The month of September marks the beginning of the autumn film festival season, with high profile events in Venice , Toronto and coming up next month our own BFI London Film Festival. The Cambridge Film Festival (15 th – 25 th September 2011) doesn’t enjoy the same degree of press attention as those others but when Maria Sell spent time there, she found plenty to capture her interest.
The festival kicked off on 15th September with a sold out screening of the excellent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , with both Gary Oldman and John Hurt in attendance – how is that for a small university town? This is certainly one of the biggest coups the festival has scored in its 31-year history.
The Festival was launched in 1977 in Cambridge’s old Arts Cinema and has been rapidly expanding ever since, despite a 5-year hiatus between 1996 and 2001 This year the Arts Picture House was the main venue alongside the local Cineworld and a couple of other, smaller sites . What marks this festival out is its recognition that the film world has become an increasingly homogenous and difficult environment for independent cinema. CFF has therefore made it its mission to present a platform for a wide-ranging choice of international independent cinema, including UK and world premieres, new features, short films, documentaries, special seasons and revivals. Since 2007 it is operated by the Cambridge Film Trust, which was established for this purpose. Because of its charitable status, the festival relies heavily on funding, which is vital for its survival and according to Festival Director Tony Jones, in the current difficult economic climate it provides significant financial stability for the ever expanding festival.
Despite being wedged in between other, well established international festivals, such as Venice and London, as well as running concurrently with San Sebastian in Spain, the programme suggests that the festival can easily hold its own with a stellar line-up that this year comprises over 30 UK premieres, including the US box office hit The Help , Woody Allen’s Cannes screened Midnight in Paris and Paddy Considine’s much anticipated directorial debut feature, Tyrannosaur . There is also a retrospective on Dutch director Jos Stelling, who is also in attendance and whose work has never received UK distribution; a focus on contemporary German cinema, a short film strand and a raft of documentaries, including the critically-acclaimed Page One: Inside The New York Times . Additionally the festival holds talks with one of them being among the first events to have sold out in advance: UK critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode’s Q&A session and signing of his latest book The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex . With such a promising line-up expectations were high before my arrival in the beautiful university town that is Cambridge.
However, my first foray, which was not at the festival’s main site, the Picturehouse, but at the slightly further afield Cineworld, was somewhat disappointing. It was a Friday night (the second official day of the festival) but where was the festival atmosphere, where was the glamour? When I announced at the entrance I was here for the festival, a slightly apathetic volunteer replied: “Yeah, screen 2.” Once inside it dawned on me where the lack of enthusiasm might stem from – the cinema was almost empty bar a handful of visitors and it was eerily quiet, resembling more the nervous atmosphere before a school test rather than the excitement of a festival. But before I could dwell on this for too long, the film started and thankfully made up for any initial disappointment. Intimate Grammar is an affecting coming-of-age tale, set in 1960s Israel and is driven by a great performance from Roee Elsberg as an 11-year-old boy whose disaffection at the world around him leads to his refusal to grow an inch in three years.
Other strands within the programming range from insightful and entertaining documentaries ( Beatboxing – The Fifth Element of Hip Hop , Bombay Beach ) to an austere and serious tale of modern German society in Above Us Only Sky , part of the German Contemporary Cinema strand. A quick look through the latter reveals further interesting albeit rather bleak sounding features and shorts. It was a point that frequent festival attendee and Cambridge resident, Vera Ahrfeld, echoed, when she revealed to me that she was “seriously worried about the German psyche” after watching several of the strand’s films. Nevertheless, she is highly appreciative of the existence of this festival as “this is often the only chance I get to see foreign films, as most of them will not be released in Cambridge”.
With all of my other screenings at the Arts Picturehouse – the heart of the festival – my initial opinion of the festival atmosphere was quickly revised. There might not be much glamour or many festival parties, but Cambridge certainly stands out for its accessible and friendly nature. The welcoming staff are constantly on hand helping undecided cinema goers with a dedicated film therapy desk. Unfortunately, this does not double as a refund counter in case a film does not satisfy, as one disgruntled viewer of an unnamed British production discovered. It is also a nice touch that post-screenings, the audience is invited to cast their vote on the film they have just viewed with the results posted subsequently on the festival website, which also publishes reviews, news and screening updates several times a day.
With plenty of soft seating areas for families and other film visitors, as well as a bar and the usual concession stand, it is certainly made easy to relax in between screenings, while attending directors, such as Jos Stelling and Jon Sanders ( Late September ) could be seen mingling with the festival crowd.
Although the festival takes place before the start of university term time and thus arguably misses out on most of the bright, culturally interested students, Rosy Hunt, Editor of Take One Film Festival Review, revealed that attendance had been good for the first few days. She was though slightly disappointed that the Q&A screening of Drive with director Nicholas Winding Refn did not sell out in advance. Fortunate for me though, as despite the film’s violence, it proved to be one of my festival highlights. While from personal experience Q&As can be very mixed affairs, thankfully Refn – fresh from upsetting BBC Breakfast TV viewers that morning with his use of colourful language – shared some interesting insights into the genesis of his Cannes prize winning (best director) film Drive . Namely he disclosed how a very unlikely film – Pretty Woman – had served as the inspiration for this violent tale of Ryan Gosling’s hot-rod driving, psychotic white knight.
My personal experience of the Cambridge Film Festival has highlighted for me the important role that less prominent film festivals occupy. One can only hope that Cambridge will continue to flourish and succeed in offering many more people the opportunity to explore films outside the usual Hollywood fare in a charming setting. If you have not yet made it to Cambridge, do not despair, there is still time before it closes on Sunday (25 th ) with Angelina Maccarone’s The Look , a portrait of the actress Charlotte Rampling.
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Maria, thanks for this interesting, elaborate, well-written article about the festival, the city and the people. I definitely try to be there next time. Promise!