November 5th
British Film Festival
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Finally we have a festival launching in cinemas. The always terrific British FF comes to a cinema near you. And for fans of Nic Cage there's a seriously weird streaming release that could possibly become a cult favorite.
British Film Festival
November 3rd until December 1 - Melbourne opening on November 5th
Palace Cinemas
Here we go with an in-cinema festival presenting top-class films from "the old country". Fans of Timothy Spall will be delighted to find him starring in three films, music lovers can catch a David Bowie biopic, and Clapton lovers will revel in his Lockdown Sessions. Favorite actors like Colin Firth, Olivia Coleman, Michael Caine and more are featured. There is also a retrospective of seven films from the seventies, including A Clockwork Orange and The Go-Between. I'm fortunate to have seen an excellent selection to recommend to you. All films are worthy contenders with my wholehearted recommendations being Boiling Point and Eric Clapton.
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© Brit FF - tensions simmer in
a high-end restaurant |
Boiling Point: With 10 nominations to its name, this fine film takes us to a high end restaurant, where chef Andy (Stephen Graham) and his staff are juggling preparations, table service, and tempers. This is truly a brilliant performance from Graham, and the entire cast; you feel like you are on the spot, in the kitchen, experiencing more tension than is bearable. The film is done in one extraordinary real-time shot, and captures Andy juggling personal and business dramas with his work, all exacerbated by demanding guests, an unexpected health inspector, and problems with staff and the restaurant manager. A thrilling, totally immersive film.
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© Brit FF - behind the scenes
in the bubbly industry |
Sparkling: The Story of Champagne Who doesn't love a glass of bubbly, and what's not to love about this charming doco featuring the great champagne houses of France? There's a bit of history of the delicious beverage, and informative interviews with winemakers of such great houses as Dom Perignon, Pommery, Pieper Heidsieck, and more. But the real surprise is the Brits now buying into the industry, marketing their sparkling white, and taking some top prizes, much to the chagrin of the French! And with climate change, there may be more forced collaborations between the two countries' industry - sacre bleu! This is effervescent viewing, light, lovely and fun.
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© Brit FF - age has not wearied him -
Clapton as good as ever |
Eric Clapton: Lockdown Sessions - When Clapton's concert at Albert Hall was cancelled due to the pandemic he headed to a gracious house in the beautiful English countryside, set up a studio, and made a recording with his small band of bass, drums and keyboards. Almost like a sequel to his Unplugged album, this is a session to delight Clapton fans and music lovers - a showcase for musicianship par excellence. The doco is also a lovely behind the scenes look at the guys and their long-standing relationship with each other, playing seamlessly together as if they can read each other's minds. Great to see the not-so-young at the top of their musical game. There are old favorites, some interesting covers and plenty I'd never heard - just an immersive total enjoyment.
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© Brit FF - the nightmare of
trench warfare |
The War Below: There's never a lack of films telling true World War 1 stories from yet another angle, this time, that of the coal-miners who were co-opted into the war effort. Their job was to tunnel from the Allied trenches under no-man's land, through to the German trenches and set off bombs. A solid, serviceable film, it pays homage to the unsung heroes whose efforts saved many lives.
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© Brit FF - this unusual film
features a great perf from Spall |
The Grand Duke of Corsica: Alfred Rott (Timothy Spall) is a renowned architect with a most cantankerous nature. He's commissioned to build a mausoleum by an eccentric man (Peter Stormare) living in Malta. At the same time a crew is there making a film set in the 1200s about St Francis curing a leper. Things get dire when a malaria epidemic hits. Spall is at his sour-faced, crude-mouthed best, Stormare is pretentious and histrionic as the self-appointed Grand Duke, and the whole film is peppered with philosophising and illness, all adding up to a rather perplexing but nevertheless intriguing and unusual movie experience. The whole epidemic theme is treacherously close to home!
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© Brit FF - insightful look at several generations
of family and creativity |
My Father and Me: Nick Broomfield is a famed documentary film-maker but here he turns the camera upon himself and his relationship with his father. Maurice Broomfield was a renowned photographer of industrial subject matter. Sounds potentially dull, but is anything but! The film shines a light upon Maurice's spectacularly impressive body of work, that's actually starkly beautiful. The doco also examines the family's relationships, and the creative differences between father and son. There are some lovely intimate moments and nostalgic old home films, along with an intriguing family history involving more cultural clashes between members of the extended family, some from Europe and others who were dyed-in-the-wool Brits.
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Dir: Sion Sono
Length: 100 mins
Streaming on major platforms
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© Umbrella - what a mash up
of genres. Cage at his craziest |
After Nicolas Cage's fine turn in the recent Pig, he's back, as mad as he ever was. The Japanese director has made a "weird science fiction horror action crime film", the plot of which totally eludes me, but seems like a mash-up of samurai, western and sci-fi genres. Cage is a criminal, sent out by "the governor" (a creepy old dude in a Texas style outfit) to rescue his daughter (Sophia Boutella) from the Ghostland, which looks like a place out of a Mad Max movie. Suffice to say, this will possibly become a cult movie - a wild action ride and some seriously well-crafted scenes in terms of settings. 2.5 - maybe - for Cage fans, definitely
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