As the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches on November 9th, many events are planned to mark the occasion and assess the changes Germany has undergone since reunification. In such moments, artistic considerations often take a back seat, but the Goethe Institut in London, whose remit is to promote German culture, [...]
Cracks
Directed by Jordan Scott
The opening scene of Cracks is very Madchen in Uniform, as the innocent 1930s school girls stuck on a remote English island sing their hymns, awaiting the arrival of the figurehead: Miss G, the striking, eyeliner-wearing cool teacher, the one the girls all have a pash for, especially head girl Di. But [...]
The Limits of Control
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
The Exploding Girl
Directed by Bradley Rust
In the early 1990s, slacker cinema was all the rage in American independent cinema, with wacky, mumbling characters, slow pacing and the mundanity of everyday life replacing traditional plots, characterisations and drama.
Which brings us to these two Amerindie offerings. Whereas the London Film Festival [...]
Burning Down the House
Directed by Mandy Stein
No One Knows About Persian Cats
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
Teheran, Iran and New York aren’t obvious kindred spirits and unlikely to be twinned in any civic program any time soon, but two music-related films at the festival point out how underground culture can act as the heartbeat of any [...]
London Film Festival: Lessons in Love
Dear Lemon Lima,
dir Suzi Yoonessi
Wah Do Dem
dir Sam Fleischner/Ben Chace
A Thing Called Love (shorts programme)
Today’s lesson is all about love: the things we we do, etc. Poor Vanessa Lemor (l’amour—get it?). All she wanted when she entered Nichols High School was to maintain the affections of her beloved, geeky [...]
