{"id":35161,"date":"2024-10-04T19:36:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T18:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/?p=35161"},"modified":"2024-10-04T22:04:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T21:04:01","slug":"lights-camera-london-the-bfi-london-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/lights-camera-london-the-bfi-london-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Lights, Camera, London: The BFI London Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A scene from the restored version of The Golden Pince-Nez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The festival will open with <\/span>Steve McQueen\u2019s \u201cBlitz,\u201d<\/span> a film about London life in a moment of <\/span>World War II<\/span>, accompanied by a score from <\/span>Hans Zimmer<\/span>. In a UK first, special and gala screenings will feature the winners of <\/span>Europe’s<\/span> top three festivals: <\/span>Sean Baker\u2019s \u201cAnora\u201d<\/span> (Cannes Palme d’Or), <\/span>Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s \u201cThe Room Next Door\u201d<\/span> (Golden Lion at Venice), and <\/span>Mati Diop\u2019s \u201cDahomey\u201d<\/span> (Golden Bear at Berlinale), a documentary chronicling the resonant return of African treasures from France to Benin. The festival will also present other notable highlights from the 2024 season, such as <\/span>Pablo Larra\u00edn\u2019s \u201cMaria,\u201d<\/span> <\/span>Luca Guadagnino\u2019s \u201cQueer\u201d<\/span> starring <\/span>Daniel Craig<\/span>, <\/span>Andrea Arnold\u2019s \u201cBird,\u201d<\/span> <\/span>Jacques Audiard\u2019s \u201cEmilia Perez,\u201d<\/span> and <\/span>\u201cThe Harvest\u201d<\/span> by <\/span>Athina Rachel Tsangari<\/span>, a key figure in the <\/span>Greek Weird Wave<\/span> movement.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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Still from Blitz by Steve McQueen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the official competition, eleven films have been selected. Among the standouts are <\/span>Dea Kulumbegashvili\u2019s \u201cApril\u201d<\/span>(the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival), which portrays the life of an obstetrician within rural <\/span>Georgia\u2019s<\/span>patriarchal society, and <\/span>Maura Delpero\u2019s \u201cVermiglio,\u201d<\/span> also set in a mountainous region, but in Italy. Other notable entries include <\/span>\u201cThe Extraordinary Miss Flower,\u201d<\/span> a film-performance from the creators of \u201c20,000 Days on Earth,\u201d and Irish filmmaker <\/span>Darren Thornton\u2019s comedy-drama \u201cFour Mothers\u201d<\/span> about a writer\u2019s weekend caring for four elderly ladies\u2014an adaptation of <\/span>Gianni Di Gregorio\u2019s<\/span> script <\/span>\u201cMid-August Lunch,\u201d<\/span> the winner of the 2008 program.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Still from The Extraordinary Miss Flower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with last year, the rest of the <\/span>BFI London Film Festival\u2019s<\/span> program is organized into thematic strands: <\/span>Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family, Shorts, and Treasures<\/span>. The <\/span>\u201cDebate\u201d<\/span> section spotlights <\/span>\u201cInvasion,\u201d<\/span> a new project by Ukraine\u2019s preeminent documentarian <\/span>Sergei Loznitsa<\/span>. This national portrait set against the backdrop of war serves as a natural progression from his 2014 work <\/span>\u201cMaidan.\u201d<\/span> <\/span>Asif Kapadia’s “2078”<\/span>offers a somber reflection on humanity’s present and potential future, reminiscent of <\/span>Chris Marker\u2019s<\/span> style. Also featured in the <\/span>\u201cDebate\u201d<\/span> strand is the monumental documentary <\/span>\u201cIsrael Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989,\u201d<\/span> which reexamines the history of the Middle East conflict through the lens of <\/span>Swedish television<\/span> reportage.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Still from 2073 by Asif Kapadia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the <\/span>\u201cJourney\u201d<\/span> section, renowned documentarian <\/span>Joshua Oppenheimer<\/span> will present his fiction debut <\/span>\u201cThe End,\u201d<\/span>starring <\/span>Tilda Swinton<\/span> and <\/span>Michael Shannon<\/span>. This post-apocalyptic musical follows the last surviving family on Earth, whose sheltered existence in a lavish bunker is upended by an unexpected visitor. <\/span>Oppenheimer<\/span> collaborated with <\/span>Mikhail Krichman<\/span>, <\/span>Andrey Zvyagintsev’s<\/span> regular cinematographer, to bring this vision to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tilda Swinton in The End by Joshua Oppenheimer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Viewers will also see the first film in six years by the esteemed British filmmaker <\/span>Mike Leigh<\/span>. Based on recent reviews from the Toronto Film Festival, <\/span>\u201cHard Truths\u201d<\/span> is a tragicomedy typical of <\/span>Leigh<\/span>, exploring the vulnerabilities and resilience of the ordinary person in modern society. The film stars <\/span>Marianne Jean-Baptiste<\/span>, who previously delivered a powerful performance in <\/span>Leigh’s<\/span> seminal work <\/span>\u201cSecrets & Lies,\u201d<\/span> which won both the <\/span>Palme d’Or<\/span> and the <\/span>Best Actress Award<\/span> at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths by Mike Leigh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A documentary exploring the world of witchcraft, rare footage from John Lennon’s personal archive featuring his first and only full-scale concert with Yoko Ono in New York, and a restored version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s preferred adaptation of Sherlock Holmes\u2014these pictures and a diverse array of other cinematic works will be shown at the London Film Festival from October 9 to 20. The festival\u2019s comprehensive program boasts 255 projects, including short films and digital creations, spanning 80 countries and 64 languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":35162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"type_post":[184],"column":[],"class_list":["post-35161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35161"},{"taxonomy":"type_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_post?post=35161"},{"taxonomy":"column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/column?post=35161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}