LFF 2015 top 10 memories no. 5: Land of Mine

Have I ever enjoyed a film so much that I saw so little of? Land of Mine generates almost extreme levels of tension that it should probably come with a warning; I spent much of its run time with my hands in front of my face.

In the immediate aftermath of WWII, the Danish authorities needed to clear their country’s western coastline of more than two million German mines. Who best to carry out this hideous task? The German POWs of course.

Land of Mine focuses on a small stretch of beach, the sergeant tasked with ensuring the mines are cleared and the gang of near-dozen German boys (they’re not young men, they are just teenagers) who have to clear the mines.

Writer-director Martin Zandvliet continually pulls the rug from underneath the audience: you just don’t know which boy will die first. By using an apparently random mixture of long and medium shots and close-ups from boy to boy, mine to mine, you never know who’s going to get blown up and whether they’ll die on the spot or suffer horrific injuries (warning, those injuries are shown in detail when they happen).

Roland Moller as the Sgt oscillates between Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler, one moment berating them and viewing them as cattle, the next caring for them as a father would.

The child actors are uniformly excellent: you wonder if the film was shot in sequence and with the actors not knowing until the last possible moment if their character would survive each scene.

I’ll say nothing about the finale, except that I think it’s justified.

Score: 8/10

No release date confirmed yet

LFF 2015 top 10 memories no.4: Trumbo

Who knew Jay Roach had it in him? Alright, may be it’s not such a stretch that the world’s most successful comedy director (Austin Powers x 3, Borat, Fockers x 3) should be able to handle a dramedy – but he handles it so well.

Trumbo tells the story of Dalton Trumbo, not only one of the greatest Hollywood screenwriters, but also one of the Hollywood Ten – the screenwriters blacklisted during the McCarthy witch hunts of the 50s and early 60s.

The film treads lightly, switching moods smoothly between droll comedy (withering put-downs aplenty), drama and tragedy, reflecting not only on one of the darkest periods in Hollywood history, but also mercilessly taking the piss out of the film-making industry then and now.

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, but particular mentions must go to Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G Robinson, the ever lovely and reliable Diane Lane as Mrs Trumbo, John Goodman channelling John Chambers from Argo as B-movie producer Frank King, and Helen Mirren, possibly for the first time since Excalibur playing the out-and-out villain, as Hollywood gossip columnist and self-styled king-maker/king-breaker Hedda Hopper.

But the hero of the piece is Trumbo himself, an all-round wit and raconteur played to perfection with relish by Bryan Cranston. Awards nominations will follow in waves for Cranston.

Oscar could fall for this heavily (in order to apologise for Hollywood's role in effectively supporting McCarthyism), and if it does, the scene that should be played over and over on Oscar night is Trumbo’s face off with John Wayne: I do believe I punched the air as Trumbo beat the Duke senseless with words. It’s priceless!

Do not miss.

Score: 9/10

Trumbo is released on 5 February 2016.

LFF 2015 top 10 memories no.3: My Nazi Legacy

A key theme of the 2015 LFF was the consistent high quality of the documentaries: while many of the fictional films did not meet expectations, their factual counterparts often surpassed them. One such, and one of the best films at the festival full stop, was My Nazi Legacy (otherwise known as What Our Fathers Did).

.Never less than gripping throughout, it charts the road trip (for want of a better word) taken by two elderly Germans, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wachter, to the sites of their fathers’ pasts: both are sons of senior Nazi officers, one hates his father, the other loves his. The cruel irony? These two men are lifelong friends…

Their trip is marshalled by Philippe Sands QC, an international lawyer whose Jewish family was almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis.

This is compelling viewing, succinctly narrated by Sands. The dynamics between the three men are closely but never harshly observed throughout.

One key sequence as the three visit an open grave requires the cameraman to make a split decision: as the trio stand apart from each other, lost in thought and their own demons, the cameraman must make the decision who to film – and he makes the right call.

This is emotional film-making (how could it not be, given the subject), but Sands and director David Evans maintain an informed, interrogative approach throughout.

Score: 9/10

My Nazi Legacy is released on 20 November.

LFF 2015 top 10 memories no.2: Remember's finale

It’s appropriate that this very Hitchcockian thriller should premiere at the same festival as Hitchcock/Truffaut and My Nazi Legacy.

The pitch for Remember in the programme grabbed me by the short and curlies: Christopher Plummer (always great) is an elderly Jew trying to track down the Nazi guard who killed his family in Auschwitz, but his dementia means he struggles to remember the mission he’s on.

Memories cast a long shadow over each and every character: they are either searching for, reliving or running away from their memories and those of the people they care about.

I was engrossed from the start, the film almost coming across as a darker-hearted version of Alexander Payne’s Nebraska.

As Plummer’s character takes his faltering steps towards completing his mission, his encounters with possible ex-Nazis live long in this viewer’s memory, especially those featuring Bruno Ganz and Dean Norris.

When Plummer reaches his final destination, you’re prepared for anything – well, I thought I was, but apparently not: I was not ready for that ending!

This is not a tragic drama about dementia, it is a Hitchcockian thriller, nothing more, nothing less, its sole objective to manipulate the audience. In so much that it manipulated me (and it would appear just about every viewer at the Curzon Mayfair that night), it is a success.

I hope it gets a proper theatrical release so I can see it again.

Score: 8/10

No official release date is confirmed yet.

LFF 2015 top 10 memories no.1: Carol’s chemistry

Much will be written about Todd Haynes’ Carol in the coming weeks, and come awards season this beautiful love story should be smothered with nominations.

The two nominations it should get are for the performances of its leads: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The former is very much a known quantity, almost unable to give anything less than a stellar performance, while the latter is still the new kid on the block (the opening scene of The Social Network, and the remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo).

Mara has been keen to point out that it was watching Blanchett that made her want to be an actress. If Mara had approached the filming with hero worship in mind, Carol would have fallen apart immediately.

Instead, she bravely grasps the trickier role, the mild oddness/otherness she usually conveys absolutely right for her character and the journey she will go on.

But many great actors have played couples before and failed to exhibit any spark of chemistry, but Blanchett and Mara are on fire. I can’t think of a more realistic on-screen relationship other than Alfred Molina and Jon Lithgow in last year’s Love Is Strange.

Here, one of the many joys is the restraint that 50s social mores force up upon Blanchett’s and Mara’s budding relationship: a single touch of the hand on a shoulder that lingers just a little too long becomes an almost ecstatic moment. Such intimacies as these burn with passion. The only way this film could be any more intimate is if Susanne Bier had shot it with lots of extreme close-ups.

The inevitable love scene is just that: a display of their love – Blue Is The Warmest Colour this isn’t. There’s no titillation for titillation’s sake, no leering straight male gaze. It just seems natural and unforced.

Given the level of restraint on display here, I was almost shocked at how much I wanted a happy ending for this possibly tragic couple.

Score: 8/10

Carol is released on 27 November.