It has taken us three weeks, but we have finally put our thoughts in order and prepared a small recap of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Even in these crisis-stricken times, the event, already in its 54th edition, has been a great success with record number of tickets sold for the nearly 200 titles on offer, the incredible diversity and quality of which often forced us to make some difficult choices in our daily coverage for the Blinkblog.
Beginning with those films we couldn’t watch due to program schedule conflicts; tube chaos and other unexpected obstacles, our most painful misses were this year’s Cannes Grand Jury Prix ‘OF GODS AND MEN’; the strong Oscar contender ‘THE KING’S SPEECH’ – boasting an acclaimed cast headed by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush- and the opening gala’s presentation of ‘NEVER LET ME GO’, based on the best seller by Kazuo Ishiguro.
We also missed two mega-productions: Olivier Assayas’ five hour account of the life of terrorist ‘CARLOS’ aka The Jackal and Raul Ruiz’s equally lengthy ‘MEMORIES OF LISBON’. ‘SUBMARINE’, the directorial debut of TV comedian Richard Ayoade’s from ‘The IT crowd’ and his British counterparts Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan teaming up again with Michael Winterbottom for ‘THE TRIP’ – conceived as a six part TV series for the BBC but also launched in feature film version during the festival.
Other standout titles from around the world were Takeshi Miike’s take on the tradition of the samurai in ’13 ASSASSINS’; the surreal Estonian submission for foreign language Oscar ‘THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY; Kristin Scott-Thomas new French drama, ‘IN YOUR HANDS’, and US comedian Will Ferrell’s going through a register change in the Raymond Carver inspired ‘EVERYTHING MUST GO’; all of them well received. As were a series of high profile documentaries including the festival’s award winner ‘ARMADILLO’; ‘CATFISH’; ‘THE PEDDLER’ and ‘WASTE LAND, highlights among an excellent international selection of documentary work .
All together they would have made a very different, if equally satisfying, viewing experience for us. We did manage, however, to see a large number of excellent pictures; some of the best this year has produced. A look at our favorites, after the jump…
1-BLACK SWAN- Darren Aronofsky (USA)
Aronofsky impresses again with this disturbing trip into the mind of a ballet dancer, where paranoia and insecurity loom as the pressure of the big career break in a new production of the Swan Lake comes in the way of her search for perfection. Natalie Portman gives an astonishing physical performance leading a superb cast featuring Vincent Cassel; Mila Kunis; Barbara Hershey and a recovered Winona Rider.
2-ANOTHER YEAR-Mike Leigh (UK)
A warm and moving reflection about ageing, friendship and the random nature of fate that easily ranks among the veteran British director’s best work; pulling another impressive ensemble cast in which Lesley Manville steals the show. It’s always great to see one of our favorite authors at the top of his game.
3-BLUE VALENTINE-Derek Cianfrance (USA)
Heartbreaking account of the end of a young couple’s relationship in painfully realistic detail that wisely moves backwards and forwards in time to alternate the key moments of their love story, increasing its dramatic effect. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams should be contenders for the Oscar. Not to be missed.
4-COLD WEATHER-Aaron Katz (USA)
Mumblecore goes noir in Aaron Katz’s hilarious third feature. The director, one of the most significant representatives of the movement that’s currently carrying the torch of US independent filmmaking, adds stunning cinematography; some humor and genre-playing to his usual low-key observations with excellent results.
5-UNCLE BOONMEE WHO RECALL HIS PAST LIVES-Apitchapong Weerasathekul (Thailand)
The film that scooped the Palm D’Or at Cannes is a beautiful meditation on the Buddhist concepts of reincarnation and the transmigration of souls between all life forms, told through often confusing, non linear narrative merging the boundaries of the material and the spiritual. The central character, afflicted with kidney failure, thinks about his present and past lives while receiving the visits of relatives, ghosts and other creatures who help him preparing for his death.
6-NEDS-Peter Mullan (UK)
The rough council states of Glasgow in the early seventies serve as backdrop for Mullan’s third directorial work; another powerful drama denouncing a class structure that fails to help children from humble backgrounds reaching their potential, when precarious family situations; school bullying and gang violence surround them. This film and his promising young actor (Conor McCarron) earned top honors at San Sebastian’s festival.
7-POETRY-Lee Changdong (South Korea)
One of the biggest surprises for us was this story of a grand mother who enrols on a poetry course hoping to find beauty in the simple things of life, trying to escape the hardships of her own life. A combination of well-observed drama and a charming central performance by veteran Korean actress Yun Junghee earned the prize for best screenplay at Cannes.
8-TABLOID-Errol Morris (USA)
Veteran documentary-maker leaves serious political investigation (Standing Operating Procedure) to reflect on the way media deals with scandal and shapes our views in the process, through this amazing story – cause of a big frenzy in the seventies – that involved an American beauty queen attempting to rescue her Mormon boyfriend when he’s sent on a mission to the UK. Kidnap; Kinky Sex; Rape Allegations and even Animal cloning followed in this bizarrely entertaining case; flawlessly researched through interviews and archive material. Hugely enjoyable.
9-MEEK’S CUTOFF-Kelly Reichardt (USA)
Kelly Reichardt takes her assured slow pace and talent for observation to the conquest of the west with notable results. A tad overlong, perhaps, but benefitting from a superb cinematography and excellent cast lead by Michelle Williams (who repeats with the director after starring in ‘Wendy & Lucy’) recreating the dramatic journey of three families who get lost in the trail to the promised land to settle.
10-MY JOY-Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine)
The filmography coming from some of the former soviet republics was well represented and even earned the festival best film honors with ‘How It Ended This Summer’; but our favorite among them was this intense and sinister road trip to a remote place stuck in time where the darker side of human nature reigns supreme.
11-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT-Lisa Cholodenko (USA)
Superb script; Oscar Bait-cast; Mass appeal..this bittersweet comedy seems to have all the right ingredients. A look at a modern family formed by two lesbians and their kids, when the latter want to find out who their biological father is, its principal merit may lie in how mainstream and normal it all feels. Benning and Moore may be competing against each other during the awards season.
12-BIUTIFUL-Alejandro González-Iñarritu (Mexico)
Set in Barcelona’s underworld, where illegal immigrants; the shady businesses that exploit them and the struggle to survive in the less privileged side of society are grittily portrayed. The central character, Uxbal, gives Javier Bardem another chance to prove he is the best actor of his generation.
13-127 HOURS-Danny Boyle (UK)
Visually striking work based on the real story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who had to amputate his own arm to survive after getting trapped and documented his ordeal using a handycam. Boyle shows once again his original approach to storytelling, putting himself inside of Ralston’s mind, showing his mood swings through the days of claustrophobic tension and fight for survival he had to endure. Another impressive piece of work from one of the most vital directors of our time.
14-OUTSIDE THE LAW-Rachid Bouchareb (France)
Surrounded by political controversy at Cannes this epic story tells the origins of the Algerian resistance in France through the lives of three brothers after their family’s land gets expropriated and they’re forced to emigrate. Adopting the form of the gangsters genre, it was also one of the most formally classic films exhibited in this year’s edition.
15-HOME FOR CHRISTMAS-Bent Hamer (Norway)
The Norwegian author’s warmest movie to date is a moving and tender look at human condition, displaying another mosaic of characters going through unusual situations, with the common link of not being able to celebrate Christmas in the traditional family gathering way.
16-CARANCHO-Pablo Trapero (Argentina)
An inquisitive look at the mafia-like organizations dealing with car crash insurance scams in Buenos Aires, that morphs into full action thriller, through the misadventures of a lawyer who scouts the streets of the Argentinean capital in search for victims of accidents to represent. When love knocks on his door and tries to quit, he’ll find there’s no easy way out. A Hollywood remake is already being planned.
17-INSIDE JOB-Charles Ferguson (USA)
An accomplished documentary, as well as a social call to arms, analizing the causes of the financial crisis which stormed the world and whose effects are still widely felt ; pointing out at the culprits and revealing the unhealthy relationship between the financial and the political worlds. Formally impeccable, ‘Inside Job’ makes justice to the challenge its extraordinary subject presents.
18-THE ARBOR-Clio Barnard (UK)
Clio Barnard’s promising debut is an innovative docudrama exploring the life of play writer Andrea Dunbar –of ‘Rita, Sue & Bob Too’ fame-; the rough Bradford state where she grew up and her tragic death at a young age. Done through interviews of friends and family members, fictionalized with actors lip-synching to the relatives’ voices. Moving and groundbreaking in equal measure.
19-AURORA-Christi Puiu (Romania)
As easy to admire as difficult to enjoy, three hours of slow-paced, natural observations of the disturbed main character’s –performed by Puiu himself- mundane dealings while loosing his mind. It makes a clever, if demanding, reflection on vital alienation; eventually spiked with the kind of deadpan humor the Romanian author’s former opus ‘The Dead Of Mr. Lazarescu’ eaned plaudits for.
20-RARE EXPORTS FROM THE LAND OF SANTA CLAUS-Jalmari Helander
Genre-breaking take on the myth of Santa Claus based on a Finnish legend that depicts the traditional Christmas icon as an evil demon. Located on the beautiful mountains of the frontier between the Scandinavian Country and Russia, where a series of strange events is upsetting the resident small hunting community on the eve of Christmas. A kid finds out the unbelievable truth in this unique goth tale that could be one of the festive season’s surprise hits. You’ll never look at Santa the same way!
AND THE NEXT 20…
Two more than notable debuts came from Mexico: Michael Rowe’s grim look at urban and sexual alienation in ‘LEAP YEAR’, who earned him the Camera D’Or for best first feature film and rising star Diego Luna’s ‘ABEL’, a touching comedy about a mentally unstable boy who on returning home adopts the role of his gone father. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s former assistant Miwa Nishikawa presented ‘DEAR DOCTOR’, another heartwarming comedy about the everyday dealings of the local doctor in a remote Japanese village.
Three outstanding US indies: ‘HOWL’ produced by Gus Van Sant and directed by former documentary makers Robert Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, tries to capture the spirit of Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, avoiding the rules of the typical biopic. It combines animation; fake interviews and documentary techniques – where James Franco impersonates the iconic poet – with a finely acted court drama; Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck’s going mainstream and recapturing the spirit of John Hughes movies such as ‘The Breakfast Club’ in a very funny -if lighter than expected- view of the pressures our hectic lifestyle places on us in ‘IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY’; and Greg Araki sexually charged and pulp tinged, tongue-in-cheek excess ‘KABOOM’.
Back to Europe; Guillaume Canet swapped thriller for ensemble comedy in ‘LITTLE WHITE LIES’, following the tried and tested formula of an old group of friends catching up over the course of their annual holiday get-together. Its superb cast headed by Marion Cotillard and Francois Cluzet made believable and thoroughly enjoyable the sometimes blown out or proportion script. Brit Jamie Thraves launched his minor gem ‘TREACLE JR.’, a budget odd-buddy situation comedy based in two superb interpretations by Aidan Gillen and Tom Fisher. More established and also British, Ken Loach returned with ‘ROUTE IRISH’, trying to denounce the madness of Iraq’s war for profit through this thriller-shaped story of a British mercenary soldier killed in the conflict, and his best friend researching the strange circumstances surrounding his death. It may not be one of his most accomplished works, but it is as relevant and necessary as any of them. And last, but not least, further proof of the good health Russian cinematography is currently enjoying with the winner of the festival Award as Best film ‘HOW IT ENDED THIS SUMMER’ by Alexei Popogrebsky; a psychological study about the consequences of living in isolation, through two characters working at a meteorological station in the Arctic Circle and the drama that unfolds after bad news arrive.
Other noteworthy movies we saw include a gaze at the hollow world of celebrity in Sophia Coppola’s ‘SOMEWHERE’; a grim near-return to form of Thomas Vinterberg in ‘’SUBMARINO”; ‘LET ME IN’, the extremely faithful US adaptation of the Swedish classic teen vampire drama done by ‘Cloverfield’ director Matt Reeves –a great remake somehow overshadowed by the still fresh memories of the original-=. Star turns by French veterans Isabelle Huppert, as the free-spirited single mother in ‘COPACABANA’, and Gerard Depardieu, as the retired man who embarks on a bike trip to collect the paperwork from all his former jobs, needed to get his pension paid, in ‘MAMMUTH’. The original animated spoof ‘MARS’ directed by Geoff Marslet; the dialogue-free, fugitive-like ‘ESSENTIAL KILLING’ by polish author Jerzy Skolimowski, for which Vincent Gallo scooped the best actor prize at the latest edition of the Venice festival, and two new female British authors: Gillian Wearing with an experiment on method acting applied to improve the anxieties and traumas of ordinary people, ‘SELF-MADE, and Joanna Hogg’s second feature ‘ARCHIPELAGO’, another well-observed look at the upper middle classes of Great Britain. Last, but not least, ‘UPSIDE DOWN: CREATION RECORDS STORY’ by Danny O’Connor, an entertaining documentary compiling the story of the quintessential British indie label.
…AND THE DISAPPOINTMENTS:
Despite the overall high quality, there were also a few disappointments, the most blatant among them were Julian Schabel’s patchy ‘MIRAL’ – the real story of several generations of Palestinian women over the historical conflict against Israel, overambitious in scope, but lacking of narrative cohesion; Bertrand Tavernier’s return to France and the period drama genre with the sorely dull ‘THE PRINCESS OF MONPENSIER; Catherine Breillat’s unbearably pretentious and aesthetically questionable third foray into fairytale adaptation with ‘SLEEPING BEAUTY’ and Jean-Luc Godard’s politically tinged and impenetrable cinematographic collage ‘FILM SOCIALISM’.