Tuesday 14 October 2014

London Film Festival Day 2: A Hard Day, White God, 71, El Nino

Why am I starting my daily London Film Festival diaries on day 2 you may ask? What happened to day 1, Wednesday 8th October? Well after getting up at ridiculous o’clock to take my dog for a walk in the pitch black of an Autumn morning, I got to Bracknell train station to find that National Rail are basically wallet rapists.

After purchasing a ticket, I discovered that I’d bought a still unreasonably priced ‘any permitted’ ticket. So £25 ain’t good enough for that time in the morning apparently. I was then informed that I had to pay for a full price £32 ticket if I wanted to get into London before 9am. Frankly I felt shafted and a severe stab of sympathy for those who have to travel to London every day just to get to work. National Rail are truly bending the good working people of this country over and having their merry way with them. 

Ho hum, I got over it eventually. So I missed out on seeing The Imitation Game with Benedict Slumberpatch and Ikea Knightley and also didn’t get to attend the press conference afterwards. I can live with that. As I had to get back for my (paid) day job in the afternoon, I wouldn’t have got round to seeing anything else on Wednesday. So I told National Rail to stick their £32 ticket, got a refund on my useless £25 ticket and went home, to the delight of my puppy.

But Thursday is another day. Moan over. It’s a day when I don’t have other work commitments and can stay in London as long as I like. I’m still determined to not let National Rail have non-consensual sex with my wallet every day so I decided to skip the morning screening of Men, Women and Children starring Adam Sandler and directed by Jason Reitman. It’s a shame as I’m very interested in seeing it. But not interested enough to let National Rail rob me of £32. Sorry, moan really over now.
So  on Thursday I had lined up: A Hard Day, White God, ’71 and El Nino. My reviews will be up at Starburst Magazine as soon as possible and I will update this post with links when that happens. For now, here are the trailers:

A Hard Day: Korean corrupt cop thriller in which a detective is involved in a hit and run while being investigated by internal affairs.


White God: A teen girl is forced to give her  up her beloved dog. As she descends into rebellion, her mutt Hagen go through hell at the hands of humans before taking his bloody revenge.

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’71: A British soldier in Belfast 1971 gets separated from his regiment and has to survive a night in the divided city, stuck between warring factions.

El Nino: In the Gibraltar Straits, two young men become involved in drug dealing between Morocco and Europe. The obsessive cop on their tail is closing in as their business grows into the big time.


I’ve already seen White God at Cannes and I have an interview lined up with the director Kornel Mundruczo and writer Kata Weber on Monday. This was one of my two favourite films at Cannes 2014 and I can’t wait to talk to these two about the movie.

Also Jack O'Connell and 71 director Yann Demange turned up to introduce the film which was cool.

Day 3 of the festival is a day I have to work at the day job unfortunately and on Saturday I’m celebrating my wife’s 30th birthday (and my birthday) so my next update will be on day 5 of the festival, Sunday 12th October where I intend to see at least Kung Fu Jungle and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Stay tuned for more and please check out my reviews so far atStarburst Magazine.

I’m also going to try and do a short video diary each day from the festival:

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