by
Hemanth Kissoon
“I’ve never been more broke
yet more fulfilled”,
Emilio Estevez at the Q&A after the Bobby screening.
Hearing from the star of Young Guns
and The Breakfast
Club about his directorial effort is one
of the many reasons why the LFF is the annual highlight of
this reviewer’s year.
It is a fantastic opportunity to sample the delights of the
world’s festival offerings all within reach of a travelcard,
plus listen to those that were involved in making fascinating
cinema. Ever since watching a sell-out second showing of Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon at LFF 2000 I have been hooked.
Without a major film market or major
award ceremony the LFF cannot hope to host, unfortunately,
the prestigious world premiers and exclusives that are bestowed
on Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Cannes or Toronto. But that
does not matter as Britain’s
top film festival is not about the cinematic elite, hangers
on, fortunate and blaggers getting to watch the cream but a
festival for the cinema lover from all walks of life. The LFF
attempts to gather in one fortnight the most interesting treats
from the other major festivals.
Every year I try to up the volume I
watch (and with that hopefully the quality). This, my seventh
year, was no exception. I luckily was not disappointed and
managed to attend 40 films and talks. Sweet! Here is my diary…
Opening Night – Wednesday 18th
October
The Last King of Scotland
 In attendance from the film: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy,
Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington, David Oyelowo, Abby Mukiibi
Nkaaga, Giles Foden (author), Peter Morgan (screenwriter),
Andrea Calderwood (producer), Lisa Bryer (producer), Charles
Steel (producer) and Kevin MacDonald (director).
Like last year’s Opening Night
(The Constant
Gardener) the first film of the Festival deals
with Africa. The fiction feature debut for the ace documentary
director of Touching the Void is a colourful and powerful
look at Ugandan dictator Idi Amin through the eyes of his
doctor. The big flaw in all biopics is the blending of fact
and dramatization which diminishes what we are shown. Here
is no different unfortunately. While gripping, and anchored
by a charismatic, incendiary Forest Whitaker, it is not clear
what the film is trying to say, other than cataloguing the
atrocities of Amin and the ambivalence and mistakes of the
outside world.
Thursday 19th October
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
The subtitled print for South Korea’s Oscar entry The
King and the Clown was not ready and was replaced by Takashi
Miike’s latest. At the LFF two years ago Miike had Izo,
which was the worst film in the seven years I’ve been
going. However, curiosity got the better of me as Ichi the
Killer is the most horrific film I have ever seen, and anyone
who could make that should make something interesting. Here,
the focus are flash backs to two male inmates at a juvenile
prison set in the future and their ambiguous relationship,
while an investigation into one of their deaths unfolds. Punctuated
by occasional impressive fist fights the film’s main
conclusion is summed up by one of the characters, “Why
do parents and sexual criminals do these things to kids?” The
film’s intriguing premise is fumbled as Miike again drags
out the story at too leisurely a pace and continues the themes
of sex, death, torture, humiliation and pain.
The Boss of it All
In attendance from the film: Jens Albinus and Peter Gantzler
How many times has the name “Lars Von Trier” been
associated with the words “imp” or “impish”?
Too many is the answer. Here is another impish film, this time
a comedy on office politics about vanity, cruelty and quirkiness.
This is the third film in as many years at the Festival after
the over-long over-rated Dogville and the more interesting
and highly debatable Manderlay.
 The Boss of it All is about Ravn, a manipulative office employee
who is clandestinely filming his colleagues. He wants to be
popular so has made up a fictional boss, who has never been
seen, for the company he secretly owns. When he decides to
sell the business which would make his friends redundant he
hires an out of work actor to pretend to be the boss. Trier
has developed a new cinematic process called Automatovision
where (if I understand correctly) a computer decides the choice
of edits. At first thought it seemed a totally pointless pretentious
exercise but seems to make sense as the cameras are fixed in
their furtive filming and it is if we are spying on everyone.
Whatever you think about the director at least he tries to
push the envelope.
[Talledega
Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Decided to squeeze this in as was watching
Will Ferrell’s
latest the next day.]
Screen Talk: Forest Whitaker
These talks live or die by the ability of the interviewer
and here the interviewer seemed more interested in appearing
clever than in really getting such an interesting actor to
talk informatively about his craft.
Friday 20th October
Taxidermia
One of my favourites of the Festival,
and the year so far. Director György Pálfi's first film, Hukkle, was
artful and beautiful but lacked a clear narrative structure.
Taxidermia is a step up artistically having a real command
of the minutiae, as well as bravura camera-work and atmospheric
lighting. This director would be great at a steam punk comic
book adaptation. We follow three generations of men through
Hungary’s modern history for an in places stomach churning
intense experience, which seems to be a loose look at the Seven
Deadly Sins.
Bug
From one of the highlights to one of
the Festival’s
duds. Hailed as a return to form for director William Friedkin,
Bug was one of the most anticipated films for me. Any film-maker
than can redefine two genres – horror (The Exorcist)
and crime (The French Connection) is pretty damn gifted. Thus
the disappointment in this staid psychological thriller, which
does not transcend its theatrical roots. A barely recognizable
Ashley Judd is the abused grieving wife who after befriending
a stranger descends into paranoid hell in a motel room. This
could be a metaphor for the climate of fear we live in but
is clumsily put across. It also could be a look at, as one
character states of their lives, “Laundromats, grocery
stores, failed marriages and lost kids”.
The Producers! (Event)
In attendance: Kevin Loader, Helen de Winter, Gayle Griffiths
and Andrea Calderwood.
Depressing panel discussion about the state of being an independent
film producer in the UK. They claim that there is little reward
but they still persevere.
Stranger Than Fiction
 In attendance from the film: Will Ferrell,
Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Lindsay Doran (producer) and
Zach Helm (writer).
Cut from the same cloth as a Charlie
Kaufman script, Ferrell’s
Harold Crick is a character in an uncompleted novel by reclusive
author Karen Eiffel (Thompson) and who actually exists in the
real world. Suddenly he hears her narrating in his mind and
soon discovers he is to be killed off. He enlists Hoffman’s
literary professor to help save his life. Almost a great film
but the ending spoiled it and reduced this to a clever idea
enthrallingly executed. This film would have lived on far in
the mind had the braver darker ending been chosen.
Saturday 21st October
Screen Talk: Dustin Hoffman
Kirsty Young did a great job interviewing cinema legend Hoffman,
allowing him to talk in detail about his impressive career.
Invisible Waves
Another disappointment from a talented
director. Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s
debut Last Life in the Universe was atmospheric and somber
and his collaboration with super-star cinematographer Christopher
Doyle marked a talent to watch. His follow up, again with Doyle,
is about a gangster going into hiding for murder that riffs
on The Shining and purgatory. However the film at two and a
half hours is dull to the point of extreme tedium, which a
Pan Asian cast from Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan who
have appeared in Infernal Affairs, Old Boy and Ichi the Killer
cannot save.
Sunday 22nd October
Nothing today but needed to catch up
on the general releases missed: The Last Kiss and Marie Antoinette – both
interesting.
Monday 23rd October
Climates
A melancholy story of a failed relationship between a man
and a younger woman (real life husband and wife, with him writing
and directing) that echoes Manhattan and Shopgirl. Even though
the scenery is beautiful there are too many shots of nothing
in particular that seem to have the intention of creating mood
but feel like filler. There also seems to be an interesting
statement about the treatment of women in Turkey as the lead
does not seem to care about his girlfriend, mistress or mother.
Salt Water (L’aria salata)
This does not have a UK distributor, which is a shame as this
look at father and son relationships is moving without sentimentality.
A prison officer who decides day release passes for the inmates
has spent his whole life waiting to meet his absent father
and finally encounters him at his prison.
The Namesake
Mira Nair is an ambitious director and The Namesake is an
equally ambitious look at the first and second generation immigrant
experience from the perspective of a well educated family.
It is scored with elegance by Nitin Sawhney and there is plenty
of lively detail to engross. It is a family saga with the universal
theme of identity crisis.
 Black Book
In attendance from the film: Paul Verhoeven and Carice van
Houten.
Anyone who directs Total Recall, Robocop
and Starship Troopers is pretty damn cool, and Verhoeven
does not disappoint here with the sex and violence. This
is his most serious film since he came to Hollywood, a European
epic revolving around one woman’s role in the Dutch
resistance during the Second World War. Expertly put together
on the technical side, but the film at times felt exploitative
of the lead actress and the ending with all the twists and
turns was awkward and pat unfortunately.
Tuesday 24th October
Day off – phew! Watched the final six episodes of Prison
Break series one – absolutely cracking season finale!
Wednesday 25th October
Container
One thing that you can say about filmmaker
Lukas Moodysson is that he consistently confounds expectations
with each new movie. This is an experimental piece narrated
by Jena Malone and starring Peter Lorentzon as a “Girl in a boy’s
body”. Container is a steady stream of thoughts where
the title appears to be a metaphor for the body, soul, home
and female reproductive organ, and a meditation on happiness,
image and fame. Lorentzon’s unnamed character’s
interests include, “Celebrities, World War Two, collecting
things, torture, dead porn stars, God, Jesues, Mary, catastrophes…”.
An original movie but tedious in places and narratively dry.
Premonition
In attendance from the film: Jean-Pierre
Darroussin (star, director and co-writer) and Valérie
Stroh (star and co-writer).
Directorial debut for French actor Darroussin about a lawyer
tired of the avarice and narcissism around him and decides
to help where he can in his own small but profound way. An
allegory perhaps for a mid-life crisis where nothing of substance
seems to manifest itself in the hectic world we live in, where
everyone acts like they will live forever. It is in contrast
to the stories in Catcher in the Rye, Igby Goes Down, The
Weather Man, etc. where ambivalence is the outcome of disappointment/disgust
with society. An assured and interesting debut.
Masterclass: Paul Verhoeven
Meant to be a masterclass, but was an incompetent and inanely
hosted interview which did not shed light on a larger-than-life
career nor teach anything of note. A real shame.
Thursday 26th October
Shortbus
One of the sheer joys from the Festival – an unabashed
celebration of metrosexual New York. Like other ensembles from
Robert Altman, P.T Anderson and Paul Haggis the group is all
connected but the focus here is with their sexual hang-ups
and relationship crises – about being numb and trying
to feel.
Little Children
Another corker: tense, seductive and gripping. Like American
Beauty, a glamorizing of the suburban under-belly where malaise
and stymied dreams are vented through sex and hate, Fight Club,
concerning emasculation of the modern male, and Madam Bovary,
a meditation on female societal shackles.
Infamous
In attendance from the film: Douglas McGrath (writer-director),
Toby Jones and Juliet Stevenson.
It was always going to be hard to follow in the foot-steps
of the award showered Capote. Made at the same it was felt
the market could not handle two films about the writing of
In Cold Blood. Infamous is a different beast. It does not have
the artistry of the Philip Seymour Hoffman movie but there
is a lightness of touch here that was absent from the earlier
depiction. Toby Jones is just as impressive in the lead.
Bobby
In attendance from the film: Emilio
Estevez, Michel Litvak (producer), Freddy Rodríguez,
Christian Slater, Joy Bryant, Orlando Seale and Svetlana
Metkina.
Estevez who wrote, directed and co-starred
in this ensemble called the film “A love letter to my country”.
It concerns a day in the lives of those, staying and working
at the hotel, caught up in the assassination of Bobby Kennedy
in 1968. Using archive footage, bar a few shots, to convey
the messages of a man to whom many, it is claimed, believed
would save America from much of what was blighting it at the
time – the Vietnam War, discrimination and poverty. With
an all-star cast used to illustrate, it is obvious that parallels
are being drawn to today and the fact that the lessons of history
have not been learned. Told from an original perspective about
how the lives of ordinary people might have been improved by
his presidency, this is an ambitious and persuasive mosaic.
NB/ In the audience each of the three main political parties
had a representative, including Gordon Brown.
Friday 27th October
What a Wonderful World
In attendance from the film: Faouzi
Bensaïdi (writer-director-star)
and Nezha Rahil (star).
One of the real delights of the Festival
and a hidden gem that does not have a UK distributor tragically – a
packed screening of a striking and beautifully put together
look at Kamel, a hitman, and Kenza, a cop, falling in love
in modern day Casablanca. Surreal, dream-like and romantic.
In the Pit
Dreary documentary on the building of
the second tier to a giant motorway in the Mexican capital,
inhabited by 15 million people and 3 million cars. Told from
the workers’ perspectives
this should have been more interesting. In the Pit is just
about worth watching for the simply awesome climactic helicopter
shot which follows the endless motorway in one continuous take.
Breaking and Entering
In attendance from the film: Anthony Minghella, Jude law,
Martin Freeman, Robin Wright Penn, Rafi Gavron, Ed Westwick,
Poppy Rogers, Daniel Battsek (Miramax), Colin Vaines (The Weinstein
Company), Tim Bricknell (Producer), Lisa Gunning (editor) and
Gabriel Yared (composer).
It is a year of A-list directors looking
at London (see Children
of Men, Match Point and A Good
Year).
Breaking and Entering is a tender film about second chances
and forgiveness. It is certainly not a realistic look at
the capital but Mingella’s
oeuvre does not seem concerned with realism, more about the
poetry of living.
Saturday 28th October
The Lineup
In attendance from the film: G. Crisp (Chief Restorer at Columbia).
 A treasure from the archive. It is hard
to believe this film was made in the 1950s it is so ahead
of its time. Eli Wallach is Dancer, a hitman hired to pick
up drug stashes hidden on unsuspecting holiday-makers returning
to San Francisco. He does so with a business partner, Julian
(Robert Keith), while learning to speak with greater grammar
and vocabulary, and collecting the last words of the deceased
for a book Julian is writing. Dancer is training to be the
best killer alive, and Julian calls him “A psychopath with no inhibitions”.
Dancer looks like a precursor to Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito.
Daring, slick and exciting; what do you expect from the director
of Dirty Harry? All that in a superb new print.
Borat
Does anything more need to be said about this film? It is
certainly funny but whether it deserves the superlatives is
debatable.
For Your Consideration
In attendance from the film: Christopher
Guest, Eugene Levy, Ricky Gervais, Harry Shearer, Catherine
O’Hara, Michael
McKean, Nina Conti and John Michael Higgins.
The biggest disappointment of the whole LFF. This satire on
the Hollywood awards machine has mostly been seen in other
movies and TV series. It felt like someone else doing an impersonation
of a Christopher Guest movie. For Your Consideration was forced
and the gags were underwhelming. Chucking an impressive number
of cameos at this film could not rescue it unfortunately.
Fast Food Nation
In attendance from the film: Richard Linklater, Eric Schlosser
(author and co-adaptor), Jeremy Thomas (producer), Wilmer Valderrama
and Ashley Johnson.
Adapting a non-fiction book into a fiction
film is no easy task, but has been pulled off with great
skill and economy. Anyone who has read Schlosser’s book will inevitably
have been dismayed by the catalogue of injustice. Many of the
bases have been covered in the adaptation, tackling the issues
from the perspectives of the execs, immigrants, restaurant
workers, meat packers and farmers. Like Bobby, the film is
full of important cameos that will hopefully encourage as wide
an audience as possible to see the film. It is easy to see
why the likes of Bruce Willis, Kris Kristofferson, Greg Kinnear,
Ethan Hawke, Avril Lavigne, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Patricia
Arquette wanted to be in the film; not only because of the
director and issues but each actor is given some choice monologues.
The only flaw is that the characters often feel like ciphers.
That aside, this is in the same league as maestro Soderbergh’s
Traffic and Gaghan’s Syriana – a human face is
given to misery (cinema’s great asset) and which has
brought the statistics in the book to life.
Sunday 29th October
Screen Talk: Richard Linklater
A great interview with a writer-director
of such versatility and drive. If only all the Festival’s
Screen Talks had this level of insight into cinematic crafts-people.
Screen Talk: Tim Burton
The same interviewer as Forest Whitaker drops the ball again
and totally fumbles this talk with Burton, a director who seems
to have navigated the choppy waters of Hollywood plying his
trade with such imaginative craft. This should have been a
deep analysis of an original but was not unfortunately.
Monday 30th October
Dombivli Fast
In attendance from the film: Nishikant Kamat (director and
co-writer)
This bears too much similarity to Falling Down, which is a
shame as the ideas behind this directorial debut about modern
Indian society are important.
Days of Glory
A bold film from France about its colonies’ contribution
to French liberation during the Second World War. A cross between
Saving Private Ryan, Glory and Born on the Fourth of July,
the film is a moving and relevant look at the price of conflict
when what is at stake is not your country. Much of it has been
seen in other movies, but it is grand and well acted.
Hollywoodland
 In attendance from the film: Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck, Bob
Hoskins and Allen Coulter (director).
Disappointing film noir that’s at least better than
the dire Black Dahlia. Affleck is George Reeves the actor who
played Superman during the 1950s and eventually allegedly killed
himself. Hollywoodland is a who-dunnit that aims to question
the verdict with gum-shoe Brody digging where he shouldn’t.
Coulter said it is a film about the dilemma of not being happy
with what life has dealt you. As a side note, it was originally
titled ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way’ but
Warner Bros would not allow it as they felt they own that phrase.
Well acted but it pales in comparison to Chinatown, Devil in
a Blue Dress and LA Confidential.
Tuesday 31st October
Half Nelson
A good kid caught between a drug-addicted teacher and a drug
dealing friend of the family and their mutual influence on
each other. A role-model reversal for a girl without male role-models.
A very refreshing plot! The film is all pseudo-documentary
shaky-cam, zooms and cuts, shot in claustrophobic close-up.
It came to the Festival without a distributor and was rightly
picked up before the close of the two week event. Both Ryan
Gosling and Anthony Mackie are slowly building a reputation
for versatility, and new-comer Shareeka Epps is able beyond
her years. The film slightly outstays its welcome but that
is a minor quibble for such an original work.
Old Joy
An extremely low-key, understated celebration
of comradeship. It is about the troubled times around us,
the fast-paced lives we lead, the importance of friendship
to sit beside our other relationships, and perhaps false
nostalgia – where we
imagine a time in our pasts that was without worry or responsibility.
It is such a relaxing film to watch, largely due to the cinematography,
and Yo La Tengo and Smokey Hormel’s barely-there score.
Old Joy plays like an adult Stand by Me, where the leads appear
to be on the cusp of watershed moments in their lives.
[All the King’s
Men
I managed to squeeze in a general release. Got to keep up-to-date!
The film seemed confused as to its commentary on modern politics.]
Yo La Tengo in Conversation
An almost two hour interview with an intriguing band who seem
self-aware and film literate. (Would have loved it if they
had performed live.)
Wednesday 1st November
Dark Blue Almost Black
 Intriguing Spanish film about self-worth, let down only by
its confusing message. Jorge is a janitor who is intent on
bettering himself. His childhood sweetheart still loves him
but he feels inadequate compared to her background and achievements.
His brother is in prison and falls in love with an inmate from
the female wing, who in turn desperately wants to get pregnant
to be able to reside in the maternity section for the rest
of her sentence. The film seems to be a look at doing the right
thing, what families can do to each other, self-knowledge and
self-preservation. It does not quite reach its lofty goals
due to unsatisfactory character motivations.
Small Engine Repair
In attendance from the film: Niall Heery (writer-director),
Iain Glen and Steven Mackintosh.
Short film shown before: Chicken Soup
Like Old Joy, Small Engine Repair is
a discourse on friendship, and also about what can happen
to men without significant women in their lives. Iain Glen’s
Doug wants to be a country singer and some of those around
him try to encourage while others do the opposite. The film
worryingly looked like entering crappy Full Monty territory
but luckily veered into something darker but also more uplifting.
Glen said the film is, in a nutshell, about a character finding
his voice.
Catch a Fire
In attendance from the film: Phillip Noyce, Shawn Slovo (writer),
Fiona Ramsey (dialogue coach) and Robyn Slovo (producer).
[Got to catch Jack Black outside just before the film, at
the premiere of Tenacious D - wicked!]
Formerly known as Hotstuff, Catch a
Fire is based on the alleged true story of an ordinary man
- Patrick Chamusso, who is galvanised through injustice to
become a soldier for the ANC during Apartheid in South Africa.
This is a powerful, moving diatribe against a grim regime.
Not outstanding, but still had memorable performances, interesting
dialogue and stylish direction which adds this to the cannon
of recent quality films about Africa. Although upsetting
to watch the message is still a hopeful one, that from Nelson
Mandela – you can never be free unless you
can forgive.
Closing Night - Thursday 2nd November
Babel
In attendance from the film: Alejandro
González Iñárritu,
Gael García Bernal and Rinko Kikuchi.
.jpg) This reviewer’s most anticipated
film at the LFF and I was not let down. From the director
of Amores Perros and 21 Grams, an epic look at the impact
of familial loss, immigration, terrorism and loneliness that
spans the globe. Ambitious, moving, exciting and artful.
The last shot combined with the extraordinary score is breath-taking.
What a way to end the Festival!
Films from the Festival to definitely watch out for:
Babel
Taxidermia
What a Wonderful World
Little Children
Fast Food Nation
Bobby
Shortbus
Days of Glory
Old Joy
Half Nelson
The Lineup
Fast Food Nation
Trends
Can any trends be observed from the
London Film Festival 2006, and thus world cinema this year?
Maybe I’m reading too
much? The analysis of Africa continues both from Europe and
from within (The Last King of Scotland, Catch a Fire, What
a Wonderful World, Days of Glory). The pseudo-documentary handheld
shaky camera perspective seems to be reaching an epidemic – blame
Paul Greengrass’ Bourne Supremacy for an escalation in
that. War obviously is on the mind (Black Book, Days of Glory,
Bobby), but in contrast the simple pleasures in life (Old Joy,
Small Engine Repair, Shortbus, What a Wonderful World). Loneliness
and the responsibilities of parenthood seem intertwined (Breaking
and Entering, Half Nelson, Babel, Infamous, Premonition, Little
Children) and that is unusually coupled with prison (Big Bang
Love, Salt Water, Dark Blue Almost Black). There’s also
been a certain amount of body horror (Taxidermia, Bug, Fast
Food Nation).
If you’ve never been to the London
Film Festival I cannot recommend the experience highly enough!
"When a man is tired of London,
he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life
can afford." - Samuel
Johnson. |
