These are the films that we had intended to screen this year. It probably hasn't been a vintage year because releases started to dry up as soon as the virus became known. There were, however, some fine films out there - as there always is - but one generally had to search deeper for them. Great talent is still emerging with a number of excellent directorial debut films but there was little of worth that came out of Hollywood.
We would be interested in your own reviews of the films below and any suggestions for best films of the year you may have seen and we missed.
How does Iceland with a population of 364,000 manage to produce a stream of excellent films when the UK struggles to produce any (THE LAST TREE by Shola Amoo did show promise). A White, White Day will not to be everyone's taste - slow and deliberate - but this semi-thriller drama of a widower's psychological disintegration is superbly filmed and has a number of touches which suggest this a major talent. The follow-up to the brilliant Rams - a widow farmer takes on the local co-op mafia - is a slighter work but well-worth watching.
Two directors to watch out for...
PAOLO GENOVESE
Italian cinema has been in the doldrums for some time but Genovese is producing excellent popular films.
You may not know this... but the screenplay of PERFETTI SCONOSCIUTI (PERFECT STRANGERS 2016) is the most filmed of all time with many different national versions. Things fall dramatically apart at a dinner party when someone suggests they use their mobile phone. A tightly composed screenplay typical of Genovese.
Managed to track down a copy of Francesco Rosi's 1987 rarely seen CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD, the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. Quirky but worth seeing a young Rupert Everett.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The Festival is committed to campaigns on climate change and this year has seen some extremely good films connected to the subject and environmental action in general.
A curious and charming animation looking at the behind-the-scenes production of Bunuel's controversial documentary, Land Without Bread, which was funded by a lottery win 1930.
DOCUMENTARIES
We don't screen as many documentaries as we like to or as we used to. Unfortunately, Netflix and Amazon in their thirst for material often buy them up without issuing a DVD which makes it impossible for us to obtain a licence to screen them. It's good for the producers who receive an income, though in fact a very small one, but means many excellent documentaries are virtually unseen on the big screen.
The Life of Ronnie Scott and his world famous jazz club (UK 2020) had been booked to screen following the success of the Miles Davis documentary last year.
Enjoyable POPULAR FILMS this year included LITTLE WOMEN, EMMA which was better than the reviews, the thoroughly enjoyable and BAD EDUCATION about a US public-school scandal with a very good Hugh Jackman,
We had hoped to do a special season of Japanese films to coincide with the BFI promotion of its cinema but hope to do so next year.
FILMS OF THE YEAR?
The Festivals, Oscars, critics and audiences praised PARASITE (Dir. Korea 2019), MARRIAGE STORY (Dir. Noah Baumbach US 2019), PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (Dir. France 2019) though there were dissenting voices.
It was good to see a subtitled film winning the Oscar but though Parasite was very good did I enjoy it as much as Bong Joo-Ho's previous films? No. Brilliant acting in Marriage Story but it seemed too long (a common fault nowadays in most films) and fell away. Portrait of a Lady on Fire was to my mind the film of the year. Gorgeous to look at with a fresh eye on composing shots, there was something about it, almost magical, that makes it linger in the mind when most films vanish at the end of the credits. But then, there were those who thought it was tosh.
If I were to choose another great film of the year it would be BACARAU (Dirs. Kleber Mendonca Filho & Juliano Dornelles Brazil 2019), a distinctive and decidedly weird but absolutely memorable modern western about villagers fighting injustice in an isolated village in Brazil that simply disappears off the map. I also admired LA BELLE EPOQUE (Dir. Nicholas Bedos France 2019) which unfortunately seems to have disappeared off the radar. The truly wonderful Daniel Atueuil stars in a very French-style romantic, nostalgic comedy-drama that was utterly delightful and entertaining.
Unfortunately, Parasite, Marriage Story (and Roma) were exclusive to Netflix, and La Belle Epoque to Amazon, which meant that we would not have been able to screen them. Streaming does have serious down-sides.
Stephen Dorril, Director Holmfirth Film Festival.
26 November 2020