London Film Festival 2009 - Filmaster Awards

Lebanon , A Single Man , Ajami , Up in the Air , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , Metropia , Nymph , Cracks , Friday 30. October 2009, 16:58

The 53rd London Film Festival is over. As an accredited Filmaster reviewer for the festival I watched 14 movies and so far wrote 4 reviews of the films + short impressions on the other 10. I'll be writing more reviews soon, but in this post I'd like to share a few highlights of the festival from my point of view.

The official winners

It makes sense to mention the winners first. The best film award went to French A Prophet. Ajami was awarded the The Sutherland Trophy. Screenwriter Jack Thorne took the Best British Newcomer Award for The Scouting Book For Boys and eventually the Grierson Award for documentary movies was handed to the producers of Defamation.

I only watched the Sutherland Trophy winner, Ajami, and I was a bit disappointed. The script just seems so much better than the execution, perhaps partly because of very low budget. The way of telling multiple interwining stories reminded my of Amores Perros, although Ajami is much smarter but inferior technically. Worth watching mostly to get a feel of living under constant stress and terror in Israel and Palestine.

I'm going to try to see A Prophet soon. Hopefully it will be distributed in Britain.

Best film

I would have had a big problem naming the best movie of the festival if I had missed the last day. Fortunately I haven't so I've seen Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orlean which made the biggest impression on me of all festival films.

Herzog flirting with the mainstream? Yes, but you can still feel the unique touch of the German master but the film is way more conventional than his other features. The risky project of remaking the classic turned successful because of two things: Nicolas Cage being the ideal candidate for a cocaine-addicted cop on the edge of falling and the fantastic surreal humor that Herzog added to the previously serious script. Great fun and very touching at the same time. Simply: the best film of the London Film Festiwal.

Biggest disappointment

There are always festival films that you are so much hoping to be good but they turn out to be disasters. This was the case with Metropia. A ridiculous screenplay better suited for cheap action movies than festival features is accompanied here by a dark and troubling vision of post-apocalyptic Europe interconnected with enormous undergroud system. But the unique atmosphere is missing because of the pure stupidity of the script.
Tarik Saleh should definitely take the next Bond movie (seems like a perfect candidate) but I really wish he had left the Metropia project alone and leave it for one of his more experienced friends like Roy Anderson (Songs from the Second Floor). Waisted time, not recommended unless you switch off common sense.

Most engaging

Lebanon. It's the war drama that makes you experience the war as if you were part of it. Scary, breath-taking, powerful. Reminded my of Wajda's "Kanal" and Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", but in this one we're watching the "bad guys" who turn out to be as frightened and uncertain as the ones being attacked. Is it a movie you'll be thinking of for a long time? Probably not. The war is evil - this is the main message. And we all know it. And we all hope it doesn't happen to us. Lebanon only reminds us about it, but it does it in such a convincing way that you get as scared as the guys in the tank.

If you don't have enough, read my review of Lebanon.

Funniest plane romcom

No doubt this one goes to Up in the air. An astonighingly good aeroplane (romantic?) comedy with fantastic George Clooney very good Anna Kendrick. The life has no aim and we all know it but the most cheerful moments of it are those we share with others. A pretty obvious conclusion but when you watch the movie, you may find it deeper than it sounds.

Also read my full review of Up in the air.

Most stylish drama

It's one of the BFI Film Festival movies I've been waiting for. Colin Firth shows here that he can handle a dramatic role of a gay professor in the 50ties. The film was a bit too ostentatious and the music was almost telling you: "now cry! now show sympathy to the main character", but also there were a few simply ingenious scenes, most of them with Julianne Moore in. Interesting, non-trivial, a very strong candidate for Academy Awards 2010.

What movie are we talking about? Tom Ford's A Single Man, obviously. Full review here.

Most naturalistic set of medical operations on the screen

Russian Morphia is the clear winner here. Every time when you think "no, they're not gonna really show it, no way!" just close your eyes and wait for 10 seconds. Because they do show it for real. And it hurts.

Great movie apart from all those cut throats, missing legs and blood all around. A really convincing picture of pre-revolutionary Russia and a depressing evolution of morphine addiction.

Best bloodless jungle horror

A Nymph: a dark, cold and weird love story set partly in forrest, partly in the city. Even though you watch it from the distance, you can still feel the thrills. And Porntip Papanai is simply beautiful! If you still don't know who Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is, fill in the blanks in your film education now.

Best school drama with a teacher who turns insane

This one goes to Cracks by Jordan Scott (yes, from those Scott's), an interesting second feature. It's a somewhat surreal story, a strange mix of Heavenly Creatures, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Dead Poets Society, with very pleasant cinematography and a mistery that keeps you focused. Unfortunately when the mistery gets resolved, there is not much left to talk about. Not impressed by acting of Green and Temple, either. But still the best school-drama-with-a-teacher-that-turns-insane of the festival!

Read my review of Cracks to see why.

What have I missed?

There are so many films that I haven't seen because of lack of time or money (no, the press-accredited people don't get all the movies for free, you still have to pay for the evening and weekend screenings and guess what - these are the times when regular people watch movies, because they have to work for the living) that I won't even try to list them all. However, there are two movies that I miss the most:

• The Limits of Control - the latest feature by my one of my favorite directors, Jim Jarmusch. I missed the screening due to sickness and probably won't be able to see it very soon as it doesn't seem to have a distributor in Engliand, yet.


• City of Life and Death - a Chinese war drama about the Japanese concentration camps. This movie may also be hard to watch, especially on the big screen. What a shame that I had to work last Wednesday!

Final words

It's sad the festival is over but the good thing is that there are tons of new movies coming to the cinemas right now, so I wan't have the time to rest.Russian Film Festival in London starts today (thanks @VictoriaRusso) and I still haven's seen Pixar's Up and Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. If you are in London I also recommend you to see some films of The London Korean Film Festival 09 in Barbican Centre.

Finally, thanks to everyone who were sending your tweets tagged #lff - such a great way of sharing your festival experience, obviously except for writing short reviews on Filmaster :>
If you still haven't, you can follow me on Twitter as well, and remember to retweet this post (see link below).

Cheers,
Borys