And so the festival ends for another year…

This was my first surprise movie for two reasons. One, I usually can only go to 5 out the 20 that I mark with my yellow highlighter in the brochure as “really want to see” and reducing that to 4 to accommodate the surprise movie might kill me. Two, by the time I’ve read through the brochure and am ready to get tickets, the surprise movie is sold out anyway. I LOVED the atmosphere in screen 1 at the Savoy before the surprise movie and I think I’ve come up with a great solution for next year - 5 plus the surprise movie!

So about Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg (come on who doesn’t know that was the surprise movie at this stage). It’s about people who don’t know what they want to do with their lives so they stick to what they know - a sort of student lifestyle. The guy Greenberg, played by a Ben Stiller you won’t recognise is house sitting for his brother while recovering from a nervous breakdown. His co-star Greta Gerwig plays Florence his brother’s too nice to everyone personal assistant. He’s neurotic, she’s a doormat, together they have something. As a comedy the movie has its moments.

The closing movie was elegant and extravagant. When Luca Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton introduced their “I am Love” they said they wanted to make something that terms like dramatic, operatic, and melodramatic could be applied to. Not in a derogatory way but to reclaim these terms and make a modern movie that these terms could be applied to in a positive way. It was all those things. It reminded me of those black and white epics we used to watch in Nana’s on rainy Sunday afternoons. Except this is a modern story about a wealthy Italian family, love, personal freedom and tragedy. In the beginning these people lead enchanted lives but there are surprises in store for them. It may surprise you too!

Thanks a million guys for a wonderful festival.

Fin!

Kala

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