THE TIMES bfi 48TH LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

Press Launch

On 15th September 2004, Amanda Nevill (director of the British Film Institute) and Sandra Hebron (artistic director of the Film Festival) launched the 48th Times bfi London Film Festival in Leicester Square’s Odeon cinema. Mike Leigh introduced his opening night gala film, VERA DRAKE.

The heartening intention to include films ‘just because’ they were ‘original, imaginative and relevant’, was expressed clearly and genuinely by both women. This ideal permeates the programme, with a tantalising array of thought- and debate-provoking films. Nothing captures this better than the choice of the opening night film: VERA DRAKE. Quintessential champion of the working-class (SECRETS AND LIES, NAKED), Leigh illuminates another extraordinary drama from the lives of ordinary people. Salt of the earth cleaning lady, Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton), has for years been performing illegal abortions to help women in trouble in 1950s London. When discovered by police – and more poignantly, her family – Vera is unfairly shamed. Made on a miniscule budget of £1 million without very glamorous stars or story, Leigh declared, ‘They don’t open the London Film Festival with films like VERA DRAKE. But they do now.’ With a Golden Lion Award and Best Actress Award to Imelda Staunton in the Venice Film Festival in early September, VERA DRAKE has proven the spirit of the London Film Festival: quality triumphs.

David O Russell’s off-the-wall existential comedy, I HEART HUCKABEES (shouldn’t that be I LOVE HUCKABEES?!) is the choice for the closing night gala. Open Spaces Coalition environmentalist, Albert Markovski, (Jason Schwartzman) hires two existential detectives (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to investigate the unusual number of coincidences in his life. Via chaotic and infinitely weird events, Albert and the detectives miraculously arrive at a sense of personal and universal order. Peopled with the smug Huckabees’ advertising executive (Jude Law), who threatens Open Spaces’ idealism with his drive for the success of the store, to deranged firefighter (Mark Wahlberg) and French radical, Catherine (Isabelle Huppert), I HEART HUCKABEES promises to be an intriguing journey of discovery. Although these opening and closing galas seem quite dissimilar, with directors from different generations and opposite sides of the Atlantic, Sandra Hebron emphasised the common strengths for which they were chosen to encapsulate the Festival: artfully expressed through masterful filmmaking, they are rooted in the real world and challenge us to think about the way we live.

Repeating the mantra of film festival summaries, I will say it is impossible to do justice to such an enormous and varied programme in so short an introduction. With 300 plus films from over 45 countries, divided into 9 strands, what follows is a ‘flavour’ of the exciting and eclectic programme.

Highlights from the Festival Strands...

Galas and Special Screenings
A dazzling aesthetic is combined with the classic elements of the martial arts genre and tragic love in HOUSE OF THE FLYING DAGGERS, directed by Zhang Yimou. With beautifully choreographed fight sequences, perfect orchestration of colour, music, dance and design, it will be an evocative treat for non-afficionados as well as devoted fans.

John Curran's WE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE gives a tough but tender account of adultery and its effects on two marriages. Subtle acting by Mark Ruffalo and Laura Dern promises some intense emotional stimulation.

Jonathan Caouette’s award-winning debut feature film, TARNATION, looks deeply and bravely into his own life; in his own words, it is ‘about youth, art, sexuality, mental illness, America and survival. It’s also a love letter to my mother Renee, and to all mothers everywhere.’

Francois Ozon proves his mettle in his seductive film, 5 x 2, which gives us five glimpses of a couple, first seen uneasily sitting down for divorce proceedings. We see their story backwards - from its unhappy ending, through an uneasy dinner party, childbirth and their wedding, to the moment the couple met.

Already raising laughs from the press, THE INCREDIBLES, directed by Brad Bird will doubtless be a hit with all ages. Combining brilliant cutting edge 3D animation from Pixar with a good old-fashioned yarn, superhero Mr Incredible leaps into action after 15 years of normal life.

Sky Movies Film on The Square
Latin America is strongly represented this year. From Argentina, Lucretica Martel tells the story of THE HOLY GIRL, caught between her religious education and blossoming sexuality. And from Columbia, Joshua Marston’s award-winning MARIA FULL OF GRACE relates another girl’s story as she is roped into becoming a drug mule.

Called the father of African cinema, Senegalese Ousamane Sembene, brings us a provocative and inspirational drama, MOOLAADE. Second wife, Colle Ardo Gallo Sy (Fatoumata Coulibaly) was circumcised in her youth, but with the eponymous protective ban on entering her house, she shields her own daughter and a group of young girls seeking asylum from the ‘purification’ ritual.

New British Cinema
A series of films in this strand tackle timely social issues in contemporary multi-cultural Britain. One of these, A WAY OF LIFE, by first time director Amma Asante, daringly explores the theme of racism through the eyes of 18 year-old single mother, Leigh-Anne, living in a claustrophobic community in South Wales.

French Revolutions
From the established court comes a complex Parisian drama/ comedy of manners, LE PONT DES ARTS, directed by prize-winning director Eugene Green (THE LIVING WORLD), and from the emerging side, eagerly anticipated debut feature by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, INNOCENCE. Based on a story by Frank Wedekind, the film is set in a girls’ school, situated deep in a forest where new pupils arrive in boxes and are raised in a strict but benign old-world atmosphere.

Cinema Europa
From Eastern Europe, the Balkan conflict and its legacy continue to be reflected in Croatian cinema; Zrinko Ogresta’s latest film, HERE, is a fine example which has been successful with critics and audiences alike.

Burgeoning Scandinavian cinema is well-represented, with such challenging films as actress Paprika Steen’s directorial debut, AFTERMATH. A raw, emotional film, it also takes a cool and minimalist but honest and intelligent look at grief, following a young professional couples’ loss of their daughter.

World Cinema
Some of the best Asian cinema comes to London this year; celebrated Bengali director, Rituparno Ghosh brings the intense romantic Bollywood drama, RAINCOAT, and from Japan, Takashi Miike directs the extraordinary IZO, possibly the first, ‘philosophical splatter film.’

A record number of films spanning the African continent have been programmed this year. From South Africa, in a quirky combination of love, tears, death and comedy, Teddy Mattera’s MAX AND MONA presents contemporary life through the droll journeys of Max. And from Egypt, an entertaining comedy is set in Cairo’s middle class suburbia: WOMEN’S LOVE, directed by the acclaimed Khaled El Hagar.

From the political to the personal, some of the best documentaries are found in this strand. WHAT REMAINS OF US is a uniquely moving document of life in Tibet under Chinese occupation and Shola Lynch’s inspiring CHISHOLM ’72 – UNBOUGHT AND UNBOSSED tells the story of Shirley Chisolm, a brilliant black congresswoman from Brooklyn who put in a stirring bid for the presidential nomination in 1972.

Experimenta
Jessica Yu’s flight of fancy, IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL, cleverly uses the epic form confined to shots of one small apartment, to examine the life of reclusive late painter and writer Henry Darger, who lived and worked alone for 60 years.

The Times Screen Talks, Masterclasses & Special Events

Amidst a variety of interviews and special events, particular highlights include a talk by one of independent cinema’s most talented cinematographers, Tim Orr (GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS), and discussion with illustration of the creative and technical processes behind animating THE INCREDIBLES by Brad Bird.

 

The Times bfi 48th London Film Festival runs from 20 October – 4 November 2004.
For more information visit www.lff.org.uk