London Film Festival 2016: my five picks (and five hopes) – Kieron Corless
What to watch at this year's LFF? Kieron Corless salutes Eugène Green's modern Nativity with a monstrous Mathieu Amalric, and four triumphantly imaginative explorations of history from Chile, Austria, Thailand and the US.
My five high hopes
1. Aquarius
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil-France
Filho’s debut Neighbouring Sounds was a slow-burning expose of the rottenness behind the more elegant of Brazilian facades, and indicated a huge talent to watch.
- Read our first-look review of Hermia & Helena
- Book festival tickets
2. The Death of Louis XIV
(La Mort de Louis XIV) Albert Serra, France-Portugal-Spain
The Spanish prankster’s last film was a mesmerising one-off that shoehorned Dracula and Casanova into the same narrative. Word is this one is even better.
- [[embed typelink nid=34302 title=”Read our first-look review of The Death of Louis XIV”]]
- Book festival tickets
3. Staying Vertical
Alain Guiraudie, France
Stranger by the Lake was his last film – need one say more?
- Read our first-look review of Staying Vertical
- Book festival tickets
4. Mimosas
Oliver Laxe, Spain-Morocco-France
Laxe is being touted as a great director in the making on the strength of his follow-up to the memorably shape-shifting You Are All Captains.
5. In the Last Days of the City
Tamer El Said, Egypt-UK-Germany
Cairo 2009, a city on the edge of traumatic upheaval. El Said’s debut feature is by all accounts a brilliantly atmospheric immersion in the those strange days.