LFF 2012: Keep the Lights On

Ira Sachs directs and co-wrote the screenplay for this semi-autobiographical tale about a destructive same-sex relationship set in the 1990s of New York city.

When we first meet Sachs' surrogate Erik (played tenderly by Thure Lindhardt) he is on a party-line hoping to hook up with random strangers in the city.  Erik encounters Paul (Zachary Booth) on one of these nights and there is an instant connection between the two; Paul however is a closeted homosexual and with his girlfriend.  Erik persists though and slowly the intense bond between the two leads to Paul's coming out , however, Paul has a strong drug habit that descends into addiction.

Erik also has his personal problems, he is a documentary filmmaker who is struggling to get funding and will not use his family's money to help cultivate his work, instead focus on outside funding.  Cleverly, Sachs chose to depict himself as a foriegner, to give that added dimension of foreignness as otherness.  Erik is the extreme outsider in New York - gay, foreign and out of work, but Lindhardt's performance full of doe-eyed innocence is a pleasing one, he is a soul in search of love, yet ignorant of the hurt he has to go through to get it.

At times the relationship is depicted with raw intensity that can be unsettling.  Paul's habit to disappear due to his drug habit culminates in the highlight of his downfall when he ends up in a plush Manhattan hotel during a cocaine binge.  Erik visits hoping to persuade Paul to come back to their house; yet Paul is too far gone and we witness Paul sleep with a rent boy whilst Erik is in the next room, Erik even goes to the length of watching as if to comfort Paul during his waywardness.

These moments albeit expertly performed by the actors, left this reviewer at times cold and numb from the lack of awareness in Paul's character in his own plight and the harm he causes Erik.  Erik wins a prestigious documentary award, yet he does not seem to make another film whilst is in the relationship, therefore the choice that Erik has to make should be easy and yet the sense of frustration in this depiction is palpable.

Thumbs up for the acting and bravery of depicting a passionate relationship helped by an evocative soundtrack by late New York composer Arthur Russell, but thumbs down for making Erik seem like such a fool in love.

Keep the Lights On is released from Peccadillo Pictures - which released Weekend from the 2011 London Film festival - on DVD today January 28th

Once Upon A Time in Anatolia

The 7th feature film from Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan tells the long process of small, provincial policeman who are looking for the body disposed of in the Anatolian countryside, with the murder suspect in tow to help point out the location.  The local police force are escorted by a DA and doctor from the city - these souls are seemingly the only people alive in the provincial night.

Whilst on paper the scenario may make it look like a police thriller, it is actually a film about the way life shapes you into being, the difference between rural and urban life.  If this film were set in the bustling metropolis of Istanbul or Ankara, it would be disturbed by a city that does not sleep.

The film is slow and long, but in a methodical way.  There is a lot of talking, but the dialogue does not always reflect upon the murder and the suspect - two characters indulge in a political diatribe about the possibility of Turkey joining the EU and the relevant pros and cons of such a political move.  This makes you thing perhaps this is a film with a dark satire at the center of its premise, yet in the second half it focuses upon the work of the doctor and the ensuing autopsy.

The honesty and openness of death as an essential part of life - the use of a long night's journey into daytime transfigures this a vital component of life itself.

The film is a beautiful work, shot by Gokhan Tiryaki, with some striking cinematography such as an apple swimming down a stream, the wind in the trees being captured as a character contemplates the next step.  This marks the film out as a work of art.

As for Ceylan, he has clearly taken a big step in his career.  Famous for small contemplative works such as Three Monkeys (2008) and Uzak (2002), he has expanded his ambition to fit this larger landscape in terms of scope and depth, without losing his characteristic traits of deftly depicting masculinity with insight in terms of their behaviour and psychology.  This broad and universal appeal has helped mark him out from the crowd, and as a festival and cineaste favourite.

People often mention how Ceylan uses Chekov-ian moments of comedy as people argue over who left a body bag somewhere else; this is a form of naturalism and symptomatic of Ceylan's ear for the rhythm of dialogue - during serious moments people can easily get distracted by mundane and trivial things.

Fittingly, the film has been released shortly after the death of fellow Mediterranean director, Theo Angelopoulos - a director who followed a similar career path from minimalist beginnings into grander masterworks such as Ulysses Gaze (1995) and Eternity and a Day (1998); these works of huge ambition were matched by political comment.  Whilst Ceylan has not matched the Greek director as yet, he remains a fearless auteur whose solo vision will never be disrupted.

Once Upon A Time in Anatolia is released by New Wave Films on Friday 16th March on limited release.

The 17th Turkish Film Festival

The Turkish Film Festival is back again in London this year, and will be running from 24th November to 8th December and has moved from a familiar three day event to a full scale two week festival with some brilliant films on show and some wonderful attendees.

Claudia Cardinale stars in the opening night gala film, Being Italian with Signora Enrica, the debut feature from Ali Ilhan - a delightful film about an elderly Italian woman who takes in a young Turkish exchange student.  Cardinale is famous for her work with Fellini, Visconti and most famously in Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West.  Ms.Cardinale will be in attendance for the Opening Night.

Other highlights include Tayfun Pirslimoglu's Hair which won Best Turkish Film and Best Director at the 2011 Istanbul Film Festival; the debut feature from acclaimed photographer Cemil Agacikoglu, September; Do Not Forget Me Istanbul, a portrait of Istanbul as seen through the eyes of six young International directors and Home, the first feature from actor Muzatffer Ozdemir, best known for his role in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Distant, for which he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

These fresh offerings from younger voices go hand in hand with the established directors who are on show here, Ceylan himself with Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Dervis Zaim's Shadows and Faces and Sedat Yilmaz's Press.

Whilst other specialist film festivals are struggling to stay afloat, the unfortunate news a few weeks ago that there will be no Birds Eye Film Festival in 2012 came as a shock to many in the London film community, as it was a festival with a unique identity.

London has a whole host of film festivals with a specific genre or nationalistic strain (Korean, Jewish, Russian, even Kazakhstan) - the Turkish festival however, has been running for some years now and is now established as a vital platform for new emerging Turkish film-makers working both at home and abroad.  It also has a prestigious award - The Golden Wings Digiturk Digital Distribution Award - which offers a £30,000 prize enabling the winning film to be released theatrically in the UK and Ireland.
     Thanks to this prize a film like Bal (Honey) would never have received the great acclaim it did upon its release in April of this year.
     There is also a Golden Wings People's Choice Award presented to the most popular film as selected by audiences throughout the festival.

Turkish cinema is in a period of rude health at the moment, thanks in part to the auteuristic pedigree of Ceylan whose new film Anatolia received its world premiere at Cannes in the Grand Prix selection and was up for the Palme D'Or, and also selected as Turkey's entrant for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  Bal won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the much celebrated Men on the Bridge  (Asli Ozge, 2009) did some good box office and garnered critical attention when released also.

This year's festival will run at the following venues: Odeon West End, Apollo Piccadilly, Rio Dalston and Cine Lumiere.

For more information go to the festival website: http://www.ltff.org.uk/ for details of the schedule and screenings.

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

The 55th London Film Festival Preview

It is that time of year again and the official run up to the Academy Awards starts in earnest.  Think of the Awards season, as a long marathon, someone shoots the gun at Leicester Square on October 12th, with a water station situated on October 27th, with the chequered flag in Los Angeles in late February.

My memories of the various LFF's I have attended are always being able to see George Clooney's newest film, be it Up in the Air, Good Night and Good Luck, Fantastic Mr.Fox; he returns again this year with two more films one serious, one comedy.  The serious one is when he is in political mode and is the American Express Gala, The Ides of March, which he directs and co-scripts (with Grant Heslov). Clooney also stars as democratic Presidental hopeful Morris, with a new spokesman Myers (Ryan Gosling), the film is wordy and focuses on backroom shenanigans.  The comic role is Clooney in Alexander Payne's new film The Descendants, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, based in Hawaii - Clooney plays a father who has re-examine his past to embrace his new future.  The combination of Payne with Clooney playing one of his misanthropic male leads is tantalising.

Clooney's role as festival star is being fought over by our own Rachel Weisz who stars in both the opening and closing gala films. The former is 360 by Fernando Meirelles (they have worked together on The Constant Gardener) and this film focuses on how different levels of society and their sexual relationships can transgress sexual boundaries.  The star-studded cast puts it in the same boat as Babel but a cast that includes Jude Law, Weisz, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Foster means that this may escape the fatal banality of that bloated vessel.
    The closing film is the return of Terence Davies to fictional cinema (following his epic documentary on his hometown Liverpool's visual history) nice time adapting Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea, set in 1950s London still suffering from the aftermath of World War II.  Weisz is joined by two of our better thespians, Tom Hiddleston (Thor) and the great Simon Russell Beale.

Other Galas screenings allow first time views in Britain for new films from Nanni Moretti (We Have A Pope), Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut (Coriolanus), David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method), Steve McQueen (Shame - which just won Michael Fassbender a Best Actor award at Venice), Michael Winterbottom (Trishna) and Madonna (W.E.)

Also to be screened are the exciting We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lynne Ramsey, starring Tilda Swinton in an Oscar worthy performance.  There are also screenings of films by such erstwhile talents like Richard Linklater, Roman Polanski, Todd Solodnz, Bruno Dumont, Takashi Miike.  New documentary features are prominent from Frederick Wiseman, Jonathon Demme, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield, who goes in search of an interview with Sarah Palin in 'You Betcha!'

As ever it is not just about new Hollywood and auteurs from across the globe being given exposure, new British cinema is celebrated.  And this is a vital platform for these young filmmakers as often these films will fail to be released in this country, an unfortunate statement but alas one of fact - Richard Jobson returns with The Somnambulists (focusing on soldiers returning from Iraq) and Dexter Fletcher's debut feature Wild Bill look like highlights.

A favourite strand of the LFF programme is the Treasure of the Archives series; this year we have Cry Danger, a crackerjack film noir from Robert Parrish; a restored The Caine Mutiny starring Humphrey Bogart; Roberto Rossellini's The Machine that Kills Bad People from 1952 and a colour feature from Kenji Mizoguchi Shin-Heike Monogatari (Tales of the Taira Clan) from 1955.

As ever I suggest you seek out something different, be it a French film in the French Revolutions strand or one of the always good short cuts and animation.  You would be spoilt for choice if you are a cineaste or suffer from cinephilia like myself; but you certainly would be hard pressed not to find something to your liking.

Public booking opens on September 26th, by person or phone or online.
Phone 020 7928 3232 (9.30am-8.30pm daily), Online visit www.bfi.org.uk/lff or go to the counter at the BFI Southbank up to and during the festival.

It promises to be a brilliant experience as always, and it never fails to disappoint.

K&S Festival - Tom Watt Interview

Following on from the 'Kicking and Screening' preview I wrote last Thursday, I was granted an interview with curator and programmer for the September festival, Tom Watt (actor and broadcaster) on the telephone.

I asked Mr.Watt, how did the idea to have a London football festival come about:
'Well, there is already an American festival currently in its third year in New York which was originated by Rachel Markus, who took the idea back to America with her.  I have served on the advisory board of that festival, and it was inevitable to get a football/soccer festival in London.  We sat down with the CEO of Everyman cinemas, Andy Myers who is himself a big football fan and he got the gist of it straight away and that got the ball rolling immediately'
 
What can we expect on the schedule?
'We hope to have a lot of things happening, but we are conscious to make sure that it is not like a typical film festival experience where it is too dry and a bit too buffy. We are hoping to have an opening night as a New York night with 'Once in a Lifetime' screening, and on the Saturday to have a combination of a premiere for youngsters along with Arsenal in the community. So we are getting actual football clubs involved and there definitely being something for everyone.

Are you going to have Q&A's?
'We will be, but we hope to not have Q&A sessions with just the directors and writers of the featured films, for instance we hope to have One Night in Turin screening, where you are just as likely to see a featured player from the 1990 England World Cup squad as the director, Pete Davies.  It is important we make the festival as inclusive as possible.'

I mention to Mr.Watt, how all the more memorable films involving soccer seem to be feature documentaries why does it not serve drama better?
'I feel that is because football is fluid and unpredictable, which is also why it is the most popular sport in the world.  Unlike American football and baseball [which we agreed were better served by dramatic film], which are very stop and start in their action; football is difficult to capture and that is in the nature of the game.  Although I do hope we will be able to screen In the Hands of Gods, which was about a group of guys travelling to meet Diego Maradona, which was set up and shot like a documentary but the journey lent it a dramatic direction in its action.

'The more I talk about the festival and the more people hear about it, they are confident it will work. We have a London film festival, a Jewish film festival, a Horror film festival; I am convinced it can become part of the festival calendar.  Also, along with the work of Everyman cinemas who will get us the films, and with support from our sponsors at Sky Sports and the 'Hawksbee and Jacobs' show on TalkSport, I am hopeful we will be showing films to packed sold out houses and that people will see the festival as a series of events rather than a series of films'.

And for the closing night?
'I am hopeful, we will be able to screen Escape to Victory [John Huston's 1981 picture which featured the star-studded line-up of Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Pele, Ossie Ardiles and Russell Osman] on a big screen.  The film is fondly thought of, and yet I do not know anyone who has seen it in a cinema, we have all seen it on video or DVD late night with a beer, so to see it in a communal cinema is a dream of mine.

I end my interview there with Mr.Watt and wish him well for the festival which will run between September 23rd-29th at the Everyman Cinemas across their numerous sites in North London.

Follow the festival on twitter @KSFilmFest and on Facebook
http://www.kickingandscreening.com/

Kicking and Screening Film Festival

Great news from the Everyman cinemas chain based in London; during September (23rd -29th) they will be presenting for the first time in London the Kicking & Screening Film Festival across their brands of cinema in North and North West London at Hampstead, Belsize Park, Baker Street and Screen on the Green - Islington.  Screening the best films about the world's greatest and most popular game.

K&S was the first film festival in North America devoted entirely to football/soccer films.  The unprecedented success in 2009, led to a second one in 2010 with satellite festivals taking place also in Washington DC, Houston, Boston and even, Amsterdam.  The third annual K&S/New York festival will be staged at the famous Tribeca cinemas later this month.  And in September, football cinema is coming home.

Everyman cinemas however are asking upon film-makers to submit football-inspired shorts and/or features to be considered for this year's schedule.  Anyone wishing to do so should go to the following links:

http://www.kickingandscreening.com/blog/submissions.html or http://www.everymancinemas.com/

The deadline for submissions is August 1, with the full festival line up announced on August 31st.

It is worth noting that on the K&S advisory board, and those likely to have a say on the line-up include Grant Best (football live director with Sky Sports) and Tom Watt (renowned football historian and Arsenal fan, and broadcaster for BBC London)

And with such successes as The Damned United, Zidane and Once in a Lifetime released in recent years; the time is right for a glory tinged football festival. 

Spread the word of this young festival, and if you can get down to any of the screenings, even better.