LFF 2006 - Great cowboy, crap eskimo

Okay, time to catch up on all those film festivals I've been to recently. Tonight, it's my brief (and first ever) visit to the London Film Festival (which was celebrating its 50th this year). Not bad, I'm only running a month behind schedule.

Flying down on Saturday morning, I managed to time it to such perfection (or to put it another way, I was very lucky that my cavalier planning paid off) and made it to the cinema (Odeon West End on Leicester Square) with fifteen minutes to spare before my first screening.

And what was that first screening, I hear you ask? Well, I don't hear you at all obviously, such is the isolated nature of internet communication but you know what I mean.

It was a brand new restored print of classic fifties western THE BIG COUNTRY. Pretty famous film certainly, but not one I'd ever seen (my favourite westerns are usually more obscure and nine times out of ten are Italian). I'm kind of glad I'd missed out on it all these years because to have seen it in any other format for the first time would have been criminal.

The title music by Jerome Moross is world famous and deservedly so; the photography is stunning and makes full use of the widescreen format. It was just amazing.

But the best aspect of it all for me was Gregory Peck. I don't know if you know what the film's about but, to cut a long story short, a great deal of it concerns Peck's pacifistic view of life and his refusal to fight people when they want a fight or to rise to the abuse he receives when being branded a coward for his actions. The character is just the coolest, most heroic man I've ever seen on screen, and anchors the film as not just a great western but a great anti-war movie, a sentiment that will always be relevant somewhere in the world.

A brief stroll across the Thames (not literally - I used a bridge) took me to the British Film Institute, where I have been before, and in particular to the National Film Theatre (where I haven't). My first film in this cinema was another newly-restored print, this time being the UCLA's preservation of classic film noir THE BIG COMBO.

I don't consider this to be the best noir I've seen - it wouldn't even make my top ten - but it does have all the ingredients you want from one and is certainly still a fine example of the genre, and the work done by the UCLA in preserving it deserves high praise.

If there's one thing I took from THE BIG COMBO, it's the remarkable relationship between two minor hoods in the film (one of whom is played by future spaghetti western stalwart Lee Van Cleef), who are clearly supposed to be lovers, before such things were deemed acceptable in Hollywood. I won't list all the clues here, but the biggest laugh of the film was undoubtedly when the two men are hidden away together, obviously rather edgy, and LVC offers his companion something to eat - only to be met with the response "I can't swallow any more salami!"

Or maybe the audience I was with just have a dirty mind and it's all entirely innocent. I seriously doubt it.

It was back the NFT again shortly after that for a premiere of African film BAMAKO. In this film, a trial takes place in a poor African town, in which the global corporations of the western world are taken to task over their treatment of Africa.

The film obviously employs non-professional actors and while it's true that their performances spring passionately to life during the court scenes, the film becomes flat when it moves back to the domestic lives of the participants, when the limitations of the actors become obvious.

This film was followed by a special panel discussing the current emergence of Africa on film, and I did pick up a ticket for the event (free when you bought one for BAMAKO). Unfortunately, due to the late running of BAMAKO, the fact that I was starving and the exceptionally slow service in the NFT restaurant when I decided I needed food, I abandoned my plans to attend the event. I'm sure it was very interesting though.

Sunday's films began with THE U.S. VS JOHN LENNON, back in the Odeon again, which I mentioned last week. A fascinating portrait of a star, showing a rarely seen side of him that really wins you over - against the sinister machinations of Nixon and friends on the other side of the political divide. One of the best documentaries of this year in my humble opinion and it gets released here in the UK in a few weeks. Go and see it.

I was due to attend LIVES OF THE SAINTS after this film, but it was at the Rio cinema, some way out of central London and I decided that I was struggling to get out there in time and would probably not make it back in time for my next film, so once again I abandoned this one. I admit I could probably have planned that one better but what can I say, London's a bit bigger than I remember it being...

So it was back to the NFT again for FRAULEIN, a touching tale of Serb immigrants in Switzerland and how one youngster impacts on the life of an older compatriot, and vice versa. It certainly can't be described as a happy movie but it's an accomplished and memorable work. No idea if its been picked up for distribution in this country yet, but I'm sure it'll be well received if it is.

Back to the Odeon again, and Sunday night finished with the premiere of RED ROAD, the first feature film from Oscar-winner Andrea Arnold. It had much to live up to, having bagged a major prize at Cannes, but it more than equalled the hype (and has since swept the boards at the Scottish BAFTAs).

Kate Dickie plays a CCTV operator whose life is turned upside down when she sees on one camera a man she hoped never to see again. An obsession develops and you can't help but be reeled in, desperate to find out what he did, why she's so affected by it and what she's doing in response to it. It's a slowburner but well worth every minute of it - Arnold somehow manages to capture the grim and gritty side of a run down Glaswegian estate while still retaining a cinematic look to the film, and the performances are uniformly excellent from all involved.

It won't be to everyone's taste (there are a couple of moments of violence, a lot of very strong language and a pretty explicit scene towards the end that is integral to the plot) but it should be seen. It'd be a great film anyway, but from a purely parochial view it's great to see a Scottish film this good - they don't happen very often.

The last film I saw, on Monday morning, was THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN, a documentary-style drama about how a European explorer introduced Christianity to the Innuits and destroyed their belief system. It's filmed in a fly-on-the-wall style that simply doesn't work; I try not to use the word when describing films but I'm afraid "boring" is the best fit I can think of. The ending is haunting but it was too much of a chore to get there. Avoid.

And that was all. A couple of observations on London cinemas to finish.

First of all, the layout of NFT1 and OWE2. If you end up with seats at either side, it's not the most comfortable as the auditorium in both instances is rather too curved for my liking - unfortunately getting there early doesn't help, as an allocated seat system was in operation. There's no doubting the quality of the NFT's facilities but I still prefer my own favourite cinemas in Edinburgh (links on the right hand side of the main Freakpit page).

The other issue is that it ain't cheap. That's not just the festival though - in fact, compared to average London cinema prices, the festival isn't too bad - but cinemagoing in London will really make you think the next time you're grumbling about paying too much for a cinema ticket. The average price for a popular screening would seem to be about three times the price of its Edinburgh equivalent. Ouch.

Coming soon... Horrorthon 2006, Dublin!