London Australian Film Festival
Australia's brightest stars tend to get snapped up by Hollywood even quicker than ours, and there are plenty of potential defectors here, from the makers of recent hit Animal Kingdom to the handsome young cast of high school thriller Wasted On The Young. Not everyone is out to find the next Nicole Kidman or Hugh Jackman, mind you. The noble Aussie genre lineage continues with shark horror The Reef and Red Hill, a modern-day western with a smalltown sheriff under siege. Feelgood opener Red Dog, based on the true tale of an outback mutt, is one for the home crowd, while colourful "womance" Jucy closes the festival with its own offbeat groove.
Barbican Screen, EC2, Thu to 12 May
Kino: Russian Film Pioneers, London
Has any nation taken cinema as seriously as Russia? While other countries classified moving images as "entertainment", the Russians found more important uses for them: as a means of galvanising the masses, starting revolutions, building nations, exploring the outer reaches of existence, or simply as an art form in itself. This cycle of three two-month seasons gives us a comprehensive overview of the nation, starting with the early pioneers, then continuing onto Russian science-fiction and current film-making. Here we get the classics, led by a restored Battleship Potemkin, and a whole lot more, including the world premiere of a new score for Eisenstein's 1929 tractor anthem The Old And The New, Pudovkin's fantastic Storm Over Asia with a live rock/throat-singing accompaniment, and rarely seen works from that bracing era.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Sat to 31 May
The Celluloid Curtain, London
While we were watching James Bond, what were they watching on the other side of the iron curtain? Pretty much the same, it turns out, if not better. In Bulgaria, they had the stylish Emil Boev infiltrating western operations (There Is Nothing Finer Than Bad Weather); in the GDR they had undercover agent Hansen repelling a US invasion (For Eyes Only). Marking the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, this season (also playing in Berlin) takes both sides and gives us a fascinating Europe-wide view of the cold war spy thriller. It's often amusingly retro, but not quite as dated as we'd like to think.
Riverside Studios, W6, Fri to 9 May
Dead By Dawn, Edinburgh
You'd have thought they'd run out of ways to make movies about zombies and vampires, but they just keep coming, as this Scottish horrorthon demonstrates. Attractions include Stake Land, best summed up as The Road with vampires, while The Death Of Alice Blue follows an intern at a vampire advertising agency. Elsewhere, new Spanish spookfest Julia's Eyes is produced by Guillermo Del Toro. All-inclusive passes are available, allowing you to take in all the guests, shorts, etc, but look out for the Spawn Of Dawn all-nighter, including Scary Therapy.
Filmhouse, Thu to 8 May
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/apr/30/this-weeks-new-film-events
No comments:
Post a Comment