London Film Festival - Inspiration Amid Uncertainty

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 01 October 2010 18:33

Written by Laura Blum

Britain’s largest cinema spectacle, the London Film Festival, is for the 54th time “bringing the world’s best new films to London,” October 13 to 28, 2010. Unlike some of its competitors, the British Film Institute’s big Fall fest shows no signs of falling down.

Rumors continue to swirl that the axing of the UK Film Council could doom such regional beneficiaries as the Cambridge Film Festival. Yet LFF stands to gain from the reallocation of £’s in the Council’s wake. 

Since its genesis in 1956, LFF has generally served as a “festival of festivals” mounting the UK premieres of favorites from Cannes, Toronto and Sundance. (Local lore has it that the BFI acted on the expressed belief of local film critics that “with Cannes and Venice having their festivals, as did Edinburgh, so surely London should too.”) Yet, as per Artistic Director Sandra Hebron, London also fulfills a discovery role.

This year the Festival will be “topped and tailed” by the British films Never Let Me Go and 127 Hours together with red carpet fanfare at their Opening and Closing galas. The former title is Mark Romanek’s screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s sci fi novel; and the latter, Danny Boyle’s dramatic thriller based on the true story of an American mountain climber who amputated his own arm to free himself from a boulder.

Boyle's 127 Hours will lock horns with Mike Leigh's ode to family, friendship and loneliness, Another Year, and Tom Hooper’s Toronto winner, The King’s Speech, in a battle for the year’s Best Film Award. Regardless of who triumphs in this competition sponsored by the BFI, Boyle will leave the Festival as a winner: The Slumdog Millionaire director was chosen to receive the BFI’s plummiest prize, the BFI Fellowship.

Other films among the 11 in competition are Black Swan, by US director Darren Aronofsky, and Palme D'Or laureate Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Patricia Clarkson will preside over this year’s jury, which includes Gabriel Byrne, Sandy Powell and Shekhar Kapur.

British cinema is in line for an especially strong showing among the 197 features and 112 shorts of this year’s two-week fest. Pink Saris is worth singling out in the New British Films selection. Kim Longinotto's latest film takes her to Northern India, where Sampat Pal is spearheading the crusade against corruption, abuses of women and other social evils.  

To take the domestic film industry pulse as it wrestles with what Hebron describes as “significant ripples of uncertainty,” the Festival will present the panel discussion, "British Cinema: Breaking with Convention.” Other forums include masterclasses with luminaries from both sides of the camera, such as Aronofsky and Javier Bardem, as well as workshops, career interviews and a program of live events under the avant-garde Experimenta rubric.

This year's Treasures from the Archive Gala is The Great White Silence, restored by the BFI. It will be screened alongside a performance of an improvised score by Simon Fisher Turner.

London’s West End will also unveil Anton Corbijn’s The American, starring George Clooney; Carlos, Olivier Assayas’ epic biography of the Venezuelan terrorist; and Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme.

From across the channel come the picks of the French Revolutions category. Audiences will discover Katell Quillévéré’s Love Like Poison and Antony Cordier’s Happy Few, while fans of veteran director Catherine Breillat will welcome her back with The Sleeping Beauty.

Taking stock of this year’s eclectic slate, from such “iconoclastic provocateurs” as Takashi Miike and Gregg Araki to “restrained” visionaries Kelly Rieichardt and Patrick Keiller, Hebron teased out the theme of inspiration. “They're inspiring because of the subjects they tackle,” she said, adding the further explanation that the films are “brilliantly made or beautiful to look at…take risks…ask questions…(and) are angry or life-affirming.”

Find the full program at http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff

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