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BFI London Film Festival 2024 Part 1 by Helen M Jerome
Looking back at 2024… through the London Film Festival by Helen M Jerome.
Sometimes time gives you the ability to more easily sort the wheat from the chaff, and when I look back on the London Film Festival 2024 just a few months later, this is certainly the case. Features that seemed jaw-droppingly brilliant then and in retrospect stand the test of time are rare. As for the ones that seemed woeful then, well some now seem even more so…
Anything instantly forgettable might not make the cut here, so buckle up, as Bette Davis said, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
The big theme dominating many of the festival features was ‘end times’, often through climate change – and this idea spread through films as diverse as The End, 2073, Rumours, Families Like Ours, and even The Wolves Always Come At Night.
Part One of my not-remotely-rose-tinted round-up kicks off with the big, noisy, star-laden features and spreads out into some of the festival’s somewhat arbitrary themes and groupings. Consider your card marked. Part Two will mop up everything else…
THE BIG FELLAS
Blitz (above) from Steve McQueen was chosen for the Opening Night Gala, and literally started the festival with a bang. Plunging us headlong into the midst of the London Blitz in World War II, it mixes stars like Saoirse Ronan, Stephen Graham and Harris Dickinson with untried onscreen talent like Elliott Heffernan and Paul Weller (of The Jam fame, who channels his inner Chas & Dave at the piano, before the neighborhood heads down to the tube station at midnight as their bomb shelter). Running at almost two hours, McQueen avoids the usual stories of German bombers and the war itself, instead interweaving tales of those just trying to survive on the ground. Ronan is the mum working in a munitions factory and searching for her son (Heffernan, excellent) after he jumps from the train carrying him into the countryside as an evacuee. It mainly stays just the right side of sentimental patriotism, with enough Oliver Twisty grim and grit from thieving vultures like Kathy Burke and Graham to leaven the mix.
Piece By Piece, the Closing Night Gala from director Morgan Neville, is more of a curate’s egg of a biopic. Telling the ‘Happy’ life story of singer Pharrell Williams using Lego, it shows him mesmerised by music from an early age and explains his synesthesia – seeing colours while listening to Stevie Wonder. The fabulous soundtrack carries you through, while witnessing his rise to become the ubiquitous producer. Outside his creative umbrella of fragrances, fashion and skateboards, we see his growing awareness of other issues, like politics and civil rights, giving him an edge. And there’s always the music of the likes of collaborators Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Timbaland and Gwen Stefani to drive forward the narrative.
The Apprentice from Ali Abbasi is another kind of biopic – of Donald Trump and his mentor Roy Cohn – that saw its message bypassed by current events. Jeremy Strong is pitch perfect as kingmaker Cohn (who many know from the drama Angels from America) taking Trump (Sebastian Stan) under his wing, then pushing his younger apprentice up the greasy pole to business success in the hazy, sleazy glamour of 1980s New York City. The first section is all Cohn’s show, thanks to Strong’s performance, showing a swirl of bribery and corruption, until he gets sick from AIDS and Trump cuts him off. Stan has obviously immersed himself in his subject, as he even gets the weird, pouty mouth movements just right. It almost feels like Abbasi might already be developing a follow-up feature to release in three years’ time…
Conclave is a fine film adapted by Peter Straughan from the original Robert Harris novel, while also being a ‘locked room mystery’. When the Pope dies, and his successor must be appointed, we go behind the curtain to see all the intricate voting and rituals and smoke announcements. Director Edward Berger’s costume drama stars the conniving Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and most notably the scheming John Lithgow, with Isabella Rossellini in a crucial, if tiny role. No-one is above suspicion as the tension ramps up, with the subtlety of the acting elevating the enterprise and every viewer becoming an instant conclave expert.
Bird is the eagerly awaited feature from Andrea Arnold, with extra anticipation thanks to stars like the riveting Barry Keoghan and a feral Franz Rogowski (‘Bird’). Set in a grim Gravesend, it’s centred around a loose commune of young people, led by Keoghan as ‘Bug’, their Pied Piper who treads a fine line between responsible father figure and irresponsible, hedonistic individual. It feels like a series of snapshots, postcards from the edgelands, with Bailey as our 12-year-old narrator, played by Nykiya Adams. There’s a mystery at its heart, and music pounding and pulsing through the crucial set-piece scenes, including Kneecap (of course) and a knowing nod back at Keoghan’s turn in Saltburn when they play ‘his song’ Murder on the Dancefloor. There’s also a supernatural quality to it, and a joyful embracing of love and family despite the bleakness of everything.
Emilia Perez soon became a movie where the commentary around it overshadowed the initial reception for the work itself. Directed by Jacques Audiard, its quartet of stars jointly won the Cannes Best Actress award. Then a few folk baulked at Audiard filming the whole project not in Mexico (where it’s set) but on a lot in Paris. Some didn’t like that it’s a musical, even though musicals have embraced difficult subjects for decades, and this one boasts tunes by Nouvelle Vague. However, my two penn’orth is that Karla Sofia Gascon as Emilia, plus Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, all deserve flowers for their performances in a genre-busting thriller. Best make up your own mind.
The End is another feature you wouldn’t expect to be a choreographed, and at times Sondheim-esque, musical, especially with stars including Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon. Plus director Joshua Oppenheimer is previously best known for his hard-hitting documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Set – as the title suggests – in some dystopian future end time, we find a filthy rich, nuclear family living in a vast, luxurious underground bunker in an old salt mine. Luckily, they also have loyal servants (Bronagh Gallagher; Tim McInnerny) who act as confidantes. Meanwhile the songs and the plot revolve around an unlikely romance between the son (George MacKay) and a curious intruder (Moses Ingram, excellent). There are moral dilemmas about survival and how they’ve exploited the resources of other countries to make it this far, and the colour palette is as stunning as the masterpieces they’ve hoarded. But all this takes a back seat to the director’s examination of storytelling and what we choose to tell ourselves. Could become a cult classic.
Hard Truths feels plucked from the post-pandemic headlines, thanks to Mike Leigh’s fine direction, but mainly because of the exquisite performances of Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin as sisters Pansy and Chantal, who could not be more different. Pansy is a matriarch who Is outspoken in her resentment of everyone and everything in her life, including her own son and husband. Chantal is a sunny-side-up hairdresser with two loving daughters. You sense that Pansy is carrying the weight of the world and it’s too much to bear, however much others are trying to help her through her depression and anger. One to watch for the incredible acting and the little glimmers of hope for the characters.
Maria is the latest biopic from director Pablo Larraín, after his Jackie Kennedy and Lady Diana features. Written by Steven Knight, of Spencer and Peaky Blinders fame, the main coup is getting Angelina Jolie to play the title role of operatic diva Maria Callas. Set in 1977, at the close of her life and career, in many ways it’s a meditation on the transitory nature of fame “there is no life away from the stage”. Flashbacks show how her mother pimped both Maria and her sister to German soldiers, and we later see her hounded by the press. Jolie and the supporting cast of Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, and Kodi Smit-McPhee capture the essence of the aging Callas and her entourage, but it’s only when you watch the actual footage of the real Callas in the end titles that you appreciate what an extraordinary singer and performer she was. Favourite line in the entire movie? “We are Greek. Death is our familiar companion.”
Nightbitch is adapted from Rachel Yoder’s bestselling novel, and vividly brought to life by Amy Adams and director-screenwriter Marielle Heller. “I’m stuck in a prison of my own creation,” declares the internal voice of Adams’ character, Mother, “I’m angry all the time.” She finds she’s becoming friends with other women just because they’re mums, while despising everything about motherhood, declaring: “what fresh hell awaits you today?” Her absent husband (Scoot McNairy) is rarely around as she becomes more and more feral and bestial, with physical changes and a heightened sense of smell, plus a tendency to go for wild runs in the nighttime. Not going to spoil the rest of the plot, but apart from Adams being utterly unforgettable in the title role, it’s also worth seeing for the performances of twin brothers Arleigh and Emmett Snowden as her toddler son.
The Room Next Door is Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s first English language feature, and he’s got some stellar company along for the ride. The ubiquitous Tilda Swinton is opposite Julianne Moore as old friends facing Tilda’s terminal illness together. As in Nightbitch, this is uncompromising on maternal instincts, or the lack of them, with the declaration: “I was never what a mother was supposed to be.” The locations are fabulous, both in Manhattan and rural Woodstock, with Edward Hopper-esque vistas. The colour palette is eye-popping, and the mood elevates into melodrama thanks to a thriller-type score. Predictably, nothing is predictable, as the friends bond and fall out through flashbacks that give us a glimpse of their glamorous pasts. Meanwhile they encounter an ex-, John Turturro, who they’ve both loved in the past, and we face up to the idea of euthanasia, “cancer can’t get me if I get me first”. As Tilda observes: “I’ve been reduced to very little of myself,” and their end of days discussions seem very timely.
I’m Still Here from Walter Salles is also tough and timely, starting out in 1970 Brazil, under repressive military dictatorship. Starring the remarkable Fernanda Montenegro as Eunice, it takes us on a journey of kidnapping, resistance and memories across generations. Archive and home videos are mixed to give a portrait of a matriarch striving to keep her family together. And we witness idyllic, sun-kissed family scenes even as they stand on a political precipice.
A Nice Indian Boy (above) might be the breakout hit of the festival, and the audience lapped it up. Written by Eric Randall and directed by Roshan Sethi, this is a cross-cultural, gay romance, powered by its stars, naïve Karan Soni (the cabbie from Deadpool) and more worldly Jonathan Groff (of Hamilton fame). There’s much Bollywood-style framing in the style and a sly winking back at the genre’s familiar tropes, and frequent reversal of stereotypes. Resistance to its charm is useless!
Nickel Boys shows the influence of its source, Colson Whitehead’s prize-winning novel, from the start. Atmosphere is conveyed with hand-held cameras bringing the 1960s to life and giving the feel of snapshots or polaroids. We see things from the point of view of Ellwood Curtis, evoking the time and place as we stand in his shoes in the reformatory he should never have been sent to. Director RaMell Ross ensures we feel the simmering civil disobedience amid the impressionistic style, with casual, racial brutality the norm. In novelistic fashion, the POV shifts to Ellwood’s friend Jack Turner and back again, and we jolt forward to New York now. Kudos to all concerned, especially the leading men, Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson.
The Piano Lesson has an even more celebrated source, the stage play by August Wilson. Filmed with reverence by director Malcolm Washington, it has an all-star cast led by Samuel L Jackson, John David Washington, and Danielle Deadwyler, with Ray Fisher and Michael Potts. Set in Pittsburgh in 1936, it celebrates the power of music (from gospel and boogie woogie to Fela Kuti), faith and friendship. It sticks in the one location, but has fleshed out the original play, while still focusing on the ghosts of the dead and the trauma carried by the living.
A Real Pain might be acted, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, but he most definitely gave the best part to Kieran Culkin. The duo play cousins making a pilgrimage to Poland to revisit their ancestors’ homeland. Eisenberg is wired and nervous, Culkin laidback and open. As they tour through the history of their grandmother along with other visitors, it evolves into a kind of love letter to Poland. Angst, beauty, history, love and guilt smash them in the face as they travel and there’s bags of Chopin music underscoring their odyssey. Feels like a very personal, heartfelt film for Eisenberg.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Memoir of a Snail is the incredible stop-motion animation from Australia that deservedly won the top prize at the festival. But it’s very much not for kids, as it deals with “adult themes” throughout. Directed by Adam Elliot and reminiscent of Wes Anderson in its dark humour, it really lucked out with the voice casting. Sarah Snook is the narrator and lead character Grace, Eric Bana voices Gilbert, the twin brother she’s lost, and Jacki Weaver has the time of her life as the mischievous old lady who helps her. Bad parenting, cruelty, fetishes, gambling, and a cruel religious cult are just some of the bumps in the road for Grace. A must-see.
The Wolves Always Come at Night works as a kind of hybrid documentary from director Gabrielle Brady. Filmed in Mongolia, it shows a people threatened by desertification as well as predators. They travel by motorbike and car – literally carrying their bed and home on their vans – in a harsh, nomadic life. When the central character loses his entire flock, his only option is to move to the city, but he longs for home and is lost without his herd. Somewhat of a wake-up call on our changing climate.
Vermiglio ranks as one of the most beautiful, and yes, haunting, films I’ve ever seen. Set in a remote hamlet in the snowy Italian mountains, it takes place as the Second World War is ending, but feelings still run deep in the tight community. Directed and written by Maura Delpero, it’s imbued with an almost spiritual quality, despite the carnal desires of many of its characters. The wide shots have Brueghel-like figures in the landscape, contrasting with close-ups of milking the cow, Religion is at the fore, soldiers who have fled the war from Germany are taken in, yet rural life must continue. Exceptional light throughout illuminates the grind of life and swirling romances. Every frame is stunning as we witness turmoil, tragedy and disappointment. Bravo to Delpero, as well as her main actors, Tommaso Ragno, Giuseppe de Domenico and Roberta Rovelli. One to rewatch, preferably on the big screen.
LOVE
All Shall Be Well paints a picture of an idyllic life for gay Hong Kong couple Angie and Pat, until the latter’s unexpected passing after a family gathering. This is where director-screenwriter Ray Yeung’s plot really kicks into gear. As Pat has left no will, her family become the problem, erasing Angie, who has no legal standing, and meanwhile grabbing the inheritance and removing her rights. Fine performances from Patra Au Ga Man and Maggie Li Lin Lin as the couple, and you can see why it won a prize in Berlin.
Sex is very much a Scandinavian film. Directed by Dag Johan Haugerud, this throws up the age-old dilemma of whether you should confess an illicit liaison to your partner. The twist is that as it’s a same sex hook-up, neither of the men thinks twice about telling their wives. In their minds it simply doesn’t count. For the wives it’s not quite the same. Lots of set-piece scenes build up the tension, and it’s destined to be a conversation starter, for sure.
Tarika is an other-worldly tale of a girl adored by her father, despite or perhaps because of one extraordinary characteristic. For Tarika is growing butterfly wings. They live in a rural, remote region in Bulgaria, controlled and fenced off by armed forces and surveillance helicopters. Families cling to their doughty livestock, including a goat, and the father and daughter live quietly. The wings are not altogether unexpected, as Tarika’s mother and grandmother had them. As he wonders what to do, we hear howling, barking canines outside. They are constantly on their guard, with the villagers suspicious and superstitious as their animals keep dying. A triumph of imagination from director Milko Lazarov and his main actors, Zachary Baharov and Vesela Valcheva as father and daughter.
When Fall Is Coming (above) is another gem from director François Ozon. Burrowing deep into family secrets, we realise that the granny at the centre has quite the past, and her bolshie daughter wants nothing to do with her. She inadvertently poisons the daughter with mushrooms, adding insult to injury, and worse is to follow. All bathed in lovely light with copious amounts of delicious food in many scenes, this suddenly turns into more of a crime drama, with Hélène Vincent superb in the main role, Ludivine Sagnier as the daughter, and Josiane Balasko as the best friend. There’s complexity and beauty that balance the characterization and plot, making it perhaps one of Ozon’s best for some time.
When The Light Breaks comes from Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson and has an outstanding performance at its heart. Mapped across one long, Nordic day, Elín Hall as Una breaks your heart as she knits it all together, and she is definitely one to watch.
DEBATE
2073 is the latest from director Asif Kapadia, written with Tony Grisoni, and starring Samantha Morton and Naomi Ackie. It’s another end of days movie, shot as if a documentary by blending footage. Beyond dystopian, it starts with wildfires, floods, oceans crammed with plastic, and smog, as drones and violence control the citizens. Quite lifelike then, I hear you say… The rich live above all this, up in the clouds, while the likes of Morton are holed up and scrabbling to get by. To add an authentic flavour, we hear the voices of Anne Applebaum, James O’Brien, George Monbiot and Carole Cadwalladr and we’re constantly left asking “how did we get here?” Essential viewing.
Families Like Ours is a climate change, end of days TV series created and directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Festen). Everyone is out to survive, and greed is rampant even as the forces of nature take over. But the genius of the series is that we identify with the bigger picture by drilling down into the individuals and families and their stories. Everything feels credible despite the apocalyptic storyline. Main setting is Denmark, where a state of emergency is declared, the country is being closed down, and people are fleeing – or trying to. The cast is loaded with well-known faces, including Nikolaj Lie Kaas (The Killing) and Thomas Bo Larsen (Another Round) plus emerging stars like Amaryllis August and Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt. We see the banal normality from just four months earlier, but soon realise that low lying countries like the Netherlands have already gone under. There’s also a handy parable nestling inside the drama, where previously privileged people are forced to be refugees, and see the chaos and panic in this other side of the story. Looking forward to watching the rest of the episodes.
LAUGH
Rumours takes a swipe at G7 gatherings, where the rich nations dictate what the rest of the world should do while everything seems to be crumbling. And directors Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson pile in on their hypocrisy with evident glee. It’s hard to feel much sympathy for such a bunch of back and even front stabbers, but the casting helps. Cate Blanchett relishes her role, Takehiro Hira (Shogun), Charles Dance, Nikki Amuka Bird and even Alicia Vikander are in the mix, as behaviour descends rapidly. The characters self-mythologise even as they face end times, and there’s a thriller and even zombie element as the plot unravels. It’s a dark satire on wealth, power and consumerism that hasn’t charmed everyone, but you can’t fault them for having a stab at showing what’s behind the veneer of respectability at these gatherings.
The Other Way Around (above) is based around the neat concept of a cute Spanish couple (Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz, who co-wrote the film) throwing a party to celebrate their impending separation. Director Jonás Trueba has a ball with the comic potential in the set-up, as one uses a quip from the TV world “we’re not being renewed for another season.” There’s also something of the screwball comedy, perhaps a classic like The Awful Truth, at the heart of this. It then seems almost logical that amidst the layers and repetition and meta nature of the movie, they make a big decision using (and I hope I haven’t hallucinated this) Ingmar Bergman tarot cards. Wacky, but perfect.
A Traveller’s Needs lets legendary Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo flex his directing muscles with French actress Isabelle Huppert once again. Last time was a dozen years ago with In Another Country, and this is just as enigmatic (and yes, frankly repetitive) as its predecessor. Huppert plays an unconventional tutor with her own way of teaching, using index cards. Halting gaps between sentences and waves of repeated, looped conversations interspersed with food, drink and music, plus a sliding doors moment make this one for the Hong Sang-Soo aficionados, but it’s not for casual filmgoers or those encountering his work for the first time.
THRILL/JOURNEY
Aïcha grabs the audience from the initial set-up, then it’s an endless series of swerves and worrying cul de sacs as the story reveals itself, thanks to the expert storytelling of director-screenwriter Mehdi M. Barsaoui. What’s in a name? Well, everything when young Tunisian hotel worker Aya is involved in a traffic accident and thought dead. Instead of coming forward, she flees and makes a new life with a new identity. Using a veil to disguise herself, she makes her first steps into this fresh start, disappearing in the anonymity of the big city, Tunis. Fatma Sfar is riveting in the lead role, but can her character ever be free?
Stranger Eyes feels very much in the vein of Michael Haneke’s Hidden/Caché, with yet more modern references to surveillance and paranoia thrown in. Director Yeo Siew Hua builds the tension around a couple whose child is kidnapped, as they try to piece together what happened to her. Their search is generally greeted with apathy and disinterest, and the cynical conclusion is that “kindness has an expiry date.” Set in Taiwan, there are also echoes of Rear Window, as they look for clues and suspect everyone. And like a previous CCTV film, Red Road, we the viewers find ourselves as voyeurs, similarly studying every frame in case we notice something.
Sujo (above) might be a Mexican mini masterpiece from joint director-screenwriters Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez. There’s so much beauty and elegance in the filming, framing and storytelling, and the performances from Juan Jesús Varela, Yadira Pérez and Alexis Varela are stunning. The set-up is young Sujo growing up in the shadow of his cartel gunman father, after witnessing his murder. The challenge is trying to escape his destiny by not following in his dad’s footsteps. It’s only the three strong women in his story that might tip him onto another path, with his mother determined to keep young Sujo away from outside temptations. There are glimpses of hope when he goes to Mexico City and finds a passion for learning – and his teacher – but the past and his family have a habit of dragging him back. With much mystery and vivid imagery, including horses and vehicles in dusty landscapes, plus blood, boxing and books, it’s all held together by the co-directors’ deft touch, and the magnetic Varela in the central role.
And that’s the BFI London Film Festival 2024 Part 1! Check back soon for Part 2!