alphonse Daudet. But others, such as Alexandre Dumas, Prosper Merimée or Emile Zola (in Les Mystères de Marseille, written in the 1860s), were fascinated by the violence and the mystery surrounding the Provençal capital, and the picture they paint of it is not such a rosy one. For them, as for Albert Camus, Marseille was very much the ‘gateway to the East'. Also worth mentioning are the creative mysticism of Jean Giono and the current trend which uses the melting pot that is the Phocean city as a background for ‘roman noir', as exemplified by Patrick Cauvin and Jean Claude Izzo.