58th London Film Festival: 8-19 October 2014

Having missed last year's Festival completely, we possibly saw one or two more films this year than
we would usually do.   The basic criterion remained - avoid films probably having a full release here.
Our first film on 9 October was 'Black Coal, Thin Ice', a Chinese murder mystery.   Body parts have
been found in a number of widespread locations leaving the police baffled;  one lead results in a
shoot-out leaving the lead character injured and a journey through a road tunnel elides to the present
day of the film where he is now a security guard.   The murders start up again and suspicion falls on
a widowed laundry worker whom the detective befriends even though she is not that attractive and
he is an unprepossessing heavy drinker.   Rather slow-moving but with some fine atmospheric shots
and a strong leading cast, unappealing though they area.
Next came 'French Riviera' on 11 October.   Based on a real-life event from the 1970s, it has Catherine Deneuve as a casino owner which she inherits on her husband's death, Guillaume Canet as
the lawyer she employs though they fall out when she does not appoint him as her general manager.
He has been going out with her recently divorced daughter, Adele Haenel, whom he then marries.
The daughter then vanishes but only after she has given her husband an irrevocable power of attorney
which allow him to force the sale of the now failing casino to her main, and shady, rival.   Deneueve
is convinced that he has murdered her daughter but has no proof.   Time passes and Canet goes to
live in Panama but 20 years later, Deneuve is able to get him accused of the murder.   He returns
willingly to clear his name which he does though, on a later appeal, he is finally convicted.   The
director, Andre Techine, has a glossy style which is well in evidence here with the naturally scenic
surroundings though the varying interplay between the three main leads does provide the meat - and
rather slowly cooked.
'Cub' on 14 October tells of a camping trip by a small troop whose expected site has been appropriated by two local louts so they end up deep in the woods.   The action centres around one of
the cubs who is something of an outcast.   On  their second day, their camp is ransacked and the local
gendarme is called in but finds nothing.   Meanwhile, our outcast cub has found a strange structure up
in the trees which he investigates to find many of the missing items and a wild incoherent young man
who had obviously taken them.   That night they are attacked by a man and mayhem occurs with most of the troop being killed.   On reflection, a muddled and rather unlikely sequence of events.
'The World of Kanako' finds a fired cop trying to work out what has happened to his daughter, the
Kanako of the title who seems to be a very attractive, polite model student.   The almost cartoon-
like efforts of the father to find out what happened with various youths being beaten up and then
returning the favour are intercut with what actually was happening.   Far from being a victim, the
daughter was the victimiser.   Flashy and not very good.
'Why Be Good' from 1929 was the first Colleen Moore film I have knowingly seen.   Very typical
of the time with a threadbare story and hammy acting, it is a curiosity and not the wonderful film
that the BFI curator responsible for the restoration claimed, as she would have to do.
'3 Hearts' directed by Benoit Jacquot has Benoit Poelvoorde as a tax inspector whomisses his train home.   He bumps into Charlotte Gainsbourg and, overnight, they fall in love arranging to meet in Paris a few days later but, following an odd scene between him and two Chinese who have no French, he gets to the rendezvous too late.   Gainsbourg, distressed, then goes off to the USA with
her boyfriends whom she had effectively dumped a day or so earlier.   This leaves her sister, played
by Chiara Mastroanni, to run their antique shop on her own.   Lo and behold, who should turn up at
the local tax office offering to help - Poelvoorde.   They get engaged and marry with, this time,
Gainsbourg, arriving too late and thus not seeing the groom.   Some years pass but she then comes
back again for her mother's (Catherine Deneuve) 60th and her 40th birthdaycelebrations where she
does at last discover that Poelvoorde has married her sister.   They keep quiet about it at first but the
attraction is still there and they have a surreptitious affair but everything comes apart with no one
ending up happy.
'The White-Haired With of the Lunar Kingdom' is a remaking of a classic Chinese novel which has
previously been made as 'The Bride with White Hair'.   Brilliant fight scenes recall the days of the
classic Hong Kong historical masterpieces and the films stands up well to the comparison with fine
performances in particular from the two female leads.   A change from the earlier films which were
very much studio based and limited to the territory of Hong Kong is the use of some magnificent
Chinese scenery as backdrop.  

Stross, Charles: Wireless

A collection of stories, some novella length, by an author whose novels featuring Bob Howard and his fights against the supernatural I have enjoyed and commented on previously.   The nature of the
stories is varied.   All are well written and I found most of them entertaining, especially the one with
another adventure of Bob Howard.   The P.G. Wodehouse science fiction did not really work for me
and "Palimpsest', the final and longest item in the collection, left me baffled - mind you, that is not
difficult to do as any formal scientific education finished some 60 years ago.

Carroll, Jonathan: White Apples

The main character is a philanderer who has died and come back to life.   He has an affair with a lovely shopkeeper who has the name of a dead colleague of his tattooed on the back of her neck.
He stops seeing her when the love of his life returns after their having argued over a trivial matter
some time earlier.   The novel continues with the two of them keeping ahead of Death which, or should it be who, wants to reclaim him.   A number of scenes are captivating - his seeing his parents
naked watching a dog and a deer play in a field outside the inn where they are staying, possibly on the
night he was conceived; his girlfriend spending time with her dead grandmother.   She, it turns out, is
the one who brought him back from the dead to be a father to their child which she is carrying.   I did
not quite follow the whys and wherefores of this even though the clarity of Carroll's writing is exemplary even at its most poetic.

Frightfest 2014: Monday 25 August

Alleluia is a Belgian take on 'The Honeymoon Killers' which had so little impact on me that I do not
now remember anything about it.
Nymph has some friends on holiday going to explore an abandoned military fortress on a nearby
uninhabited island.   There they find a Siren which leads to most of them being killed either by the
Siren or by a local fisherman who looks after it.   A second fisherman, played by Franco Nero, is
actually trying to avenge his son's death and succeeds in killing the Siren in the local harbour but
the ending shows more of them coming to wreak havoc on the community.   Attractive cast and
reasonably well done.
Extraterrestrial has a man and woman waking up together after a drunken one-night stand to
discover they are all but alone apart from a creepy neighbour who is infatuated with the woman.
Played out as a comedy, this was probably the most enjoyable of the ones we saw.
My overall reaction to the weekend was that it was rather less scary and more mainstream than
usual though this may reflect our choice rather than the full offering.   None of the ones we saw
stood out that much; while a review nearer the time of viewing might have varied in detail, I
think my summary of each day reflects a certain disappointment at our selection.

Frightfest 2014: Sunday 24 August

Faults is an unmemorable film about cult possession and the attempts to de-programme Mary
Elizabeth Winstead which has as its twist the corruption of the deprogrammer.   No comment.
The Samurai A German policeman takes a misdelivered package to an isolated cottage whose
occupant shows him the ancient samurai sword it contains.   The film then becomes a fight between
the policeman and the sword holder with the latter chased through the village where he kills a lot
of people before himself being killed by the policemen.   Quite an enjoyable romp.
Open Windows stars Elijah Wood who is in Austin, Texas, to receive an award which does not
happen as it is a hoax.   With elaborate use of modern technology - computers, tablets, smart phones
and the like - what follows is a high-speed chase with Wood tasked with saving Sasha Grey, playing
the movie star who was to have given him the award.   I do not much care for split-screen effects but
they were effectively done and the end result was moderately successful.

Frightfest 2014: Saturday 23 August 2014

The Harvest has a fine central performance by Samantha Morton who is trying to find a cure for a
dying son.   The film is seen through the eyes of a girl who has moved into the neighbouring house
whose curiosity leads her to find a house-bound youngster whom she befriends until warned off by
Morton.   She does not stop and eventually discovers a cellar and the secret it contains, Morton's
actual child.   The denouement is rather hurried but, as one would expect, youth comes out on top.
Starry Eyes is possibly meant as a satire on the film industry.   The lead actress is always going to
auditions without success while holding down a job in a fast food diner until she is offered a lead
role in a new film which involves her becoming involved in a cult.   Although at first repulsed, she
 acquiesces to the demands made of her with the final frame showing her transformed from a pretty
girl to a voluptuous beauty.   Tedious.
Life After Beth sees a young man devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth.   Her
father, played by John C Reilly, consoles him and he seems to spend more time with him than with
his own family until one day he is refused entry to the house - because his girlfriend has come back
to life.   She does, however, start to pong and behave oddly, not surprisingly as she is a zombie.
Very mildly amusing.

Frightfest 2014: Friday 22 August

Rather later than I had hoped, I am dealing with the films we saw at Frightfest this year.   Unlike
previous years, we did not buy a complete pass but saw only films selected in advance so it's our
own fault if we did not like them!
Late Phases tells of a blind war veteran moving into a gated retirement community where his
abrasive personality does not go down too well.   A series of deadly attacks go unsolved but he
becomes involved and uses his skills to kill what turn out to be werewolves though himself
dying.   Excellent central performance by Nick Damici does not outweigh the rather pedestrian
development of the rather hackneyed plot even with the unusual setting.
R100 is a Japanese wierdo of a film with a bored salaryman joining a club which promises
adventure, the only catch being that he cannot resign for a year.   He is then attacked by a
number of attractive females, dressed in fetish costumes, who periodically beat him up which
he seems to enjoy.  An uninspiring oddity.