Report from the 57th BFI London Film Festival (9th – 20th October 2013)
This year’s BFI London Film Festival had many amazing films on offer, and a lot of highlights (including Walesa, Man of hope, The Double, Manuscripts Don’t Burn and 20 Feet From Stardom). The BFI London Film Festival (also known as just the London Film Festival) is the UK’s largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, currently in its 57th year, hosted high profile awards contenders, screens recently restored archive films, champions new discoveries and combined curatorial strength with red carpet glamour. It also provided an extensive programme of industry events, public forums, education events, lectures, masterclasses and Q&As with film-makers and film talent. A considerable number of Italian films (who have recently taken impressive awards and received critical acclaim at major festivals, making 2013 a successful year for Italian cinema) have been once again under the spotlight during the Festival, with nine titles:
Sacro Gra, by Gianfranco Rosi (at the 70th Venice Film Festival Sacro Gra, directed by Gianfranco Rosi, won the Golden Lion), A Street In Palermo (Via Castellana Bandiera), by Emma Dante (actress Elena Cotta won the Coppa Volpi for her role), A Lonely Hero (L’Intrepido), by Gianni Amelio won the Laterna Magica. Bertolucci On Bertolucci by Luca Guadagnino and Walter Fasano (was screened in the Venice Classics section, and was warmly received by the public and critics alike), Honey (Miele), by Valeria Golino (won Best First Feature Film Golden Globes, and the film’s leading actress Jasmine Trinca won Best Actress), Salvo, by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia (at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize), and then, My Class (La Mia Classe), by Daniele Gaglianone, Stop The Pounding Heart, by Roberto Minervini, Those Happy Years (Anni Felici), by Daniele Luchetti.
Sacro Gra-Winner of the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival, acclaimed director Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary tells the story of the people and places that populate the areas surrounding Rome’s giant ring road – the Grande Raccordo Anulare – and discovers the invisible worlds and possible futures harboured in this area of constant turmoil.
Bertolucci On Bertolucci-Directors Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) and Walter Fasano present this perceptive documentary on the life and work of the legendary Bernardo Bertolucci. Using archive material from the last 50 years, this documentary offers a unique insight to one of the world’s most celebrated directors in which he talks about his work, philosophies and influences.
Stop The Pounding Heart-The third part of Italian-born but mainly US-based filmmaker Roberto Minervini’s loose Texan trilogy (after The Passage and Low Tide). Stop The Pounding Heart, which was shot in English, is a stunning portrayal of adolescence, family and social values, gender roles, and religion in contemporary America, and the insular communities that dot its landscape.
My Class (La Mia Classe)-Multi award-winning director Daniele Gaglianone brings this thought provoking drama-documentary about a teacher holding Italian lessons for an assorted group of immigrants. To gain permanent residence in Italy and improve their chances of employment, the students have to learn the language to secure a future in the country.Using “real” immigrants from a variety of countries, each character brings his or her own world into the classroom.
Honey (Miele)-Established Italian actress Valeria Golino makes her directorial debut with this thought provoking drama. Irene, aka Honey, lives an isolated and uncomplicated life but conceals her secret work in helping terminally ill people to end their lives. When called to a new assignment her convictions are challenged and this unusual relationship will change Irene’s life forever.
A Street In Palermo (Via Castellana Bandiera)-It’s a Sunday afternoon and shut inside their cars, two women face off in a silent duel. Meeting head-on in the streets of Palermo, and as tempers get heated, each driver refuses to reverse and let the other car pass. When the local neighborhood gets involved, taking bets on which women will hold her position the longest, what started as a trivial confrontation develops into a Mexican standoff.
Salvo– a hitman for the Sicilian Mafia, is solitary, cold and ruthless. When he sneaks into a house to eliminate a member of a rival Mafia clan, he discovers Rita, a young blind girl. When Salvo spares her life, something extraordinary happens. From then on, these two beings – both haunted by the world they belong to – are linked together forever. Winner of the Grand Prix prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
A Lonely Hero (L’Intrepido)-Set in Milan, this affecting and timely film tells the story of a middle aged, precariously employed jack-of-all-trades, who doggedly tries to get by in an unfeeling city while trying to retain his dignity and his passions. While our hero remains defiantly optimistic, upbeat and unflappable, behind the persona he also carries a vein of hurt and unhappiness. Against this impersonal world, Gianni Amelio paints a portrait of modern life with all of its uncertainties, love, pain and grace.
Those Happy Years (Anni Felici)-From Italian writer-director Daniele Luchetti, this touching and insightful romantic comedy tells the story of a marriage under stress. An egotistical artist finds his self-satisfied world turned upside down in the wake of a disastrous exhibition and his wife’s journey towards new personal freedom. Never losing sight of the complexities that motivate his characters, Luchetti’s partly autobiographical film is stylistically conventional, balanced, clear and edgy.
The BFI London Film Festival is a prestige affair: it draws together a generally mainstream range of internationally renowned directorial talent, combining commercial appeal with a sense of solid artistic achievement. Both the opening and closing night of this year’s festival have seen Tom Hanks on the red carpet. Hanks opened the Festival with the European premiere of Captain Phillips by Paul Greengrass (it’s one of Hank’s most affecting performances in years), and he is also appeared as Walt Disney in the festival’s closing film, Saving Mr. Banks (an account of the producer’s encounter with PL Travers, the writer of Mary Poppins).The main British features included Philomena; in this film, Steve Coogan plays the role of a cynical journalist, Martin Sixsmith, who is in pursuit of a human interest story, namely, that of Philomena (Judi Dench), an Irish Catholic on the trail of the illegitimate son she was forced to give up for adoption many years earlier. Unabashed entertainment came in the form of Gravity (in this two-hander between Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, astronauts are stricken high above the earth’s atmosphere after a shower of debris knocks out their space vehicle and kills the remaining crew. The film employs one of the best uses of 3D technology I have seen so far). Now let’s take a look at some of the festival’s most hotly-tipped films: Only Lovers left alive, by Jim Jarmusch, follows the romantic path of reclusive musician Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and his beloved Eve (Tilda Swinton), a pair of centuries-old vampires reuniting after a spell apart. Nebraska, Alexander Payne’s poignant road movie paints an affectionate portrait of a trip taken from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, and features a fantastic performance from Bruce Dern. Cohen Brothers’ musical drama Inside Llewyn Davis (it’s a funny and melancholic elegy 1960s folk music is as cinematically nimble as it is musically rich), Enough Said (the romantic comedy distinguished by being the last performance of the late James Gandolfini). Meanwhile, Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) returns to direct 12 Years a Slave, a plantation-era costume drama. The festival also showed Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour (a three-hour long French film that shocked and enthralled audiences at Cannes for its scenes of lesbianism). A record 150,000 people attended this year’s BFI London Film festival. The final weekend of the Festival saw Sir Christopher Lee presented with a BFI fellowship by surprise guest Johnny Deep at an awards dinner at the Banqueting House in Whitehall.
Barbara Zorzoli
