London Film Festival Prepares For Bond

27 October 2008

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While everyone may be looking forward to 007 James Bond returning to London when the world premiere of Quantum of Solace rolls into town on Wednesday there has been plenty of top quality movies on show over the weekend.

Leading the way was Che, which is quickly becoming a festival favourite having played at both Cannes and Toronto and with Benicio Del Toro's performance gaining major critical support on the run up to the award season.

Director Steven Soderbergh's four hour epic is split into two separate movies, both released next year: The Argentine and Guerrilla and focus on the Cuban revolution led by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro which toppled the Futgencio Batista's dictatorship before looking at Guevara's time in Bolivia.

The film was considered the must see movie of the Toronto Film Festival and both Soderbergh and leading man Benicio Del Toro were on the red carpet in London to promote the movie over the weekend.

Waltz with Bashir, which has been hailed as one of the most extraordinary movies of 2008, was also screened. This Israeli picture depicts the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. The film’s main character is director Ari Folman himself who realises that there are major parts of his life, his experience as an Israeli soldier during the Lebanon war of the eighties, missing from his memory.

The film took four years to produce and shook the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year as one of the first movie that was showed after the hype of Kung Fu Panda that tackled some serious issues.

Telstar was one of the big British films on offer as Nick Moran's struggle to get the story of Sixties record producer Joe Meek to the big screen was finally over.

A maverick genius who enjoyed phenomenal early success with Telstar, the biggest selling record of its time, before bad luck, depression, heartbreak and paranoia forced him into murder and suicide.

A gay, amphetamine addicted, talented but deeply troubled soul, Meek dabbled in the occult. He is already an iconic figure in the world of British pop.

It's the directorial debut for British actor Nick Moran, who also co-wrote the script, and he gets some great performances from James Corden, Carl Barât leading man Con O'Neill and a cameo from Kevin Spacey as Meek's business partner.

Some of the movies to look forward to as the festival draws to a close this week is con man movie Brother Bloom, which it the highly anticipated follow up to Brick by writer-director Rian Johnson, which brings together a high quality cast of Oscar winner Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz and Mark Ruffalo.

Tuesdays big films include the new movie from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who brought us Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Synecdoche New York with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Samantha Morton. Another impressive cast of Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristen Scott Thomas and newbie Ben Barnes in witty social comedy Easy Virtue.

Then of course Wednesday is the night than most film fans have been waiting for as the 007 train comes to the Odeon in the West End for the World Premiere of Quantum of Solace, just two days before the film goes on general release.

The festival runs until 30th October

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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