Want escape the world of banking for two weeks? If so, then head to the 23th London Film Festival, where you'll see movies in all types of categories: Galas and Special Screenings, New British Cinema, French Revolutions, Cinema Europa, World Cinema, Experimenta, Treasures from the Archives, Short Cuts and Animations.
The festival, starting on Oct. 12, will be showing dozens and dozens of new (and some old) films, with most of the new films having their first screenings in the UK.
One of most highly-anticipated films to be shown is W.E., directed by former Londoner Madonna (ex-wife of legitimate director, Guy Ritchie). In the film, Abbie Cornish plays an American woman who is obsessed with Wallace Simpson, the woman for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the throne. Has Madonna reinvented herself (again)? And will new father Guy Ritchie attend?
Another major movie to open at the film festival is the George Clooney film, The Ides of March. Also starring Ryan Gosling, Clooney plays a Democratic hopeful for U.S. President while Gosling is his press spokeman who has an affair with an intern. (Ring any bells?) Clooney also wrote and directed this film. Is there anything this man can't do? Can he perhaps resolve the banking crisis?
George Clooney (again) is the star of The Descendants. He plays a father who takes stock of his life and tries to reconnect with the daughters he never really got to know. DIrected by Alexander Payne.
Keira Knightley stars, alongside Viggo Mortensen (who starred in last year's acclaimed The Road), in David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method. Knightley plays a disturbed Russian woman who is experimented on by Carl Jung (Mortensen). This film also deals with Jung's relationship with Sigmund Freud (Michael Fassbinder).
Fassbinder (again) stars in director Steve McQueen's Shame. He plays a single man who has a good job and nice apartment, but harbors a secret sex life. Things get complicated when his younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves in with him. Filmed in New York City.
Oscar-winning director and one-time fugitive, Roman Polanski, brings us Carnage. Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster play mothers whose two young boys have a fight in school. It is up to the parents to get to the real root of the problem, which turns out to be the parents' relationships with each other. Christopher Waltz and John C. Reilly play the husbands.
For those Sarah Palin fans out there, you can go see You Betcha - a documentary about the former Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Although director Nick Bromfield never actually speaks to Palin, he speaks to people in Wasilla, Alaska, who know her and and who have worked with her. Do they think she will ever make a good president? See this film and find out.
In what could be the most fascinating film of the festival, double Oscar-winner Sean Penn plays Cheyenne, an aging rock star, in This Must Be the Place. He lives in Dublin and goes back home to America to visit his dying father, who was persecuted by the Nazis. The photo of Sean Penn as the John Lennon-like rocker in the film programme makes him actually look like a young Cilla Black, so it will be interesting to see if Penn can pull off playing this role. (Given he has won two Oscars, including one for playing a gay man, Harvey Milk, he probably can). This Must Be the Place also stars Bono's daughter.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is another film with great buzz. Tilda Swinton is generating Oscar talk for her role as a mother of a young boy who has been accused of a horrible crime. Her family and their lives will never be the same.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the films playing at the festival. To read more, visit the Festival's website .
So leave the office early one day and treat yourself to some films, but remember, book as soon as possible as many films will sell out completely.
Tim Baros has worked in the derivatives industry for several large financial institutions in both the U.S. and the U.K. Tim moved from New York City to London in 2003 to take advantage of the many job opportunities that London had to offer at that time, and he has since become a British citizen. Tim enjoys writing, and has also had articles published in Touch London, Pride Life, CityAM and SquareMile.com .
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