London Film Festival 2009 Highlights

Posted by Kevin Sturton Sep 24, 2009

The London Film Festival 2009 begins on the 14^th October with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr Fox. Here are some of the screenings I’m particularly looking forward to.

Documentary about the great French director’s Henri-George Clouzot (Les Diaboliques) failed attempt at directing a pop-art inspired study of jealousy starring Romy Schneider. Clouzot apparently shot some remarkable test footage for Inferno, while some sequences have been recreated using contemporary actors, including Berenice Bejo (OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies).

For me Clare Denis is one of the finest directors working today. White Material is set in an African country during a political upheaval. Isabelle Huppert stars as the owner of a coffee plantation determined to hold on to her land. Cult star Christopher Lambert, or Christophe as he is always billed in French movies, plays her husband who fully intends to get them both out of the country before the trouble really starts.

John Hillcoat directs this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Hillcoat has impressed with his earlier features Ghosts of the Civil Dead (1988), To Have and to Hold (1997) and The Proposition (2005). The Road sees him working in Hollywood for the first time but the advance word is good.

Isaac De Bankole stars as a hitman killing time in Spain before carrying out his assignment. The trailer suggests this will be something special. Jim Jarmusch directs a starry cast which includes Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Nicolas Winding Refn reunites with his Pusher/Pusher 2 star Mads Mikkelson (Casino Royale) for this medieval epic about a mute warrior named One-Eye getting caught up in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Winding Refn has already delivered one great film this year in Bronson and Mikkelson is always watchable.

Julianne Moore stars as a suspicious wife who hires a younger woman to test her husband’s (Liam Neeson) fidelity. Director Atom Egoyan tends to make films about people who are dealing with loss in some way, whether it is through bereavement, or longing for a past event or happier times and Chloe seems to fall into this category.

Matt Damon gets fat and grows a moustache for this thriller from Steven Soderbergh. The Informant! is based on an true story but events seems to have been so bizarre that it appears to be a comedy and not the gritty thriller I was expecting.

Official website for the London Film Festival 2009.