BFI
LFF Review: The Ballad of Shirley Collins
There has been folk music in England since the Middle Ages. Whilst its popularity has ebbed and flowed over the decades and centuries, it underwent a revival after the end of World War II; with a network of folk clubs springing up across the country. This in turn brought a new generation of performers through. …
LFF Review: Araby
The global financial crisis destroyed lives, wrecked families and impacted on billions of people around the world. However, there is not group, as is always the case, that were harder hit than the poor. Whilst much of the media focus was on banks and multi-national corporations, scant regard was paid to the working-classes around the …
LFF Review: Rift
If you’re looking to build up atmosphere, suspense, a sense of terror and a general creepiness, then setting and backdrop is key. When choosing the location for a thriller, you’ll be hard-pressed to find somewhere more appropriate for spine-tingling thrills than the Nordic countries. Their sinister, eerie and sparse landscapes have added an essential touch …
LFF Review: Becoming Who I Was
To quote a certain William Shakespeare, “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em”. If you’re a Buddhist, there’s another option. Followers believe that great religious teachers are reincarnated. They refer to those who are the new incarnation of these leaders as Rinpoche. This is the subject of Moon …
LFF Review: The Cakemaker
Grief is such a difficult subject to tackle in film. All too often, the drama spills over into melodrama or sentimentality. It’s a fine line to tread and it takes a certain kind of directorial temperament to be successful. A steady hand, an empathetic sensitivity and a willingness to take risks and not just opt …
LFF Review: Princess Cyd
Whilst coming-of-age films with female protagonists are nothing new to European cinema, in America they’re only really a recent phenomenon. When they were made, they’ve tended to fall into specific genres such as comedy (Juno) or horror (Carrie). However, Marielle Heller and Kelly Fremon Craig broke the mould with The Diary of a Teenage Girl …
LFF Review: AlphaGo
If you were a boy growing up in Europe in the late 1970s or early 1980s, there’s a good chance that at some stage you played chess. However, if you were born in Japan, China or Korea, it’s likely that Go was the game for you. Compared to Go, chess Is like playing snakes and …
LFF Review: David Stratton: A Cinematic Life
In my humble opinion, Australian cinema is one of the most singular, gritty and strangely self-deprecating the world has to offer. Whilst in many ways it’s all so familiar, there’s a certain brutality and dark humour which sets it apart from their British or American counterparts. Films like The Castle, Wake in Fright, Mad Max, …
LFF Review: Ava
Even though the central characters of most coming-of-age films may not start out as nice or good, they almost always eventually end-up that way. Whatever life has thrown at them, they have an unerring capacity to come out the other end and embark on a hopeful future. Not so the case in Léa Mysius’ ridiculously …
BFIs 61st London Film Festival Preview
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK’s premier showcase of the best new cinema from around the world. With a wide array of World, European and UK premieres, this year the festival boasts a line-up which contains a truly breathtaking range of films from some of the most exciting and innovative film-makers. With a …