{ grant my last request and let me hold you / don't shrug your shoulders / lay down beside me. }

In the past fortnight I have seen two plays, hurrah. The first was The Playboy of the Western World with Robert Sheehan and Ruth Negga, and the second was Death and the Maiden with Thandie Newton, Tom Goodman-Hill, and Anthony Calf.

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( the plays. )

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Up next: three posts on London Film Fest. I am still trying to work out how I want to do these posts, so please forgive me for the succession of them that are about to sully your flists.

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edit: Apparently I completely failed on posting about Di and Viv and Rose which hestia8 and I went to see four weeks ago, or Othello, which I saw a day later with the Ex-Flatmate.

( addendum. )

{ London Film Fest 2011: Shame. }

First, a note. I wrote these three entries yesterday; posting today, having edited for clarity.

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Shame
Director: Steve McQueen
Writer: Abi Morgan
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale
Trailer

“We’re not bad people, Brandon. We just come from a bad place.”

( A short, irrelevant story about actually getting in to see this film. )

The film is about Brandon Sullivan (played by Fassbender) who is suffering from a sex addiction. His existence is carefully ordered and still at mercy to his obsession. His life begins to fray when his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay, thereby infringing on Brandon’s privacy, and the sphere in which he orchestrates his addiction.

( Shame. )

{ London Film Fest 2011: Abi Morgan Masterclass. }

Abi Morgan Masterclass

“Writing’s quite mathematical.”

Abi Morgan’s Masterclass was wonderful for a number of reasons. Firstly, it ran the full gamut of her career, from theatre, through television, to film. Secondly, Morgan is endearing, incredibly human, whose fascination with human traits is as explicit in her character as it is in her writing. Thirdly, she spoke candidly about the process behind her various works – Shame, with Steve McQueen, Sex Traffic, My Fragile Heart, adapting Brick Lane, and The Hour. She is as interested in the mechanics of writing as she is in the mechanics of people, and that was evident when she spoke.

( Abi Morgan. )

{ London Film Fest 2011: Weekend. }

Weekend
Director: Andrew Haig
Writer: Andrew Haig
Cast: Tom Cullen, Chris New
Trailer

“I don’t do boyfriends.”

Weekend turned out to be an excellent choice for my final event of the day, for a number of reasons*. When I picked which films I wanted to see at the Fest, I scoured the British Film Council selections as a matter of course, and this film caught my eye early on. Then, after my tickets arrived, NYMag’s Approval Matrix rated it very highly. (I don’t normally read reviews or use them as a basis for my decisions, mostly because I know that what I will enjoy from something won’t necessarily be picked up on by a critic, but I was pleased that someone else had at least heard of it, and had a positive response.) Lastly – tangentially – one of the promotional pictures reminded me so strongly of what is essentially a throwaway shot in series 1 of French crime drama Spiral (Engrenages). The detectives storm a hostel that houses deaf youths, and Laure Berthaud happens upon a sleeping couple, both male. She says nothing, doesn’t judge, and no other comments are made on the pair, which is exactly how it should be. But I remember wanting to know more about them, and Weekend seemed to me, at first glance, that exact story.

And it is. Boy meets boy; boy makes connection with boy; boy smokes weed and discusses the reality and politics of gay lifestyle along the way. It’s funny. It’s extremely realistic. It has moments of perfect tenderness. Think Before Sunrise if it were a reality between two gay men in Nottingham. That’s this film.

( Weekend. )