As I mentioned previously I’m doing a pile of micro-reviews over on 12 Seconds (which they kindly mentioned on their blog – thanks guys!) while I’m at the London Film Festival press screenings. The plan didn’t quite go according to plan as the wi-fi at the National Film Theatre turns out to be too weak for video. Not a big deal as I can simply post the vids in the evening as I did tonight, but it means I can’t do the more fly on the wall stuff I was planning.

What I have learned already is that this is a tough assignment. Fun, but a little more taxing than I’d considered. While I think I’m doing OK and will hopefully get better I’m not really doing justice to some incredible films. So seeing as I had three very good pieces of cinema to watch today it only seems fair for me to embed the tiny reviews here and then expand on them a little.

First up was Paul Koutecky and Miroslav Janek’s CITIZEN HAVEL:

LFF: Citizen Havel on 12seconds.tv

Knowing a little about the Velvet Revolution, but hardly anything about what followed in the Czech Republic this documentary was a real eye opener. I admit to dragging my heels a little towards the South Bank this morning. The sun was out and it seemed crazy to spend two hours in a dark room with revolutionary types. Thankfully from the very outset Citizen Havel is so warm an illustration of one man that you are immediately drawn into the heady days of 1992 and follow very closely this former political dissident as he becomes the first president of a very new country. As political documentaries go I’ve never seen anything quite like this film as the people behind the camera are given unprecedented access to a series of unprecedented events.

Other key figures of the period pass through (Blair, Bush and even a saxophone tooting Clinton), but Vaclav Havel remains front and centre and always an intellectual first, a state leader second. It’s an often hilarious look at a normal man standing up for what he believes in suddenly thrust into an international spotlight, holding the country together as others try and bring him down.

A treat of a movie and highly recommended, it plays on the 22nd and 26th of October. Full details here.

Off to see Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises with hubby:

I don’t mind him having a girlfriend as I serve a different set of needs. Mainly Ukrainian in scope.

I tend to go into press screenings blind. This means any production notes or press packs I get handed go straight into my bag or pocket until I’ve had a chance to check out the movie. Sometimes these are lavish affairs often better produced that the movies themselves and some are just badly photocopied Word documents. Occasionally (as was the case of at least one movie this festival) they make a whole lot more sense than the films I sit through.

This afternoon I saw Shotgun Stories and after a pretty bleak festival it was a breath of fresh air and something that I thoroughly enjoyed. Once home I dug out the day’s press crap in order to find out what exactly Jeff Nichols had done previously, as I was keen to see what he’d cut his teeth on to get to this great little movie. I was shocked to find that this was his first full length feature.

It’s a remarkable achievement. The film is a sober and refreshing look at revenge and shows a maturity that makes me want to see everything that Nichols has been involved in. Here’s what he has to say about Shotgun Stories:

There is no victory in revenge. This is an idea I chose to explore with Shotgun Stories, a film tracking a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father. So often in literature, film, politics and society, revenge, and more importantly the execution of revenge, is considered success. Whether it’s Edmund Dantes fulfilling his pledge to ruin Danglars in The Count of Monte Cristo or Hans Gruber falling to his death in Die Hard, the euphoric feeling we get as an audience watching the villain meet his or her comeuppance is undeniable. With Shotgun Stories, I wanted to work against this notion. I wanted revenge to be an awkward thing to exact and a cause not necessarily championed by the audience. Violence is an unusual task for these characters, just as it is for most people. Their anger and emotions are validated, but their reactions to those emotions are not precise. My hope is that Shotgun Stories gives an honest portrayal of normal, hard working people responding to the pain and heartbreak they find, and at times create, in their own lives.

I noticed that he’s also worked on The Rough South of Larry Brown which makes perfect sense as the film evokes the work of Brown very well, especially something like Father & Son. I’d love to see Nichols go on to adapt his work or even some early Cormac McCarthy.

While this seems to be a career best for Michael Shannon he’s surrounded by a great cast (the actresses are all especially good) and Nichols knows how to frame a shot. Sometimes dwarfing the actors in the landscape, the film was shot in 35mm and looks beautiful throughout. Plotwise it revolves around slowly unwinding tension and violence between two sets of half-brothers. The stark drama serves the action well and it has a suitably masculine feel about it, with things not said sometimes proving more powerful than the very authentic dialogue.

One of my favourite movies so far, it plays on the 19th and 21st of this month at the London Film Festival. If it doesn’t get a decent wide release after that then there’s no justice.

“We’re stuck in the fold of a map in the middle of Romania.”

A wet Monday morning, a 10.30am start and a large turnout for the first press screening of the festival, which is a pleasant change. Sometimes these things are as empty as a church or a training bra.

This morning’s movie is billed as a “Balkan farce” so I was naturally expecting just the usual die hard film nuts, but the place is half full. A lot of industry pass holders I see and not that many press. I assume there’s a certain curiosity to see what this young guy came up with before the taxi he was travelling in was crushed, killing him and his career stone cold dead.

About ten minutes before the lights dim, Tom from Solace in Cinema walks in and takes a seat next to me. We’re both seeing as much of the festival as we possibly can and this will be the first time I’ll have someone whose opinion I trust to bounce ideas off after the screenings. Tom’s site as I keep telling anyone who will listen is the only UK film website worth paying attention to. The guy knows his stuff.

As if to underline this as the film starts we seem to be the only people in the room who are laughing out loud at the scene of a Romanian family being chased down the spiral staircase to a bomb shelter by a clanging, rolling unexploded bomb. As it finally rolls to a halt without killing anyone we see the stamp: MADE IN CALIFORNIA.

It’s a great way to open a movie and I find myself warming to the dead guy immediately. Nemuscu, an obviously talented bastard ,gets taken out in something as stupid as a car accident and Michael Bay who spends a lot of time surrounded by heavy ordnance is still alive. There’s no fucking justice in the world. Continue Reading…

The Times BFI London Film Festival runs from the 17th of October until the 1st of November, but it started for me yesterday morning. By the end of this week alone I’ll have been to 16 press screenings with maybe another 40 or so to follow.

My review to watching ratio usually falls apart after the first week as the films pile up, but this year I’m determined not to fall behind. If you see me slacking punch me on the arm.

I saw three movies yesterday and one this morning with two more to follow today including an evening screening of Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. Doesn’t leave much time for writing in between.

Thankfully I’m back on coffee. It’s going to be a long (but fun) month.