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Festival coverage

London Film Festival

10 October – 21 October 2012

<b>Lawrence Of Arabia is one of the festival's classic highlights</b>
Lawrence Of Arabia is one of the festival's classic highlights

The London Film Festival returns for its 56th edition from October 10 to 21 with an exciting line-up of films and events. It includes some of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, from the stunning fantasy of Beasts Of The Southern Wild to the challenging social commentary of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the sinister, controversial true story Compliance. The festival will open with the European premiere of Frankenweenie and close with Mike Newell's spectacular new version of Great Expectations, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes.

Alongside the new films, there's a chance to see classics brought back to the big screen, with legendary rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford facing off in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? and little-seen early Hitchcock gem The Manxman getting its moment in the limelight. Festival guests will include Salman Rushdie, there to talk about the adaptation of his celebrated novel Midnight's Children, and Alex Gibney, introducing his latest work Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God. As always, we'll be bringing you all the latest news, reviews and exclusive features here at Eye For Film.

Other years (21)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Zarafa
    Review preview for Zarafa

    The animated characters have a detailed, Disney-friendly feel, but there is little of the sentimentality that tends to fur the teeth of US animation.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A young boy, a prince and a balloonist escort a young giraffe halfway across the world, having adventures on the way.
  • Painless
    Review preview for Painless

    There is a great story in here somewhere.. but the combination of the two narratives - presented as tonally and visually distinct from one another - does not entirely work.

    Rebecca Naughten · 2.5 out of 5
    Gothic horror entwining the story in 1930s Catalonia of a group of children who cannot feel pain, with a man searching for his biological parents in the present day.
  • Silence
    Review preview for Silence

    Well worth the effort of tuning into its wavelength.

    Rebecca Naughten · 4 out of 5
    A sound recordist returns home to Ireland to record locations away from man-made sound, and in the process finds himself inexorably drawn into his own past.
  • Violeta Went To Heaven
    Review preview for Violeta Went To Heaven

    Here, the old Chilean songs fulfill their original purpose, as storytelling elements, but now they bear the weight of a new history.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A biopic of the Chilean folk singer, composer, ethnomusicologist and painter Violeta Parra.
  • Museum Hours
    Review preview for Museum Hours

    This goes on for more than two hours and will bore some viewers to death. Others, though, will find this quiet, complex film a fascinating piece of art in itself.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A museum attendant shows a Canadian visitor the sights of Vienna and in the process falls in love with it all over again.
  • Kelly And Victor
    Review preview for Kelly And Victor

    Evans coaxes excellent performances from a couple of very talented young actors.

    Jeff Robson · 3 out of 5
    Two people trying to survive in difficult circumstances embark on a passionate affair
  • Wadjda
    Review preview for Wadjda

    A cracking film by a born filmmaker and I can’t wait to see what all involved in it do next.

    Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
    A young Saudi girl who will stop at nothing to earn enough money to buy the bicycle she craves.
  • Citadel
    Review preview for Citadel

    Anchored by a sincerely anguished turn from talented young Welsh star Aneurin Barnard.

    David Graham · 4 out of 5
    A bereaved, agoraphobic single father is beseiged by hooded teenagers who may not be quite human.
  • Les Invisibles
    Review preview for Les Invisibles

    One acquires a keen sense of the positive consciousness that might emerge through a struggle for organisation, acceptance and liberation.

    Michael Pattison · 3.5 out of 5
    Exploring the lives of 11 gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women over the age of 70.
  • Everybody Has A Plan
    Review preview for Everybody Has A Plan

    Ana Piterbarg attempts the acrobatic and ill-advised feat of presenting the plot of a B movie noir through the prism of arthouse sombreness.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
    Twin brothers - one a beekeeper with a criminal history, one a doctor - are drawn together into dangerous confrontations in the Argentinian swamplands.

A–Z of London Film Festival 2012 reviews

Features

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