BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2020 ROUND-UP: PART 2

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David Byrne’s American Utopia (12A, 105 Mins)

Spike Lee’s best film of the year premiered on October 14th at Broadway Cinema. But I’m not talking about ‘Da 5 Bloods’ (2020) - the bloody overrated Vietnam war drama about Vietnam War vets. No. I’m talking about his filming, documentary and production of ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ (2020).

The titular ‘American Utopia’ is the name of David Byrne’s tenth album which was released in 2018. Just last year, the British-American rock singer staged a modified version of the album on the American Broadway stage. This included a number of songs and contributions from throughout the eccentric artist’s career. Byrne performed with 11 other musicians with wireless or portable equipment. 

This elaborate and utterly eloquent new film is basically the filmed version of that concert…

I have to confess I’ve never been much of a fan of concert films. Partially because I’m not really a music buff, but more because filmed versions of concerts tend to appeal to hardcore fans and hardcore FANS ONLY. You generally have to really know and care about the artist to get along with watching them perform on stage.

I couldn’t give a monkeys about Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ (2009), for example. But not because I hate Michael Jackson’s music, but because surely watching him on screen can’t quite compare with seeing him actually on stage in front of a live audience?

In the case of David Byrne, I knew and know almost nothing about his music beyond him being just a Lynchian David Bowie lookalike with silvery hair. This set me up to fall out with his official concert film and...I just loved it!

‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ was the most singularly pleasurable and uplifting experience of this year’s LFF. So loud, so quirky, so extravagant. This film just exudes positive energy and was a welcome distraction from the horrors of the past 12 months.

As mentioned above, I wasn’t sure that watching a concert on the big screen could match watching it live. You have the big crowd, but you don’t have the stars physically in front of you in person.
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Boy, was I wrong! Each song and set-piece is like an action sequence or mini-movie; experimenting with an abundance of different genres.

For example, his performance of ‘Hell You Talmbout’ blended percussion with velvety vocals and was accompanied by flashes of lightning that almost reminded me of a Hammer Horror production.  Later a rendition of ‘Everybody’s Coming to My House’ had Byrne and backing singers with guitars getting together in a square so as to emphasise that the band were like a family on stage.

Director Lee films each song and sequence beautifully with a lovingly constructed set of camera angles and positions. You can tell you had a proper, cinematic film-maker behind the camera on this film because ‘American Utopia’ absolutely deserves to be seen on the big screen.

I particularly felt a sequence where Byrne and co. lie down on the floor with minimal spaces between them worked particularly well. The camera focuses and fidgets with the little gaps between them; making the tiniest spaces as big as the most cavernous gaps. 

At the centre of it all is David Byrne’s face. So asymmetrical, so alien, so dream-like. Lee is fetishistically obsessed with each and every angle of it and Byrne’s silver hair has never looked so beautiful.

Even if you don’t know David Byrne and don’t like music, ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ will uplift the soul…

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Undine (15, 90 Mins)

In 2018, German film-maker Christian Petzold was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. That was for his film ‘Transit’ (2018) - a contemporary update of Anna Seghers’s 1944 novel of the same name.

He was back in the competition back in February for the 70th Berlin International Film Festival and his star Paula Beer took home the Silver Bear for her performance in ‘Undine’ (2020).

‘Undine’ is pronounced “oon-deen” and refers to the elemental beings associated with water - first named in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. These creatures which include mermaids were found in many modern literatures and arts including Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.

In this film, Beer stars as a water nymph in modern-day Berlin who falls in love with a human (Franz Rogowski) and thus becomes human herself. There is a price for such romantic pursuits, however, as when love wanes, she is doomed to die. The titular Undine thus has to kill her lover who betrays her and return to the water.

When watching ‘Tenet’ (2020) recently, Clemence Posey’s character mutters the line “don’t try to understand it...feel it”. That was the best way to enjoy Christopher Nolan’s latest head-scrambler and it’s the best way to enjoy Christian Petzold’s film here.

‘Undine’ makes very little sense in the conventional form. It’s so caught up and bound by ancient myths and legends that you forget you’re watching a modern drama set in contemporary Berlin. 

The imagery is breathtaking, though. I particularly loved a sequence of nude underwater swimming where Beer and Rogowski make love 12, 100 ft below the ground.

Paula Beer really is beautiful and she looks particularly beautiful when swimming. Her and Rogowski have some lovely chemistry and, thanks to them, I bought into the tragedy that this woman was going to die unless she murders her lover. 

There’s some nice ideas here about the price of immortality and how love can mean the difference between life and death for some people. But this movie is best served with all the philosophical fat trimmed from the bone and as a piece of fluorescent visual storytelling.

Beer won the Silver Bear for this and deservedly so. She’s the beating heart and soul of this little oddity from Germany…

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After Love (15, 89 Mins)

‘After Love’ (2020) is the feature-length directorial debut of Aleem Khan - a mixed race, half white British, half Pakistani writer-director best known for the shorts ‘Diana’ (2009), ‘The Wayfaring Stranger’ (2011) and ‘Three Brothers’ (2014).

In the video introduction before the movie played, Khan described ‘After Love’ as based on his own personal experiences of coming from a dual heritage family with a white British mother who became Muslim upon marriage to his father.

Joanna Scanlan here plays a semi-autobiographical version of this mother named Mary. Mary similarly became Muslim when she married a Muslim man. He’s not seen in this movie as he dies shortly after the opening credits went up.

Mary lives in Dover and she soon discovers that her deceased husband has a secret family living just 21 miles across the English channel in the French port of Calais. This secret family is made up of the neurotic Genevieve (Nathalie Richard) and her son Solomon (Talid Ariss).

Being from a dual heritage family myself (half white British, half Indian), I greatly related to Mary’s plight in this movie. This film is really good at tapping into the culture clashes and opposing worlds that come to the fore in a mixed marriage. 

Much like Riz Ahmed’s character in ‘Mogul Mowgli’ found himself constantly questioned about his nationality, Mary may be a Muslim by name and practice, but the question of what her true religion is comes up too often than it should.

Joanna Scanlan is brilliant at encapsulating both the mourning for the loss of her husband, her anger at his affair and unease and confusion at trying to relate to and identify with his other family. She also really cuts to the heart of what being a white Muslim means in the 21st century.

She’s ably supported by two very fine performances from Nathalie Richard and Talid Ariss as mum and son Genevieve and Solomon. Richard is already a darling of French cinema in films like Michael Haneke’s ‘Hidden’ (‘Cache’) (2005) and she brings a palatable grit to the role of the affair. A role where Genevieve believes Mary is intruding on her and her son’s life, but really she’s the one intruding given she had a fling with Mary’s husband.

Meanwhile Talid Ariss is a real find as Solomon and I really bought into the growing close relationship between him and Mary. Mary should see him as a product of crime given he is the child of her husband’s affair, but she doesn’t. They develop a bond and it’s interesting that Solomon seems to respect her more as a mother than his own mum.

This awkward mother, slightly oedipal relationship between Mary and Solomon comes to the fore in the movie’s most tense scene. When it is revealed to Solomon that he is the child of Mary’s husband’s affair, he spits in his mum’s face. With him doing so, Mary gives him a slap around the face. It’s interesting that Genevieve is more concerned that Mary slapped her son than him spitting in her face. And it says a lot about Mary that she should value her husband’s son to respect his mother despite his mother being the product of adultery.

There’s some stunning scenery too whether that be the White Cliffs of Dover, the turquoise seas of the English Channel or the hustle n’ bustle of Calais - a location which has been in the headlines in the wake of the European Refugee Crisis. 
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This scenery nicely compliments the drama which is a really moving and powerful portrait of mixed marriage, clashing values and what it means to be a white Muslim woman.

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​Ammonite (15, 120 Mins)

Yorkshire-based film-maker Francis Lee blew me away back in 2017 with his debut film ‘God’s Own Country’ (2017) which was basically a Yorkshire Dales ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2005). It had a real sense of place in its Yorkshire locations and some fabulous LGBT chemistry between its stars - Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu - who were both boosted to superstardom as a result of the movie.

Lee is back on familiar territory in ‘Ammonite’ (2020) which was officially the closing film of 2020’s LFF (more on that later!). It’s officially a biopic about acclaimed British palaeontologist Mary Anning (played by Kate Winslet) and focuses on a romantic relationship between her and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) - the emotionally fragile wife of a rich tourist named Roderick Murchison (James McArdle).

First thing to say about this movie is that its scenery is stunning. It’s set in Lyme Regis, Dorset and Lee’s rugged, clandestine camerawork beautifully films the wildness and brutality of the South-western coastline. There’s a particularly powerful scene where Winslet’s Anning cuts herself on a rock and the waves come crashing in around her.

Director Lee clearly understands the power of place and location and he orchestrates some lovely scenes of natural beauty. But I couldn’t help, but feel some of this beauty was obscured by the film’s sound design.

Many people had problems with the sound mixing of ‘Tenet’ (2020) claiming Ludwig Goransson’s palindromic score thundered out the dialogue from being heard. It’s interesting that, when watching ‘Ammonite’ at Showcase Cinema, I heard many people whispering nearby “it’s such a quiet film”.

I have to confess that I shared other cinema-goers’ concerns that the dialogue was too soft against the crashing and clashing of the waves and rocks. This is a very minimalist film that relies on minute gestures and mannerisms to tell its story.

You wouldn’t think Kate Winslet would be up to this as she’s usually such an emotive actress (watch her tearful awards speeches if you want any proof!). But this was a more minimalistic performance from her - very different from screaming and crying Kate we’ve become so used to ever since ‘Titanic’ (1997). 

She’s very good as Anning; really getting to the heart of a woman torn between her work and her passions. It’s a shame Saoirse Ronan, who’s usually so brilliant, is rather wasted in the role of her lover. She doesn’t get much time to relish her acting chops opposite such a dynamite screen presence as Kate and it’s interesting that this is the second time Ronan has seemed out of her depth and pretty much acted off the screen by another actor. The last time was opposite Florence Pugh in ‘Little Women’ (2019) who many people have alternatively called “the next Kate Winslet”.

‘Ammonite’ will certainly appeal to a certain portion of the male audience who’d fancy seeing Kate and Saoirse naked and having girl-on-girl sex scenes. But I have to confess that I didn’t find any of the sex titilating and frankly found it excessive and tedious. We get it! Some guys like watching women have sex! You don’t have to show it to us and shove it in our faces every 2 minutes!

Elsewhere, ‘Ammonite’ is a very conventional period drama that does very little to subvert its costume drama conventions. That being beyond the fact that this film features a lesbian relationship which was quite a big deal at the time this film was set.

Lee established himself as a great new voice and talent in LGBT Film with ‘God’s Own Country’. That had more to say about issues that affect the LGBT community plus stars with better chemistry and star power. ‘Ammonite’ was just more of the same rather than more…

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Supernova (15, 93 Mins)

‘Ammonite’ was scheduled to close the 2020 LFF on Saturday night and I saw it that evening at Showcase because the screening at Broadway was sold out. It was a surprise therefore to find that Broadway were screening the film ‘Supernova’ (2020) on Sunday afternoon upstairs in Screen 1. The film was one of just 12 physical LFF screenings this year.

It’s the second feature film of writer-director Harry MacQueen (best known for playing Jed Quinn in ‘EastEnders’ (1985-)) who made his directorial debut a couple of years ago with the film ‘Hinterland’ (2015) (not the Welsh-language TV series).

Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci star as Sam and Tusker, a gay couple of 20 years, who travel across England to the Lake District to reunite with friends and family. When Tusker is diagnosed with early onset dementia, the couple attempt to spend as much time together before he dies…

It was a really interesting double-bill seeing this after watching ‘Ammonite’ the night before. That film was an example of a sub-par LGBT movie whereas ‘Supernova’ is, by comparison, one of the better ones. More in line with Francis Lee’s ‘God’s Own Country’ with which it shares a setting and two highly believable, lovely performances.

This film takes a different angle to typical LGBT love stories. It could be described as an “anti rom-com”. Characters don’t fall in love, they fall out of love. While in many stories two men, two women or a man and a woman get together and make a baby, ‘Supernova’ charts a relationship in its end days with the spectre of Dementia hanging ominously like a cloud of black smoke.

Tucci and Firth have wonderful chemistry - both moving me to tears at times. Tucci is excellent at encapsulating the deteriorating mental state of a man with Alzheimer’s; slowly losing his mind as mind and body become at odds with each other. Meanwhile Firth is perfect when it comes to playing a carer to someone with this issue and wearing the weight of the world on his shoulders as this condition brings with it.

I really liked a scene where they fall out - each accusing the other of being “selfish”. This scene really tells a story from both perspectives - the patient and the carer. Alzheimer’s does not just rip a hole in its victim’s heart, but in the hearts of everyone around them. We mustn't forget the impact this condition has on those left to pick up the pieces.

I imagine both Firth and Tucci will be getting BAFTA noms for their performances here considering the rave reviews this movie has generated and mostly deservedly so.

I loved the scenery too. MacQueen really knows how to turn a landscape into a character of its own - the green, mountainous ranges of the Lake District proving the perfect accompaniment to the ailing romance at this movie’s beating heart.

Watch out for a scene too - hence the title ‘Supernova’ - where Sam and Tusker spot a supernova in the stars at night. It’s proof that love has a transcendence that can overcome even the most arduous of hurdles.

‘Supernova’ was a nice, gentle end to a truly miraculous LFF. Miraculous because it even happened at all. Other film festivals might want to take note if they want to survive this pandemic...

This article was originally written in October 2020.

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