Sci Fi London in review
Best of the Festival:
My favourite film was Byzantium. It's an interesting take on vampires, using sources earlier than Bram Stoker as inspiration. The cinematography is beautiful, the acting excellent, the setting is a run-down seaside town seen in both Regency period (with some gorgeous costumes) and modern-day as the plot progresses. Some of you may agree with me (and the writer, Moira Buffini, expressed the same opinion in the Q&A afterward) that the British seaside town provides the perfect setting for a horror film.
If you didn't catch this at the festival, it goes on general release at the end of May - highly recommended!
Not a Film:
Those of you who missed the Dog Parade can see the entrants here
Some Other Films: Many were screened. These are the ones I saw.
My next favourite was Piercing Brightness. It's a bit slow and arty, and reminded me in atmoshpere of Man Who Fell To Earth. There are aliens living among us, observing our ways. They can take on human form, but they also like to be birds sometimes. They live in Preston.
Then there's Vessel, a film about what happens when aliens try to communicate with us. I liked the premise but found the execution flawed. It's worth seeing, but I would have put the scenes in a different order, and there were parts I found too confusing, whereas others were too much explained. I want people to see this so I can talk to them about it.
Mars et Avril is a strange and beautiful film. Fantastic, rather than science-fictional (despite a futuristic setting). It's about music and love and the source of inspiration. I was almost disappointed that it had an actual ending, as the plot really isn't the point of the film.
Sado Tempest is billed as a Japanese version of The Tempest, with rock music. I thought it could have used a bit more of the music. Otherwise, it's a cool film, though I thought the point it made about the conditions under which it's possible to create (in this case music, but applicable to anything) came across much more clearly than the ostensible plot of the film.
I'm just going to mention here my favourite Japanese science fiction music film, which was not part of the festival, but has been shown on Film 4: Fish Story. If it's on again, watch it. It's kind of weird. Trust me, watch it.
And finally, shown in crossover with the Terracotta Film Festival: Tai Chi Hero and the sequel Tai Chi Zero: steampunk kung-fu. Really, I don't have to say any more, do I? You know you want to see these.
Can't Really Comment On: War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D. I sat in on this while volunteering for the all-nighter, so I wasn't exactly entirely awake for the whole thing. It starts out promisingly enough, with a complicated political situation as the Martians invade for the second time on the eve of the First World War. It then degenerates into a lot of battles between Earth's new giant mechs (developed after the first invasion as an elite fighting force) and the Martian tripods. The animation is pretty, but I can't actually recommend this one.
Weirdest Film: Again, I saw this late into the all-nighter, but Loups=Garous. I don't think this would have made any more sense fully awake. Especially the ending, which I won't spoiler for you but is truly WTF? Ah, there aren't actually any werewolves. But the school-girls are pretty scary.
That's it, except for the shorts. I'll post about them tomorrow!
My favourite film was Byzantium. It's an interesting take on vampires, using sources earlier than Bram Stoker as inspiration. The cinematography is beautiful, the acting excellent, the setting is a run-down seaside town seen in both Regency period (with some gorgeous costumes) and modern-day as the plot progresses. Some of you may agree with me (and the writer, Moira Buffini, expressed the same opinion in the Q&A afterward) that the British seaside town provides the perfect setting for a horror film.
If you didn't catch this at the festival, it goes on general release at the end of May - highly recommended!
Not a Film:
Those of you who missed the Dog Parade can see the entrants here
Some Other Films: Many were screened. These are the ones I saw.
My next favourite was Piercing Brightness. It's a bit slow and arty, and reminded me in atmoshpere of Man Who Fell To Earth. There are aliens living among us, observing our ways. They can take on human form, but they also like to be birds sometimes. They live in Preston.
Then there's Vessel, a film about what happens when aliens try to communicate with us. I liked the premise but found the execution flawed. It's worth seeing, but I would have put the scenes in a different order, and there were parts I found too confusing, whereas others were too much explained. I want people to see this so I can talk to them about it.
Mars et Avril is a strange and beautiful film. Fantastic, rather than science-fictional (despite a futuristic setting). It's about music and love and the source of inspiration. I was almost disappointed that it had an actual ending, as the plot really isn't the point of the film.
Sado Tempest is billed as a Japanese version of The Tempest, with rock music. I thought it could have used a bit more of the music. Otherwise, it's a cool film, though I thought the point it made about the conditions under which it's possible to create (in this case music, but applicable to anything) came across much more clearly than the ostensible plot of the film.
I'm just going to mention here my favourite Japanese science fiction music film, which was not part of the festival, but has been shown on Film 4: Fish Story. If it's on again, watch it. It's kind of weird. Trust me, watch it.
And finally, shown in crossover with the Terracotta Film Festival: Tai Chi Hero and the sequel Tai Chi Zero: steampunk kung-fu. Really, I don't have to say any more, do I? You know you want to see these.
Can't Really Comment On: War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D. I sat in on this while volunteering for the all-nighter, so I wasn't exactly entirely awake for the whole thing. It starts out promisingly enough, with a complicated political situation as the Martians invade for the second time on the eve of the First World War. It then degenerates into a lot of battles between Earth's new giant mechs (developed after the first invasion as an elite fighting force) and the Martian tripods. The animation is pretty, but I can't actually recommend this one.
Weirdest Film: Again, I saw this late into the all-nighter, but Loups=Garous. I don't think this would have made any more sense fully awake. Especially the ending, which I won't spoiler for you but is truly WTF? Ah, there aren't actually any werewolves. But the school-girls are pretty scary.
That's it, except for the shorts. I'll post about them tomorrow!