The 57th BFI London Film
The Festival will screen a total of 234 fiction and documentary features, including 22 World Premieres, 16 International Premieres, 29 European Premieres and 20 Archive films. There will also be screenings of 134 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes and other special events.
Taking place over 12 days, the Festival’s screenings are at venues across the capital, from the West End cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and a new addition this year the Cineworld Haymarket; central London venues – BFI Southbank; the ICA, Curzon Mayfair, and Ciné Lumière; and local cinemas – Ritzy Brixton, Hackney Picturehouse, Renoir, Everyman Screen on the Green and Rich Mix. Additional screenings and events will take place at the Curzon Chelsea, BFI London IMAX and Village Underground.
The LGBT strand is always very prominent within the festival programme and this year they have two LGBT titles as Gala’s, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner, Blue Is The Warmest Colour and Stranger By The Lake directed by Alain Guiraudie. In the Official Competition section they have Tom At The Farm, which tells th
e story of lies and deceit between a homosexual couple.
Others which have an LGBT theme are:
EASTERN BOYS – dare – Desire, danger and love are key themes in this story about a solitary Parisian and a young Ukrainian migrant,
ME, MYSELF AND MUM – Adapting Gallienne’s own solo stage show, “Me Myself and Mum” turns on his recreation of a childhood overshadowed by his dear mamma who assumes, like seemingly everybody else, that he’s gay. Gallienne plays himself as a child and schoolboy as well as his mother.
IT’S ALL SO QUIET – As Helmer attempts to carve some kind of life for himself, a series of encounters with a young farm hand and a middle-aged milk truck driver awaken within him desires he has tried hard to repress.
FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS – The story of a young man discovering his homosexuality, while his girlfriend tries to cling onto him.
PORTRAIT OF JASON – Archive – Shirley Clarke’s cinéma-vérité masterpiece about a gay African-American cabaret performer and prostitute revealingly restored.
VICTIM – Archive – Starring Dirk Bogarde, this is the first English language film to use the word ‘homosexual’.
Later in the year some of these films will appear at your local Arthouse cinemas or be available on DVD, Bent will try and keep you in the loop as dates are released.
The 57th BFI London Film Festival will run from 9-20 October 2013.