The 55th BFI London Film Festival has announced its full programme. With this year’s festival marking the departure of artistic director Sandra Hebron, the pressure was perhaps greater than ever for the BFI to deliver a killer line-up. On the strength of the number of highly anticipated titles included in the programme, initial impressions suggest that they’ve succeeded.
With a diverse schedule consisting of over 200 features and 110 shorts from 55 countries, including 13 world and 132 UK premieres, it also seems they’ve accomplished Hebron’s aim of making the festival ‘relevant, inclusive and enjoyable’. Some expected highlights include:
The Artist – Whipping up a storm at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (where it scooped best actor for Jean Dujardin), Michel Hazanavicius’ homage to the early days of cinema tells the story of a silent film actor thrown into turmoil by the coming of the talkies. Silent and Black and White, The Artist is definitely a film which will appeal to those with a fondness for films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, while the sense of fun it exudes should also ensure that there’s plenty for a wider audience to enjoy.
We Need to Talk About Kevin – Another hit from this year’s Cannes, We Need to Talk About Kevin sees the long overdue return of one of Britain’s greatest directorial talents: Lynne Ramsay. After a shocking nine years in the wilderness (including a stint working on an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, later filmed by Peter Jackson), Ramsay brings us her take on Lionel Shriver’s bestselling novel about a mother struggling to come to terms with the atrocious crimes of her son. A fantastic cast including Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller, combined with Ramsay’s penchant for lyrical poetry, surely make this a must-see.
The Kid with a Bike – Filmic poetry is also to be expected from this, the new film from Belgium brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (two-time winners of the Palme d’Or). Known for their up-close, handheld realism, the Dardennes here dabble with music for the first time and – so it’s said – ‘a structure inspired by fairytales’, to tell the story of an 11-year-old boy’s friendship with a woman he meets after being abandoned by his father.
The Descendants – Screening as this year’s Centrepiece Gala (supported by the Mayor of London) is the long-overdue new film from award-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne. Like his earlier masterpiece About Schmidt, The Descendants concerns a father re-examining his life. Payne’s trademark mix of biting comedy and involving drama appear to be in place, this time with George Clooney coming along for the ride. Clooney fans should also take note that his new directorial effort, The Ides of March, is playing as the festival’s American Express Gala.
Bernie – Arriving at the festival somewhat under the radar comes new comedy Bernie, for which independent director Richard Linklater has re-teamed with both his School of Rock star Jack Black and his Dazed and Confused cohort Matthew McConaughey (also seen in Linkater’s underrated The Newton Boys). With their previous collaborations leading to top-notch performances, and with School of Rock proving just how funny Linklater can be when he hits a playful tone, this seems likely to be a sure-fire hit.
Sarah Palin – You Betcha! – Fiction features aren’t the only thing London’s known for, and this year boasts many new documentaries, including this, from the stewards of British documentary filmmaking, Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill. No doubt Broomfield will once again assume his brave and bumbling onscreen persona to provide a humorous but searching portrait of the Alaskan politician.
Correspondence: Jonas Mekas – JL Guerín – For those with more experimental taste comes a film detailing a series of five letters between Jonas Mekas, the ‘godfather’ of the American avant-garde, and the Spanish filmmaker José Luis Guerín (best known here for 2007′s sublime In the City of Sylvia). Though likely to be found pretentious by some, Correspondence could well prove to be the most profound and interesting film of the entire festival.
The Machine That Kills Bad People (1952) – As always, the festival’s Treasure from the Archives strand lives up to its name. Perhaps most exciting of all is this, a rare chance to see Roberto Rossellini’s foray into satirical comedy. Best known for his Neo-Realist films, this a-typical work concerns a photographer who discovers that the subjects of his photographs die when the images are developed. Despite the uncharacteristic material, coming as it does among a run of absolute masterpieces (Stromboli, 1950; Fancis, God’s Jester, 1950; Europa ’51, 1952), there’s every chance Rossellini may have just pulled it off…
The 55th BFI London Film Festival runs from 12th – 27th October 2011. The full programme can be found on the festival’s website. Booking for BFI members opens on Wednesday 14th September, while public tickets will be available from Monday 26th September.
Thinking of attending? Leave a comment below and let us know what you’re excited about!
Related posts:
