BFI’s London Film Festival is one of the highlights of my year. I never have the time to see everything I want to so I spend a lot of time prioritising and planning my week. In the past few years I’ve seen La La Land, The Favourite, Roma and The Shape of Water months before their UK general release, which makes me happy as an instant gratification, don’t want to wait kinda gal. Also, festival audiences are also much more amendable than the lot at my local cinema - no chatting through the film, no checking phones every ten minutes and I always enjoy giving a good film a round of applause at the end.
Anyway, the films.
The opening gala this year was The Personal History of David Copperfield. Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, it is an utter delight. Sharp, hilarious, moving and contemporary, with an amazing ensemble cast. It is impossible to pick out any one performance but Tilda Swinton is a joy and Dev Patel has unfeasible amounts of charisma.
The Personal History of David Copperfield is on general release in January 2020.
My love for Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor Ragnarok) knows no bounds but I was wary of his latest film Jojo Rabbit. A comedy about a boy in Nazi Germany whose imaginary friend is Hitler? Eek. But I should have had faith - Jojo Rabbit walks a fine line tonally between humour and pathos and I loved it, although I would say it is probably quite a ‘marmite’ film.
Jojo Rabbit is on general release in January 2020.
Marriage Story is a beautiful funny and moving divorce love story starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. It is both hilarious and heart-breaking, the script is precise and empathetic, and both the leads are captivating.
Marriage Story is on general release and on Netflix in December 2019.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a quiet and beautiful film by Celine Sciamma about an 18th century female artist who falls in love with her sitter, which had a great reception and wonderful reviews when it was shown at Cannes earlier this year. Appropriately for a film exploring the female gaze, I enjoyed looking at it but didn’t entirely connect with it emotionally.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is on general release in February 2020.
And finally, to my favourite film of the festival, and I think of the year. Knives Out is a wonderful contemporary ‘whodunnit’ with a razor sharp script and a fabulous ensemble cast which includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Jamie Lee Curtis. It is hilarious, smart, subtly satirical and its twists and turns are incredibly satisfying. Director Rian Johnson has reinterpreted the Agatha Christie style murder mystery for 2019 and I loved every second of it.
Knives Out is on general release in November 2019.