BFI London Film Festival.

On the 16th of October, our class went to the BFI film festival in London. We went to see two films. The first, at 10:15 was a screening of 'The Road: A Story Of Life and Death' from Marc Isaacs. The duration of the film was 75 minutes. The story follows a main immigration route into the UK. The story introduces a number of characters who live and work along the road, who have made their way to London from all over the world. The characters include a young Irish woman who dreams of becoming a singer, a man from Kashmir, trying to earn money so his wife can come live with him, an elderly Jewish woman who fled Vienna when Hitler came to power and a retired German air stewardess. 'The Road' offers a fascinating and valuable insight into how life is for people who have come to this country from elsewhere.The film took 3 years to film.

Here are some quotes from the director:-

'There's nothing particularly special about the road on which this film is set other than its' age. It is unremarkable and ordinary things that interests me more than the, so called, remarkable or extraordinary. It's people's lives, their lived experience, and not issues that arouse my curiosity and so that was my starting point.'
'After a year and a half of filming, I was desperate to start editing the material to revisit what I had filmed with my editor and to start the search for a coherent structure. With no script or predetermined sense of where the film would lead, the final film is always a surprise to me. It is a joy to discover how these individual stories talk to each other and more importantly to all of us.'

After the screening the director came in and answered a few questions from the audience. This was very helpful for me as I was able to pick up some tips on how to film interesting footage and get an understanding of the effort put into the film.

We were given  Marc Isaacs website for further information and reading:-
www.marcisaacsfilms.com

The second film we saw at 1:00 was 'Frankenweenie' at the IMAX theatre. This was revolutionary because it is the first black and white, stop animation film to be shown on the IMAX screen.
This was a great experience again because it was a brilliant film and it gave us the understanding of the time and effort put into making a stop animation film.

There were many intertextual references in the film such as hints to the old horror movies like:-

The Mummy (with the hamster and his owner)

Frankenstein (Sparky being brought back to life and the last name of Victor)

Frankenstein's Wife (The pet poodle of Victor's neighbour)

Dracula (Victors parents are watching Christopher Lee's Dracula and the Pet cat of the weird girl)

Pet Cemetery (Where all the dead pets of the town get burred)

Birds (When the parents are getting attacked by the sea monkeys they hide in a phone box)

Gremlins (the sea monkeys explode when they eat)

Godzilla (the giant turtle)

Wolf Man (the giant rat)

Van Helsing (the last name of Victors neighbour)

Swamp Monster (when the sea monkeys rise from the swimming pool)