A Better Entertainment Is Possible.
On the third day of the festival two of its most eagerly anticipated galas grabbed the headlines. The Love strand chose ‘A Bigger Splash’; a dark, abrasive relationships drama celebrating the pleasure of the senses with obscene abandon. The festival’s own one was Ben Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise’, a wild satire about social collapse. A rollercoaster of very diverse thrills suitably complemented with the frights provided by superior chiller ‘The Invitation’.
The second day of the London Film Festival brought Hollywood glamour to the red carpet with Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren and John Goodman in town for the European premiere of ‘Trumbo’, a glossy biopic about the screenplay writer who, jailed and blacklisted for refusing to testify in the infamous House Committee of un-American activities during the McCarthy era, later went to win two Oscars for ‘Roman Holiday’ and ‘The Brave One’ under pseudonym. The event also opened its official competition with Cary Fukunaga’s jaw-dropping child soldier film ‘Beast Of No Nation’. Elsewhere, the excellent Czech comedy,’Lost In Munich’ and the Cannes winner French social drama ‘The Measure of a Man’ stood up.
Apart from the opening gala of Suffragette, which monopolised a big part of the media attention, the first day of the festival brought us two remarkable works exploring the dramatic possibilities of the maternal-filial bond: one by acclaimed Chinese helmer Jia Zhangke, ‘Mountains May Depart’, and the second, ‘James White’, the directorial debut of American producer Josh Mond.
The Chinese auteur, one of the standout personalities in the programme, is also the subject of Walter Salles documentary ‘Jia Zhange; a guy from Fenyang.’ Both filmmakers imparted one of this year’s screen talks.
As the Curtain rises on the 59th BFI London Film Festival, its opening gala couldn’t have captured the feeling of the times any better. Released right on time to support the ongoing debate about gender inequality within the film industry, as well as in our society as a whole; ‘Suffragette’ goes back to the beginning of the 20th century paying tribute to the movement for women’s right to vote.
A passion project for director Sarah Gavron, it took ten years to complete, hindered by what many perceived as the lack of commercial viability of an all-women endeavour. The final result is a solid, finely crafted, but rather conventional drama whose screenplay, penned by Abi Morgan (Shame; The Iron Lady), combines historical research with crowd pleasing elements.
You might not find many chances to connect the works of two artists as disparate as Ousmane Sembène, the late father of African cinema, and British superstar comedian Russell Brand, but two remarkable documentaries convey the influence that ideals of political revolution have had in their respective output; both driven by a similar ambition to become a spokesperson for the people. The first one more than achieved his goal through a ground breaking body of work; whereas the results of the latter’s much publicised reincarnation as a political agitator are yet to be seen.
Since the Iranian government banned him from the exercise of his profession, Jafar Panahi has managed to find increasingly brave ways to circumvent that ban and carry on shooting new works internationally acclaimed as courageous acts of nonviolent resistance.
Taxi Tehran is the third and best film on this new, highly restricted period of his career, after This Is Not a Film and Closed Curtain. The auteur, who humbly declares he carries on filmmaking -despite the obvious risks he faces- because is the only thing he can do, shares an idea from fellow Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami‘s ‘10’, impersonating a cab driver who chats to a wide range of customers, with a camera set in the vehicle’s control panel filming their conversations while driving around a Tehran brimming with life.
Guy Maddin’s latest experiment, ‘The Forbidden room’ is an astonishing tribute to the history of cinema executed with tremendous craft and originality. The multidisciplinary Canadian artist and his co-director and regular collaborator, Evan Johnson, who is responsible for the film’s awe-inspiring colour and visual effects, began conceiving it in parallel with their art project Seances, both shot publicly in two museums, Paris’ Centre Pompidou and Montreal’s Phi Centre.
‘Seances’ original idea involved the shooting of 100 short movies, remakes of lost films, but while being made, it shifted towards more original material, altogether to become an interactive internet project in which the audience will be able to combine those films at random, generating an unlimited number of permutations connected in surreal; dream-like and unexpected ways.
The 59th BFI London Film Festival is just round the corner and our blog will be posting daily updates with everything that happens during the event. To build excitement while counting down the days, we begin our coverage with a few recommendations, the first of which is Pablo Larraín’s extraordinary allegory about the sins of the Church, ‘The Club’.
In a misty coastal town four men and their housekeeper share a grey but placid existence. They go through their everyday tasks enjoying what seems like an early retirement whose calm will soon be compromised by the arrival of three strangers, one shortly after each other.
With the booking for BFI members beginning Today and for the rest of the public in a week, the 59th BFI London Film Festival makes once again every cinephile in town salivating at the prospect of another terrific and comprehensive showcase of the best cinema from around the globe.
A total of 238 fiction and documentary works, including its usual selection of recently restored Treasures, plus 182 live action and animated shorts will be showcased in venues across London. A series of Screen talks with filmmaker Todd Haynes, actor Saoirse Ronan, casting director Laura Rosenthal and filmmakers Jia Zhangke and Walter Salles, as well as other multidisciplinary collaborations between with such influential artists as Christopher Nolan or Tacita Dean will round up this year’s excellent programme, offering something for everyone, from a preview of the forthcoming award season’s big contenders, to the discovery of the freshest arthouse talent.
In case you need some help to decide what to watch, here’s our LFF preview checklist (roughly) in chronological order of presentation. Have a happy festival:
As expected, the London Film Festival gave the UK the first proper taste of every big player in this year’s awards season that’s already premiered as well as throwing a few exclusives of its own. Consequently, our monitoring chart has experienced a big shake-up, signalled by the arrival of the three clear leads in the race until now: ‘Gravity’; “12 Years A Slave” and “Captain Phillips”, as well as the latest works from the Coen Brothers; Stephen Frears and Ashgar Farhadi, also likely to earn many a nomination. With such a incredibly packed programme we had to give some other equally resonating works a miss, among them ‘Saving Mr. Banks’; ‘Nebraska’; “All Is Lost’ and the Cannes Palme D’or winner “Blue is The Warmest Colour’, soon to be released in our screens.
Next to the big names, the festival was also a good showcase for some of the International submissions for the Academy’s Foreign Language Oscar. As well as Iran’s already mentioned choice, Farhadi’s ‘The Past’; other favourites in this category are Chile’s ‘Gloria’; Mexico’s ‘Heli’; Romania’s “Child Pose’; Cambodia’s ‘The Missing Picture’ or Palestine’s ‘Omar’.
We could make a third group of films composed mainly by arthouse gems not specially aiming at award recognition, but nevertheless likely to feature among the critics’ end of the year selections. Our favourites were such well received films as ‘The Selfish Giant’; ‘Like Father, Like Son’; ‘Strangers by the Lake’; festival winners ‘Ida’ and ‘My Fathers, My Mother & Me’; US Indies ‘Short Term 12’ and ‘The Spectacular Now’. All of them help reassure we are heading for another twelve months of excellent cinema.
Check the full updated list here:
Excitement is growing fast for the LFF’s hottest ticket, the traditional Surprise film has every film buff in the city trying to figure out what would the chosen one be. Twitter is buzzing with wild guesses, everything from ‘The Muppets’ reboot to David Fincher’s ‘Girl with The Dragon Tattoo’; Meryl Streep impersonating Margaret Thatcher … Read more
London’s annual date with the best movies from around the planet is about to begin. Reaching its 55th edition, The BFI London Film Festival takes place from October the 12th until the 27th and offers a fortnight packed with glamorous galas and a carefully selected program, whose usual sections showcase the most inventive and boundary … Read more
La cita anual de Londres con las mejores películas de todo el mundo esta a punto de comenzar. Llegando a su 55 edición, el BFI Festival De Cine De Londrés tiene lugar del 12 hasta el 27 de Octubre y ofrece una quincena repleta de glamourosas galas y un programa cuidadosamente seleccionado, cuyas diferentes … Read more
Nos ha costado casi tres semanas, pero hemos conseguido al fin recopilar nuestras impresiones y preparar un pequeño resumen de la última edición del BFI Festival de Cine de Londres. Una edición que ha batido records de asistencia –lo que tiene merito en los tiempos de crisis que vivimos – y número de películas en oferta, con casi doscientos títulos para escoger cuya increíble variedad y calidad nos ha forzado en no pocas ocasiones ha tomar dolorosas ediciones en nuestra cobertura diaria para el Blinkblog.
Comenzando por aquellos filmes que no pudimos ver por coincidencias en el programa, caos en el metro londinense y otros obstáculos inesperados; las películas que mas nos disgustó perdernos fueron la ganadora del gran premio del jurado en Cannes, ‘OF GODS AND MEN’; la que se perfila como candidata favorita a los Oscars ‘EL DISCURSO DEL REY’ – con un excelente reparto encabezado por Colin Firth y Geoffrey Rush- y la elegida para la gala de apertura ‘NEVER LET ME GO’, adaptación del best-seller de Kazuo Ishiguro.
También nos perdimos dos mega producciones: la narración en cinco horas que Olivier Assayas ha presentado de la vida del famoso terrorista ‘CARLOS’ El Chacal y la igualmente larga última obra de Raul Ruiz ‘MEMORIAS DE LISBOA’. ‘SUBMARINE’, que constituye el debut como director del humorista televisivo Richard Ayoade’s, conocido por la serie ‘The IT crowd’; y sus colegas cómicos Británicos Rob Brydon y Steve Coogan, de nuevo a las órdenes de Michael Winterbottom en ‘THE TRIP’ – concebida como una serie de seis episodios para la BBC, pero también presentada en formato de película durante el festival.
Otros títulos notables procedentes de todo el mundo fueron la revisión del mito del samurai que Takeshi Miike realiza en ’13 ASESINOS’; la surreal elección de Estonia al Oscar a la película extranjera ‘LA TENTACION DE SAN TONY’; El nuevo drama galo protagonizado por Kristin Scott-Thomas, ‘EN TUS MANOS; y el cómico americano Will Ferrell mostrando un total cambio de registro en la obra inspirada por las novelas de Raymond Carver ‘EVERYTHING MUST GO’; todas ellas bien recibidas. Como lo han sido una serie de notables documentales internacionales incluyendo el ganador del premio del festival ‘ARMADILLO’; o como ‘CATFISH’; ‘THE PEDDLER’ y ‘WASTE LAND’, destacados entre una nutrida selección de trabajos del genero.
Todos juntos hubieran constituido una muy diferente, si bien igualmente satisfactoria, experiencia festivalera para nosotros. Sin embargo, si pudimos ver un elevado número de excelentes largometrajes, entre ellos algunos de los mejores que se han producido durante este año e irán llegando durante los próximos meses a la gran pantalla. Nuestra selección de favoritas tras el salto.