The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival: Best Foreign Films

The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival: Best Foreign Films

24 September, 2008
by: Jimmy

As usual many of the best and strangest foreign picks have made it over the Channel to this year's BFI film festival. In fact so many films from beyond the staple US and UK studios are being shown that they have been respectfully subdivided into their own groupings: 13 from France alone, 40 more from the rest of Europe and another 50 from around the world. That's not to mention the dozen or so receiving top billing at the branch-out showings in the West End… nor the shorts, the 'experimenta', or the Dutch film A Man to Remember, a tear-jerker rescued from the archives and receiving its first showing in seventy years.

Such numbers are either intimidating or challenging depending upon your point of view but what's certain is there will be some gems among them (like last year's fantastic Iranian animation Persepolis which was able to open nationally on the back of its reviews at the festival). Here's ten of our favourites, check out the BFI website for dozens more.

Beirut Open City
17, 18 October: ICA
A pulsating tour de force, set in the '90s in Beirut the film follows the fortunes of a photographer trying to uncover the shady activities of the secret police and the underworld in which they are entwined. The story plays out at great speed and energy, as Lebanese director Samir Habchi pits the characters against impossible odds in an impenetrable city. JWA

A Perfect Day (Un Giorno Perfetto)
17, 19 October: Odeon West End
Italian maestro Ozpetek's ultra-modern tale of contemporary Italian politics. Based on Melania Mazzucco's best-selling novel the story centres on a high profile politician seeking re-election and as seems habitual for Italian politicians, battling corruption charges and his bodyguard whose own world is rapidly falling to pieces. Tense, tender and with terrific performances this film has far greater ambition and weight than your average popcorn fare. JWA

The Class (Entre les murs)
18, 20 October: Odeon West End
A Palme d'Or winning account of one term in a high school in the rougher section of Paris, based upon the semi-autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau. It is directed by Laurent Cantet and stars Bégaudeau as a teacher whose class challenge his teaching methods. JK

Tokyo!
18, 21 October: Odeon West End
A project from the French master Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Korean director Bong Jeen Ho that takes the form of a triptych of short films. The pedigree of the cast and crew on these three films is of the highest calibre, while the tone is lyrical to the extreme. Those of you hankering after a snippet of art house cinema with mainstream appeal need look no further than Tokyo! WB

I Am Alive (Sono Viva) - Jimmy
19, 20 October: Curzon Mayfair
A black comedy that builds into a pretty terrifying and serious denouement, Sono Viva is about a man entrusted to look after the corpse of a beautiful young lady. Written and directed by the Italian Gentili brothers, Italy's answer to the Coens, this is subtle, funny and downright scary. JH

Shultes
19 October: ICA
29 October: Ritzy
A compelling and surprisingly compassionate tale of a Moscow pickpocket who lives a thoughtless hand-to-mouth existence with no friendships or breaks in routine, until he encounters one of his victims in a hospital. Cinematically Shultes owes a lot to Parisian and Italian crime flicks, and also to the 'Brat' Russian gangster series, but this no-budget debut has a worldview all fo its own. JH

Achilles and the Tortoise
21, 22 October: Odeon West End
The title comes from a paradox that the philosopher Zeno used to demonstrate that time and change were just an illusion. Director 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, of Zatôichi and Brother, claims that art is just such a chimera. Kitano plays a talentless artist whose obsession for art slips over into disturbing and obsessive behaviour. Featuring Kitano's own paintings, surrealist touches and disturbing violence. JK

United Red Army (Jitsuroku: Rengo Sekigun) - Jimmy
22 October: National Film Theatre
A radical epic from Koji Wakamatsu detailing the descent of student radicalism into cultish violence in the 1960s. A troubling film, United Red Army is suprisingly sympathetic toward the student leaders, despite the fact that they lost their way completely and ended up torturing fellow idealists for backsliding. Gory, beautifully shot and totally ambiguous. JH

Citizen Havel
22 October: National Film Theatre
26 October: Tricycle Theatre
For Havel fans it's a great time to be in London. The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond is putting on three of his plays over the next couple of months and the BFI are now presenting Koutecky's multi-layered documentary of the artist who became a political figurehead and ultimately the first President of his country. It follows the ten years of his Presidency, a time of upheaval in which the Czech Republic rapidly embraced democracy and free markets. His political career may be one of the few that seems not to have ended in failure, though the rapid changes he oversaw were not always free from downsides – few of Prague's residents greatly enjoyed seeing the city morph into the stag capital of Europe. Required viewing for Barrack and John – here's an object lesson in how to get a Presidency right while keeping your sense of humour intact. JWA

Il Divo
23 October: Odeon West End
Something like the opposite of Havel's happy presidency is represented in Sorrentino's monumental drama, Il Divo. Giulio Andreaotti was Prime Minister seven times of the country which gave the world Machiavelli. If you've never understood why Italians seem so relieved each time Berlusconi settles down for another spell of beach presidency and Prince Philip-style gaffes this film might help to explain why. As the BFI notes though this is more than simply a biopic, think The Sopranos meets The West Wing with a dash of The Leopard and you'll understand why this caused such a sensation when it previewed at Cannes. JWA

The Silence of Lorna (Le Silence de Lorna)
27 October: Odeon West End
29 October: National Film Theatre
With a plot involving an Albanian immigrant in Belgium planning to gain citizenship, a snack bar, a maniacally religious husband, the mafia and murder, The Silence of Lorna sounds far-fetched at best. However, placed in the hands of Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne the result is a deeply moving and thought provoking piece of cinema. Honoured at Cannes with the Best Screenplay award, it is well worth the cover charge. WB


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Jimmy