In Competition: Documentaries at the London Film Festival

by Sean McGovern

The end of summer is an annual tragedy, but at least it means that you don't have to go to the cinema just for the air conditioning. With Venice ongoing and TIFF beginning tomorrow (Chris & Nathaniel are already on the ground), Film Festival Season (and by extension, Awards Season!) is well and truly upon us. Arrving in early October for the 62nd time is the London Film Festival, the biggest one on my calendar and the one closest to my house. Amongst the glitzy galas and special presentations is a stellar programme and not just because I played a small part in programming the shorts this year.

Something that excites me in particular is the impressive lineup of the films in the Documentary Competition. And since I haven't got to see them yet, join in my excitement in a preview of some the titles, some of which are opening soon in the USA...

BISBEE '17 (dir. Robert Greene, USA) [Glenn's Review]
[Opening today in NYC] From the director of Kate Plays Christine, Robert Greene investigates the mysterious tragedy of a small American mining town, which one hundred years previously, had 1200 migrant workers rounded up and left to die in the desert...

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Robbie To Ruin

by Jason Adams

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not as great as our host Nathaniel at keeping up with every single festival) but with a little digging it doesn't look like Mary, Queen of Scots is premiering at any of the Fall festivals? Perhaps that is why I've seen some people side-eying its awards chances lately? Personally I'm always down for dramatic wig acting, and with Saoirse & Margot under them wigs I'm hooked already (and that before you even get to James McArdle's Beard).

Margot is why we're here today though - she's just signed up for a new role and it's one that's got my interest right out of the gate. She is going to star opposite my beloved Matthias Schoenaerts in Ruin, the new film from Snowtown and Macbeth (and yes okay Assassin's Creed) director Justin Kurtzel. It's a World War II thriller - it actually sounds kind of similar to Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, which starred Carice Van Houten (sidenote: a happy birthday to the great Carice today!) and, hey look at that...

... Matthias Schoenaerts in a small role. First place I remember seeing him actually! Anyway Ruin is about a Holocaust survivor (Robbie) who teams up with a former SS officer (Schoenaerts) to hunt down the members of his former death squad. Tonally that could go... an awful lot of directions, so we'll have to wait and see how Kurtzel & Co take it. While we're waiting why don't we all head over to MNPP where I just posted a bunch of Matthias pictures inspired by this news? It'll help pass the time.

Soundtracking: "45 Years"

by Chris Feil

“They asked me how I knew...”

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by The Platters is a cinematic staple, constantly showing up in films and yet hasn’t become a cliche. The song has been used for umpteen other tragic romances in film like Blue Valentine and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, not to mention countless less narratively significant needle drops on screen. But Andrew Haigh's 45 Years is the one that wrings it for every last drop of its sweeping grandeur and matches the scale of its emotion...

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The Men of Venice '18 Can Get It.

TIFF begins tomorrow (Chris and Nathaniel will both be reporting to give you double the coverage!) but the 75th annual Venice Film Festival is still swinging. It concludes on Saturday September 8th so that's when we'll know who took the coveted Golden Lion (you may recall that a little film called Shape of Water won last year, though their winner is usually far less mainstream).

Alfonso Cuarón, Lee Byung-hun, Nicholas Hoult, Bradley Cooper

But here are the most handsome men in lux menswear we've spotted on the red carpet coverage. Joe Alwyn, Ryan Gosling, Matt Smith, Mads Mikkelsen, Matthias Schoenaerts and many more are after the jump...

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Showbiz History: Intolerance, Pee Wee, and Nightcrawler

9 random things that happened on this day, September 5th, in showbiz history...

1847 Outlaw Jesse James is born. 160 years later he'll be assassinated by Oscar nominated "supporting" actor Casey Affleck on the big screen.

← 1914 Stellar makeup artist Stuart Freeborn born in Leystone, London. You can thank him for the iconic looks of the original Star Wars trilogy (hello Chewbacca and Yoda) and the original Superman quadrilogy, and Peter Sellers transformations in Dr. Strangelove. He also worked on classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Murder on the Orient Express. He was never Oscar nominated so how did he not even get an Honorary Oscar?

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