London Film Fest: "360" and "Shame"

Dave here with my first report from the London Film Festival, which Craig introduced you to on Thursday. We'll start with the Opening Night Gala.

Jude Law and Rachel Weisz as unfaithful marrieds.

Fernando Meirelles' 360 seems a fitting selection to open a film festival, sold as a "dynamic and moving roundelay" that takes us across the spectrum of people on the globe. But this is globalization for the West; just forget, for two hours, that Asia and Africa and Australia exist and that people might have sex there too. Peter Morgan's script works like a daisy chain, flimsily linking together a collection of character shells who spread out across Europe and America, reverberating off one another. Mirka (Lucia Siposova) ventures into prostitution to the disapproval of her sister Anna (Gabriela Marcinkova); Michael (Jude Law) is her first client, whose wife Rose (Rachel Weisz) is having an affair with Rui (Juliano Cazarre), whose girlfriend Laura (Maria Flor) has uncovered his lies and sets off back to Brazil, meeting John (Anthony Hopkins) on the plane...You get the idea.

Evidently, this is a film about how globalization has connected people across the globe, a decision from one changing the life of another, six degrees of separation, etcetera etcetera. It takes a delicate hand to make a daisy chain, and Peter Morgan is entirely too thick fingered and clumsy, forcing coincidence and connection between characters he forgets to give any identity to. Oddly sprightly culturally specific music crudely emphasizes the differing nationalities. Occasional split screens hilariously exaggerate the narrative parallels. Crafty editing connections verge on the farcical. Rachel Weisz is given a bad wig, Anthony Hopkins a bad monologue, and Ben Foster a luridly filmed introduction thanks to his character's sex offender status.

more 360° and Steve McQueen's Shame after the jump

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London Film Fest: "Pariah" and "Weekend"

Craig here (of Take Three fame) reporting for Nathaniel from the BFI London Film Festival which opens today. I started my festival with two gay themed dramas from a couple of emerging filmmakers from the US (Dee Rees) and the UK (Andrew Haigh). They've both made invigatoring narrative debuts. 

Dee Rees’ New York coming out drama Pariah shows its mettle from the start: we’re dropped right in the thick of it, headfirst into a lesbian strip club (we hear, “♪ Lick my neck, my back, my pussy and my crack... ♪” on the soundtrack), and introduced to feisty Brooklyn girl and poetry student Alike (Adepero Oduye) thoughtfully yet gingerly sizing up her surroundings.  She’s going through identity issues and is finding it hard to open up to her warring parents about her sexuality. Solace comes through friendship with Laura (Pernell Walker) and the possibility of love with local girl Bina (Aasha Davis).

It’s an affecting if familiar story, tinted with romantic longing and full of the kind of sorrowful spirit that often goes hand in hand with this kind of urban indie debut. But it’s incredibly likeable and there are no needless lulls in the narrative or indulgent first-timer pitfalls. The camera rarely veers away from the main drama at hand. The highs and tribulations of city life come through the attitude of the characters more than via establishing shots to indicate environment or insert shots to give reflective pause. The camerawork’s tightness on the actors – their faces, mannerisms, actions – help ground the characters as the film’s key revelatory component; it’s an actors’ piece. Rees understands this and gets both amicable banter and fraught temper from her cast who are never less than are solidly engaging not least Oduye who is excellent as Alike. It’s wonderfully shot (by Bradford Young) with a vivid, melancholic intimacy that brings out the hard-earned warmth and heart inherent in the lives of all the characters. Rees has a bright career ahead of her. (B+)

Pariah is showing at the LFF on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October

Tom Cullen and Chris New in "Weekend"

Another gay-themed tale of burgeoning love, Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (after documentary Greek Pete), makes its way to the LFF this, ahem, weekend.

more after the jump...

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'Ladies' via John Cameron Mitchell, London & Moscow

Somewhere after the second 'Lady Dior' commercial starring Marion Cotillard (a project that's obviously a descendant of those hot "The Hire" commercials wherein A list directors used to create short films around Clive Owen's "Driver" and a BMW) I lost track of the commercials. John Cameron Mitchell even directed her but it premiered during Oscar season when my mind was most definitely elsewhere.

Dior must have liked what John Cameron Mitchell did for them because there's a brand new film (I saw it at IndieWire) wherein Ukranian "sand artist" Kseniya Simonova tells a story conceived by JCM in a live performance. The artist is only using what looks like a light box, a pile of sand and her fingers. That's it. AMAZING. You must also watch it with jaw agape (don't worry, no sand will enter your mouth) because I can't believe it and must share. 

And then there's Mitchell's entry in the Marion Cotillard series "Lady Grey London" if you haven't yet seen that one. That hourglass opening is such cheeky fun.

This sand motif, hmmmm. Does JCM think his time is running out? Nonsense. With three great movies on his resume already (Hedwig, Shortbus, Rabbit Hole) he's batting 1000.