NEWS
EVENTS
56th BFI London Film Festival opens this week
Monday 8th October 2012 | Angie
This week heralds the return of one of the most important events in the British film calendar, the 56th year of the BFI London film festival. With over 300 films screening during the festival from over 50 countries, it is the largest public film event in the country. This year it runs from the 10th to the 21st October and features cinematic work from established directors to rising talent, modern films to beautifully restored archives.
Opening the festival is Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, the black and white stop motion animation about a boy who resurrects his recently deceased dog, and it will be closed by Mike Newell’s much anticipated adaptation of Great Expectations. Changes to the festival this year see the opening and closing galas being screened simultaneously on screens across the UK. Furthermore, the awards have been split into sections which include Best Film, the Sutherland Award for a first feature film and the Grierson Award for best documentary. The films themselves have been divided into categories according to their type, such as love, debate, dare, laugh, thrill, cult, family, journeys, sonic, treasures (archive).
A number of events will be running as part of the festival: Southbank will host the Art of Frankenweenie exhibition and the Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V & A is being championed by the BFI. Film-goers attending this year’s London film festival will also have a chance to attend master classes and hear screen talks given by the likes of Salman Rushdie, whose celebrated novel Midnight’s Children is making its film debut, and renowned actress Marion Cotillard. Below is a small selection of some of the exciting films coming up over the next couple of weeks.
Frankenweenie
The eccentric director extraordinaire Tim Burton returns to our screens with a stop motion film which sees young Victor resurrect his dog Sparky and the disastrous consequences that follow. When the secret is leaked through the gossip channels of his small town, Sparky quickly becomes the target of a horrified lynch mob and then inspires copy-cat experiments on much more extreme levels. True to form, Burton employs his signature gothic style in this charming tale in gloomy black and white.
Great Expectations
Mike Newell is the most recent director to try his hand at adapting this classic Dickensian novel. The film is brought to life by a heavyweight cast including Helena Bonham Carter as the twisted Miss Havisham, Ralph Fiennes, Sally Hawkins, Robbie Coltrane and rising kids on the scene Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger. The stunning period feature, which follows the rise in society of young orphan Pip when he is sponsored by a mystery benefactor and his pursuit of the unattainable Estella, is being hailed as the perfect closing to the festival as well as London’s bicentenary celebrations of the life and work of Charles Dickens.
Crossfire Hurricane
One of the most influential rock’n’roll bands in musical history is honoured in the first ever biopic on the Rolling Stones. It explores every crevice of their lives and careers, from the hatred to the unwavering adulation. Carefully handled by Acamdemy Award nominee Brett Morgan and team, the feature includes archived materials such as interviews and TV appearances of the band to give an open insight into the rollercoaster existence of the Rolling Stones.
Celeste and Jesse Forever
Saturday Night Live funny-man Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones pair up in this romantic comedy about high school sweethearts Celeste and Jesse, two people in an unconventional relationship. They are each other’s best friends and have a perfect marriage, but are getting divorced and don’t see a problem with spending all their time together regardless. All this is derailed when Jesse meets someone else and the pair are forced to come to terms with some difficult changes.
My Brother the Devil
Sally El-Hosaini makes her directorial debut with this raw depiction of life ‘on the road’ in an East London council estate. 14-year old Mo wants to join a gang, deal drugs and make money just like his older brother, but Rashid wants a better life for his sibling and is busy trying to find a way out. Secrets that both boys are keeping will cause events to take dramatic and dangerous turns.
Antiviral
Inspired by a serious case of the flu he came down with in college, Brandon Cronenberg presents to us a society where the cult of celebrity has reached dizzying heights of obsession, and fans are paying to be infected with their favourite celebrities’ diseases in a bid to experience an intimate biological communion with them.
Good Vibrations
Reluctant Irish Godfather of Punk Terri Hooley is the subject of Good Vibrations, taking us through his wild journey, from setting up his record store to establishing his own record label, leading him to become the guardian and champion of 1970s punk in Belfast – a medium for blissful and carefree anarchy amidst in the dark period of The Troubles.
Spike Island
This feel-good, comedic coming-of-age film follows five young boys from Manchester who also happen to be five diehard disciples of the great Mancunian band The Stone Roses. Set against the backdrop of the Roses legendary Spike Island gig, it is the gang’s sole most important mission in life at that moment in time to make sure they find a way in, along the way plotting ways to get girls and kick start their own band, of course.
The 56th BFI London Film Festival runs from 10-21 October 2012. For more information, visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
Angie Moneke @angiejudeLDN
