Saturday 16 October 2010

London Film Festival

The LFF is upon us. Day 3 of the Festival and no casualties. Phew!

I'll only be working at the BFI HQ as my being unable to be on my feet for more than a few minutes made me a very bad candidate for external venues like the VUE in Leicester Square. So I won't be seeing much of the glamour and razzle dazzle normally offered by the West End galas and red carpets, which is a shame, but at least I am catching one film I have been looking forward to for some time which we are presenting in the West End... that is Meek's Cutoff. One good reason to see it is Bruce Greenwood, an amazing Canadian actor who has under his belt films like Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter by Atom Egoyan (one of my favourite films now, since I got so much into the story I watched it probably 20 times in a month), the latest Star Trek movie directed by J.J. Abrams, I'm Not There, Thirteen Days and, always worth mentioning, he was  also the protagonist of a great TV series of the mid 90's called Nowhere Man. I have a thing for character actors, I like to see their craft at work. Maybe it's all in the eye of the beholder, but I am convinced that they are much more honest toward the characters they play than leading actors, who come into the picture (quite literally) as themselves wearing someone else's clothes and not much more. Greenwood is a wonderful character actor who has played an array of parts through the years, roles as diverse as cute romantic leads, cold hearted execs, doting fathers, good guys, bad guys and presidents of the USA. In Meek's Cutoff he plays a guide who leads a bunch of settlers across the desert to their camp, but somehow gets lost on the way. It promises to be an unusual Western. For as much as I love Spaghetti Westerns and derivatives, I am really really looking forward to a more introspective film about those pioneers and desperate people who crossed the savage and dangerous lands of the West in the hope to make a better life for themselves and their families.

So far I haven't managed to catch any film yet, I did however attend a "talk" with Mark Romanek who directed also a favourite of mine One Hour Photo. He presents at the LFF his new feature Never Let Me Go. I won't be able to catch this one until it's out for general release, but I am looking forward to it. The talk last night was really interesting. Romanek is the director behind a whole bunch of amazing music videos and commercials including the famous dancing iPod silhouettes. He looked like a very down to earth and most importantly passionate director, so thumbs up for him. I hope to see Never Let Me Go soon as they showed a clip from the film during the interview and that alone gave me chills.
That's all for today
Nanoo Nanoo

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