WatchSeeLookView At The London Film Festival (LFF) 2019 - And So It Begins…

It would definitely be fair to say that I have rekindled my love affair with cinema this year… although you could well argue that this month it’s going to tip over from love affair into dangerous obsession requiring a restraining order. It’s October again and time for that highlight of the UK cinema calendar - the BFI London Film Festival. I went along last year to thirteen of the films on offer; this year, I’ve doubled down, gone all in and various other gambling based metaphors - I’m going to 27 films over the 11 days of the festival.

This may well be madness (especially given that I’m only taking two and a bit days off work to do it) but I’m looking forward to it immensely. I think what I enjoy most about it is finding odd films that I otherwise wouldn't have been to see, as well as getting to see some major films prior to their main release. I am at the very least intrigued by all of them (I mean, I wouldn't have booked them otherwise, to be honest) but I think that the ones that I am most looking forward to are the new Taika Waititi film, Jojo Rabbit (about a young boy and his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler) and psychological horror The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.

I’ll let the films unfold as I watch them so no previews (well, other than the two I’ve just mentioned above). Instead, here are a few of the ones I had on the hitlist but wasn’t able to book through logistics - there are 345 films showing and a lot of the ones I wanted to see clashed with each other:-

• Scales - Saudi Arabian film about a village appeasing a local mermaid through human sacrifice
• Knives Out - murder mystery from the director of Looper and Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• La Belle Epoque - Westworld-style drama about an agency that allows people to live out their fantasies in different eras
• The King - modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s Henry V
• Dogs Don’t Wear Pants - dark comedy about a dominatrix
• Days Of The Bagnold Summer - directorial debut of The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird
• I Lost My Body - animation about a severed hand searching for its owner

It’s always hit and miss in terms of what you decide to see and what you almost decide to see but that's part of the fun. Last year, I had Bros: After The Screaming Stops and Being Frank on my list but they clashed; both films that I've subsequently seen and absolutely loved.

So if that’s what I’m not watching (and let’s face it, they sound pretty weird and wonderful as it is), what am I actually watching? Stay tuned to this very blog to find out!