Bath Film Festival branches out

Never one to rest on its laurels, Bath Film Festival has several innovations in store for its 11-day bash from Nov 3-13. In a tie-in with Bath’s celebrated Natural Theatre Company, the region’s longest-running film fest launches Bath: The Movie over the weekend of Nov 5-6, during which actors lead several hour-long comedy walking tours of the city’s film locations with the intention of weaving the characters into an unmade film. Finnish duo FanGirlQuest are also pitching up to offer an introduction to their concept of ‘sceneframing’ at the Assembly Rooms on Nov 10. Sceneframing? All will be revealed during a how-to presentation followed by a chance to watch – and capture a frame from – The Duchess, which was part-filmed at this very location.

Having made headlines around the world with its F-rating initiative, which remains a key element of its programming, the festival launches two new strands this year, devoted to Queer Film and Asian Cinema.

As usual, Bath also boasts an enviable selection of regional premieres and previews. Here’s our selection of the best stuff on offer. Be warned that tickets for popular events sell out very quickly indeed, so you’d be well advised to bag yours early. Check out the official schedule for details.

The Odyssey

Bath Odeon, Nov 3

Biopic of original TV naturalist Jacque Cousteau, whose exploits inspired Wes Anderson’s A Life Aquatic. Lambert Wilson plays the great man, with Audrey Tautou cast as his wife, Simone.

A Monster Calls

Bath Odeon, Nov 4

The Impossible director J.A. Bayona directs Patrick Ness’s adaptation of his fantasy novel about a 13-year-old boy who struggles to cope with his mother’s (Felicity Jones) terminal illness until he befriends a giant tree monster with the voice of Liam Neeson. As you do.

Lady Macbeth

Bath Odeon, Nov 6

This Toronto Film Festival hit has little to do with Shakespeare, but is in fact an adaptation of Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. It’s the story of a young bride who’s sold off to a middle-aged man.

The Red Turtle

Bath Odeon, Nov 7

Superb, dialogue-free hand-drawn animation from first-time feature director Michael Dudok de Wit, who was chosen for the task by world-renowned Studio Ghibli. It’s the story of the battle for survival of a man who finds himself washed up on a desert island.

Alone in Berlin

Bath Odeon, Nov 8

In Vincent Perez’s drama, Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson play a middle-aged German couple whose son is killed in France in 1940. They then embark on a low-key campaign of resistance, leaving postcards in public places encouraging fellow citizens to rise up against Hitler. But Gestapo officer Daniel Bruhl is in hot pursuit.

The Handmaiden

Bath Odeon, Nov 10

Original Oldboy director Chan-wook Park’s Cannes Palme d’Or-nominated erotic thriller set in 1930s Korea. It’s the tale of a young woman hired as a handmaiden to a wealthy heiress. But she’s actually a pickpocket recruited by a dastardly swindling cad who hopes to seduce heiress, nab her loot and bung her in the nuthouse.

Creepy

Bath Odeon, Nov 12

The suitably titled new film from cult Japanese horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (who also made 2008’s atypical Tokyo Sonata) follows a retired police investigator who now lectures on criminal psychology and lives in the suburbs right next door to a weirdo who seems to embody the film’s title.

The Birth of a Nation

Bath Odeon, Nov 12

Actor Nate Parker appropriates the title of D.W. Griffiths’ notorious 1915 epic for his directorial debut: a retelling of the slave revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831, which was a key event in the run-up to the American Civil War. But Parker’s film comes drenched in controversy of its own, not least the revelation that he was accused of rape back in 1999. A US box office flop, the film is certain to arouse plenty of debate when it opens here in January.

A United Kingdom

Bath Odeon, Nov 13

Brit director Amma Asante follows Belle with a true-life post-war romantic melodrama. Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) is a lonely, ordinary insurance clerk who meets a lovely law student named Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) at a Missionary Society dance in London. He turns out to be the heir to the throne of the Bechuanaland (now Botswana). As if negotiating all those tricky issues of class and race weren’t hard enough, devious British officials (the eminently hissable Jack Davenport and Tom Felton) set out to bust up the couple’s engagement for fear that it might upset their chums in apartheid South Africa so much that they’ll leave the Commonwealth, taking all their valuable resources with them. Corbyn-hating Blairites should perhaps be warned that Tony Benn is portrayed as an heroic figure. A United Kingdom is also the opening film at Bristol’s Afrika Eye festival a couple of days earlier on Nov 11.

Read more: 10th anniversary Afrika Eye line-up revealed