2011
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Dreileben 3: One Minute of Darkness’
★★★★☆ The third and final entry in the Dreileben trilogy, Christoph Hochhäusler’s Dreileben 3: One Minute of Darkness, finally gives centre stage to Stefan Kurts’ convicted child molester Frank Molesch, starting with his escape from police custody first witnessed in Christian Petzold’s initial entry Beats Being Dead. Visibly distressed following the death of his mother, the…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Dreileben 2: Don’t Follow Me Around’
★★★☆☆ The second film in the German Dreileben trilogy, Dominik Graf’s Dreileben 2: Don’t Follow Me Around (2011) is a very different creature to Christian Petzold’s Beats Being Dead (2011), taking a more straightforward, politically-informed approach to narrative storytelling. Whilst Petzold’s effort focused on the lives of Dreileben’s youth, Graf’s contribution to the project explores…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Dreileben 1: Beats Being Dead’
★★★★☆ Conceived from an extended email discussion on the current state of German cinema, the Dreileben trilogy brings together three of the nations finest filmmakers – Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler – each bringing their own unique style of storytelling to the individual chapters. The ‘Dreileben’ of the title is a small fictional German…
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LFF 2011: ‘Dark Horse’
★★★★☆ It’s tempting to say that Todd Solondz’s seventh feature, Dark Horse (2011) – starring Justin Bartha, Selma Blair and Zachary Booth – is something of a departure, but in truth it never really escapes the universe of Planet Solondz. Once again we are planted firmly in a universe of uncomfortable misery, with characters who…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Weekend’
★★★★☆ Intimate, earnest and heartfelt, Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (2011) – starring Tom Cullen and Chris New – is a refined and touching affair that showcases up-and-coming British film talent and an original approach to its subject matter.On a Friday night after hanging out with his straight mates, Russell (Cullen) – an introverted lifeguard – heads…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Shame’
★★★★☆ It may not be a world or even a European premiere, but the first showing of Hunger (2008) director Steve McQueen’s latest effort Shame (2011) – starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan – looks set to give this year’s BFI London Film Festival a much needed kiss of life (though where this kiss could…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Flying Fish’
★★☆☆☆ Following three parallel stories set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s debut feature Flying Fish (Igillena maluwo) – starring Chaminda Sampath Jayaweera, Rathnayaka Marasinghe and Siththi Mariyam – is unfortunately too languorous to sustain any prolonged sense of drama, despite an undeniably shocking finale.Flying Fish has a great deal…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Without’
★★★★☆ One of the twelve nominees for this year’s Sutherland Award at the BFI London Film Festival (and surely a strong contender), Mark Jackson’s minimalist debut Without certainly doesn’t lack emotion and intensity beneath its slow-burning exterior, and welcomes a new emerging talent in the face of Joslyn Jensen.Newcomer Jensen is endlessly watchable as a…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Amador’
★★★☆☆ Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa writes and directs well-meaning drama Amador, focusing upon the lives of Bolivian immigrants in Madrid – an under-represented group in cinematic terms – specifically Marcela (Magaly Solier) and her flower-selling partner Nelson (Pietro Sibille).After discovering that she is pregnant (and in order to make ends meet due to…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Stopped on Track’
★★★★☆ Jonathan Levine’s ‘cancer comedy’ 50/50 (2011) may have grabbed a significant slice of BFI London Film Festival press attention this week, but it is Andreas Dresen’s deeply honest, darkly comic family drama Stopped on Track (Halt auf freier Strecke, 2011) that deserves to win the majority of plaudits thanks to some stellar performances, most…