London Film Festival
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘The Artist’
★★★★★ A categorical success at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist is a gloriously executed love letter to the silent era of Hollywood, featuring an award-winning performance by Jean Dujardin (Best Actor at Cannes). A thoroughly enjoyable romp, The Artist looks set to be a crowd favourite at this year’s BFI London…
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LFF 2011: ‘Carnage’
★★★★☆ The cinematic adaptation of a stage play can offer a filmmaker many creative challenges. Either the film can largely ignore its theatrical origins (Casablanca [1942] was based on a pretty unsuccessful production called Everybody comes to Ricks), or then can be preserved in the form of a chamber piece – see Sidney Lumet’s 12…
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LFF 2011: ‘Elena’ review
★★★★☆ Director Andrei Zvyagintsev broke onto the scene with his remarkably assured 2003 debut The Return, a visually alluring and emotionally engrossing story of two young boys who embark on a road trip with their long lost father. His third feature, Elena (2011), also deals with fraught domestic relationships and is a welcome confirmation that…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Nobody Else But You’
★★☆☆☆ Rumours are currently swirling around the internet as to the identity of the ‘Surprise Film’ at this year’s 55th BFI London Film Festival, with Simon Curtis’ My Weekend with Marilyn currently a strong contender alongside Bruce Robinson’s The Rum Diary and Brad Pitt’s Moneyball. However, one film has already screened at this year’s LFF…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Las Acacias’
★★★☆☆ You know those long awkward car journeys you use to have as a kid in a foreigner’s car, crossing the border from Paraguay to Argentina? Pablo Giorgelli’s Las Acacias (2011) – which receives its UK premiere tonight at the 55th BFI London Film Festival – is one of those. At 90 minutes, it’s a…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia’
★★★★★ Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been a Cannes favourite since his debut film Koza won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film in 1995, so it came as little surprise when his latest film, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), walked away with Grand Jury Prize earlier this year. However, Ceylan’s win…
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LFF 2011: ‘Alps’ (‘Alpeis’)
★★★★☆ In Alps (Alpeis, 2011), Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to the sensational Dogtooth (2009), a group of four people – a young gymnast, her coach, a medic and a nurse – have an enterprising idea: when someone dies, they will hire themselves out to the family or friends, substituting for the deceased so that…
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BFI London Film Festival: ‘Pariah’
★★★★☆ Written and directed by Dee Rees, Pariah (2011) – starring Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans and Aasha Davis – is a refreshingly naturalistic film which explores themes of sexuality and acceptance without ever pandering to the formulaic approach of similar teen dramas.Pariah opens in a seedy back alley strip bar where Khia’s My Neck, My…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Hut in the Woods’
★★★★☆ The latest in a line of strong German entries exploring mental illness at this year’s 55th BFI London Film Festival, Hans Weingartner’s Hut in the Woods (Hütte im Wald, 2011) focuses on the lives of to down-and-outs, former mathematician Martin Blunt (Peter Schneider) and recently orphaned Ukrainian youngster Viktor (Timur Massold), who both become…
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BFI London Film Festival 2011: ‘Coriolanus’
★★★☆☆ William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is one of the Great Bard’s most complicated and longest plays, making an adaptation a brave move for the directorial debut of actor Ralph Fiennes. To counter this, Coriolanus (2011) boasts an impressive cast of great acting talent, including Vanessa Redgrave, Gerald Butler, Brian Cox and Jessica Chastain.Fiennes has transported the action…