Over the last couple of weeks every chance I’ve had, I’ve have been dashing to an assortment of London Film Festival pre-screenings of feature films due to appear at the fest. As ever there’s a wide range on offer and the selection I’ve managed to catch so far reveals this…

So, here are my picks on the very eve on the fest of what I’ve seen, would recommend and what we are looking forward to.

Firstly, two very contrasting Norwegian films: Oslo, August 31^st, second film of Joachim Trier is a moving, intense and tragic 24 hour tale of a man in crisis, dreamily shot, powerfully acted and flawlessly realised; warning though - it’s a bit on the heart-wrenching side, so if you fancy a bit of fun from your LFF this won’t be the answer (full review here). King Curling is a montage-heavy sports romp about… the sport of curling. Now I enjoy a slapstick caper as much as the next film fan, even ANOTHER sports based one, but the relentless mono-pitched tomfoolery of this left me exhausted. Surely there is an art to making a good kooky, quirky, eccentric narrative film - an art that involves light and shade; darkness and wonder. An art that Miranda July, who’s second feature The Future (screening as part of LFF and previously RR recommended) is undoubtedly the don of. We are looking forward to reviewing The Future (and also interviewing her!) as part of the fest. Talking of darkness and eccentricity, look out for Tod Solondz’s Dark Horse, although less controversial than earlier work such as Happiness and Palindromes, this is still a good dose of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire and though the bleak humour left me feeling a bit empty at times, is definitely worth checking out.


If a subtle, simple, slow-moving road movie appeals, look no further than Las Acacias (Argentina) a film in which one of the three main characters is the cutest baby of all time. The two other leads are a woman (mother of the baby) and a man who gives her a pre-arranged and presumably pre-paid for lift in his logging truck across the border from Paraguay to Argentina. The film is totally captivating despite a lack of action (also a tearjerker or is that just me!?) and director Pablo Giorgelli has been shortlisted for The Sutherland Award, an award for the most imaginative and original first feature in the Festival. Also up for this award is Alice Rohrwacher, director of Corpo Celeste (Italy) a highly textured and non-cliched coming of age tale that immerses us is teenager Marta’s world as part of a small parish in southern Italy and depicts the community’s Idiosyncrasies with flair and humour.

One of the most exciting things about the festival for me is always the Experimenta strand: ‘Cutting edge cinema, artists’ film and video and the avant-garde’. Having watched Sleepless Nights Stories, a sprawling and haphazard yet endearing video diary from the legendary Jonas Mekas (now aged 88!) I saw the documentary Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film. This put the work of video artists/filmmakers like Jonas Mekas (who will be attending the festival) into a sharper context for me and was a really interesting insight into filmmaking that has always sat ‘somewhere between the commercial film industry and the art world’. Fascinating stuff.
 

This year's New British Cinema includes some World premieres. Ones to watch out for: Sket, The Sonalbulists, Shock Head Soul and finally Wreckers by Dictynna Hood, who incidentally is also a great screenwriting teacher and I am hoping to interview!

Lastly two biggies to shout about: my favorite director of all time, Lynne Ramsey’s long awaited adaptation of the Orange prize winning novel We Need To Talk About Kevin. Ramsey's second feature Movern Callar is incredible and I literally can’t wait to see how she interprets this seminal American nightmare tale. Legend Andrea Arnold’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights is also one to watch out for, following captivating realist drama Fish Tank, it will be intriguing to see where the ever original and innovative Arnold is going to take this classic story…

More articles from the fest coming soon!
 

The 55th BFI London Film Festival (in partnership with American Express) – the run dates are 12th October to 27th October.

The booking details are:  www.bfi.org.uk/lff

Images: We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Future and Sket