The Times bfi London Film Festival Preview 2005

The London Film Festival is one great big sprawl of a film festival that takes place in October each year. Run by the British Film Institute it’s not quite subject to the same commercial pressures of all the other film festivals that dart around the calendar or even the stylistic trends that can plague other events as they rush to nail the latest zeitgeist. That isn’t to say that it isn’t a profitable event, judging from the crowds in previous years quite the opposite, and that isn’t to say that London doesn’t have those ‘must see’ films, because it does. But part of the charm is that one moment you might see the latest intelligent Hollywood blockbuster, the other you could watch a genuinely challenging and exciting piece of experimental cinema. This different dynamic gives the London Film Festival its frisson, allowing it to be something apart, something special and something well worth going to.

As is the norm for the last few years the programme diverges into several strands from the big name marquee titles that open and close the festival, to the Galas, special screenings and Films on the Square; from the regional films from France, Europe and beyond, as well as closer to home, to the archives with artistic and experimental work as well. The festival opens with Fernando Meirelles’ The Constant Gardener and the festival closes with George Clooney’s film Good Night and Good Luck.

The London Film Festival has five awards which are as follows. The Sutherland Trophy is awarded to the most original and imaginative first feature film screening at the festival. The Grierson Award, named after the famous documentary maker, is presented to the best documentary feature. The FIPRESCI Award, an award with the intention to ‘advance the art of cinema and reward talent’, is presented this year to the best first or second feature nominated at the festival. The Sanjit Ray Award is presented to a first time feature director whose film premiered at the festival. The UK Talent Film Award recognises the achievements of new and emerging British writers, directors and producers and is given to one such talent from the festival’s programme. Finally the Turner Classic Movies Classics Shorts Award is presented to the best short film.

Five to watch…
In no particular order. This selection inevitably says more about me than the festival. I should also add that I haven’t seen any of these yet.

The Brothers Grimm
Objectiveness is defenestrated with matters concerning Terry Gilliam, especially as it’s his first European set period film in years to actually get made.

Hidden
Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf showed us dystopia from a painfully human perspective. No wars, or aliens or superviruses, just Europeans as refugees escaping from an unmentioned disaster. Hidden, Haneke’s next, promises much.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Park Chan-Wook’s latest is as near to mandatory viewing as it gets. The Korean bubble has exploded and it’s up to films just like this one to possibly one day usher in ‘The Koreans are coming’ at some optimistically language-undominated academy awards of the future.

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Films should have bold titles that make you want to watch them. The Brothers Quay’s The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes does exactly this. I have no idea what it is about but the promise is strong and evocative from the name alone.

Walk the Line
The problem with hype is just that, it’s hype. Walk the Line, the new Johnny Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reece Witherspoon has been riding high on vapours for some time now. Only one way to find out.

Five to recommend
Bizarrely I’ve actually seen a few already. Here are some I’d recommend.

A Cock and Bull Story
Michael Winterbottom tackles the supposedly unfilmable novel ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy’ and actually concocts a hilarious cock and bull story all of his own, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. (In no particular order!)

March of the Penguins
It made bundles of cash in the US but will it do the same here? The familiarity of David Attenborough or even a certain chocolate coated biscuit indigenous to these isles, should be making the distributors gleeful. Thankfully then, the March of the Penguins is a delightful frosty treat.

The Sky Turns
A documentary study of a small Spanish community. May not sound like much but read the review here…

Spying Cam
Two men stuck in a hotel room with only a book and a camcorder to play with. Imperceptibly this Korean film builds up into something special from its stripped down bare beginnings.

Ultranova
Belgium has rarely looked so desolate, or so similar to anywhere else where they’ve let car centric planning dominate, in this bleak slice of inspired quirkiness.

The Sutherland Trophy Nominees

For the Living and the Dead
MirrorMask
News From Afar
Pavee Lackeen
Portrait of a Lady Far Away
Sangre
Shin Sung-il is Lost
Song of Songs
U-Carmen Ekhayelitisha
Ultranova
Violent Days
The Wind Blows Round

The FIPRESCI International Critics Award Nominees

Cinema, Aspirins and the Vultures
Citizen Dog
For the Living and the Dead
Hours Go By
Isolated
Little Jerusalem
Man Pushes Cart
News From Afar
Pavee Lackeen
Song of Songs
The Wind Blows Round