Less than a month to go until opening night and we look ahead at the actors and filmmakers who will make two outings at this year’s BFI London Film Festival.
Weisz bookending: Rachel Weisz is on a high as she kicks off the 55th BFI London Film Festival with Fernando Meirelles ensemble opus 360 and bids us ta ta with Terrence Davies adaptation of THE DEEP BLUE SEA. Both films take a look at the choices we have in relationships: from clipped 1930s London the metropolitan mainstay of now.
Tipped for Oscar gold, Michael Fassbender does the rounds as Sigmund Freud in A DANGEROUS METHOD and as self-destructive sex addict in Steve McQueen hotly anticipated SHAME. Flanked by Brit belles du jours, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan respectively (pictured right), Fassbender is not shy to praise his ‘wonderful, beautiful’ co-stars.
There’s plenty George Clooney to go around at this year’s festival as hapless Dad in family drama, THE DESCENDANTS from the director of SIDEWAYS and as père politique (pictured below with Philip Seymour Hoffman) in self directed, Amex Gala film, THE IDES OF MARCH, alongside Ryan Gosling.
John C. Reilly trilogy: CARNAGE (pictured with Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) where all the rules of adult behaviour get drowned at the bottom of a whiskey glass; coming of age gem TERRI (pictured with Jacob Wysocki) in which Reilly plays pedantic but kind hearted vice principal to outsized teen loner and of course, the chilling WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (with Tilda Swinton) where he plays long suffering father and husband.
Vanguard of experimental collaboration, Jonas Mekas offers two illuminating films on creative relationships: CORRESPONDANCE tracking his partnership with fellow filmmaker José Luis Guerín and SLEEPLESS NIGHT STORIES, a journey through the insomniac entries of artists such as Marina Abramovi? and Lee Stringer.
Genius fairytale magic from favourite Terry Gilliam (pictured below left) who presents two shorts: MONSTER OF NIX (pictured left) with voices from the filmmaker and Tom Waits and THE WHOLLEY FAMILY (pictured below right) which follows an American family around Naples under the spell of a cursed doll.
Emerging as a household name of his generation, Michael Shannon serves up two engaging tranches of American life: THE RETURN where he plays patient husband as his wife returns from combat in the Middle East and in TAKE SHELTER, in which he plays a troubled everyman, plagued by an increasing sense of dread.
The 55th BFI London Film Festival (in partnership with American Express) runs from 12th to 27th October
Ticket booking info: www.bfi.org.uk/lff (the box office is now open to the public).
