Rev Stan's film blog

#LFF Stan does the red carpet

Really didn't think this would happen as I hadn't managed to nab any gala performance tickets. And even Poly didn't realise that the ticket she offered me for Monday night's screen of The Kids Are Alright was a gala until she arrived to the same scene I'd experience 10 minutes earlier: Leicester Square crowded with people, barriers up, paparazzi and the lovely long, plush red carpet leading into the cinema we were meant to be in.

I had to ask a policeman how I got into the cinema and he pointed somewhere towards the middle of the square near the end of the barriers.

'Shit, I might have to walk the red carpet,' thought I, a slight thrill passing through me.

And so I did.

Right,' thought I 'I'm going to take my time and enjoy the moment. No skulking quickly with my head down looking embarrassed - I'll look like I walk red carpets all the time and ignore the fact that people won't be taking a blind bit of notice.'

And so I did. I passed a couple having their photo taken by the paps - haven't the foggiest who they were but they looked day-time soap star-ish. And then it was all over and I was in the foyer. I hung around messing about on my phone just in case someone who was actually famous walked by but no.

Then Poly arrived and we headed off to our screenings (we had tickets in two different screens which start 15 mins apart).

It being a gala there was an odd mix of people milling around: press, glammed-up industry people and the everyday ordinary film-loving folk who'd bought a ticket, like me.

Then came the second surprise of the evening, well third if you count the free bottle of water and small chocolate bar each seat was furnished with. Just before the film started the artistic director of the festival arrived to say a few words, as is customary at a gala and then she introduced writer/director Lisa Cholondenko who said a few words. Then, and here was the really nice surprise bit, well it was for me as first-timer at a gala, she called up to the front a couple of her 'friends' one Ms Julianne Moore and Mr Mark Ruffalo who are in the film.

I'm not sure if they said anything because I was so busy scrabbling around in my bag for my iPhone to take a pic I missed most of their very brief appearance. The pic is below, cropped to buggery so you can make them out. You sort of can.

And then it was all over and time to watch the film.

 

#LFF The Kids Are Alright

This is a nice film. After the tensions of Brighton Rock, the emotion of Blue Valentine and the sheer Colin Firthness of The King's Speech it made a lovely contrast and great end to my first London Film Festival.

It's a comedy about a lesbian couple who've got two teenage kids, conceived using the same sperm donor.

Nic (Annette Bening) is a doctor, the bread winner and a bit of a control freak while Jules (Julianne Moore) bumbles from one business idea to the next now that the kids don't need a stay-at-home mum but they compliment each other and their partnership is strong.

That is of course until the apple cart is upset. Fifteen-year-old son Laser (Josh Hutcherson) wants to meet his biological father but is too young to arrange it. Sister Joni (Mia Waskowska) is eighteen and persuaded to make the call for him, her own curiousity sparked.

And so donor dad Paul (Mark Ruffalo) comes into their lives. He's a laid back restaurant owner who grows his own vegetables and rides a motorbike. He proves a hit with daughter Joni and soon wins over Laser too. Nic hates the interloper into her happy family and the influence he has over her children but tolerates him for their sake.

And Jules, well, Paul's arrival brings to a head some hidden tensions in her and Nic's relationship.

#LFF First mystery film experience: Brighton Rock

As a first-timer at the London Film Festival mystery film I was probably the most excited person in the auditorium at the Vue in Leicester Square. Still harbouring a faint notion that it might be The Tempest, even though most seasoned mystery-film goers I know had said it was highly unlikely, I settled down to wait for the film to start.

Some people prepare, do a bit of research into which companies have got films coming up for release. The order of the evening dictates that you get a chance to show off your detective skills.  Sandra Hebron, artistic director of the festival says a few words (there isn't a great deal she can say without mentioning the film, anyone in it or involved with it) and then asks the audience which film they think it might be.

Harry Potter was one suggestion which got rather a laugh and me transferring my faint hope away from The Tempest and onto my favourite boy wizard.

Then we were told that the film had been considered for the festival and would have been a gala screening, had it been shown and now we were getting to see its European premiere. Excitement goes through the audience.

The lights go down the curtains draw back and the credits roll. Various murmours go around the audience as the film makers details appear. It is a British Film because of the Film Council's and BBC's involvement, so that narrows it down. Fortunately the title Brighton Rock appears fairly early on to put us out of misery. Several people had suggested it and a collective cheer goes up.

It's definitely on my list so I cheered too. I've never seen the original Graham Greene/Terrence Rattigan penned film but I read Greene's book only a couple of years ago. And I have to say that in the main Rowan Joffe who directed and wrote the screenplay has done a pretty good job.

Of course things have been changed. It's been updated to 1964 when mods and rockers faced off  (cue some great shots of gangs of mods on scooters riding along the seafront) and the story and characters have naturally been slimmed down to make it a suitable film length.

The book opens with the line:

'Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him'

It creates a sinister undercurrent of violence that give the book its tension throughout. And Joffe has recreated that tension on the big screen. After the first violent scene, danger and threat never seems more that a moment away as Pinkie, determined to make it as gang leader and a name for himself, takes ever more extreme measures to cover up his crimes.

#LFF Another Year with director/cast Q&A

Didn't get tickets to the actual glitzy gala thingy in Leicester Square, with all the celebs, but in a marvellous innovation they decided to broadcast the event live to cinemas around the country. So instead I walked the 15 minutes to the very nice Clapham Picture House and sat with South West London's finest, with a very quaffable glass of cabernet sauvignon. (And rather than costing £35 it cost £6.5o with my PH membership, bit of a bonus there).

We didn't get the live coverage of the red carpet as promised but we did get the opening speeches and the cast and director Q&A afterwards.

But first the film. Now I like Mike Leigh's films. I like the ordinaryness of them but how he manages to turn that ordinaryness into something that is engaging and entertaining. It's not for everyone, I know but there is something quite profound in everday existence.

The story, as the name suggests, takes in a year in the lives of Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen). First up, Tom and Gerri are happily married. They work, Gerri as a counsellor and Tom as an engineer. They have a garden and an allotment. They have a son who is normal and well-adjusted. And they have good friends. They are normal.

There is no high drama in their lives but the piece explores differing attitudes towards life, the choices made and how they deal with what life throws at them.

It is superbly acted, as you might imagine with a cast that also includes the wonderful Lesley Manville as Gerri's friend Mary, Oliver Maltman as Tom's friend Joe and a cameo appearance from Imelda Staunton. And it is funny, sad, moving, frustrating and above all entertaining.

#LFF all stand for the King's Speech

Colin, Colin, Colin will you just stop it. After spending years in the rom-com wasteland you follow up the superb A Single Man with the fabulous King's Speech.

OK so its not heart-wrencher like A Single Man and a costume drama about a member of the royal family overcoming a terrible stammer isn't making a massive political statement but it is just done so well.

Firth does an excellent job of conveying King George VI's fear of public speaking and the humiliation he feels from his inability to adequately express himself.*

Indeed there is one particular scene when, shortly after becoming King, Edward VIII snidely teases his brother's stammer and George or Bertie as he was known by his family, can't verbally fight back, paralised by his speech impediment the pain is written all over his face.

It can't be easy getting an audience to empathise with someone who's had a very privileged life but he does by showing that if you strip away the pomp and ceremony and stiff upper lip there is just a scared man underneath.

#LFF Blue Valentine - hankies at the ready

My first ever London Film Festival film this afternoon. I felt like a kid who's been allowed to sit at the grown-ups' table - shame the grown ups can't all arrive on time but more about that at the end of the post.

So Blue Valentine is a subtle piece about young couple Cindy and Dean who's marriage seems to have gone cold.  It focuses on just two periods in their relationship - the beginning and the end, jumping between the two.

Over the course of the two hours you gradually learn where their relationship is rooted and how it got to be in its current state. 

But this isn't the cliched story of affairs or bad husbands/wives it's much more subtle than that and all the rawer for it. It's about choices you make early on in your life and whether you can live with them.

In the later relationship Cindy (a beautifully underplayed performance by Michelle Williams) is preoccupied and snappy while Dean (a mature performance by Ryan Gosling) goes about his normal routine goofing around with his young daughter. Both know there is something wrong but shy away from confronting it.

The script by Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne is sharply observed and the isolation Cindy and Dean ultimately feel is heightened by the fact that we are given no insight into how they really feel other than the little the say and how they behave towards each other.

And the #LFF ticket allocations are....

OK so I'm impatient. I called up the BFI to find out what tickets I'd got from the postal ballot rather than waiting until Oct 1 for the envelope to plop onto my door mat.

I wasn't holding out a lot of hope as @polyg had already found out that she'd only managed to get one ticket from all those she'd applied for - The King's Speech.

Of all those I'd applied for, The King's Speech is the one I'd chose over all the rest and...drum roll...I got a ticket too. Hurrah!

And I did manage to get one other ticket, for Blue Valentine, the Michelle Williams/Ryan Gosling film.

Shame I didn't get one of the gala's but still, not a bad start to my first ever London Film Festival

Fingers crossed for the London Film Festival ticket allocation

I've never gone to see anything at the London Film Festival before mainly because I found the choice too overwhelming. But this year I joined the BFI so I could do it and do it properly.

So I've scrutinised the brochure, well sections of it as it just to keep the level of choice down to something more manageable and chosen six films, mainly to keep the cost down. The opening and closing galas - Never Let Me Go and 127 Hours - are among the six but I'm not holding my breath. If I get just one of those it'll be amazing.

I've also applied for tickets for the Members Screening which I'm assured is always a good one.

And the remaining three?

Well there is Blue Valentine the new Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling film that looks like a refreshingly simple production for an American film.

Then there is The King's Speech. The presence of Colin Firth is enough to have me excited but there is also Oscar talk around this one and lets face it he was robbed by Jeff Bridges, probably, I haven't seen Crazy Heart.

Little Darcy-Firth impressed me so much in a Single Man than he'll have to do something pretty bad to stop me rushing to see him. And if Mr Firth wasn't enough, it's a costume drama and Queen of the costume's Helena Bonham Carter is also in it. I'm excited already.

And the third film is Black Swan which I was drawn to by Vincent Cassel who I loved, loved, loved in the Mesrine films. This one is set around the ballet but is a thriller which is just sounds, well, intriguing. It could be rubbish though but I hope not.

I may dip into one or two of the small foreign films nearer the time depending on what I get tickets for out of those I've already applied for.

I can barely take the wait.