Report by Carlie Newman

Press screenings started in advance. We have already seen some that are worthy of recommendation. And now we are nearly at the end of the LFF 2024.

First lot of recommendations:

MY ETERNAL SUMMER, a Danish film directed by Sylvia Le Fanu stars Kaya Toft Loholt as 15-year-old Fanny who accompanies her mother and father to their beach house. The family knows that the mother is dying and this is the last holiday they will spend together. She and her father do all they can to make Fanny‘s mother comfortable so that she can enjoy her last few weeks with the family.

Realistic acting from all the stars gives this film, a tender feeling. Worth looking out for when it’s released in the future.

A big surprise is the stop motion film, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL – Equal parts, sad and funny this is a lovely little film about a brother and sister twins who are separated as young children and sent to different foster homes. Directed by Adam Elliot and set in Australia in the 1970s, it has great dialogue and visuals, definitely worth a view.

Worth seeing for the performance of Imogen Poots an actress who is an underestimated actress. She plays Laura looking for her special one. Brett Goldstein has written ALL OF YOU and stars alongside Poots as her best friend, Simon. When she takes a test which will determine the profile of her soulmate, Simon is put out. The story of best friends who discover too late that, perhaps, they are something more than friends, gives us an idea of dating today.

A film destined to be a big blockbuster is THE SURFER, starring Nicolas Cage. Under director Lorcan Finnegan, Cage stars as a keen surfer who takes his son to a spot he knew as a child. Once there, however, he is first humiliated and later attacked by a local group of surfers. Losing his watch his car, his clothes and his pride he is subjected to horrendous physical and psychological traumas. Set in Australia, the film has some violent moments, but Cage gives a good performance, and there is great photography.

Steve McQueen has proved himself an excellent director and this film is certainly unmissable. BLITZ is set in the Second World War and tells the story of George (played wonderfully by Elliott Heffernan) who escapes from the train taking him as an evacuee away from his mother, Rita (played excellently by Saoirse Ronan) to be looked after safely in the countryside. George, however, wants to stay in London with his mother and grandfather.

As he tries to return to Stepney, George encounters both good and bad people while struggling on his journey to get back home. McQueen brings to life war-torn London and shows it mainly from a child’s point of view. Production design and cinematography help us a get a real feeling of the bomb-blasted city. With a super array of actors, including Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke and Paul Weller as George’s grandfather, it will be on general release soon and is well worth seeing.

Elton John has had an amazing career and this is captured in directors’ R.J. Cutler and David Furnish’s film ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE which looks at Elton’s final US tour in 1975. Looking at these and his previous career, we see perhaps the real Elton behind the entertainer. Using archive material, the directors give us Elton’s past as well as his final performances. He is a real showman and this film captures his piano playing. his singing and some of his life.

Never one to miss, the director Walter Salles gives us I’M STILL HERE, about the Pavla family living through the oppressive regime in Brazil in the 1970s. Based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Pavla about his family’s shattered life,we see a happy family living in Rio de Janeiro, torn apart by the actions of the military junta.

The husband and father, Ernesto (Fernando Torres), is abducted, and then imprisoned for no reason. His wife, Eunice (Fernanda Montenegro) is also arrested but released. Ernesto is one of the ‘disappeared’ and Eunice spends many years looking everywhere and chasing any evidence she can find of what happened to her husband. Beautifully acted and directed with power and understanding by Salles, this is a very moving film and one of the highlights of this year‘s LFF.

SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY had most of the audience in tears. We see an obviously lovely and empathetic actor who rose to fame as Superman coping with the most terrible accident which left him completely paralysed. He was thrown from a horse in 1995 and broke his neck, leaving him not just bodily incapable but also needing a ventilator and not able to do anything for himself. This portrait shows how he struggled to make a life for himself very much helped by his lovely wife and family, all of whom were changed by his accident. Can be seen in local cinemas shortly.

SEBASTIAN, directed, and written by Mikko Makena proved very popular film. It’s a strange film about Max (played by Ruaridh Molica) who uses the pseudonym, Sebastian to meet men and have sex for money . Sebastian is a writer who has as his subject sex workers. There is a lot of sex in the movie so be prepared when you go to see it!

An unusual film that is humorous and in someways uplifting FOUR MOTHERS is a delightful tale of Edward, a gay writer who is becoming well-known and needs to go on a press tour in the United States. He, however, lives in Ireland, and apart from writing looks after his elderly mother after his father dies. She refuses to go into a care home even for two weeks and he doesn’t know how to get away to fulfill his press commitments. When he tells his friends they decide to go off on a Pride holiday dumping their ageing mothers on to Edward. James MdArdie brings his character of the caring son to life. Darren Thornton directs this comedy with just the right touch of realism and humor. An unexpected delight!

I liked MOTHERBOARD, Victoria Mapplebeck’s film story of her life as a single mother looking after her son. We see the child as a young baby growing up to be a teenager. We see how Victoria copes with her life, including at one point struggling with breast cancer and worried about its possible outcome. Filmed over 20 years. We see the son Jim grow up to be a very pleasant young man.

And right on time, as the date of the US elections approaches , we have THE APPRENTICE. Giving us a dramatisation of Donald Trump‘s early life. In New York, Sebastian Stan is an amazing look-alike for Trump. The main part of the film is concerned with Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, the attorney who became notorious for his underhand activities. Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and puts across his almost criminal manner in achieving success.

Trump is later to use Cohn’s way of working to further his own business activities. Director, Ali Abbasi has crafted a super Film, which shows the background to what we see now in Donald Trump – his arrogance, misogyny, cruelty, and complete focus on winning everything. After its showing at the London Film Festival. THE APPRENTICE can be seen at local cinemas.

I have a special interest in the actress, singer and model Twiggy , as she and her sister went to the same school as I did! The film TWIGGY, Directed by Sadie Frost, shows the real story of Leslie Hornby, who became internationally famous on the cultural scene in 1966. The young model became the face of the times. She changed her name to Twiggy and her unique style led her to fame.

Twiggy didn’t rest on her early success but found acceptance as a very special actress who was able to sing and dance. She had a troubled early marriage to the actor, Michael Whitney, who was an alcoholic and died young. Blessed with a lovely daughter, she eventually found happiness with Leigh Lawson with whom she remains very happily married.

One of the standout films of this year’s LFF was A REAL PAIN, directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Lots of amusing dialogue. It tells the story of estranged cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) who travel together to Poland to visit places that their late grandmother knew when young. Eisenberg, who was also the screen writer on the film gives us lots of witty dialogue and there are some amusing episodes where Benji plays around during the group tour that the two undertake. Worth catching when the film is released.

And one of my favorite directors, Mike Leigh, has brought HARD TRUTHS to this year’s LFF. Alternatively very sad and then amusing, it stars the brilliant Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy, who criticises everyone: her husband, son, sister Chantal (Michele Austin) shopkeepers and, indeed,anyone she comes into contact with.

As usual with Mike Leigh’s films, he has the same team around him and the cinematography (Dick Pope), costumes, music and production design are all superb. Bringing his usual sensitivity and truth to characters, Leigh gives us a portrait of a woman in mental agony. I would have liked a more upbeat ending, but this is Mike Leigh’s vision and he knows his character best. Unmissable.