London Film Festival 2011

[kevinknapman]

I will sadly be missing tomorrow's surprise film but have a ticket for Monday's BFI members screening. So I will be avoiding twitter and fmuk for about 24hrs. Would like it to still be a surprise.

Quite a contrasting day at the LFF for me today. Saw the Norwegian thriller Headhunters at midday. An absurd, bloody and blackly comic treat about a headhunter who carries out art thefts.
The lead character isn't particularly nice but the sh*t that he goes through (quite literally at one point) makes it an enjoyable ride. It also get's pretty gruesome at times. By the time our anti-hero is covered in crap and driving a tractor down the road with a dead dog dangling from the front, you know you're experiencing something quite unique. Game of Thrones fans might also want to keep an eye out for Jaime Lannister himself (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau) as one of the headhunter's 'victims'.
Not out until April though but worth waiting for and worth catching before the (already announced) US remake.

2nd film of the day was Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. It's a bold, sparse and interesting work. The first half is a lot stronger than the second with the younger Cathy and Heathcliff a bit more convincing than their older counterparts. There's a slight lack of chemistry between the older actors, which makes it less passionate and tragic than it could have been. Andrea Arnold's direction is excellent however and the cinematography by Robbie Ryan is frequently breathtaking.
I'm not sure how Bronte purists are likely to take this though. It's yet another adaptation that ditches the last section of the book. It also has some very un-Bronte like dialogue which includes the charming "f*ck all of you, you c*nts" when Heathcliff first meets the Lintons. Fans of costume dramas may also be put off by the slow, more gritty, art-house approach to the story. There isn't a great deal of dialogue either, with the atmosphere obviously more important.
Not perfect but the raw, earthy feel of the first half is amazing and worth seeing for that alone.
Also glad that the festival managed to project a film shot using the academy ratio correctly this time, having buggered up the Meek's Cutoff screening last year.

[funthing29]

They have announced more screenings for a number of films like A dangerous mind and Like Crazy.

I think you mean A Dangerous Method.

[hopeprince]

Yes, I did.

[tarantinoed]

Tomorrow I'm starting an LFF mini-marathon - 3 films per day for 4 days.

[canadian_turtle]

Wow! Have fun and good luck (and stock up on water!)

[tarantinoed]

I am, plus sandwiches and scones since there is hardly any break between films at times!

[Celini]

This is going to be about the Surprise Screening, so if you don't want to know... do not read further please!

[spoiler]Right, that was Sandra Hebron's last chance to shine by picking a good LFF surprise screening... when she introduced it she mentioned that it would not be everybody's taste in the audience and she apologised in advance for it!

I started to fear that it would be "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" as the original was a little too disturbing for me! She asked the audience to guess, and apparently 1 of the 8-10 titles shouted at her was the right one!
She also mentioned that nobody in Screen 5 (losers!) guessed it right... OMG I thought, what kind of obscure movie is it going to be?

They dimmed the lights, we had the usual LFF opening trailer, followed by FACT and BBFC certification... oops "Damsels in Distress"... WTF is that?
I read the title earlier when I was looking up the most likely Surprise Films, but did not really feel like reading more about it at the time...

I stayed open mind anyway... and then nothing... it sounded a bit like a variation of Clueless, but less funny, taking itself way too seriously and rather badly acted... after half an hour I was still trying to find something interesting... then I left!


Fiasco Surprise Screening if you ask me... I was not the first and most likely not the last one to leave Screen 7 before the end of the movie!
Maybe the film turned out to be good in its second half, but when you pick a film for Surprise Screening you should make sure IMO that you will get people hooked in its first half!

Looking forward to hearing your take on this EthanRunt
(your journalistic integrity may have forced you to endure the whole 99 minutes!)[/spoiler]

[Beate]

Sorry, I put your text in spoilers because there might be people who do not want to know the title of the Suprise screening but still want to come here to read or write about other LFF films.

[Celini]

I just read EthanRunt tweet... he sounds slightly pissed off

[Beate]

I just read EthanRunt twit... he sounds slightly pissed off

Yes, just a tad! His tweets are probably more enjoyable than the film.