Tag Archives: LIFF

Writer & Director: Ingmar Bergman Music: Erik Nordgren Reviewer: Rich Jevons Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) from 1957 is written and directed by the Swedish Svengali Ingmar Bergman and tackles the eternal question of our mortality and the meaning of our lives, especially as one approaches old age. Professor Isak Borg (played by silent cinema actor-director Victor Sjöström) is a 78-year-old widower. ...

Director & Writer: Jean-Luc Godard Reviewer: Rich Jevons Director of some 127 films, including the recent Goodbye to Language in 3D, the 87-year-old narrates in a 10,000 Marlboro voice. It consists of a five-part mosaic of archive material and fictionalised sections that provide Godard's radical discourse on the state of the world. In particular, the Middle East. The sporadic scenes ...

Writer & Director: Jim Finn Reviewer: Rich Jevons The narrative of Jim Finn's The Drunkard's Lament is based on letters by Branwell Brontë, on the subject (mainly) of his sister Emily's Wuthering Heights. And, of course, there is a fair amount about his addiction to liquor and opium, too. He also waxes lyrical about his affair with a married woman ...

Director: Hiroyasu Ishida Writers: Tomihiko Morimi (novel), Makoto Ueda (screenplay) Reviewer: Rich Jevons Hiroyasu Ishida's coming-of-age anime is a fantasy with some incredible animation, from the characters in the rich narrative to the penguins and Jabberwockies in the magical mystery. The central character, 10-year-old Aoyama, embarks on a quest is to solve the mystery of why penguins are suddenly appearing ...

Director: Wash Westmoreland   Writers: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland & Rebecca Lenkiewicz Reviewer: Rich Jevons This biopic of French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette begins with her husband-to-be, writer and critic Henry Gauthier-Villars (known by his pen name Willy), visiting her as an ingénue in provincial Burgundy. We see them make love in a barn near her family home and this sets the ...

Director: Louis Malle Writer: Pierre Drieu La Rochelle Reviewer: Rich Jevons The Time Frames strand at this year's Leeds International Film Festival presents a wide-ranging selection of films from the past and present, all taking place within 24 hours. The first of these is a classic of French cinema directed by Louis Malle, The Fire Within. It sees a terrific ...