In Contention

Tag: British Film Institute

  • Things we lost in the fire

    Apologies for the silence on the site in the last day or so — Kris has been in transit, while I’ve been distracted by dispiriting events close to home.  The riots that have been plaguing London since Saturday night seemed to finally attract the full attention of international news networks today, but I’m not sure how effectively they can convey the queasy jumble of anger, confusion and dread afflicting most of the city’s residents, myself included.

    Many of us, even, are scarcely getting the full impression: it’s hard enough to wrap one’s head around local misfortunes — last night, I was dryly informed via Twitter that a bus a mere half-mile from my house had gone up in flames — before taking in the full, discontinuous jigsaw of incident and loss, and moving on to ponder what this means on a broader (and longer-term) national and social level.

    “It’s sad that so much damage is somehow being done with so little conviction,” I overheard a train passenger say this afternoon, a quote that seemed to me to sum up the stateless quality of the last couple of days.

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  • Films for the future

    To commemorate their 75th anniversary, the British Film Institute has launched a nice little project called “Visions for the Future.” They’ve selected 75 figures from the world of film — actors, filmmakers, critics and other industry pros — and invited them to name one film they would choose to share with future generations, as well as asking for their thoughts on the future of the medium.

    The results — mainly in the form of video interviews — are really rather insightful. Obvious (albeit worthy) choices abound, from “The Wizard of Oz” to “The Third Man” to “Tokyo Story.”

    But there are a number of interesting left turns. As if there weren’t enough reasons to like her already, Cate Blanchett proves her taste and intelligence by picking Andrei Tarkovsky’s mind-blowing “Stalker,” though she admits it took her three days to get through it. (Her choice also gives me a nice excuse to post one of the most beautiful posters of all time as an illustration.)

    My favourite choice, however, is that of the brilliant playwright and screenwriter Patrick Marber — Powell and Pressburger’s “The Red Shoes,” a twisted, romantic and visually breathtaking fairytale that he economically describes as being “about wanting things too much and not getting them.”

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