The 2011 London Film Festival

Trying to navigate the London Film Festival schedule can be a daunting task, do you attempt to go see films from tried and tested tastes.  Do you seek out something new.  Do you follow a word of mouth hit or take a chance on something new and be bold.

I try to sample all manner of tastes - mainstream Hollywood glitter (The Descendants), French arthouse fare (De Bon Matin), the best of new British (Weekend and Wild Bill), independent American fare (Natural Selection and Return) and obscure European arthouse (Volcano).

In this article, will be a brief overview of all I saw - I could not see everything and I wish I did see Shame, Ides of March, The Artist and The Deep Blue Sea - yet these films are bound to get a general and perhaps nationwide release so the chance to see a film that will not see the light of day again is always tempting.

What follows is a brief overview of what I saw, with full reviews available through links or in depth when the films are released:

Weekend remains the one film I saw that has stuck with me, a tried and tested format but with amazing results thanks to the incredible lead performances by Tom Cullen and Chris New, and I hope this film is richly rewarded by a huge box office and award recognition.

De Bon Matin (Jean-Pierre Montout, France, 2011)
Moutout's film focuses on the life of Paul (Jean-Pierre Daroussin) a successful executive conglomerate bank. Paul slowly comes to see his job for what it is worth, as the higher-ups find himself more blameful for the debt the bank has created and how heads may have to roll.

The film has a complex narrative structure, with the outcome of Paul's action coming at the start of the film as we witness in flashback the downfall of him in the structure of the office workplace and how prevelant the politics of the workplace are. At times though, the narrative complexity works against what the film is trying to say - the film tries to paint Paul as a saint, yet his professional life too often darkens the lighter mood of his homelife and benevolent philantrophy.

The film does have some good moments, yet for me it left me a bit confused as to what it was trying to say, and yet had it not had the beginning of the film it does, I would not have stuck with it.

Volcano (Runar Runarrson, Denmark, 2011)
Hannes (Theodor Juliusson) is a retired school janitor who without a job contemplates suicide in the first five minutes, yet he decides to spend more time in his fishing boat. Yet the boat proves a metaphor for his life as it springs a leak and he then has to remain at home more. Hannes children visit with their grandchildren; the children are spiteful and condescending to their father and pity their mother, Anna (Margaret Helga Johannsclottir) for putting up with him for so long.

Yet following a late night sex session shot with genuine affection and tenderness for the elderly couple (similar to Cloud 9), and things seem to have taken a turn for the better. Hannes gets her fresh halibut from a friend so she can cook her favourite soup, and as they start to enjoy their food an unexpected and tragic event occurs to Anna.

Following her hospitalisation, Hannes takes it upon himself to look after his wife as much as the children feel he cannot do it and he is only doing it out of guilt. From there on in the action is restricted to the family home as children visit and Hannes attends to his wife and goes about fixing the leaky boat, with help from his grandson he has never really spoken to before.

The film is a strikingly honest portrayal of elderly care and the concessions people make to alter impressions of them. From the outset Hannes is portrayed as a curmudgeonly fellow but slowly thanks to the performance by Juliusson he slowly starts to thaw and the chemistry with Johnnsclottir you can sense the genuine affection and love between the characters.

The film is helped by some lush orchesteral movements to support the raw emotional moments, some beautiful landscape photography of Icelandic shorelines (one shot of Hannes on the clifftop shows how small he is in this world) and Runarsson who also wrote the screenplay for this his feature debut has a good use of cinema language, such as when the children arrive at the hospital to support their mother and father. Hannes is sitting on a hospital bench, the children enter through the door, walk past him and sit at the opposite end of the bench - the symbolism is powerful and deliberate.

A well acted piece with a true sense of realism based upon raw subject matter that treats the elderly characters with a quiet dignity, something that is sometimes devoid in other European language cinema.

Wild Bill (Dexter Fletcher, UK, 2011)
Fletcher's debut feature is an entertaining look at council estate life in East London, under the spotlight of a growing Olympic Park (Come on, lets go build a velodrome.) featuring a star studded cast from his black book of contacts.

It clevely subverts conventions of the western genre and supplant them into the gritty milieu of the East End of London; a story of an absent father who returns home to see his children after a spell in prison, tells how he must rebuild bridges with family and avoid pitfalls.

Featuring a star turn from Charlie Creed-Miles as Bill, and Will Poulter (School of Comedy) coming of age as eldest son Dean who resents then loves his father.  Fletcher borrows from Guy Ritchie's school of filmmaking but this is a good laugh with some fine acting, it could be called Wild Bill its alternative title should be; 'Man's Fear of Cleaning the Toilet'  Seek out this film when it gets its release.

Natural Selection  (Robbie Pickering, US, 2010)
Again I have covered this film in a more in-depth review, which you can find here.  The film is a great addition to the canon of screwball and road trip comedies.

Return (Liza Johnson, US, 2010)
Johnson's feature debut has at its heart a great lead performance by Linda Cardellini (from ER) who plays a returning soldier from the Iraq conflict and yet finds the adjustment to normal life a bit harder than expected, leading to tensions with her husband, played by Michael Shannon (unfortunately under-used).  The film uses a lot of close-ups to convey emotion and tension, and the performance is pitch perfect from Cardellini who embues Kelly with a real sense of bewilderment at her return to civilian life.

The Descendants (Alexander Payne, US, 2011)
Payne's return to the silver screen for the first time since Sideways, is a film based on the novel by Kurt Kaui Hemmings starring George Clooney as Matt King, who attempts to keep his family together following the hospitalisation of his wife in a boating accident that has left her in a coma, and then realising she was having an affair.

Payne's deftness of touch and lack of hitting you over the head is helped by Clooney's brilliant performance, who never seems to let the material down when he acts.  This is up there with O Brother, Where Art Thou? as one of his best comedy roles.  Like Cary Grant, he is able to switch and balance between dramatic and comedic roles effortlessly.

A fine supporting cast and excellent adaptation of the source novel shows Payne is still a master of these sort of literate intelligent movies and Clooney is a class above other actors.

Hunky Dory (Marc Evans, UK, 2011)
Evans' most mainstream film is a nostalgic piece set in the summer of 1976 as Ms. May (Minnie Driver) attempts to put on a production of The Tempest with a rock soundtrack which allows some exhiliarating musical sequences of David Bowie and ELO songs.

For me though, whilst those scenes are brilliant I found the script to be a bit of a letdown as the narrative of want away youths, gay teenagers and back-stabbing teachers gave a sense of all been there and seen it before; a shame as Driver is game in her role as are some of the youngsters though I feel the script cannot elevate it above middling fare.

All in all I was pleased with the films I saw and my choices, with only the French film being a disappointment.  This was Sandra Hebron's last year as Festival director and she has left some big shoes (even though they are small) to fill for the next person to come in.

www.bfi.org.uk/lff

Oslo, August 31st

A gripping, stylish film from Joachim Trier revolving around 24 hours in the life of Anders, a recovering drug addict who has been given special leave from the rehabilitation centre for a job interview in the city of Oslo.  On his day out, he re-visits old friends who he knew before he went into rehab and whose prejudices towards him still exist.

Instead of the more cinematic favoured roadtrip, this is more of a walking tour of Oslo, as we follow Anders as he meets Thomas - an old friend who used to party with him, in his family abode with wife and two children - where they have an extensive discussion of life and remaining ambitions and Battlefied on Playstation.  As he meets more friends, we see him attempt to resist the urge and temptation to fall off the wagon.

His job interview is virtually a non-existing part of the plot and the least memorable dialogue scene, as Anders own prejudice to being a junkie haunts him.

Throughout the film, there is a wonderful use of sound as a marker of place and goings-on; the scene where Anders just sits in a cafe listening and ear-wigging to other patrons conversations is exhiliarating and technically marvellous, it harks back to the credit sequence of invisible narrators talking about memories of Oslo.

Anders Danielsen Lie, plays Anders, and is a leading performance of sheer naturalism - part rebel, part loner - a whirling dervish of nauseas and trauma.  We make quite a connection with Anders, who insistently states he does not want pity, which is all the more remarkable considering his shocking final act of the film that leaves you feeling both reflective and angry.

The Scandanavian way of film-making seems to be a permanent model of restraint and purpose, Trier (in his second feature following Reprise) here is quite deliberate in his direction allowing the character of Anders to be both leader and navigator; giving him the responsibility to lead the narrative and not let events force their hand.  This keeping of the cards close to his chest is methodial and the lead performance is ptiched perfectly for this outcome. 

Another clever stroke is Trier framing Anders in doorways and archways - an attempt to contain him yet also heighten his isolation from society as a lone figure and individual, tellingly the last shocking act of Anders is done in long shot as we look on from the end of a corridor through a doorway, a voyeuristic viewing for us and considering we have been so up close and personal throughout why are refused one last look?

However, this is a professional polished film shot superbly and with an excellent soundtrack reflecting the isolated youth of Norway - that was so shockingly exposed and disturbed for real in August of this year.

Oslo, August 31st will be distributed by Soda Pictures on November 11th nationwide.

Natural Selection

The film starts with a prison escape, a literal rebirth for the prisoner as he removes himself from a lawnmower bag - his raw show of emotion and elation at his escape is not audible but the passion is evident.

Natural Selection is the debut featue from Robbie Pickering and swept the board at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. It tells the story of Lynda White (Rachael Harris) who is happily married to Abe but unable to have children owing to an abortion in her youth, and Abe not believing in intercourse if it does not lead to procreation - they are a happily married bible-bashing couple from Texas.

Abe suffers a stroke whilst donating sperm at his weekly visit, unbeknown to Lynda. 'How often has he been coming?' 'I'm not sure, I only started in '88'. One night Abe mumbles something and Lynda believes that Abe wants her to find the first child of his sperm, and so after finding out the name she drives to Tampa to find the man she believes is Raymond (Matt O'Leary), Abe's son, the same man we have seen just escaping from prison.

The film is clever, in that after she convinces Raymond to come with her back to Texas the film has fun mimicking the road-trip conventions of the genre; two mismatched people thrown together by reasons out of their control, both need each other more than they realise, elements of farce and screwball comedy ensue.
The best American comedy always work when the characters are dumber than they actually think they are (Dumb and Dumber; Some Like It Hot). 

In Natural Selection, though the characters know they have been stupid in their lives at particular moments and it is their slight dumbness that leads to the farcial elements of the film but they always find the ability to make up for their errors.

Another clever element is that Raymond (after he is beaten up by some hicks) becomes a surrogate child for Lynda to look after - feeding him soup, washing him in the bath - and although he resists at times he cannot help to refer to Lynda as an angel.

The script is at times ingenious dropping deliberate keywords in the film which when they are said again, perhaps by a different character, you cannot help to raise a smile at a word like 'potent.

Featuring two standout lead turns by Harris and O'Leary plus an excellent supporting role by as Peter (Jon Gries - Rico from Napoleon Dynamite) as the poor sap in love with Lynda, her sister-in-law, he delivers a nice speech about a car when really he is talking about Lynda.

The ending of the film uses another visual metaphor to bookend along with the birthing sequence at the start of the film, this time Lynda stands at an opening to a beach, on film it looks like Lynda is standing at the doorway to her version of heaven.

Pickering shows great maturity to treat the film and characters with a quiet tenderness allowing the dramatic moments to not slow down the film and avoid it descending into complete farce, instead punctuating it with pathos and laughs; this healthy balance bodes well and marks Pickering as a talent to watch in the future.

Natural Selection is on at the London Film Festival this weekend, and still requires UK and European distribution

Weekend (Andrew Haigh, UK, 2010)

Renowned editor of Gladiator, Haigh breaks out with his feature debut that tells the romantic coupling of a young gay couple in surburban Nottingham, Russell (Tom Cullen) is a little bit down at a friend's party and having said he would go home stops in a gay bar on the way home hoping to boost his esteem, there he indulges in a one-night stand with Glen (Chris New), a would be artist who is extremely more self-confident than the less introverted Russell.

Russell wakes up and makes coffee, and in a clever bit of editing and directing, we do not know if it is Glen (the guy he had his eye on) or the unfortunate hobbit we last saw Russell talking to whilst Glen watched. From there, Russell and Glen start talking about life, work, the size of each other's penis. Russell leaves for his work as a lifeguard, Glen meets him after his shift finishes and they talk some more. Glen asks if Russell is out to his parents, from this we learn that Russell is an orphan, and that the friends he was with at the start of the film is Jamie his life-long friend who is supportive of his lifestyle.

They then engage in some lovemaking on the sofa, Glen invites Russell to a party that evening - a bon voyage party as Glen is leaving for Oregon to study conceptual art. The inevitability of his leaving and the time constraints thrust upon the characters by the film's title means that the constriction of time allows a full blossoming of the relationship to take hold of you.

Unlike other gay films, the film does not over-do the explicitness of the film's overt sexuality, here you have two men coming to terms with their sexuality and the difficulty after having come out; at times you forget that it is two gay men talking but instead two people conversing about the difficulty of their relationship and feelings. This is a credit to the openness of the performances by the two leads Cullen and New, who embue a sense of naturalism into the roles, Cullen all full of guilt and confusion, whilst New handles the extrovert Glen well, never making him over-the-top when he could easily have been in your face.

Russell is the more romantic of the two, and yet this never becomes oversentimental even when they have their 'Notting Hill' moment at the end when the full exploration of the relationship reaches its crescendo.

Haigh's use of the tower block as a character is also important using some great landscape shots of the city at nighttime, and the naturalistic feel of the film flows fluidly throughout in pace with the freedom of the performances that elevate another boy-meets-boy film to the echelon of worthwhile movie in its own right.  There are some lovely shots such as when the camera is fixed on the pair whilst they talk on the tram on the way home on Saturday night, the camera holds and lets the two hold our attention whilst the tram is moving - that is a great element of faith and trust in the two leading men for a small film and from a first-time helmer such as Haigh.
 

Hopefully this film finds a far wider ranging audience, one that it deserves and needs to see it for all its worth.

The film is distributed by Peccadillo Pictures and is to be released in the UK on 4th November 2011.

www.weekend-film.com
http://www.peccapics.com/