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The London Film Festival 2015‘s third and final part of our coverage sees Helen M Jerome reckoning we were truly spoilt by the high quality of the Documentaries, some of which took us deeper into the souls of their subjects, thrust us into new places and even challenged our existing views.
And after you’ve read about these docs, you’ll see we’ve kindly marked your card for the festival films you simply must not miss, and the actors and directors who’ve made their own mark this year in our DVDfever Awards Round-up!
Eight years in the making, David Sington’s The Fear Of 13 chose a single subject, Nick Yarris, who has spent 23 years on death row as a convicted murderer. This is a risky strategy, as entire sections are just Yarris speaking direct to camera, complemented with bits of drama reconstruction. Fortunately, Yarris is an excellent anecdote teller, so we lean forward to hear about his escape and exploits on the run. As the years grind on, we discover how prison routines, hierarchy and silence take their toll. But Yarris is rarely daunted, deciding to start educating himself, gaining a wider vocabulary and reading a thousand books in three years, eventually ‘finding himself’ and even gaining a measure of happiness on death row. It’s hard not to like him, even as we explore his misspent youth of stealing cars to fund his growing meth habit. But he always sticks to his plea of innocence, clutching onto the hope that fresh evidence will turn up, decades on from the crime. I won’t give away the outcome, but you’ll definitely want to watch this until the end.
She may be one of the most famous teenagers in the world, but in Davis Guggenheim’s He Named Me Malala, we see the inspirational Malala Yousafzai is equally at home watching the Minions, giggling at school, and addressing the United Nations. She’s even undaunted when taking phone call about the Taliban aiming to kill her if she returns to Pakistan. There are some graphic sequences of the brutal, cowardly attack on her and her friends, and her subsequent time in hospital. Without any footage, Guggenheim revisits Malala’s youth in impressionistic style, using animated, dream-like paintings to recreate her childhood, and even the story behind the name her father chose for her. Her brothers and parents chip in with their own views, but we get most insight about this remarkable young woman from her own self-effacing words.
My Love Don’t Cross That River, from Moyoung Jin, is a study of an extremely elderly Korean couple. Utterly devoted yet mischievous after over seven decades of marriage, they are nevertheless acutely aware of their mortality. Heartbreakingly lovely.
There’s a current vogue for biographical films that plunder freshly-discovered archives of iconic movie stars, much of which have been gathering dust in vaults until recently. Who knew that Sweden’s screen queen made her own home movies throughout her career? In Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words, director Stig Bjorkman has gathered this glorious footage, together with letters to her friends, evocative stills, and contributions from her four children, and created something rather special. We learn that she took films more seriously than life, and that according to her daughter, Isabella Rosselini, director Alfred Hitchcock “taught her to lighten up”. Splendid stuff.
Working with hundreds of hours of audio recorded by Marlon Brando, director Stevan Riley does a similar job of getting us closer to the subject, in Listen To Me Marlon. But in Brando’s case, we also hear his most intimate confessions when he’s going through therapy, allowing us to draw our own conclusions about this troubled, charismatic, emotional yet introspective leading man.
What makes Steve McQueen: The Man And Le Mans different, is that it focuses on the one abiding passion project for racing driving aficionado McQueen. Hugely flawed, just like its star, this is the film he’d always wanted to make. But the production team neglected to develop any real plot, so the endless hours of race filming at Le Mans unbalanced the shoot, which overran in time and budget, and got through two directors. The huge archive that Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna have plundered tells its own story of McQueen’s obsession, and their fresh interviews with the star’s first wife Neile Adams, son Chad, and fellow racing drivers add further depth to the narrative. Le Mans has become something of a cult classic among racing fans, and this doc makes a great companion piece.
Not exactly a Hollywood star, but definitely an icon of his age, stunt motorcyclist Evel Knievel makes a fantastic subject for Daniel Junge’s Being Evel. And this is the rise and fall, literally, of the daredevil who crashed the celebrity circuit with self-promotion and bravado. Plus a flashy red, white and blue outfit to get the patriots purring. Lots of talking heads and archive footage make up this biodoc, which is a passion project for fan Johnny Knoxville, who is one of the producers, but must also dream of Being Evel.
Motorcycle Diaries filmmaker Walter Salles is a big fan himself, of fellow director Jia Zhangke: A Guy From Fenang. Salles, himself, follows Zhangke (whose latest feature, Mountains May Depart, was also in the festival) as he strolls around with one of his actors, occasionally getting accosted by folk who recognise him. And Salles takes Zhangke back to the locations familiar from his films, interspersed with clips, building up a picture of his dedication, enhanced with interviews with his family, including his wife and longtime muse Zhao Tao.
Hot on the heels of Alex Gibney’s Going Clear doc, comes My Scientology Movie from John Dower, with Louis Theroux. There’s lots to chew on here, but as always with Theroux, quite a lot of cheeky humour too. When they quickly realise that they’re not going to get access to any key characters, they film their casting sessions with actors wanting to play these parts, and get them to deliver their church members’ original words. And they’re assisted by one of those who made it out of the church, Marty Rathbun. The twist in the tale is that the Scientologists themselves start to film Theroux’s crew, adding another surreal layer to an absorbing film.
Human rights lawyer Philippe Sands has a family background that impels him towards the truth of the Nazis and their children – and their attitudes towards their fathers. My Nazi Legacy, from David Evans, focuses on two Nazi sons, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wachter, with very different views. Sands even accompanies them to the scene of their father’s crimes, Lviv in Ukraine. Which is the same place where only one out of Sands’ eighty ancestors who were there in 1939 survived by 1945. Frank has faced up to his father’s past, but von Wachter is in denial still. But will Sands help them – and himself – come to terms with the past?
Though it feels like an intimate drama, Roberto Anjari-Rossi’s debut feature A Legacy is an effortlessly atmospheric documentary. We watch just two central figures, Chilean granny, Rosalia, and her granddaughter, Laura, living together and just getting by, with Laura aching to break the mould and become a car mechanic, and Rosalia still clinging to old superstitions and spells.
Go to page 2 for more great documentaries, plus The DVDfever Awards!
Gayby Baby is a charming, matter-of-fact doc on four Australian children who all have gay parents – just like the director, Maya Newell. There’s no angle, no spin here, just the navigation of childhood for three lively lads and one would-be music star girl, and each same-sex couple.
Not quite in the same league as last year’s National Gallery, Fred Wiseman’s In Jackson Heights nevertheless explores its subject in similar depth and runs to just over three hours. In this one part of New York City some 170 languages are spoken, and diversity pulses through it, like its people with their never-ending graft and gripes, grasping every opportunity and trying to get along with neighbours of other creeds. We see the minute detail of bureaucracy as residents struggle just to get by, from town hall meetings to conference calls and citizenship lessons. Classic Wiseman, yet again.
Bao Nguyen’s Live From New York boasts a galaxy of comedy stars from the last four decades of Saturday Night Live (Poehler, Ferrell, Fey, Chase), embracing political satire and quirky characters, and propelled by energy and desire to stay ahead of the curve. Shaped by its host city, but also shaping its culture, this feels like an A to Z of alt.comedy transforming into the mainstream, documenting our times.
Much like Terence Davies’ Of Time And The City, his tribute to his home city, Liverpool, I Am Belfast is Mark Cousins’ lyrical love letter to his roots. Shot by Christopher Doyle, with music from David Arnold, it looks and sounds stunning, and is structured as a dialogue between Belfast (as played by an actress) and Cousins himself. Full of wonder, with an eye for detail and history, it doesn’t shy away from the Troubles, and feels like a wistful lament for times past.
The Hard Stop is an unfussy documentary about what’s happened since Mark Duggan was killed after a police ‘hard stop’. How have his friends fared in the four years since the resulting London riots of 2011 ended? Director George Amponsah gets amazing access, shows their fates, but draws no conclusions, letting the viewers make up their own minds.
There were some exceptional music documentaries at the festival this year, from the intimate and personal to the national and political. On the surface, Elephant Days, from James Caddick is about the latest album from The Maccabees. But it’s really a sweet film about their postcode, their base in Elephant and Castle in South London, and the characters who give it life, vigour and humour, all with a throbbing soundtrack.
Amy Berg’s film, Janis: Little Girl Blue is a warts-and-all doc about the late, great singer Janis Joplin, showing that it wasn’t her demons but her addictions that dragged her down. Kicked out of the choir and underachieving at school, she didn’t look how she wanted to and was determined to rock the boat as often as she could, or as one childhood friend explains: “She liked to start fights”. We inevitably witness her rise and fall and endless struggles, but the film really comes to life when the music is allowed to breathe and we hear her voice at full throttle.
Something of a lost gem, A Poem Is A Naked Person, was actually made 40 years ago, with singer-songwriter Leon Russell as its subject. Now this unearthed treasure has been restored and we get to see his sweat-drenched performances before rapturous audiences. There are other pleasures too, the feeling of being immersed in hippy culture, glimpsing George Jones and Willie Nelson, and seeing huge, packed arenas, which give an idea of Russell’s fame.
On a much bigger scale, we can see the importance of music in Johanna Schwartz’s debut They Will Have To Kill Us First, which shows the recent suppression of artistic expression in Mali by Islamist extremists, and gauges the reaction to this.
Similarly, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten revisits the rock and roll that burst onto the scene in 1960s Cambodia, only to be quashed during conflict and the Khmer Rouge’s rule. Both essential viewing.
DVDfever Awards 2015
BEST FILM, FULL STOP
- Carol
Dheepan
Son Of Saul
BEST COMEDY
- Virgin Mountain
runners up – Burn Burn Burn, Men And Chicken
BEST DOCUMENTARY
- The Fear Of 13
runners up He Named Me Malala, My Love Don’t Cross That River
BEST ADAPTATION FROM PLAY OR BOOK:
- Room
Brooklyn
The Lady In The Van
BEST ACTRESS
- Cate Blanchett (Carol) – Oscar-winner, guaranteed.
runners-up: Maggie Smith (The Lady In The Van)
Kirin Kiki (An)
Juliette Binoche (The Wait)
BEST ACTOR
- Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)
Jacob Tremblay (he’s 7-years-old!!) (Room)
Geza Rohrig (Son Of Saul)
Jesuthasan Antonythasan in (Dheepan)
Vincent Lindon in (Measure Of A Man)
RISING TALENT (MOST PROMISING DIRECTORS)
- Chanya Button for Burn Burn Burn
Jonas Carpignano for Mediterranea
RISING TALENT (MOST PROMISING STARS)
- Gunnar Jonsson in Virgin Mountain
Abraham Attar in Beasts Of No Nation (right)
Quentin Dolmaire and Lou Roy-Lecollinet in My Golden Days
BEST SCENE STEALERS
- Julie Walters in Brooklyn
John Goodman in Trumbo
Alice Lowe in Burn Burn Burn
Helen Mirren’s millinery as Hedda Hopper in Trumbo
Johnny Depp’s hair in Black Mass
Marcia Gay Harden in Grandma
CAREER BESTS
- Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn
Rooney Mara in Carol
THE FIRST ANNUAL “I TOLD YOU SO” Award
- Chloe Pirrie (right), excellent in Shell, now a lead in Burn Burn Burn. Told you so!
(And also wonderful in BBC’s The Game, sadly cancelled after one series! – DVDfever Dom)
THE FOURTH KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS/GEORGE CLOONEY AWARD FOR FESTIVAL UBIQUITY ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY
- No Cloonster or Kristin this year. But apart from Cate Blanchett heading up Carol and Truth, Fargo‘s Jesse Plemons probably shades it in pivotal roles in Black Mass and The Program. Then there’s our own Jim Broadbent in Brooklyn and The Lady in the Van; Ben Whishaw in Suffragette and The Lobster; Chloe Pirrie in Youth and Burn Burn Burn, not forgetting Elizabeth Moss in High Rise and Truth, Dakota Johnson in A Bigger Splash and Black Mass, and Wei Tang in Office and Tale of Three Cities.
The NOT QUITE AS GOOD AS THEY THINK THEY ARE Award:
- Sunset Song supporting actors far outshining the star
High Rise not irredeemably awful, but not a patch on Sightseers
Evolution fishy fantasy defeats plot 1-0
A Bigger Splash despite Tilda being fab and Ralph Fiennes getting his kit off at every opportunity, this is no I Am Love
Fifty a big let-down after Biyi Bandele’s previous, Half of a Yellow Sun
AND FINALLY… THE 15 SOLID GOLD MUST-SEES:
- Carol
Room
The Lady In The Van
Youth
Trumbo
Beasts Of No Nation
The Lobster
Brooklyn
Son Of Saul
Dheephan
An
The Fear Of 13
Virgin Mountain
Men And Chicken
Burn Burn Burn
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