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London Film Festival · 2012

London Film Festival 2012

Official Competition

Programme

12 films · 9 reviews

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End Of Watch

Review preview for End Of Watch

Sit back and enjoy the ride with LA's finest.

Owen Van Spall · 3.5 out of 5
Two young cops are hunted by a vicious drug cartel.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: David Ayer; Writer: David Ayer; Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick, Natalie Martinez, David Harbour, Frank Grillo, America Ferrera, Cle Shaheed Sloan, Jaime FitzSimons)

Full review

Everyday

The story of four young children growing up with their mother while their father is in prison.

(Year: 2012; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Michael Winterbottom, Laurence Coriat; Stars: Shirley Henderson, John Simm, Shaun Kirk)

Fill The Void (Lemale et ha'halal)

A woman's view of Tel Aviv's ultra-orthodox Hasidic community from the inside.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2012; Director: Rama Burshtein; Writer: Rama Burshtein; Stars: Hila Feldman, Razia Israeli, Yiftach Klein, Renana Raz, Ido Samuel, Chayim Sharir, Irit Sheleg, Hadas Yaron)

Ginger And Rosa (Ginger & Rosa)

Review preview for Ginger And Rosa

Fanning's sincere face in happiness and disbelief is the essence of the film.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Two teenage girls living in 1960s London are driven apart by a scandalous betrayal.

(Country: UK, Denmark, Canada, Croatia; Year: 2012; Director: Sally Potter; Writer: Sally Potter; Stars: Christina Hendricks, Elle Fanning, Annette Bening, Alessandro Nivola, Jodhi May, Alice Englert, Oliver Milburn, Greg Bennett, Andrew Hawley.)

Full review See: New York Film Festival - Leos Carax on Holy Motors, Sally Potter on Ginger & Rosa and Javier Rebollo

In The House

Review preview for In The House

Ozon loves to let his audience's perceptions clash.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Fiction and reality become blurred between a teacher and student.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: François Ozon; Writer: François Ozon, based on the play by Juan Mayorga; Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner, Denis Ménochet, Fabrice Luchini, Jean-François Balmer, Ernst Umhauer, Diana Stewart, Fabrice Colson, Stéphanie Campion, Bastien Ughetto)

Full review See: François Ozon interview about In The House

It Was The Son (E' Stato Il Figlio, The Son Did It)

Review preview for It Was The Son

Keeping us focused as the story meanders is Cipri's own elegant cinematography, which finds a poetry in the grimmest of places.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A dysfunctional family struggles to survive in a challenging environment, but might wealth make things even worse?

(Country: Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Daniele Ciprì; Writer: Daniele Ciprì and Massimo Gaudioso, based on the book by Roberto Alaimo.; Stars: Toni Servillo, Giselda Volodi, Alfredo Castro, Fabrizio Falco, Aurora Quattrocchi)

Full review See: Daniele Cipri in conversation about It Was The Son

Lore

Review preview for Lore

Where it would have been easy to soften Lore, Shortland refuses to get sentimental, keeping us hanging on the edge with her as events grow more traumatic.

David Graham · 4 out of 5
Teenager Lore and her four younger siblings are left to fend for themselves after her Nazi SS parents are taken into Allied custody.

(Country: Germany, Australia, UK; Year: 2012; Director: Cate Shortland; Writer: Cate Shortland, Robin Mukherjee, Rachel Seiffert; Stars: Saskia Rosendahl, Nele Trebs, André Frid, Mika Seidel, Kai-Peter Malina, Nick Holaschke, Ursina Lardi, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Sven Pippig, Philip Wiegratz, Katrin Pollitt, Hendrik Arnst, Claudia Geisler, Pit Bukowski, Friederike Frerichs)

Full review

Midnight's Children

Allegorical saga parallels the dramatic upheavals in a family’s history with the events that would define contemporary India.

(Country: Canada, UK; Year: 2012; Director: Deepa Mehta; Writer: Salman Rushdie, Salman Rushdie; Stars: Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Ronit Roy, Siddharth, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Darsheel Safary, Anita Majumdar, Shikha Talsania, Rahul Bose, Zaib Shaikh, Samrat Chakrabarti)

Rust And Bone (De rouille et d'os)

Review preview for Rust And Bone

Rust And Bone is the rarest of cinematic delights - poignant, provocative and profoundly visceral.

Merlin Harries · 5 out of 5
A bare-knuckle boxer embarks on a relationship with an injured whale trainer.

(Year: 2012; Director: Jacques Audiard; Writer: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, based on the story by Craig Davidson; Stars: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, Céline Sallette, Corinne Masiero, Bouli Lanners, Jean-Michel Correia, Mourad Frarema, Yannick Choirat, Fred Menut, Duncan Versteegh, Katia Chaperon, Catherine Fa, Andès Lopez Jabois, Océane Cartia)

Full review

Seven Psychopaths

Review preview for Seven Psychopaths

McDonagh just about makes this ultra violent meta train ride all hang together.

Owen Van Spall · 3.5 out of 5
A booze-fuelled screenwriter becomes entangled in the Los Angeles underworld.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Martin McDonagh; Writer: Martin McDonagh; Stars: Olga Kurylenko, Christopher Walken, Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Helena Mattsson, Zeljko Ivanek, Tom Waits, Kevin Corrigan, Gabourey Sidibe, Brendan Sexton III, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Sandy Martin, Jamie Noel)

Full review