Cinema

 

 

Apollo, Picadilly, London

Dates during the Raindance Film Festival

Thursday

27/9/12

6.00pm & 8.45pm

Friday

28/9/12

5.45pm

Tuesday

2/10/12

6.30pm

Profile

5 screens totalling 481 seats

Part of a chain

(14 cinemas)

Apollo Cinemas

Films

The Lottery of Birth (TBC)

Sunless (15)

Loveless Zoritsa (TBC)

Despite the Gods (TBC)

Tickets

£10.00

(though free for festival volunteers)

Online booking available

Foyer

The Apollo has a small but functional foyer in keeping with its compact and busy street location. Stairs illuminated in bright electric blue lead you down away from the box office to a carpeted bar and reception area. As this film was part of the Raindance Film Festival, all normal advertising and decor had been tailored to promote this event.

Refreshments

Wine & Beer also available at the downstairs kiosk

Auditorium

Each screen had fixed comfy seats with ushers at the door.

Screen 4 (TLOB)

168 seats

A full house for the international premiere of this documentary.

Ushers at the door.

Screen 1 (Sunless)

88 seats

A disappointing 12 viewers

Screen 3 (LZ)

40 seats

A full house for the international premiere of this Serbian fairy tale.

Screen 5 (DTG)

126 seats

100 viewers for the international premiere of this documentary.

Review

These four films were viewed over the course of a week as part of the Raindance Film Festival 2012. In many cases, the films shown are UK or international premieres. It is not unusual for directors or industry experts to be on hand for Q&A sessions at the close of the screening.

The Lottery of Birth

The Lottery of Birth, a directorial debut for film maker Raoul Martinez and fellow director Joshua van Praag, aims to provoke thought and an alteration of perspective about freedom.

The 77 minute documentary is scheduled to be part of a ‘creating freedom’ trilogy, with this first instalment challenging our views on how society imprints upon us as human beings and how many of us seem either ignorant or powerless to change this. Some very broad themes are tackled in the film’s chapters including education and creativity. Psychologists, Physicists and Historians all offer their views on these areas in a well sequenced selection of talking heads pieces interspersed with a variety of cutaway footage. Whilst the talking heads pieces are very engaging and certainly thought provoking, one or two of the cutaway scenes could have benefitted from a little more tlc as a few were grainy images that did not benefit from a large screen. That aside, the film does achieve its aim of making you think – though what I question is whether it makes you think enough. The concept is straightforward enough to understand and I had hoped the experts on hand might throw a few more curveballs to really spice up what might be a common after dinner discussion. To me the title suggested a greater examination of our cultural and economic origins and how they might affect growth, development and future success. Perhaps the next two films will provide that lucky bonus ball that will push the thinking boundaries of the audience a little further.

Sunless

It was a Chris Marker retrospective in Sight & Sound magazine that drew me to this screening. I must confess that I had never seen nor heard of Chris Marker (or his many pseudonyms) prior to reading this article, but the passion and enthusiasm shown for his body of work spanning 6 decades forced me to attend this screening.

Much has been written about Marker and his approach to film making and as a newcomer to his work I shall not attempt to supersede what has gone before. Rather I shall just outline my own reaction to what Pei-Sze Chow describes as ‘the perfect example of an essay film.’

As the credits rolled at the end of the film I can only describe my state as staggered. The closing 15 minutes in ‘the zone’ tie up the themes, images and sounds in beautiful moments of total recall. This sits in stark contrast to the opening 15 minutes which felt disjointed and rudderless. A great deal of my staggered state was caused by the completeness of this film and the instant desire to watch it over again. I marvelled at how Marker’s mind had worked in contriving this web of ideas so simply and perfectly put up on the screen. To learn that many of the crew and contributors to the film were more of Marker’s creations just added to the realisation that this was the work of a genius. I would not dare to tell anyone in such simple terms what Sunless is ‘about’. I would just tell them to go and see it.

Loveless Zoritsa

If high praise is what drew me to Sunless, then it was certainly a love of the surreal that drew me to this multi-national production of a Serbian fairy tale. Without giving too much away, this is a film about a cursed woman (Zoritsa) without a moustache. Whilst it may seem unnecessary to mention her lack of moustache, this is the first sign that Zoritsa is going to cause trouble, for in her family, all women are born with moustaches. The second bad omen is a pair of shoes falling from the sky. The result of all this terrible luck is that Zoritsa is clearly cursed for life and the nature of this curse is the almost certain demise of any man who falls in love with her. She is soon driven from the village after a series of deaths and horrific accidents, only to return on the eve of the Day of the Dead to finally break the curse.

What ensues is a lightly comic romp through the Serbian countryside with our anti-herione pursued my hapless police officers, torch bearing villagers and a well trained tracking donkey.

Some of the plot twists are a little obvious and the ending hits you like a pair of Doctor Martins from above about 20 minutes before it happens, but by then you are so in love with the characters you don’t mind. It is a fairy tale after all! If you know your Serbian actors, you will recognise many of the cast, all of whom do a great job in ensuring this well shot film has a chance of finding an appreciative audience.

Despite the Gods

You have got to love Jennifer Lynch – and for many it will be her obvious connection to her film making father that draws people to this documentary. Jennifer is making a film – with a Hollywood mindset – with a Bollywood crew – in India – about a woman that turns into a snake that turns into a woman.

You might ask yourself why – Jennifer does repeatedly. Director and friend Penny Vozniak never intended to spend 8 months in the searing heat and humidity following Miss Lynch’s project. Instead she was supposed to be there for a week to help babysit her 12 year old daughter.

The happy accident is that we now have an entertaining roller coaster of a doc with all the highs and lows an ambitious project led by an impulsive and controversial director brings. Alongside that, the footage is cleverly cut to tackle the themes of motherhood and spirituality (imagine the American crew’s surprise when a traditional Puja blessing is taken before every scene).

There is a certain voyeuristic almost reality TV element to the film, especially given the celebrity of its main subject, but it is crafted in such a way that you are desperate to see its outcome – and in my case the resulting film Miss Lynch made.

Her energy throughout the film is infectious. She claims outright to have a great deal of her own ‘baggage’ before beginning filming and as she tackles hurdle after hurdle in her quest to make a $3M movie look like a $10M movie you can’t help but feed off her optimism and will her on.

Code of Conduct: Transgressions

Talking

Lateness

COC Score 8*/10

*An average score across 4 screenings