LFF 2011 Preview Part 1

Yes, it's that time again, for all us movie fans the circus is back in town, as the London Film Festival ramps up for its 55th year. This is also the final year for artistic director Sandra Hebron, whose tenure has seen the festival become a very significant event in the world film calendar. It looks like she and her team have crafted an eclectic programme again this year across all the familiar strands, and across this 3 part post I'll be picking my personal must sees of the fest.

Let's begin, then, with the festival's heavy hitters.

GALAS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Opening Film: 360
Dir: Fernando Mierelles

A dynamic and moving study of love in the 21st century from the director of The Constant Gardener.

Mierelles reunites with his Constant Gardener star Rachel Weisz, and assembles a cast of international talents (also including Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Jamel Debouzze and Moritz Bleibtreu) for the globetrotting set of interlocking stories about couples. It's an adaptation of La Ronde (hence 360). For me, Mierelles is overrated, and this looks very middling, but as the opening film, and one of Rachel Weisz' four Oscar hopeful roles this year it must count as one of the big events of the festival.

Closing Film: The Deep Blue Sea
Dir: Terence Davies

Terence Davies' poetic and sensitive adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play, with subtly nuanced performances from its impeccable cast.

A classy British cast for a classy British director, adapting a play by a classy British writer. Yep, that's an LFF closing film. This is perhaps the expected Oscar nominated performance for Rachel Weisz, playing a woman who, in 1950's London, leaves her older husband (Simon Russell Beale) for a younger man (the very busy Tom Hiddleston), but inevitably finds that that relationship also has its problems. This looks like a heady drama with a beautifully crafted look and a standout part for Weisz.

The Artist
Dir: Michel Hazanavicius

They don't make ‘em like they used to, apparently. Well, ‘they' do now!

Set in Hollywood in 1927, this homage to silent cinema was one of the big popular hits of the Cannes Film Festival, and won lead Jean Dujardin the Best Actor prize. The Artist is, apparently, not quite a modern silent, but eschews dialogue almost completely and that, along with the crisp black and white photography, should allow us to plunge into what is now, for most, a lost world, just as the movies discovered sound. This looks like a smart, sweet and funny love letter to cinema. I can't wait to see it.

Coriolanus
Dir: Ralph Fiennes

A clever, contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's play of political power and intrigue, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes.

Rather shamefully I don't know Shakespeare's Coriolanus at all. That said, what we've seen of Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut doesn't exactly scream Shakespeare at you. Instead it seems that by setting this story of a Roman general in modern day and in a Balkan war zone Fiennes has come up with a muscular adaptation, combining Shakespeare's words with the ultra modern imagery that he and Hurt Locker cinematographer Barry Ackroyd have collaborated to find. Fiennes also leads a cast packed with the best of British acting talent... and Gerard Butler, who appears to be playing a man who shouts in a Scottish accent. Well, you can't have it all can you?

A Dangerous Method
Dir: David Cronenberg

Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley star in David Cronenberg's compelling look at the early days of psychoanalysis.

A new David Cronenberg film is always a cause for celebration as far as I'm concerned, and it seems that, having been preoccupied with the body for so long, Cronenberg is becoming more and more interested in exploring the mind with his recent films. Here he depicts the relationship between Sigmund Freud (Cronenberg's current muse, Viggo Mortenson), Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and one of Jung's patients, with whom he has an affair (Keira Knightley). So, and adventurous and high quality cast, a script by Christopher Hampton and Cronenberg dealing with sex and psychoanalysis. Sign me up.

The Descendants
Dir: Alexander Payne


Alexander Payne is another filmmaker I find hit and miss, but this, his first film since Sideways, looks to be much more up my street than that film or About Schmidt. George Clooney plays a Dad who suddenly realises, when his wife is seriously injured in an accident, that he doesn't really know his two daughters (who are ten and seventeen). Clips suggest that Payne's comedic instinct as as sharp as ever and that Clooney is well cast. The danger is probably that the film could start to feel over familliar, or that the inevitable learning and hugging could be cloying, but hopefully Clooney's Cary Grant like charm will keep those things from becoming a real issue.

The First Born
Dir: Miles Mander

The sex lives of the upper classes come under scrutiny in this tour de force of late silent British cinema.

You're probably best off asking Pamela from Silent London about this one. The archive gala is a late silent period British film, starring Madeline Carroll, who would go on to be one of the quintessential Hitchcock blondes in The 39 Steps. Coincidentally, The First Born was co-written by Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville. The story of a philandering husband, jealousy, miscegenation and images of Carroll taking a bath (shot in very voyeuristic fashion) must have been controversial at the time, and suggest a film that is still likely to feel adult and somewhat contemporary.

The Ides of March
Dir: George Clooney

George Clooney directs and appears alongside Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Evan Rachel Wood in this smart, incisive exploration of dirty politics on the campaign trail.

After a misstep with charmless screwball throwback Leatherheads it seems that George Clooney is back to what he does best as a director. The Ides of March casts Clooney as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination (who seems to carry more than a few echoes of Barack Obabma). The cast is high quality, the quetion mark will likely be whether Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov can keep the political rhetoric from being too heavy, or, worse, the whole thing from simply feeling like The West Wing lite.

Shame
Dir: Steve McQueen

Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan star in Steve McQueen's frank study of a New York man's sexual compulsion.

I didn't like Steve McQueen's debut; Hunger quite as much as some other critics, but Shame sounds more interesting for several reasons. First is Michael Fassbender, the real standout aspect of Shame, reuniting with McQueen having gone from strength to strength as an actor since their last collaboration. Second is Carey Mulligan, whose career is so much in the ascedant right now that she could be doing blockbuster upon blockbuster, but instead she's choosing daring parts like this and finally there's simply this; when was the last time you saw an English language film that treated sex as more than something to leer or snigger at? It doesn't happen much. Truly adult films, treating adult subjects intelligently, are too rare. This looks like being one.

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Dir: Lynne Ramsay

The much-anticipated film based on Lionel Shriver's Orange Prize-winning novel.

One of the great mysteries in the film business is why, after the opening one two punch of her magnificent Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, it took eight years (and several collapsed projects) for Lynne Ramsay to be allowed back behind a camera.

This adaptation of the novel about a woman (played by the always magnificent Tilda Swinton) trying to come to terms with the fact that her son has committed an awful crime sounds like it is right up Ramsay's particularly bleak street, and the casting also seems dead on, with John C. Reilly as Swinton's husband and the hotly tipped Ezra Miller apparently outstanding as Kevin. I just hope it's as good as I want it to be.

24FPS Alternative Summer of Cinema: Part 1

'Summer' at the movies now lasts about half of the year, from April (it kicked off in earnest with Zack Snyder's repellent Sucker Punch) to the end of August or the beginning of September. It's a bad time for people who love movies; cinemas become choked with blockbusters, the mainstream squeezing out the smaller, and usually much more interesting, films more each year. But you don't HAVE to go and see the latest superhero movie.

So, rather than telling you about Thor (again), 24FPS now presents its guide to the interesting alternatives coming your way in blockbuster season. In this first part we'll cover releases up to the end of June, and we'll return with a second installment in a few weeks time, when there are more confirmed releases for July and August.

The comments on each release are either by me (in bold type) or by Mike Ewins (in italic type).

APRIL
15th
The Big Releases: Scream 4, Red Riding Hood

The Alternatives...
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

Peter Bogdanovich's second film gets a remastered 40th anniversary release (in director's cut form). It is starting with a run at BFI Southbank, but thereafter it is likely to play arthouse locations around the country. I can't wait to see this re-release; to be back in the company of these vivid, real, characters; to feast my eyes on the beautiful black and white cinematography (chosen by Bogdanovich as a shorthand way to convincingly evoke the 50's) and to be drawn in, once again, by the expert performances from the ensemble cast.

This is one of my favourite films of all time, and if you only go to the cinema once all summer it should be to see this.

MEEK'S CUTOFF

Kelly Reichardt's film made my Top 10 and Mike's Top 5 films of 2010. It's an absorbing and beautifully shot Western that uses the dry, near featureless, expanse of Wyoming desert in which its main characters become lost as the film's ever present antagonist. Reichardt demonstrates the visual mastery of a Terence Malick, as well as a firm grasp on both performances (Michelle Williams is particularly outstanding) and tone.

Some people won't warm to the film's bleak and abrupt ending, but for me it works perfectly, indeed it's one of the main reasons this film has been going round in my head since the London Film Festival.

It's not often that you get a feminist mumblecore Western, so you should really make the effort to check one out when it comes along. It recalls the novels of Paul Bowles (especially 1950's 'The Delicate Prey') in its story, themes, and utilization of landscape, but as Sam says, this is also deeply reminiscent of the works of Terrence Malick. Tensions boil underneath sand-swept veneers as the characters verge more and more off their track... it all leads up to one of the best endings in years, and think this is a film which will endure the test of time.


22nd
The Big Releases: Arthur, Fast and Furious 5

The Alternatives...
HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER

Russian cinema is producing some really interesting films at the moment (not least 2006's The Lighthouse, recently released on DVD) and How I Ended This Summer looks like a fine example. Set on an isolated island in the cold Arctic Ocean, the film charts the relationship between Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis) and Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) who spend months together on a meteorological polar station. It looks like a stark and intense thriller with some incredible landscape shots, and its evolution into a thriller should be fascinating. I was very sad to miss this one at LFF but can't wait to catch it now and uncover the mystery.

PINA [3D]

Yes, that is a pig flying overhead, and yes, I am recommending a 3D film. I have no rhythm. I can't play music, I can barely keep time while clapping, and I certainly can't dance, but since seeing The Red Shoes for the first time about four years ago I have become fascinated by dance. Pina Bausch, who died just before this film entered production, forcing a radical overhaul of its form, was one of the most famous and best regarded modern dance choreographers, and I'm sure it's going to be a joy to see her work brought out into the open, as Wim Wenders has her company stage this work in public spaces. I'm also intrigued to see how the 3D will be implemented.

TAXI ZUM KLO

Well, this one won't be for everyone, but as someone who is always keen to see where the boundaries lie in terms of censorship I'm interested in the uncut re-release of Frank Ripploh's extremely controversial autobiographical 1980 film about his experience as a gay man living in Berlin. It is apparently unflinching (to the point of indulging in hardcore sequences).

I'm not sure I'll go and see it, or pick up the uncut DVD which follows this cinematic run, but this is another happy and notable turning point in the liberalisation of UK censorship for an audience that has been more marginalised than most by censorship policy.


29th
The Big Release: Thor [3D]

The Alternatives...
FAREWELL

Having seen this a year ago at a Q and A screening I can faithfully report that it is a very absorbing and extremely well acted 70's style spy thriller. The pace may be leisurely, but the story (which is based on real events) is genuinely tense. The film has Guillaume Canet as an initially unwilling spy, Alexandra Maria Lara as his concerned wife and director Emir Kusturica as Canet's handler. It's also got a fine clutch of character actors in supporting roles; Willem Dafoe, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Dina Korzun. It's not perfect, but if you want to see a film that suggests they do make 'em like they used to then it comes recommended.

I SAW THE DEVIL

I have been deliberately staying away from information on South Korean director Kim Jee-woon's revenge thriller, which stars his frequent collaborators Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik. All I know is that it is long, and by all accounts extremely brutal (so much so that it had to be cut for cinema release in its home country, something virtually unheard of).

Kim is one of the most interesting voices in South Korean cinema, and has been at the forefront of their new wave with films like A Tale of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life, combining his talents, those of Oldboy star Choi and Korean megastar Lee, and a genre I'm a huge fan of already makes this one of my most anticipated of 2011.

THE VETERAN

I've been a fan of Toby Kebbell ever since I saw his outstanding turn in Shane Meadows' bleak revenge picture Dead Man's Shoes (2004), but he's also survived such craptastic films as RocknRolla (2008) and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), coming out as the best thing in them. I'll be honest - The Veteran doesn't look very good. The trailer showcases awful dialogue and obvious imagery, but if handled correctly the idea of turning London into literal warzone - infested with street gangs sporting AK47's - could be an interesting one. And after all, Kebbell will surely be terrific in it.



MAY
6th
The Big Releases: Hanna, Water for Elephants

NB: It's worth noting that we at 24FPS are hugely excited for Hanna, but it is a large mainstream release, so doesn't qualify for this preview.

The Alternatives...
13 ASSASSINS

I'll be bringing you an early review of this soon (still under embargo). What I will say is that Takashi Miike has outdone himself here. 13 Assassins, shorn of 20 minutes since its festival screenings but still an epic undertaking, is a relentlessly exciting film packed with great action sequences and solid performances, to say nothing of bags of style. Watch this space for more.

THE TREE OF LIFE

This'll be the first Malick film since 2005's The New World, which was something of a terminally boring letdown after the sublimely beautiful war essay The Thin Red Line, released to acclaim in 1998. This looks like his most ambitious and personal project yet; an emotional epic which straddles the line between life and death, this world and the next. The trailer reveals stunning shots of the galaxy and planets colliding, but there are also rumors abound of dinosaurs, which hints at a spectacle even grander than we've been expecting. I'm fascinated by this film and if nothing else it'll be an unrivaled visual spectacle this summer.


13th
The Big Releases: Priest [3D], Attack the Block

The Alternatives...
HOLY ROLLERS

The true story of a young Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn being lured into the drug trafficking industry at the end of the 90s? Yeah, count me in. It doesn't sound like everyone's cup of tea but Holy Rollers, while also being quite dark, is executed with humour and style, helped no end by Jesse Eisenberg who in the wake of The Social Network has become one of the most interesting actors of his generation. It's a slick little crime picture not without its share of flaws, but if you're looking for a drama which underplays its thrills this unique independent oddity will surely appeal.

LOVE LIKE POISON

Last year's London Film Festival titles continue to leak out to UK cinemas, and this was one of the best. Katell Quillevere's debut is a thoughtful and personal coming of age film about a 14 year old girl (the remarkable Clara Augarde) experiencing both a sexual awakening and a loss of faith in the run up to her confirmation ceremony. Like most European teen movies this isn't a rose tinted look at adolescence; it has more complex and realistic things on its mind than whether the heroine can get that perfect dress and date for the prom.

Quillevere draws wonderful work from the young leads and directs with a sure, sensitive and unobtrusive hand. This is a film to make time for and a filmmaker to watch out for.

TAXI DRIVER

35 years on from its initial release, Scorsese's masterpiece returns to cinemas in a brand new remastered print. From the trailer it seems as though the remaster will look astounding, and the performances of Robert DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Kietel and even Cybill Shepherd, to say nothing of Scorsese's direction, are likely to remain undimmed in their brilliance. I can't wait to finally see this where it belongs; at a cinema.


20th
The Big Release: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides [3D]

The Alternatives...
FIRE IN BABYLON

Good documentary filmmakers open up worlds to us, and it has often interested me how things that I would ordinarily find dull can become fascinating through a good documentary. This film, about the legendary West Indies cricket team of the 70's and 80's, was a nice surprise during the London film festival, and though I'm not a cricket (or really a sports in general) fan it held my interest all the way through, thanks largely to the big personalities on show during the interviews. The film also does a fine job of providing social and political context to the team's achievements, and remains entertaining and engaging throughout.


27th
The Big Release: The Hangover Part 2

The Alternatives...
HEARTBEATS

This film is likely to split audiences as it did at the London Film Festival last year (my good friend and colleague Eoin maintains it's the worst film he saw in 2010). I reached a split decision on it; parts are infuriating, it's overlong, has some truly hateful characters and there is a whole section of the film you could cut and lose nothing as a result. But Xavier Dolan's screenplay can also be brutally witty and sharply observed, there are some great performances, and the young director's use of music and editing is outstanding. It's a promising work from a 21 year old auteur.

THE MESSENGER

I've been wanting to see this film about a young soldier who returns wounded from Iraq, and is then assigned to the casualty notification team, handing out bad news, for some time now. The cast is eclectic and intriguing; Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi and Brendan Sexton III all feature, as does one of my favourite young actresses; Jena Malone. here have been a lot of films about the fallout of the war on terror, and this looks to be a promising one, hopefully it will be serious minded without being preachy, and showcase a lot of fine performances.



JUNE
3rd
The Big Release: X-Men: First Class

The Alternatives...
MAMMUTH

This looks like being a fun little comedy drama, featuring Gerard Depardieu as a man about to retire who goes in search of missing documents when it comes to light that co-workers haven't filed the right paperwork for him to receive all his retirement benefits.

I wanted to see this at LFF last years, but missed it, if nothing else it ought to be worth a look for the cast which, aside from Depardieu, includes Isabelle Adjani, Yolande Moreau, Philippe Nahon and Anna Mouglalis.

THE TREE

Charlotte Gainsbourg's in it you say? I'll see you at the cinema then. I'm also intrigued by the idea behind this film, which is about a family dealing with the death of the father, and the young daughter believing that a tree, which may need to be cut down as it threatens the house, now contains her father's soul, and that he speaks to her through the leaves.

This could be a magical and moving film, but it will need a careful directorial hand from Julie Bertucelli to ensure that it doesn't become cloying and sickly.


10th
The Big Release: Kung Fu Panda 2 [3D]

The Alternatives...
KABOOM

Kaboom finds promiscuous auteur Gregg Araki returning to his old school apocalyptic sex-em-ups of the 90s (films such as Nowhere, 1997) - marked out by bright colours, underground conspiracy and a plentiful dollop of teenage flesh. He matured with 2004's outstanding Mysterious Skin but this is by no means a regression - Kaboom is a gleefully silly end-of-the-world romp with more sex than you can shake a stick at; it's not explicit either, just really playfully OTT. It's also visually impressive, glossier than we're used to with Araki but at least he's abandoned the grit of the antagonistic The Living End (1992). Solid adult entertainment.

POINT BLANK

Hot on the heels of the remake of his fine thriller Pour Elle comes this new film from French director Fred Cavaye. It doesn't seem like a huge departure, revolving around a male nurse whose wife is taken hostage after he treats a thief whose gang want to spring him from hospital. That said, Cavaye showed with Pour Elle that he's got a good handle on the mechanics of the thriller, and he's got a decent cast to assist him here, this will probably be quite generic, but hopefully it will also be a bit of a treat.


17th
The Big Release: Green Lantern

The Alternatives...
THE BEAVER

It has been a long wait (16 years) for Jodie Foster's third directorial effort, and I'm hopeful that she won't disappoint. Foster also features as the wife of Mel Gibson's character, who suffers a break with reality and begins communicating exclusively through a beaver hand puppet. The film has had a bumpy ride to cinemas, the production stalled several times before getting underway and Gibson's personal problems put the release back from 2010. I'm really looking forward to seeing the end result in this case.

POTICHE

I saw the latest from my favourite working filmmaker, Francois Ozon, a couple of months ago at a short festival, and it's another change of pace and another near perfect film. This time it's a tart comedy starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu as old flames on opposite ends of an employment dispute.

Ozon's colourful 70's styled visuals are fun, and Deneuve and Depardieu seem to be having a wonderful time (Depardieu is more animated here than he's been for years). It's a light film, but one that still has something to say (though the political comment may get a little lost for British audiences), but most of all it's just a wonderfully, effortlessly entertaining confection.

THE TAQWACORES

This, for me, was one of the more interesting surprises of the London Film Festival. It's based on a novel about a (then) fictional underground Muslim punk movement in Buffalo, New York. By the time the film was made the book had already spawned a real movement and real bands, many of whom appear in the film.

As well as being refreshing, if only because it's a film about Muslims that almost entirely ignores questions of extremism, terrorism and September 11th, it's a politically intelligent and engaged film, and a sharp comedy. There are stand out performances from Noureen DeWulf, playing a young woman with an unothrodox interpretation of Islam, who nevertheless wears a bhurka at all times and the charismatic Dominic Rains as muslim punk Jehangir. At the very least, you won't see another film like this one in 2011.


24th
The Big Releases: Bad Teacher, Bridesmaids

The Alternatives...
COUNTDOWN TO ZERO

The new documentary from Lucy Walker (Waste Land, 2010) focuses on the escalating dangers of the possibility of nuclear war, as the arms race draws us ever closer to world annihilation. Walker is too smart to make a hyperbolic propaganda film, and equally she wouldn't pander to fear mongering, so this ought to be an insightful documentary and a more terrifying prospect than any horror film released this summer. The film is sure to take an anti-war stance and I have no doubt that it'll present an argument for disarmament, but as long as it's not heavy-handed it's a message I'm ready to get behind.

INCENDIES

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this years Oscars, this war-torn family mystery looks like a gripping adventure - packed with intelligence and emotion, and reflecting the current situation in the Middle East. I've been wanting to see it for a long time now as the trailer is a wonderfully ambiguous masterpiece unto itself... I don't quite know how the mystery of a supposedly dead father and unknown brother will pan out, but hopefully it won't fall into to cliché (many family secrets can be led back to WWII). It would be great to find an exciting thriller which also left the intellect with something to chew on.


See you in a few weeks with July and August.

LFF 2010: Preview Pt. 3

Sorry this has taken so long to post. I've been having trouble writing this week... the writers among you will know those days when nothing quite reads right... I've just had a few in a row.

The Cinema Europa and World Cinema strands are where LFF casts a wider net, covering some of the more offbeat and unseen narrative cinema of the year. It's here that you'll likely find those little festival gems; the treats you might not see again, and here that you may well spot the names you need to watch for in the future. For the full programme, CLICK HERE.

Notes: Within their strands films are listed alphabetically by title. Short synopses are taken from the LFF brochure.

CINEMA EUROPA
3 Seasons in Hell
DIR: Tomáš Mašin

A young poet and his liberated girlfriend face a new reality when the Communists take power in Prague in the late 1940s.
Set at the time of the takeover of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1948, Tomáš Mašin's first film promises to illuminate - through what sounds like a high stakes romantic thriller involving the attempts of a poet and his activist girlfirend to escape the new regime - a period of history I know next to mothing about. It's apparently loosely based on a true story and advance word suggests that this is an engaging and well acted film.


Armadillo
DIR: Janus Metz

An intense and controversial documentary about a group of Danish army recruits, stationed in Afghanistan.
War often brings about advancements in media, and especially in reportage, and the present conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are the first that we've really been able to follow consistently at ground level. In 2009 director Janus Metz and his crew were embedded with a group of Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. It seems that this is an up close and personal documentary, and it's attracting fantastic notices at other film festivals. We've had a lot of films exploring and debunking the war on terror, it will be interesting to see one about the day to day experience of it.


At Ellen's Age
DIR: Pia Marais

When Ellen discovers her lover's infidelity, her life goes into tail spin, taking her into places and politics she never thought she'd go.
I've heard nothing but good things about, and am dying to see, Pia Marais' debut The Unpolished, interestingly, this second effort sounds almost like the flipside of that film, a coming of age film focusing not on a young character but on one in her mid 40's. The talented Jeanne Balibar takes the lead as Ellen, who leaves behind her old life when her partner gets another woman pregnant, and finds herself having all sorts of new experiences with work, politics, sex and drugs. Sounds tough, but rewarding.


Blessed Events
DIR: Isabelle Stever

Emotionally honest and insightful account of a surprise pregnancy and its even more unexpected consequences by a leading light of Berlin's recent cinematic renaissance.
Germany has been producing some really exciting cinema over the last few years, and this account of two people's reaction to the pregnancy that results from their one night stand seems likely to be yet more evidence of the wave of talent coming out of there. From the available stills I can tell that director Isabelle Stever has an eye for an evocative image, and the promised underlying tension about the reasons behind the father's very enthusiastic reaction to this unexpected turn of events suggests a very different take on the established beats of the pregnancy movie.


Dark Love
DIR: Antonio Capuano

The aftermath of a rape seen through the parallel lives of the assailant and victim as they try to redeem and rebuild their lives respectively.
For me the interesting idea behind this film is that it explores the effect of a heinous crime (gang rape) from two angles; the experience of the victim, and that of a remorseful perpetrator. Whether Dark Love ultimately works will hinge on the leading performances of Irene de Angelis and Gabriele Agrio, if we believe them then this should be a provocative and fascinating piece of work. On a side note, it will also be nice to see the too infrequently used Valeria Golino again.


Elisa K
DIR: Jordi Cadena / Judith Colell

A sensitive, beautifully realised study of the traumas of child abuse from Catalan directors Judith Colell and Jordi Cadena.
It seems that the psychological ramifications of traumatic events is something of a theme in the Cinema Europa strand this year. This film, told in two chapters, shows first the immediate effect of child abuse on the young victim (the titular Elisa) and then how it continues to effect the grown Elisa when, 14 years later, she really acknowledges what happened. This is almost certain to be grim and challenging, but done sensitively it could be really striking.


Hunting and Sons
DIR: Sander Burger

The disturbing tale of a young couple whose marriage disintegrates when they become pregnant.
We still don't get to see much Dutch cinema (I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a Dutch film since Verhoeven's Black Book), but this one has certainly grabbed my interest. It's another film about the psychogoical effects of pregnancy, only in this case it seems it is driving a couple apart, largely due to the wife's body dysmorphia. These are compelling issues, and I've never seen the addressed in cinema before.


Illegal
DIR: Olivier Masset-Depasse

Olivier Masset-Depasse's award-winning film is based on actual events and vividly depicts a grim reality for those retained in Belgium's detention centres.
There are few more sensationalised or poorly reported issues than that of asylum, hopefully this film (which is based on a true story), which takes us inside a Belgian detention centre will address its subject in a more honest fashion than the media tends to. It should help that Anne Coesens is playing the lead role of a mother seperated from her son and threatened with deportation, she's a gifted and interesting actress, and this promises to give her a strong role.


My Joy
DIR: Sergei Loznitsa

A chance encounter leads to a nightmare journey into a Russian heart of darkness.
My Joy elicited a strong reaction at Cannes, where it emerged as probably the year's most disturbing film (which always has me intrigued, to be honest). It's also part of what seems to be a growing trend in Europe's former communist countries of cinema of an ever darker and more horrifying hue. Based on stories told to the director of life in present day Russia, this promises to be one of LFF's most confrontational pieces of work.


Womb
DIR: Benedek Fliegauf

Eva Green and Matt Smith star in an unusual love story, exquisitely designed and photographed.
At the very least, Womb sounds quite unlike anything I've seen before. It's the story of a woman (Eva Green) who is so heartbroken when her lover (current Dr. Who Matt Smith) is killed that she arranges to give birth to his clone. When the clone grows up and gets a girlfriend she finds herself torn between jealous and maternal feelings. It's a killer premise, and Green is a talented and daring actress, this seems a great match of talent and material.



WORLD CINEMA
Catfish
DIR: Henry Joost / Ariel Schulman

A provocative and unsettling documentary about the impact of social media.
A documentary thriller? Certainly that's what the coy synopsis in the LFF brochure paints Catfish as. Social media has had a huge impact on our society, and effects good and bad, but Catfish is the first non-fiction film to really engage with the phenomenon, and apparently with its darker side.


Cold Fish
DIR: Sion Sono

Sion Sono's outrageously splattery thriller, allegedly based on fact, shows an innocent tropical-fish seller caught up in serial murders and corpse disposals.
At least you can't accuse Sion Sono of being predictable. His last film was a four hour epic about, among other things, upskirt photography. It is, then, a fair bet that Cold Fish won't be just another thriller. It sounds likely that it will have as much familial comedy as it does splattery murder and body disposal. Different, at the very least.


Don't Be Afraid, Bi
DIR: Phan Dang Di

Six-year-old Bi doesn't understand his father's philandering or his aunt's crush on a teenage boy; a Vietnamese mixture of muscular poetry and sexual candour.
This sounds really interesting, taking events from the viewpoint of a six year old (who isn't really equipped to understand them) should bring a greater level of originality to what might otherwise be a somewhat familliar drama about infidelity and repressed sexuality. A lot will depend on the casting of Bi, if that role works then the film ought to. Vietnam hasn't produced many films that have got international recognition, so it will be interesting to see what filmmakers are doing there.


It's Your Fault
DIR: Anahí Berneri

An exhausted mother finds herself accused of child abuse in this arresting, tense drama from Argentine director Anahi Berneri.
It seems that Argentina is the coming force in world cinema, and this sounds like another strong slice of drama to folow the likes of XXY and Lion's Den. The idea behind this film; a young, tired, mother takes her child to hospital after a fall and is accused of abuse, is harrowing because it happens, and if Berneri can capture the urgency of that moment this should be strong stuff.


Leap Year
DIR: Michael Rowe

A bold, minimalist study of urban alienation, this outstanding debut feature from Mark Rowe earned him the Camera D'Or at Cannes this year.
Over the past decade or so there have been many films that have used extremely explicit, often hardcore, sex to explore their characters relationships, but so far none as really succeeded in making the explicit sex much more than a cry of 'look at meee'. The fact that this film, which apparently takes an unflinching look at a sadomasochistic relationship, won the Camera D'Or at Cannes suggests that Michael Rowe may be on to something with a little more substance here.


Smash His Camera
DIR: Leon Gast

Is pap photographer Ron Galella upholding the first amendment, or is he the price to be paid for it?
Leon Gast's documentary about veteran papparazzi photographer Ron Galella looks certain to ask some searching and provocative questions about what freedom of speech and privacy mean in this age of celebrity. It's a topic that grows more relevant with every non-story about what some D-Lister wore to whatever premiere last night.


Spork
DIR: JB Ghuman Jr

A young high-schooler attempts to win the annual talent show in this wonderfully surprising and subversive teen movie.
Last year one of my LFF highlight was an offbeat American teen movie called Dear Lemon Lima, hopefully Spork (despite its frankly horrid title) can be this year's model. It seems that it's a relatively generic tale of an outsider aiming to win the school talent show, the twist here being that the main character was born intersex. It has the potential to be funny, charming and uplifting.


The Tillman Story
DIR: Amir Bar-Lev

The latest film from Amir Bar-Lev questions simplistic notions of heroism, and emerges to be about far more than the one man at its centre.
Bar-Lev's last film; My Kid Could Paint That had a nice idea, but ultimately wasn't searching enough. Hopefully this one, which is about a young man who put a promising NFL career on hold, joined the Army Rangers, and was killed in Afghanistan, can ask the pertinent questions as well as telling Pat Tillman's story. The strong reviews suggest that it will.


Well, those are my thoughts on just a few of the films playing at LFF. Once I get my tickets I'll post my festival schedule, if any of you are attending I'd be glad to meet up for a drink and a chat.

PS: I may also have an exciting announcement about the LFF coverage. Watch this space.