Virgin Student London Film Festival 2006 ...from someone who survived the London Film Festival 2006 The London Films Festival- hard work! Well I am certainly exhausted- I am suffering from London Film Festival fatigue. Sitting in darkened rooms solidly for three weeks can do things to a girl! I had to put up with the projector breaking down in an obscure east-end cinema. And yes, I nearly had an altercation with Kirstin Dunst when she rudely stood in my way while I was trying to purchase a well-earned bag of penny sweets (“Miss Dunst I don’t care if this is your premiere and you are posing for photographers in your glad-rags- I need a sugar fix after a heavy session of Danish cinema!…”). Although the task of watching films back-to-back wasn't all bad, especially when I got to see some pretty tremendous ones make their debut in London. I have picked out some real beauties to whet your appetite and give you something to look forward in 2006. One bad-ass country singer. Walk The Line, the biopic on Johnny Cash, is an astounding piece of filmmaking. Even if you’re not a Cash fan I defy you not to be taken up with Joaquin Phoenix’s performance. It is made even more Oscar- worthy knowing that he sings every note of Cash’s songs in the film. The tale of Cash’s life from the hardened childhood as a sharecropper’s son to a drug-addicted star is told with conviction (but without smaltzy American sentiment). The film concentrates on how Cash, a contemplative, troubled soul, always in touch with his darker side, overcame self-destructive behaviour through his love of a good woman. June Carter (played convincingly by Reese Witherspoon) was the lady in question, a country singer in her own right, who encouraged him to contain this deep- rooted self-destruction in his songs. We have her to thank for giving him enough courage to write songs (superbly performed by Phoenix and Witherspoon) which are capable of containing pathos, humour and grit in just one line. The film never tries to tug at the heartstrings but plays on the dramatic tension between Cash’s demons (drugs, insecurity) and his tools of redemption (June and his music). Phoenix creates an effective impression of a man with an awkward gait who was a rather quiet, modest, vulnerable but edgily talented individual. This is refreshing to see in this time of loud, garish celebrities. Released: 3rd February American losers. Lonesome Jim is a rather laid-back but undeniably likeable effort by Steve (Mr Pink in “Resevoir Dogs”) Buscemi. This tells the story of a Jim (played by Ben Affleck’s little brother Casey) who returns to his very sedate hometown in the rural Midwest, depressed about his life as an unsuccessful dog walker in New York. Jim’s rather gloomy outlook on life becomes slightly less gloomy when he embarks on an affair with a kind nurse (played by the lovely Liv Tyler), and is reluctantly pushed into coaching a little girls’ basketball team. Like Buscemi’s “Tree Lounge”, it is slow-paced and has a deadpan humour, and most strikingly smacks of authenticity. This is probably due to it being filmed in the scriptwriter, James C Strouse’s, actual hometown in Indiana; a place where the only three bars in town are imaginatively named called ‘Riki I’, ‘Riki II’ and ‘Riki III’ (a fact we learn when Jim attempts a bar crawl). Setting Jim’s parent’s home in Strouse’s actual parent’s house makes this impossible to ignore the fact that it is partly inspired by the scriptwriters’ life. Buscemi let it be known that they had the read-through in front of Strouse’s parents, in the living room where he grew up - an excruciatingly uncomfortable situation when lines like “maybe some people shouldn’t be parents” are being said! This is a special film because though it took only 18 days to make, and is filmed on Mini DV, it beats the socks off big budget and overly ambitious films, through its wry sense of humour and beautiful observations. It proves that if your performances are excellent and you pick a subject like small–town America, which is absurd in itself, you really can keep it simple. Death the Ozon Way. Any film that deals with the terminally ill is sad but Time to Leave made me sadder. Not in the slushy kind of way but in the fact François Ozon, director of 5x2 and probably the best in France at the moment, chose to portray the demise of a rather vicious and cruel character. Romain (played by a very believable Melvil Poupaud), is a good looking fashion photographer, who when told he only has months to live, chooses only to tell his grandma (played by Nouvelle Vague legend Jeanne Moreau) for no better reason than he figures she does not have long to go either. His obnoxious side does not become sullied by the prospect of death. Instead he deals with death the best way he knows how, which includes pushing his family away, dumping his boyfriend, having threesomes with couples who work in motorway cafes and generally maintaining his sense of warped values. Through out he insists, "I am not a nice person". It disturbs our notion that people ravaged by illness and close to death become moral, humble and pure beings. Romain is a person with so many unsavoury thoughts bubbling in his head (he keeps dreaming about sleeping with members of his own family), which are at such odds with the image of a dying martyr, but is somebody an audience of flawed human beings can relate to. It almost feels too personal to watch and it makes sense to know that it was partially inspired by Ozon facing his own fear of death when he had to wait for some important medical tests. This is a powerful film but very distressing. The last scene where he spends the day on a family beach, his pathetically thin body (Melvil Poupard's body disintegrates before our eyes) amongst young, plump, lively forms of children, is devastating. Do not see… Proof (Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins) Self-indulgent film about white, middle- class, high achieving intellectuals with problems. Shopgirl The thought of Steve Martin and Claire Danes sleeping with each other is just creepy.		Next article >