Spank's LFF Diary, Thursday 08/10/2020

Reviewed today: The Painter And The Thief, This Is The Rhythm Of My Life, UK Focus.

Spank's LFF Diary, Wednesday 07/10/2020

Reviewed today: The Disciple.

London Film Festival 2020

Daily updates now complete: final thoughts to follow in The Wrap Party, coming soon.

The story so far:

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has resulted in an ongoing pandemic. On 5 October, the WHO said that one in ten people around the world (around 800 million) may have been infected with COVID–19. As of 7 October 2020, 35.8 million cases have been reported across 188 countries and territories with more than 1.05 million deaths; more than 24.9 million people have recovered. Common symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath or breathing difficulties, loss of smell and taste, and the wholesale disruption of film festivals worldwide.

For some reason, that last bit never stays on the Wikipedia entry for long whenever I try to add it. Some people just have no sense of perspective.

London Film Festival 1989-2019: An Index

I started going to the London Film Festival in 1989, and I've been there every year since. Thanks to a combination of Spank Gold articles (after-the-fact writeups of the 1989-1997 festivals), reposts (pieces written for the old site between 1998 and 2005) and live blogging (since 2006), I've got a record of every single film I've seen at those Festivals.

Trying to pick your way through all of those is obviously going to be hellish, hence the index below. Similar to the equivalent index I've assembled for the Edinburgh Festival, each year links to the relevant piece on that particular LFF, including a roughly chronological list of what I saw (plus, of course, any additional films reviewed by Spank's Pals). As a bonus, you get a thumbnail-sized history of programme cover designs.

This will be updated each year after the LFF, so most of the time this page should be resident at the top of the LFF folder on the site. Have yourselves a good old browse through, and try not to think too hard about how much the tickets for all this lot have cost me over the last couple of decades.

[updated 05/11/2019 to include 2019 reviews]

Spank's LFF Diary: The Wrap Party 2019

No love at the London Film Festival 2019 for me, I'm afraid. Have a look if you don't believe me:

Galas: 3
Special Presentations: 1
Official Competition: 1
First Feature Competition: 1
Documentary Competition: 2
Love: 0
Debate: 3
Laugh: 2
Dare: 3
Thrill: 2
Cult: 1
Journey: 2
Create: 5
Experimenta: 1
Family: 1
Treasures: 6
Total = 34 (plus one Event)

Of course, The Belated Birthday Girl keeps hoping that Tricia Tuttle will eventually ditch her predecessor's category system for something less chundery, but for now it's all we've got. It's always an interesting way to break down what I've seen, anyway.

Spank's LFF Diary, Sunday 13/10/2019

Reviewed today: The Elephant Man, The Irishman, Ride Lonesome.

Spank's LFF Diary, Saturday 12/10/2019

Reviewed today: Circus Of Books, The Street, To Live To Sing.

Spank's LFF Diary, Friday 11/10/2019

Reviewed today: First Love, George: The Story Of George Maciunas And Fluxus, The Juniper Tree.

Spank's LFF Diary, Thursday 10/10/2019

Reviewed today: Guest Of Honour, Scales, The Whistlers.

Spank's LFF Diary, Wednesday 09/10/2019

Reviewed today: Family Romance LLC, Finishing School, Knives Out.