This year’s London Film Festival spoiled the audience with a great amount of Asian films including a few from South Korea. Apart from subtle drama Nobody’s Daughter Haewon by Hong Sang-soo and the comedy of manners Our Sunhi by the same filmmaker, it’s time to mention Lebanon Emotion by Jung Young-heon, a first-time director, whose…
Category: London Film Festival
The 57th BFI London Film Festival: Nobody’s Daughter Haewon
Nobody’s Daughter Haewon written and directed by South Korean Hong Sang-Soo, tells the story of the enigmatic, eye-catching film student and aspiring actress Haewon ( superb performance by Jung Eun- Chae), who easily attracts men and makes fellow female colleagues jealous. The narrative is told in a diary format and chronicles a few days in Haewon’s life. Haewon’s…
The 57th BFI London Film Festival: Ida
Born in Poland, Pawel Pawlikoski (My Summer of Love, The Woman in the Fifth) has come back to his native country after years of voluntary emigration and has immediately presented us with an intimate black and white drama Ida, which takes place at the beginning of 1960s. Anna, also known as Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska’s film…
The 57th BFI London Film Festival: Bertolucci on Bertolucci
“Cinema is the mirror of the world” Bertolucci once said. And it sure is in the Italian director’s eyes. Born in 1940, son of the critically acclaimed poet Attilio Bertolucci, he entered adulthood in the 60s. In 1968, he was 27 years old and, according to him, that time was a great experience for him…
Silver Linings Playbook Review
Silver Linings Playbook written and directed by David O Russell is based on an incredible novel by Matthew Quick. The film had its world premiere at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival and it is a story of former teacher Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper: The Hangover, Limitless), who has a bipolar disorder and is admitted…
The 50th Anniversary of Lawrence of Arabia
After the huge commercial and artistic success of ‘ The Bridge on the River Kwai ‘, director David Lean began his extraordinary journey towards making another epic feature film. This time the Brit moved from the Indochina jungle to the Saudi Arabian desert and the Second World War turned into the First World War….
Imagine Review
“A blind person should always walk using a white stick”. This phrase appears several times in the latest film by Andrzej Jakimowski (Tricks) ’Imagine’. Ian (Edward Hogg: Anonymous), a blind English teacher, comes to Lisbon. He wishes to teach visually impaired children and young people. At the clinic, which is located in the building of…
56th BFI London Film Festival: Horses Of God ( Les Chevaux de Dieu) Review
Nabil Ayouch’s ‘Les Chevaux De Dieu’ (Horses of God) was described by The Hollywood Reporter as an ‘intimate portrait of boys growing up in a toxic environment’. Written by Jamal Belmahi, Horses of God is based on a book about the five simultaneous explosions in Casablanca in 2003, and “uses current events — the…
56th BFI London Film Festival: The Hunt Review
Thomas Vinterberg’s (Festen) latest film The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, A Royal Affair), is set in a small community during the period of three months. In this town we see the full extent one lie has in destroying an innocent man’s life. Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a nursery teacher who is just getting back…
56th BFI London Film Festival: Zaytoun Review
After directing Lemon Tree and The Syrian Bride, Eran Riklis decided on making another film, setting its action in the Middle East again. Zaytoun is a story of an unlikely road trip and, against all odds, friendship between an Israeli pilot and a Palestinian boy. 1982 Lebanon, as the tension between Israel and Lebanon grows (6 June 1982 Israeli Defense Forces invaded, already…
56th BFI London Film Festival: West of Memphis Review
West of Memphis is a new documentary from American filmmaker Amy J. Berg and produced by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Damien Echols. The film focuses on three men – Damien Echols (sentenced to death), Jessie Misskelley, Jr. (sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20- year sentences), and Jason Baldwin (sentenced to life imprisonment) who were wrongly…
56th BFI London Film Festival: In Conversation with Jeremy Teicher
Jeremy Teicher is a young director whose short film This Is Us was nominated for a 2011 Student Academy Award. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2010 where he studied Film, English and Theater. He recently completed his first feature film called Tall as the Baobab Tree, which will have its European Premiere at the…
56th BFI London Film Festival: Tall as the Baobab Tree Review
After seeing some films that focus on Africa and its affairs – War/Dance, Return to Africa’s Witch Children and The Great African Scandal, I was longing to watch a film that wasn’t a documentary and one that would address a different issue than child soldiers or corruption. I was very excited when I got a…
55th BFI London Film Festival: A Dangerous Method Review
Freud and Jung undoubtedly have gone down in history for their work on psychoanalysis. Their ideas and biographies have kindled the imagination of not only the researchers from different disciplines, but also ordinary people. This is evident through David Cornenberg’s (The Fly, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) new film ‘A Dangerous Method’. The Swiss…
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