World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
The Programme for the London Film Festival is Announced, Danny Boyle’s Ink raises the rafters in Venice, Maggie Gyllenhaal gets political and sad farewells for Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Chen Kuan-tai.
Our Movie News today majors on the London Film Festival (or LFF for short), since yesterday evening I was lucky enough to attend the BFI Patron’s event (my thanks to Rachel Brock – a BFI Patron – for the guest invite). I received a summary of some of the highlights from the festival, as judged by the lucky team of BFI Programmers, led by festival director Kristy Matheson, who get to see them all early. So you will forgive me for majoring on that news in today’s article.
The further news, in this bumper article today, is below the LFF trailer video.
So many films, so little time!: The 70th London Film Festival programme was announced yesterday, comprising a staggering 251 titles (comprising features, shorts, series and immersive works) from 88 countries. Of course, the great value of this festival for me is not just the early previews of western films like Hamnet or Die My Love that you will get to see in any case in just a few month’s time. Oh no. It’s also the access to quiet little Indian films like Sister Midnight, Santosh and Crocodile Tears; North African-set films like Aïcha or Sirat that come as a complete surprise; and films like DJ Ahmet: the North Macedonian rom-com you never knew you needed in your life! Many of these films have NEVER been released in UK cinemas, and the LFF makes it a delight to get to see them on the big screen.
So – and I have not yet trawled the full programme to refine my list – these are some of the films that the programming team advised us to watch out for, and which piqued my interest. Many of them do look like a treat for the senses:
- The opening film – Elsinore – with Andrew Scott (in possibly an Oscar-nomination-worthy role?) as the Chariots of Fire actor Ian Charleston, facing his mortality while putting on a version of Hamlet at the National Theatre;
- The closing film – The Debut – directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in glittering form. This A24 film is a comedy/drama: a tale of late blooming set around a New Jersey Community Theatre production. From the trailer, it looks magical!
- This year’s Mayor’s Gala is Danny Boyle’s Ink: the vibrant story of Rupert Murdoch’s Fleet Street career starring the stellar acting combination of Guy Pearce, Jack O’Connell and Claire Foy. (The trailer for Ink is here (wowzer!) and there’s the early – positive – reactions from its Venice premiere further down in this article).
- Behemoth!: Starring Pedro Pascal as a orchestral viola player and also starring Olivia Wilde and Will Arnett. This is rare directorial outing by Tony ‘Michael Clayton‘ Gilroy (who also wrote the Bourne films) and apparently – because of its film scoring subject matter – is chock full of great music from a wide range of composers. The trailer is here.
- Getting a world premiere (one of 9 features at the LFF) is Wildwood: the extraordinary-looking stop-motion animation from Laika studios (Coraline) which you might be well advised to put an early bet on for next year’s Oscar Animation win. The trailer (here) is one of those that makes you go “HOW ON EARTH DID THEY FILM THAT”?
- Another world premiere at the festival is Ray Gunn, the latest animated feature from Brad Bird and featuring the vocal talents of Sam Rockwell, Tom Waites and Scarlett Johansson.
- Yet another world premiere is the great Carol Morley’s moving semi-autobiographical adaptation 7 Miles Out: a story of a woman grappling with her father’s death and seeking refuge in the emerging punk scene of Stockport in the late 70’s.
- If you are into your crime thrillers, then keep an eye out for Paper Tiger from Ad Astra-director James Gray and starring Adam Driver and Miles Teller as two brothers in 80’s New York caught up in Mafia goings-on. Scarlett Johansson also stars as Teller’s wife.
- Being Heumann, the long awaited (5 year!) follow up to the Oscar-lauded CODA from Sian Heder. This 1977-set drama tells the story of Judy Heumann – the “mother of disability” in the US – who single-handedly changed policies for disabled people following a dramatic occupation of a San Francisco federal building. Mark Ruffalo and Dylan O’Brien also star. Festival director Kristy Matheson – who I later had a lovely chat to about Oscar-possibles – mentioned in plenary that ‘a golden statuette’ might be in order for this very Academy-friendly film. (Place your early bets now!)
- Wild Horse Nine: The latest from Martin (Banshees of Inisherin) McDonaugh stars Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich as two CIA agents on Easter Island. Also starring Steve Buscemi, this looks to be full of McDonaugh’s trademark wit. The trailer makes this one a MUST SEE for me: you had me at Rockwell/Malkovich to be honest.
- Lovers of Godzilla Minus One (of which I count myself one) will be frothing at the mouth to see Godzilla Minus Zero: shot for IMAX, it will be showing at the BFI IMAX (assuming they can evict The Odyssey before then!)
- Sci-Fi fans will be in for a treat with Rogue Trooper, directed by Duncan (Moon) Jones and based off the ‘2000AD featuring Judge Dread’ comic books. While I’m sure Mark Kermode will be making a beeline to see Tropical Fractals, directed by from Leonardo Pirondi, which sounds in premise very similar to Silent Running… but I presume without the Donald-Duck-themed robots.
The Festival also promises early screenings of the raunchy Olivia Colman / Alexander Skarsgård comedy Wicker and Taika Waititi’s attempt to bring to movie life one of my favourite books – Klara and the Sun (I’m already bracing for disappointment). There’s also series previews of the latest Steve Coogan/Rob Brydon ‘Trip’ – The Trip to the Northern Lights – and for Marvel fans (slightly) early sight of VisionQuest, due to stream on Disney+ on October 14th.
Beyond the films, there have also been a series of ‘Screen Talks’ announced, where audiences can get up-close-and-personal with actors and directors. On the programme this year are actors Andrew Scott, Cynthia Erivo, Jesse Eisenberg, John Malkovich, Ava DuVernay, Mahershala Ali, Naomi Ackie and directors Sofia Coppola, Brad Bird, James Gray and Danny Boyle, with the latter taking the action outside of London for the first time, at HOME, Manchester
The London Film Festival runs from October 7th to the 18th and the full programme is now available for you to peruse here. The mad scramble for tickets starts on September 17th, with early access for patrons and BFI members.
All in all, it looks like a smorgasbord of incredibly varied movie entertainment and I can’t wait to get stuck into seeing as much of it as I can. As always, the biggest headache is scheduling and deciding what to watch and, more importantly, what you just can’t watch (due to scheduling or plain exhaustion!)
The brand new LFF trailer is available to view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE0xGvfOuuQ
AND IN OTHER NEWS TODAY….
Ink earns Boyle a rapturous Venice welcome: Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch drama received a near four-and-a-half-minute standing ovation following its Sala Grande premiere, with Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy all in attendance. Reviews have followed suit: the film currently sits at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a “generally favourable” 80 on Metacritic, with Variety calling it “gripping” and “sizzling,” and Vulture going so far as to dub it “Citizen Kane by way of Trainspotting.” It’s a genuinely notable first for Boyle too — despite a career spanning Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and last year’s 28 Years Later, this marks his first ever film in Venice’s official selection. Netflix has it booked for a 11th December theatrical release ahead of a 8th January streaming debut, with Telluride, Toronto and London (as above) stops in between. This is very much positioning itself as an awards-season contender already.
Gyllenhaal tackles the politics head-on: At Wednesday morning’s jury press conference, jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal addressed the elephant in the room directly, telling reporters she believes movies are “fundamentally, unavoidably political” and that no subject should be off limits — including, she said, finding empathy for “the most corrupt, most perverse people.” It’s a pointed response to the tensions simmering around this year’s programming, and sets the tone for what’s shaping up to be a combative eleven days on the Lido. Upcoming premieres to watch include Robert Pattinson’s Primetime, Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love and the Gaza documentary NAZA.
And two further sad farewells: French filmmaker Jean-Paul Rappeneau, best known for directing the Oscar-nominated Cyrano de Bergerac, has died aged 94. Separately, Hong Kong actor, director and action choreographer Chen Kuan-tai — a defining face of 1970s martial arts cinema through films including The Chinese Boxer and Heroes Two — has also died, aged 80. Two very different corners of world cinema losing significant figures on the same day.
Phew – a busy article today after a couple of slow news days! But that’s all for today.
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