Tag Archives: film review

Fashion Fringe. Final Show London Fashion Week S/S13

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The finale to London Fashion Week S/S13 was Fashion Fringe, a platform set up to help young design talent to display their collection.

As a design student myself I am always glad to see young designers being helped by those already established in the industry, and i know and appreciate how much work and dedication goes into making a collection and starting up a business.

For Fashion Fringe ten young designers are chosen from thousands and those ten are then whittled down to three. The winner is then announced at the end of the show.

This years finalists were Haizhen Wang, by Haizhen Wang, a graduate from Central Saint Martins who has previously worked for Max Mara, Boudicca and All saints before establishing his own label in 2010. Wangs S/S13 collection is inspired by architect Santigo Calatrava and Japanese amour. It featured precise lines and had echos of both femininity and masculinity. 3D digital printing was also used on the collection adding a futurist feel to his work.

Teija by Teija Eilola. Eilola, a graduate for RCA and previously head of women’s wear at Ted Baker. Her S/S13 collection “All that is Solid” was feminine and sophisticated with soft, earthy colours and luxurious fabrics swishing down the catwalk. The trench coats and outwear had exiting cuts and shapes with with large silhouetted sleeves. Personally this was my favourite collection and I loved the contrasted use of draping mixed with pattern cutting.

Vita Gottlieb, by Vita Gottlieb, a Fine Art Graduate from Central Saint Martins set up her label in 2012. You could never tell but she has no formal fashion training and has instead taught herself.  Her Fashion Fringe S/S13 collection is entitled “The night garden” and is an explosion of cultures and textures coming together, with interesting silhouettes  and bright colours making her collection stand out. With amazing fabrics and shapes Gottlieb’s collection is truly unique and beautiful.

As the last show of S/S13 there was a sense of excitement in the air and as the show ended everyone waited with baited breath for the winner to be announced. Each designer was so different and each collection so powerful it would a hard decision to make.

This year Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative Office of Burberry was judge of the competition and presented the awards.

In the end he chose Haizhen Wang collection. As Wang came on to collect his trophy, made by jewellery designer Jessica McCormack, it was clear as he lifted the trophy over his head in triumph how ecstatic and happy he was to have won.

It was a lovely end to a great fashion week, with everyone looking forward into the future for new young talent and a whole new generation of designers.

Meeting Place Director Jason Croot Tells All

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Frost caught up with super talented visionary director/actor/producer Jason Croot. [disclaimer: I play Grace Holloway in this film]

 

What was the idea behind Meeting Place?

Hello frost readers, We wanted to create something original and after having several ideas we kept it simple [by] not have any back story and filming actors who create there own scenes I love improvisation and Meeting Place is 100% improv.
Tell us about the film.

The film is a montage of conversations edited together a day in a London Cafe the twist is 80% of the conversations are between 2 actors who are the same person which gives the film a certain unique edge
How did you cast?

I like to work with actors I’ve worked with before also new actors fresh out of drama school we have a real mix in the film and some fab acting displays
What was the hardest part of the process?

Dare I say it the now getting people to watch the film I don’t have the funds to market like the big boys since giving my first feature away for free which as notched up 10,000 views in 8 months, I hope people will enjoy Meeting Place it’s a entertaining film
You act, write and direct. What is your least favourite thing to do when making a film? How hard is it to juggle everything?

I love directing and the process of filmmaking it is time consuming but rewarding when you receive good feedback and reviews, the acting is with me and I strive to keep learning and improving
Do you have any favourite characters in it?

I was blown away by some of the improvisation and have so many scenes I like I can’t really narrow it down
What did you shoot on?

We shot on a Sony HDV
What was your main inspiration for the film?

Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes we did not try to copy it, but it is a great film and very simple but watchable
Where can people see the film?

I have had a few enquiries of distribution but I’ve decided the best method for this film is stay in control and I stumbled on a few good online mediums we will anounce the sites on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/MeetingPlaceFeatureFilm

What’s next for you?

I have few irons in the fire on acting and the directing front but always looking for new productions to work on

 

The Expendables 2 Film Review

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Much fuss was made over The Expendables – a balls-out, high-octane, no-nonsense shoot ‘em up that Sylvester Stallone nurtured to the big screen. It was a lot of fun, and pulled together three Goliath’s of the action world (Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis) along with a handful of other action giants, both past and present.  Its success meant that The Expendables 2 was inevitable.

 

Along with the original ‘Expendables’ (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and Terry Crews) Stallone has more hired guns in the mix for the second outing. Liam Hemsworth joins the Expendables crew, Jean-Claude Van Damme is on villain duty, and a seventy-something Chuck Norris is thrown in for good measure.

 

Unfortunately, it would seem less can indeed sometimes be more.  Whilst the first film seemed like a genuine hark back to something lost; an old-skool actioner with some old-skool actioniers, The Expendables 2 reeks of ‘for-the-hell-of-it’ laziness. The first treated the teaming up of Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis as a momentous occasion and played it cool. Their fleeting on-screen trio – the first EVER – was played with a serious hand (as serious as one can expect) with only a slight nod to the audience. Action took the front seat in that film (action and ultra violence, which fans of the 2008 Rambo will attest to).

 

For this reviewer however, The Expendables 2 has lost its trump card and gone for the cobbled-together, self reverential name dropping road and left all the good, old-skool action behind. Don’t get me wrong, there is action. The opening 20 minutes is as good as it gets. But with only a few more exceptions the action is not only not as plentiful as I would have liked but also not as brutal and ridiculously OTT as the first. Jet Li (an undeniable legend) gives a bunch of goons a cooking lesson they won’t forget, but quickly disappears off-screen for the remainder of the film! Statham, it cannot be denied, is a remarkable martial artist and his action sequences are crisp, violent and precise. In fact Statham is also by far the best actor among the Expendable crowd and were it not for him they would be left following Stallone who unfortunately just looks waaaaaaay to old for this sh*t. Schwarzenegger and Willis (the latter of which can also act, but seems to have forgotten) is laughable (not in a good way) and at points cringe worthy.  Every scene with them oozes self parody, with trademark lines being cheapened, hung, drawn and quartered like never before. Oh, and Chuck Norris pops up for no apparent reason and shoots a load of nameless henchmen. Then does the same again later. Fortunately his beard covers the fact that he is also, unfortunately too old for this sh*t. There is also a Chinese woman who is involved in some way, but her acting is so unforgivably bad at times that I wondered if she may have been on work experience. I can’t actually remember what she did in the film except that she was somehow ‘important’ to the story, my brain must have attempted to eradicate her memory from my head.

 

This leaves us with Van Damme. It may come as a surprise to some – although not those who witnessed his performance in JCVD (2008) – but the muscles from Brussels can act. His performance is – along with ‘The Stath’s’ – the best in the film by a country mile. He delivers his lines with natural menace and adds a real villain to an otherwise empty shell of a film. It is thanks to him and Jason Statham that the film is watchable beyond the first 20 minutes. Sure he breaks out the spin-kicks in the show-down but c’mon, there would be uproar were he not to.

 

The Director Simon West (most notable for Con Air in 1997) does his best with the poor script and ludicrous amount of characters to crowbar into the 100+ minutes run time, but it ends up feeling like words, scenes and characters have been shoved into the Lotto’s Lancealot Machine with set of balls number 2 and given a good going over, only to be poured onto the screen like the contents of an un-drained washing machine.

 

Word on the street (the internet street) has it that number 3 has been given a greenlight, with additional names like Harrison Ford and Nicholas Cage being bandied around by publicity types. Whether this will add more gravitas (try not to laugh) to The Expendables 3 or whether or not they are simply yet more names to try to cram inside a 90 minute window with integrity-destroying consequences is yet to be seen.  Thank God the true, un-paralleled master Bruce Lee isn’t alive to be dragged dragon-kicking and screaming into what unfortunately seems to this reviewer to be a sad misfire of an action film-wannabe.

 

P.S – Jackie Chan, please don’t take any calls from Stallone’s agent. I beg you.

Total Recall Film Review

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Remake? Reboot? Re-Imagining? Whatever the adjective, this Colin Farrell lead ‘re-doing’ of a Philip K. Dick short story (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, first published in 1966) has been done before in 1990 with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead and Paul Verhoeven lensing. That film acclaimed cult status. And for good reason.

 

In this Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0, Underworld) outing Colin Farrell plays the lead character Douglas Quaid who discovers he may or may not be something other than an ordinary, working class Joe in a late 21st century, post chemical-warfare world of multi-stacked urban levels, Minority-Report-esque (also a Dick adaptation) mag-cars and plush, ‘United Federation of Britain’ megalopolises. No expense spared on the visuals, that’s for sure.

 

However. Yes, there was bound to be a however, and for this reviewer it was a big one. The story of Total Recall, We Can Remember It For You….whatever version you are ingesting into your brain-box from whichever medium, benefits from the unknown. The trump card is that you never quite know what is real and what isn’t. At its core the story is about the nature of self. What makes us, us. Our memories? Well what if our memories can be cooked up in a lab, or on a computer with software (or, as the Matrix (1999) showed us, with hard wiring into the brain in a sticky amniotic sack filled with pink lube – more on The Matrix later). Would falsified memories make us still us, or would we be someone else? Unfortunately, if you have seen Paul Verhoeven’s film, you may well know most of these answers already. And that is a real shame. Every ounce of suspense, every scene that hinges on the is-he, isn’t-he dynamic, is redundant. We’ve been here before, and quite frankly the gritty charm of Verhoeven’s outing was far more seductive for this reviewer. Everything seems way too familiar…only, not. I heard tell during hype-time that this outing was ‘closer to the source material’. Not a remake, but another go at the short story. Where I heard that I cannot say and whether it was from ‘official’ sources I do not know. Fact is, it isn’t. It’s Arnie’s story all over again with some superficial and aesthetic changes to give the impression (to the impressionable) that this is something new and shiny. There’s no Mars. No mutants. And if I’m painfully honest, no heart. Even the bits that weren’t in the 1990 film were obvious in their outcome from the get-go.

 

What Arnie lacks in acting ability he makes up for in brawn, screen presence and raw charisma. Farrell might not have the brawn (though an action man he can still be) but he has the acting chops. Unfortunately he left them at home for this one. The phrase ‘a phoned-in performance’ doesn’t quite cut it. I think he emailed this one direct to Wiseman. Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale give it their all. This reviewer got the distinct impression that whilst they were doing their best in a BIG, big-screen performance, Farrell – who let’s be honest is an established, A-List actor at the top of his game – didn’t have much investment in the character and was probably paid a bottomless pit of cold, hard cash for the role.

 

The familiarity with this film didn’t stop at the story either. There were scenes which far too closely resembled Blade Runner, Minority Report (both possibly forgiven as the source material for both was also Philip K. Dick) Star Wars: Episode 2, Escape From New York, The Matrix….to name a few. Even the (few) scenes exploring the philosophy of self which came so effortlessly to Verhoeven’s 1990 film seemed lifted straight from Morpheus’ mouth from The Matrix.

It was a spectacle for sure, but that’s a given in this day and age. Worth a watch? Perhaps. It’s difficult not to draw parallels to the original film, I wish it were. I had hoped this would be a fresh take on the story which stood alone as a worthy interpretation of Dick’s 1966 short. The visuals certainly gave that impression, but that really is where the differences end. Similarities must be drawn, because quite frankly it seemed to be a rehash of the same story. Which begs the question, why make it at all?? (Oh yeah, vast box office takings……silly me).

56th BFI London Film Festival: What’s On

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The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and events from both established and upcoming talent over a 12 day celebration of cinema. The Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 111 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes, and other special events. The 56th BFI London Film Festival will run from 10-21 October 2012.

This year sees the introduction of several changes to the Festival’s format. Now taking place over 12 days, the Festival expands further from its traditional Leicester Square cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and Empire – and the BFI Southbank to include four additional new venues – Hackney Picturehouse, Renoir, Everyman Screen on the Green and Rich Mix, which join existing London venues the ICA, Curzon Mayfair, Ritzy Brixton and Ciné Lumière.

GALAS

The Festival opens with the European Premiere of Tim Burton’s 3D animation FRANKENWEENIE, whilst Mike Newell’s visually stunning adaptation of GREAT EXPECTATIONS, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes will close the Festival, with key talent from both films expected to attend. Among the highly anticipated Galas is the American Express Gala World Premiere of CROSSFIRE HURRICANE, a documentary celebrating 50 years of rock legendsThe Rolling Stones who are also expected to attend the Festival. For the first time this year both the Opening Night Gala and the American Express Gala red carpet events and screenings will be screened simultaneously to cinemas across the UK. Other Galas include the American Airlines Gala of Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, QUARTET, featuring an outstanding British cast including Dame Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly and Michael Gambon; and Ben Affleck directs and stars in the Accenture Gala presentation of political thriller ARGO which he also produced with George Clooney. British film directors making their mark this year include Paul Andrew Williams with London-based comedy drama, SONG FOR MARION, which screens as The Mayfair Hotel Gala and features a sterling cast headed by Vanessa Redgrave, Terence Stamp, Gemma Arterton and Christopher Eccleston; and Roger Michell, whose HYDE PARK ON HUDSON is the Centrepiece Gala supported by the Mayor of London, stars Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams and is set on the eve of WWII when the King and Queen of England make a visit to see Franklin D Roosevelt in upstate New York. Nintendo Gala THE SAPPHIRES, is an inspirational Australian musical comedy set in the 60s starring comic man of the moment Chris O’Dowd, who appears alongside Australian Idol star Jessica Mauboy; and THE SESSIONS, is a moving drama, based on a true story with superb performances from John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy.

AWARDS AND COMPETITIONS

The BFI London Film Festival Awards have undergone a significant change this year by introducing competitive sections that are given much more prominence in the Festival campaign and programme. The Best Film Award in partnership with American Express; the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Grierson Award for Best Documentary will now be presented to the winning films from three programme sections: Official Competition, First Feature Competition and Documentary Competition. Each section is open to international and British films and 12 films have been shortlisted for each Competition.

Official Competition

The inaugural Official Competition line-up, recognising inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking, includes four European premieres:

· Michael Winterbottom’s EVERYDAY

· Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa

· Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children

· Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths

Together with UK premieres of

· Michel Franco’s After Lucia

· David Ayer’s End of Watch

· Rama Burshtein’s Fill the Void

· Daniele Ciprì’s It Was the Son

· François Ozon’s In the House

· Cate Shortland’s Lore

· Pablo Larraín’s No

· Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone

Titles in consideration for the First Feature Competition recognising an original and imaginative directorial debut are:

3 European premieres

· Masaaki Akahori’s The Samurai that Night

· Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus

· Barry Berk’s Sleeper’s Wake

and 9 UK premieres

· Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild

· Tom Shkolnik’s The Comedian

· Maja Miloš’ Clip

· Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die

· Sally El Hosaini’s My Brother the Devil

· Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighbouring Sounds

· Scott Graham’s Shell

· Andrey Gryazev’s Tomorrow

· Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda

In the Documentary Competition category, in partnership with the Grierson Trust, recognising documentaries with integrity, originality, and social or cultural significance, the Festival is screening:

4 World Premieres

· Charlie Paul’s For No Good Reason

· Nick Ryan’s The Summit

· Sarah Gavron’s Village at the End of the World

· Greg Olliver’s Turned Towards the Sun

1 International Premiere

· Sébastien Lifshitz’s Les Invisibles

4 European Premieres

· Jay Bulger’s Beware of Mr Baker

· Shola Lynch’s Free Angela and All Political Prisoners

· Alex Gibney’s Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

· Amy Berg’s West of Memphis

3 UK Premieres

· Katja Gauriloff’s Canned Dreams

· Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns’ The Central Park Five

· Ulises Rosell’s The Ethnographer

Closing the Awards section is the prize for Best British Newcomer, in partnership with Swarovski, which highlights new British talent and is presented to an emerging writer, actor, producer or director. The recipient of this prize will also receive a £5,000 bursary, courtesy of Swarovski.

This year’s nominees are:

1. Rowan Athale – director/screenwriter Wasteland

2. Sally El Hosaini – director/screenwriter My Brother the Devil

3. Fady Elsayed – actor My Brother the Devil

4. Scott Graham – director/screenwriter Shell

5. Eloise Laurence – actor Broken

6. Rufus Norris – director Broken

7. Chloe Pirrie actor Shell

8. Tom Shkolnik – director/screenwriter The Comedian

STRANDS / PATHWAYS

This year significant changes have been made to the structure of the Festival programme with new focused categories that are clustered around the themes of Love, Debate, Dare, Laugh, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Sonic and Family. With over 200 features screened during the Festival this new approach is designed to help Festival goers find the films that mean the most to them and to open up entry points for new audiences.

LOVE

Sweet, passionate, tough – LOVE is a complex and many splendoured thing.

The Love Gala is Michael Haneke’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner AMOUR, with Haneke making a welcome return to the Festival this year.

Other titles in this section include: BROKEN starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy; Ira Sachs’ KEEP THE LIGHTS ON; Xavier Dolan’s LAURENCE ANYWAYS; Liz Garbus’ documentary tribute to Marilyn Monroe LOVE, MARILYN; ROBOT AND FRANK starring Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon, and Ursula Meier’s SISTER with Léa Seydoux and Gillian Anderson.

DEBATE

Riveting films that amplify, scrutinise, argue and surprise screen in the DEBATE section and this year’s Gala is the European Premiere of THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY an absorbing documentary sequel to THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA from Sophie Fiennes featuring renegade philosopher and bionic cineaste Slavoj Žižek who also takes part in an ‘In Conversation’ event during the Festival.

Other highlights in this section include Marco Bellocchio’s DORMANT BEAUTY featuring Toni Servillo and Isabelle Huppert, Thomas Vinterberg’s THE HUNT featuring Mads Mikkelsen’s Cannes award-winning performance, and the European Premiere of ZAYTOUN.

DARE

In-your-face, up-front and arresting, the films in DARE will take audiences out of their comfort zone. The Dare Gala is Mira Nair’s Venice-opener THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, starring Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Riz Ahmed and Liev Schreiber.

Other highlights in this strand include: the European Premiere of HELTER SKELTER featuring Japanese supermodel Erika Sawajiri, the World Premiere of KELLY + VICTOR Kieran Evans’ adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Niall Griffiths, and the International Premiere of Antonio Campos’ SIMON KILLER, Carlos Reygadas’ Cannes-winner POST TENEBRAS LUX, Pablo Trapero’s gripping and intelligent drama, WHITE ELEPHANT, and Sergei Loznitsa’s critically celebrated IN THE FOG.


LAUGH

From laugh out loud through romantic comedy to dry and understated – humour in all its forms can be seen in the LAUGH section. A romantic caravan trip quickly descends into chaos when a young couple’s dream holiday takes a wrong turn in acclaimed British director Ben Wheatley’s dark comedy SIGHTSEERS which has its UK premiere as the Laugh Gala.

Other titles in this strand include the International Premiere of Bollywood-meets-Tollywood Amelie style AIYYA, the UK Premiere of romantic comedy CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg and the European Premiere of Stephen Gyllenhaal’s GRASSROOTS, and the International Premiere of Australian cricketing ‘bro’mantic comedy SAVE YOUR LEGS!

THRILL

The films in THRILL are nerve shredders that will get the adrenalin pumping and keep audiences on the edge of their seat; The Gala presentation for this section is the World Premiere of Bollywood action epic CHAKRAVYUH, directed by Prakash Jha who will be attending the Festival.

Other highlights in this section include: controversial Sundance hit COMPLIANCE, Nordic Noir double bill of EASY MONEY and its sequel; the Berlin Golden Bear winner CAESAR MUST DIE and Korean box office smash NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME.


CULT

The CULT section features films from the mind-altering and unclassifiable, to fantasy, sci-fi and horror. The Cult Gala is the European Premiere of A LIAR’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY chronicling the life of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman through multiple animation styles and featuring Chapman’s fellow Pythons in the voice cast.

Other highlights in this section include: ANTIVIRAL, the feature film debut of Brandon Cronenberg; the International Premiere of Actress Katie Aselton’s directorial outing, the survival horror BLACK ROCK; Japanese maestro Takashi Miike’s FOR LOVE’S SAKE and Juan Carlos Medina’s fantasy horror PAINLESS, along with documentaries MY AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE JEFFREY DAHMER FILES, and ROOM 237.

JOURNEY

Whether it’s the journey or the destination, the films in JOURNEY will transport and shift perspectives.

Celebrated Romanian director Cristian Mungiu returns to the Festival with BEYOND THE HILLS screening as the Journey Gala . The film won Best Screenplay at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, where actresses Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan also shared best actress award.

Other titles in this strand include: riveting Moroccan drama HORSES OF GOD, Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret’s documentary JOURNAL DE FRANCE, Jem Cohen’s MUSEUM HOURS, Michel Gondry’s THE WE AND THE I and the World Premiere of Marc Isaac’s new documentary about the A5 –THE ROAD: A STORY OF LIFE AND DEATH

SONIC

Music inspired films and events that will have audiences dancing in the aisles can be discovered in SONIC.

Highlights in the Sonic screening programme include Mat Whitecross’ coming-of-age story SPIKE ISLAND about an Indie band of 1990 vintage, who are determined to see their heroes The Stone Roses; GOOD VIBRATIONS, the biopic of Terri Hooley, Belfast’s Godfather of Punk, which was declared the best Irish film at Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year; and world music is represented with films from Africa and Chile, KINSHASA KIDS and VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN.

The Festival is delighted to include two popular events from the year-round programme at BFI Southbank for the first time – BUG and Sonic Cinema, both celebrating the links between music and film. Sonic Cinema presentations include a focus on the Sigur Ros Valtari Mystery Film Experiment featuring premieres of new clips and, in celebration of Warp Films’ 10th Birthday, a special presentation of Shane Meadow’s THIS IS ENGLAND screening with a live score from composer Ludovico Einaudiand and musician Gavin Clark. Regular BUG host Adam Buxton will present a special artist focus with talent to be announced.

FAMILY

The Festival showcases films for all ages in its FAMILY section and this year’s Family Gala is ERNEST & CELESTINE, the delightful animated story of an unlikely friendship between a bear and a mouse from the directors of A TOWN CALLED PANIC. In addition to Opening Night Gala FRANKENWEENIE, there are five other animated features screening in the Festival as well as an animated shorts programme. Three of the family features are hand-drawn films from France, and WOLF CHILDREN is the new hotly anticipated animated title from Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda.

SHORTS

An original and innovative line-up of short films and animation that will enthral audiences young and old make up this year’s SHORTS programme including a dedicated section for younger audiences. Animated shorts for children include THE SANDPIXIES: DA CAPO GEORGE, THE MISSING MEATBALLS and I WANT TO SEE DWARFS.

Short film compilation programmes include Crime & Punishment with films featuring criminals, their actions and the consequences; Blood is Thicker Than Water with films examining interactions and relationships between friends, lovers and families and Obsessive and Compulsive with films that examine far-from-healthy obsessions.

Once again the London Calling section features a selection of shorts from budding filmmakers from across the capital and this year student films from some of the UK’s best film schools will be showcased in Back to School

These short films feature a host of well known faces including: Alison Steadman, Ralf Little, Tom Hollander, Martin Freeman, Stephen Graham and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

EXPERIMENTA

This year’s the Festival will present its largest ever series of artists moving image programmes, culminating in the annual EXPERIMENTA Weekend from 19-21 October 2012. In collaboration with the ICA, the Festival will also present several screenings of artists’ films to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair, from 10-13 October 2012. Peter Kubelka’s new work ANTIPHON will screen with ARNULF RAINER in an expanded projection event – Monument Film. Both films will be physically installed on the walls of the BFI Southbank Atrium for the duration of the Festival. The extraordinary presentation of Monument Film in the NFT1 cinema forms the centrepiece of an Experimenta Weekend which is full of outstanding visions. Thom Andersen, Nathaniel Dorsky and Laida Lertxundi return with new films, whilst Mati Diop introduces her award-winning work in London for the first time, and Beatrice Gibson premieres THE TIGER’S MIND.

TREASURES

Treasures brings recently restored cinematic treasures from archives around the world to the Festival.

This year’s previously announced Archive Gala is the World Premiere of the restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s THE MANXMAN at the Empire Leicester Square with a live accompaniment by Stephen Horne. The Gala marks the grand finale of the BFI’s The Genius of Hitchcock project which commenced in June 2012 and is currently screening at BFI Southbank.

Digital restoration can have spectacular results, as shown in, David Lean’s LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, the full length director’s cut of the brand new 4K digital restoration which will premiere at the NFT1 showcasing BFI Southbank’s new 4K projector for the first time. The screening will be accompanied by a presentation from Grover Crisp, who will give a talk about the restoration work. Sir Laurence Olivier’s iconic RICHARD III also benefits from a fully restored print which will be screened at the Festival. Other highlights include silent movie THE SPANISH DANCER, a lavish costume romp with a live piano accompaniment; the BFI-backed revival of Roman Polanski’s TESS; a newly made documentary BERGMAN & MAGNANI:THE WAR OF VOLCANOES screening alongside a restoration of Roberto Rossellini’s VIAGGIO IN ITALIA and the latest restoration by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, AFTER THE CURFEW which is a political commentary on what happened after Indonesia was liberated from Dutch occupation.

EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

The EVENTS programme features the highly anticipated Screen Talks and Masterclasses.

This year’s Screen Talks in partnership with American Express, includes celebrated author Salman Rushdie whose adaptation of his own novel MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN screens in Official Competition and Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney who is at the Festival with his new film MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD in Documentary Competition.

The Masterclasses, presented in partnership with Swarovski, feature leading music supervisor Ian Neil (SPIKE ISLAND) and production design team David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco who designed Martin McDonagh’s SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS. Time Out continues to support the free access ‘In Focus’ events, which this year sees four events with a focus on British Cinema.

The Art of Frankenweenie Exhibition supported by American Express is taking place at the Festival Village, Southbank Centre. In addition, the Festival is proud to be working alongside the V&A’s major autumn exhibition Hollywood Costume with two events celebrating the role of costume on film and featuring the exhibition’s senior curator, the Academy Award- nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis.

The Festival will announce its complete guest line-up in early October.

Win! The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists Special Screening, Workshop

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Frost Magazine has teamed up with Sony Pictures to give some lucky readers and their children (or niece or nephew) a chance to go to a special screening of Pirates! and then attend a special workshop.

Event: The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists Special Screening and Workshop
Date: Tuesday 4th September (Exact times TBC)
Venue: The Pirate Castle in Camden, London
Schedule
– Arrivals and pirate-themed food and refreshments
– Aardman Animation workshop – learning how to make the Polly Dodo character from the film out of clay (1 hour)
– Screening of The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (1.5 hours)
– Finish

To win just follow @Frostmag on Twitter and tweet “I want to go to Pirate screening with @Frostmag” or subscribe to our newsletter.

Featuring the Voices of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tenant, Imelda Staunton and Brendan Gleeson

The Pirates! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS

On Blu-ray™ 3D, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital Download on September 10

Special Features Include Games, Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes and More! Blu-ray™ and DVD Include UltraViolet™

It’s going to feel like a ‘plunderful life’ when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment debuts THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS on Blu-ray 3D™, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital Download on September 10. From the Academy Award®-winning Aardman (Chicken Run) and Sony Pictures Animation (The Smurfs), comes the all-new, swashbuckling stop-motion animated film that’s sure to entertain families from beginning to end. This critically acclaimed action-packed comedy adventure follows the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain, voiced by Hugh Grant (About A Boy), and his band of misfits (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey and Ashley Jensen) as they frolic on the high seas in a madcap quest to win the coveted “Pirate of the Year” award. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure! The film also stars Brian Blessed (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) as The Pirate King, Salma Hayek (Puss In Boots) as Cutlass Liz and Jeremy Piven (TV’s “Entourage”) as Black Bellamy.

THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS, Aardman’s most ambitious stop-motion film to date, is directed by Peter Lord, a founding partner of Aardman, director of Chicken Run (with Nick Park), and a two-time Academy Award® nominee for his short films made with the company. The film is co-directed by Jeff Newitt. The screenplay is by Gideon Defoe, based upon his books. Production Designer is Norman Garwood. Producers are Peter Lord, David Sproxton, and Julie Lockhart. Executive Producer is Carla Shelley.

The Blu-ray and DVD boast hours of kid-friendly extras, including Filmmakers’ Commentary and two behind-the-scenes featurettes: “From Stop to Motion,” taking fans on a journey through the making of the film, and “Creating the Bath Chase Sequence,” a look at the various stages involved with shooting the bath tub scene. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is the “Pirate Disguise Dress-Up” game, in which fans can help our swashbuckling pals get past Queen Victoria by disguising them in various silly get-ups. Additionally, two short films with optional commentary from Director Peter Lord are exclusive to the Blu-ray.

Owners of the Blu-ray and DVD will be able to add THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS to their free cloud-based UltraViolet account, enabling them to access their film through any UltraViolet-compatible service or device – from PCs and tablets to TVs and smart phones.

Ted | Film Review

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It is not everyday you get to see a movie about a talking, swearing, dope-smoking, over-sexed stuffed teddy bear. Which is unfortunate, because this film is hilarious. Wrong and not for the easily offended, but hilarious.

As the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett’s teddy bear, Ted, came to life and has been by John’s side ever since – a friendship that’s tested when Lori, John’s girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship.

Seth MacFarlane directs, writes and voices ‘Ted’, the stuffed teddy bear who comes to life. It doesn’t sound plausible at all but it doesn’t matter. This film allows you to suspend your disbelief and just laugh at the witty script.

Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane are all great and Giovanni Ribisi plays a psycho in an amazing performance. Wahlberg is also great, he really is an actor of note with great comedic timing. Wahlberg and Kunis have great chemistry so even when Wahlberg’s character keeps screwing up, you root for him.

Rules of Engagement actor Patrick Warburton also makes an appearance with Ryan Reynolds. This film is just really funny. I know it is not to everyone’s taste and it is edgy humour, but I think it is great. One of the funniest films of the year. Top marks. I hope they make another one. Check out some of the movie quotes from Ted below.

Robert: Give me back my Teddy Bear!
[Charges John and Lori at full speed. John punches him in the nose, knocking him unconscious to the ground]
Lori: Jesus!
John: I’m sorry, but somebody had to go all Joan Crawford on his ass!

John: Can you call my cellphone?
Lori: Yeah
[Lori calls John’s phone which plays “The Imperial March”]
Lori: Is that my ringtone? What is that? Cause it sounds really negative.
John: No. I-it’s from The Notebook

Ted: [to Tami-Lynn] You have a baby? Is it alive?

Damsels In Distress Film Review

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Damsels in Distress is a quirky and funny movie about depression. Yes, really. It has a funny script. Whit Stillman’s first film in 13 years is a very original film about a trio of girls who try and rescue their fellow students from depression and general low standards. Love is won and lost, and because the film is about college students, this is all heightened.

With subtle humour and cracking lines through out, this film has a very Woody Allen-esque feel to it. It is a smart comedy with brilliant costumes and musical numbers. Yes, that’s right musical numbers. Even if musicals are not your thing, the sight of earnest Violet, played by Great Gerwig, trying to fix her fellow students depression through song and dance is endearing and fun to watch.

The characters are fun and well-rounded. I really liked this charming comedy. Watching Damsels in Distress is a fun way to spend an evening. It has a strong script and a wonderful vintage feel.

From Academy Award® nominee Whit Stillman (Best Writing, Original Screenplay, Metropolitan, 1990) comes the charming and witty comedy DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, debuting on DVD August 20 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film is a quirky tale of a group of beautiful, female college students and their misguided ways of helping to cure their depressed classmates with a programme of good scents and musical dance numbers. DAMSELS IN DISTRESS stars Greta Gerwig (No Strings Attached, upcoming To Rome With Love by Woody Allen), Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, TV’s “Parks & Recreation”), Adam Brody (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, TV’s “The OC”, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World), Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love, TV’s “America’s Next Top Model”), Hugo Becker (TV’s “Gossip Girl”), Megalyn Echikunwoke (TV’s “House of Lies,” “90210”), and newcomer Carrie MacLemore.

DAMSELS IN DISTRESS follows a trio of beautiful girls who set out to revolutionize life at a grungy East Coast College – the dynamic leader Violet Wister (Greta Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore). They welcome transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton) into their group, which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men — including slick Charlie (Adam Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker) and the mad frat boys Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen)—who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.

A charming comedy starring Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody and Annaleigh Tipton, is out on the 20th August.In this stylish and quirky film Violet, played by Woody Allen’s latest leading lady Greta Gerwig.

Greta Gerwig has all the best lines. Check out the quotes from her character below.

Violet: [about their college] There’s enough material here for a lifetime of social work.

Violet: We’re also trying to make a difference in people’s lives, and one way to do that is to stop them from killing themselves.

Violet: I don’t really like the word “depressed”. I prefer to say I’m in a tailspin.