AUTUMN FILM SPECIAL
BERWICK-UPON-TWEED FILM & MEDIA FESTIVAL Let’s cast a downwards glance at Berwick- upon-Tweed, the northernmost town of England. Border wars have been fought over it, the last time it belonged to Scotland men still wore acorn hats, fur-trimmed doublets and hosen. But let’s still embrace its yearly annual celebration of the art of i lm, now in its eighth year. It is, after all, only a short train journey away. This year’s festival agenda is to explore the relationship between the moving and still image, showcasing artists who work across i lm and photography. Here’s i ve picks from the programme . . .
1. LA JETÉE RIP the mighty photographer, i lmmaker, essayist and multimedia artist Chris Marker, who died in July this year. His 1962 masterwork La Jetée is the powerhouse of photomontage, conceptual i lmmaking, the i lm that all other invocations of apocalyptic time travelling sci-i feed from. The festival will mark the i lm’s 50th anniversary with a rare 35mm i lm presentation of the i lm alongside Benjamin Villaverde’s mockumentary Le Futur. Maltings Cinema, Sat 22 Sep, 6pm. 2. BLOW-UP IN PICTURES A tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 counter cultural thriller Blow Up in a newly opened gallery that’s home to the work of artist Ian Stephenson, whose paintings feature in Antonioni’s i lm. Berwick Watchtower, Wed 19–Sun 23 Sep.
3. BOY, BOY ON BIKE AND BOY IN LANDSCAPE Looped short i lm triptych by Duane Hopkins’ the director of Better Things: one of the best British i lms of the last few years. The Magazine, throughout the festival 4. WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED LOVE? New feature from Mark Cousins, the creator of The Story of Film. A very personal contemplation of Sergei Eisenstein’s walking tour of Mexico City. Maltings Cinema, Sat 22 Sep, 7.30pm.
5. CHASING ICE The festival’s opening night gala is cinematographer and i lmmaker Jeff Orlowski’s documentary record of National Geographic photographer James Balog as he chronicles the melting of glaciers around the world through time-lapse photography. Maltings Cinema, Wed 19 Sep, 7pm. (Paul Dale) ■ Berwick-upon-Tweed Film & Media Festival runs from Wed 19–Sun 23 Sep.
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD One of the year’s most anticipated and original projects, Beasts of the Southern Wild is building a groundswell of interest on the back of Sundance and Cannes appearances, and looks likely to get heavy exposure throughout the awards season. The debut feature from director Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild was adapted from a stage-play called Juicy and Delicious written by Zeitlin with Lucy Alibar. The story focuses on Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), a six-year-old who i nds herself struggling for survival in a community decimated by l oods. The health of her father Wink (Dwight Henry) is declining, and Hushpuppy believes that melting polar ice-caps are about to release a race of pre-historical creatures known as aurochs. Hushpuppy’s epic journey in search of her mother might sound like a children’s fantasy, but Beasts of the Southern Wild is certainly not for kids, instead offering a magic-realist fable with a fresh, visionary view. Accusations of poverty porn may form part of a backlash, but the strong word-of-mouth so far indicates that Beasts of the Southern Wild is likely to be one of 2012’s most discussed and appreciated releases. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Selected release from Fri 19 Oct.
gleeful debut Chopper, an account of the life and times of Melbourne extortionist and violent criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read was followed seven years later by the Brad Pitt-starring outlaw epic The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: a profound dislocation of western genre and one of the key English language i lms of the 00s. For his slow, intense labour Dominik has earned himself comparisons to Terrence Malick and Stanley Kubrick. No one expected to see another i lm from him for at least another decade. Killing Them Softly is his i rst i lm not to feature an incarnation of a real person. It’s adapted from George V Higgins’ 1974 crime thriller novel and is Dominik’s second collaboration with Pitt as both lead actor and producer. Pitt stars as professional enforcer Jackie Cogan. Cogan is investigating a heist that has occurred during a high stakes poker game. Referencing the i lms of every urban American i lmmaker from Sidney Lumet to Walter Hill, Killing Them Softly is a gritty, nuanced, blackly comic genre piece that plays to Dominik’s strengths as both a director and a screenwriter. (Paul Dale) ■ General release from Fri 21 Sep.
KILLING THEM SOFTLY Biopics of tortured bad men and periods in development hell have been New Zealand-born Australian i lmmaker Andrew Dominik’s stock in trade since the millennium. His economic and
20 THE LIST 23 Aug–20 Sep 2012