A Year of Strong Women

Another year, another festival. Tripwire sent Jack Graves to see what’s on offer for genre fans…

London Film Festival Director Claire Stewart declared 2015 to be ‘the year of strong women’ at yesterday’s London Film Festival programme launch. The BFI is hoping to do its part to increase representation of women in the film industry, both on-screen and behind-the-scenes, something that currently remains woefully low.

Michael Fassbender Recreates Steve Jobs NeXT Ad

In line with that, the opening night gala will feature Suffragette, directed by Sarah Gavon and starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bon
ham Carter, among others. As the title may tell you, the film covers the Suffragette movement, at a more radical and violent time in the movement than we’re used to seeing in documentaries. There were at least two explosions in the trailer, so hopefully the film will get Michael Bay interested in the whole ‘female equality’ thing.

The closing gala features Steve Jobs, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender as the titular Jobs. It’s another film covering the life of the beloved Steve Jobs, but this one looks a lot more interesting than previous attempts. It doesn’t shy away from the (well documented) nastier side of the man, and so came off a lot less like hero worship and a lot more like an interesting film. In a lot of ways the trailer reminded me of American Psycho, and I mean that as a good thing.

The stand-out for me was Bone Tomahawk, a horror western described as half The Searchers and half The Hills Have Eyes, it stars Kurt Russell and looks like one hell of a good time. The Witch also looks like a good spine-tingler, telling the story of pioneers in the early days of New England. When a child goes missing, paranoia and fear of the supernatural starts to ramp up, and before you know it everything is going to hell.
Star Wars fans will appreciate Elstree 1976, a documentary about ten bit performers from the original Star Wars, and how the has affected their lives since then.
 

The American Express Gala features Carol, directed by Todd Haynes and starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt, the film is about two women falling in love in a time that really did not approve of such things. Carol was nominated for a Palm d’Or at Cannes, where Rooney Mara won Best Actress for her performance in the film.

Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger in Black Mass

The Accenture Gala features Trumbo, directed by Jay Roach and starring Bryan Cra nston from Breaking Bad as Dalton Trumbo, a Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted in 1947 for refusing to testify at the House Committee on Un-American Activities. It’s a comedic-but-serious look at a completely absurd period in American history, a period that isn’t really all that well known in the UK, and is worth a look for Cranston’s performance alone.

The Virgin Atlantic gala features Black Mass, directed by Scott Cooper and starring Johnny Depp as Jimmy ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the notorious Irish gangster. I’d fallen out of love with Johnny Depp after his recent spate of films of him being wacky and doing an accent, but in this film he looks fantastic. Receding hairline, gravelly voice, terrifying screen presence, it really looks like a return to form for Depp, and a gripping crime film beyond that. Early word is that the film is a compelling comeback for Depp.

The May Fair Hotel Gala features Brooklyn, directed by John Crowley and starring Saoirse Ronan. Brooklyn is an adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel of the same name, telling the story of a young Irish woman emigrating to the United States in the 1950s, and overcoming the challenges and temptations that go along with it.

The Centrepiece Gala features The Lady in the Van, directed by Nicholas Hynter, written by Alan Bennett, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings. Jennings plays Alan Bennett, or at least the Alan Bennett of the late 1960s, who takes pity upon Miss Shepard (Maggie Smith), and allows her to move her van into his driveway. Little did he know that she would stay there for the next 15 years. Laughter ensues, and probably also some sort of sentimental sadness. It is Alan Bennett, after all.

Tom Hiddleston in High Rise

The Festival Gala features High-Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Tom Hiddleston, adapted from the JG Ballard novel of the same name. The film is a stylish and vicious satire of 1960s social optimism and the evils of Thatcherism, telling the story of a young man living in an affluent, high tech high-rise building. Unsurprisingly things soon begin to crumble, and anarchy follows.

Finally, the Archive gala features Shooting Stars, a recently restored 1920s silent comedy about a British film studio where a western and a slapstick comedy are being filmed back-to-back. It’s probably hilarious, but the clip they chose for it just wound up being disturbing and weird, so I can’t say for sure.

On that note, I’m not entirely sure who is responsible for the clips we were shown at the launch event, but some of them did not support the films very well. The clip for Carol, an award-winning film directed by a talented director, based on a book by a talented writer, and starring two talented actresses, made the film look like a good 2 hours of women looking longingly at each-other while sad music plays. Then there was the clip for The Forbidden Room, a film with an exciting poster that had me very interested, at least until I saw the clip. I don’t know who thought two minutes of title cards with people’s names on would be exciting, but I think they should reconsider some of their life choices. Unless it really is a film for people who just wish that the opening credits would go on for the entire running time of the film.

Beyond the main galas the festival is split up into different strands: Love, Dare, Cult, Thrill, Sonic, Debate, Laugh, Family, Experimenta, Journey and Treasures. If those strands seem a little vague and confusing to you, well, it’s because they are. But categorization aside, there’s a lot of stuff worth seeing here. I won’t list all of them, because there are hundreds of films at the festival, but for genre fans there’s plenty on offer (though most of it in the crime, horror and post-apocalyptic genres).

Jack Graves