Skip to main content

London Film Festival · 2012

London Film Festival 2012

Treasures

Classic films brought back to the big screen in style.

Programme

19 films · 5 reviews

Jump to a film

After The Curfew (Lewat Djam Malam)

A drama set in the aftermath of Dutch rule in Indonesia.

(Country: Indonesia; Year: 1954; Director: Usmar Ismail; Writer: Usmar Ismail, Asrul Sani; Stars: AN Alcaff, Netty Herawaty, RD Ismail)

The Battle Of The Ancre And The Advance Of The Tanks

Archive footage from the First World War, when tanks were seen for the first time.

(Country: UK; Year: 1917; Director: Geoffrey H Malins)

The Big Gundown (La Resa Dei Conti)

An influential early western about a lone gunman on the trail of an alleged child killer.

(Country: Italy, Spain; Year: 1966; Director: Sergio Sollima; Writer: Sergio Donati, Sergio Sollima; Stars: Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Luisa Rivelli)

Bonjour Tristesse

A spoiled teenager plots to destroy her father's relationship with his mistress - at any cost.

(Country: US; Year: 1958; Director: Otto Preminger; Writer: Arthur Laurents; Stars: Jean Seberg, David Niven, Deborah Kerr)

The Boys From Syracuse

The Comedy Of Errors relocated to Ancient Roman and performed as a musical.

(Country: US; Year: 1940; Director: A Edward Sutherland; Writer: Charles Grayson, Paul Gerard Smith, Leonard Spigelgass; Stars: Allan Jones, Joe Penner, Martha Raye)

Gipsy Anne (Fante-Anne)

A tragic love triangle forms between Anne, her step-brother and a farmhand.

(Country: Norway; Year: 1920; Director: Rasmus Breistein; Writer: Rasmus Breistein; Stars: Aasta Nielsen, Einar Tveito, Lars Tvinde)

In The Year Of The Pig

A highly influential documentary condemning US military activity in Vietnam.

(Country: US; Year: 1968; Director: Emile de Antonio; Writer: Emile de Antonio)

Journey To Italy (Viaggio In Italia, The Lonely Woman)

Review preview for Journey To Italy

Since the film so closely follows the couple, it is vital that we feel this sense of alienation and despair, and feel it we do.

Caro Ness · 5 out of 5
A seminal film about a marriage in crisis.

(Country: Italy/France; Year: 1953; Director: Roberto Rossellini; Writer: Roberto Rossellini, Vitaliano Brancati; Stars: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Paul Muller, Anna Proclemer, Maria Mauban, Leslie Daniels, Natalia Ray)

Full review

Lawrence Of Arabia

Review preview for Lawrence Of Arabia

What remains true now, as it was then, is the scale and scope of the thing.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
A biopic of TE Lawrence focused on role in the Arab/Turkish conflict during the First World War.

(Country: UK; Year: 1962; Director: David Lean; Writer: Robert Bolt, based on Seven Pillars Of Wisdom by T E Lawrence; Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quale, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Wolfit)

Full review

The Loves Of Pharaoh

Review preview for The Loves Of Pharaoh

A classical exploration of power, love, violence and misery.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 3.5 out of 5
A dramatic tale of life and love in Ancient Egypt.

(Country: Germany; Year: 1922; Director: Ernst Lubitsch; Stars: Emil Jannings, Dagny Servaes, Harry Liedtke)

Full review

Mahanagar (The Big City)

A wife scandalises her husband by going out to work as a sales clerk, finding her independence as India is coming to terms with its.

(Country: India; Year: 1963; Director: Satyajit Ray; Writer: Satyajit Ray; Stars: Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Haren Chatterjee)

The Manxman

Friendship is tested when two men fall for the same woman.

(Country: UK; Year: 1929; Director: Alfred Hitchcock; Writer: Eliot Stannard; Stars: Carl Brisson, Anny Ondra, Malcolm Keen)

Richard III

Review preview for Richard III

Olivier's performance is immensely intelligent, fiercely energetic, unnervingly funny and deeply disturbing

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
Shakespeare's 15th century horror comic.

(Country: UK; Year: 1955; Director: Laurence Olivier; Writer: Colley Cibber, Laurence Olivier, based on the play by William Shakespeare; Stars: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, Cedric Hardwicke, Mary Kerridge, Alec Clunes, Pamela Brown, Andrew Cruickshank, Laurence Naismith, Douglas Wilmer, Clive Morton, Paul Huson, Nicholas Hannen, Norman Wooland, Stanley Baker, Patrick Troughton, Richard Bennett, Michael Gough, Andy Shine)

Full review

Something Wild

A suicidal rape victim is imprisoned by an angry man who tries to help her.

(Country: US; Year: 1961; Director: Jack Garfein; Writer: Jack Garfein, Alex Karmel; Stars: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock)

The Spanish Dancer

A Spanish gypsy singer, caught in a love triangle, attempts to resolve intrigues in the royal court.

(Country: US; Year: 1923; Director: Herbert Brenon; Writer: Beulah Marie Dix, June Mathis; Stars: Pola Negri, Antonio Moreno, Wallace Beery)

Tess

An adaptation of Tess Of The D'Urbervilles.

(Country: France; Year: 1979; Director: Roman Polanski; Writer: Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski, John Brownjohn, based on the book Tess Of The D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.; Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson)

The War Of The Volcanoes

The true story of a jealous lover's decision to challenge her cheating partner by creating a rival to his film.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Francesco Patierno; Stars: Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman, Anna Magnani)

Wings

Early airmen engage in spectacular aerial combat and fall for a beautiful Red Cross nurse.

(Country: US; Year: 1927; Director: William A Wellman; Writer: Hope Loring, Louis D Lighton; Stars: Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen)

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?)

Review preview for What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?

Towering performances from two of the twentieth century's greatest stars, a mercilessly witty script and direction which pulls no punches - quite simply the greatest melodrama of its era.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Two sisters, a former child star and a now disabled Hollywood actress, are bound together by co-dependency and mutual resentment.

(Country: US; Year: 1962; Director: Robert Aldrich; Writer: Lukas Heller, based on the book by Henry Farrell.; Stars: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono)

Full review