Must see movies at London Film Festival

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Momentous meeting: Frank Langella (left) and Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon

Penelope Cruz plays the ex-wife of Javier Bardem's sexy painter

Waltz with Bashir: Funny, frightening and highly charged politically

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Frost/Nixon

Ron Howard's film of Peter Morgan's play depicts the historic encounter between Richard Nixon, the disgraced US President, and David Frost, the British interviewer he requested hoping for an easy ride. The cast is the same as it was in the West End: Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost.

Wed 15 Oct, 7pm, Odeon Leicester Square; Sat 18 Oct, 12.30pm, Odeon West End.

W

Oliver Stone on George W Bush, who transformed himself from black sheep of the family to US President but still struggled to escape the shadow of his father. This "fair, true portrait" has Josh Brolin as Dubya, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney. Lighter in tone than JFK.

Thu 23 Oct, 7.30pm, OLS; Fri 24 Oct, 1pm, OWE.

Waltz With Bashir

This astonishing animated film from Israeli documentarist Ari Forman is about his own experiences as a soldier in the Lebanese war of the Eighties. It is funny, frightening and highly charged politically. An absolute must.

Fri 24 Oct, 8.30pm, OWE; Mon 27 Oct, 6.30pm, Phoenix.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Woody Allen's very silly tale of two Americans in Barcelona (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson) who fall for Javier Bardem's sexy painter with a tempestuous ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). It shouldn't work, but it does.

Tue 21 Oct, 8.30pm, OWE; Sat 25 Oct, 1.15pm, OWE.

The Class

Laurent Cantet's Cannes Palme d'Or winner has a superb performance from François Bégaudeau, who wrote the script, as a teacher in a mixed race school with a hundred and one problems. Sharp, funny and fierce.

Sat 18 Oct, 8.30pm, OWE; Mon 20 Oct, 1.30pm, OWE.

Hunger

Not for the squeamish. Turner Prizewinning artist Steve McQueen's film about hunger striker Bobby Sands spares us nothing and has a great performance from Michael Fassbender as Sands.

Sun 19 Oct, 9pm, OWE; Mon 20 Oct, 4pm, OWE.

Achilles and the Tortoise

Takeshi Kitano, the multi-talented Japanese tyro, is back on form again as a painter desperately trying to forge his own style and make a buck too. The paintings are Kitano's own.

Tue 21 Oct, 6.30pm, OWE; Wed 22 Oct, 1pm, OWE.

Il Divo

Paolo Sorrentino's film about Giulio Andreotti, Italy's most famous postwar politician. Toni Servillo is great as the seven-times PM and Sorrentino's worthy if equally eccentric successor to The Consequences of Love is riveting.

Tue 21 Oct, 6pm, OWE; Thu 23 Oct, 4pm, OWE.

Of Time and the City

Terence Davies on the Liverpool he knew as a child, and now. Beautifully put together with a feisty, highly personal commentary from the director himself. Scandalously, it's his first film for seven years.

Sat 18 Oct, 9pm, OWE; Tue 21 Oct, 4.15pm, NFT.

Three Monkeys

Highly praised and prized at Cannes, Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's fifth feature is an ambitious, mostly successful examination of malefemale relationship within a family context when a politician asks his driver to take the rap for a car crash.

Sun 26 Oct, 6.30pm, OWE; Mon 27 Oct, 3.30pm, NFT.

Delta

One of the most beautifully shot films at the festival, directed by Hungarian Kornel Mundruczo and set in an isolated village in the Danube delta. It might be an exercise in style - but what style.

Wed 22 Oct, 6.30pm, NFT; Thu 23 Oct, 4.15pm, ICA.

Modern Life

Raymond Depardon, chronicler of French rural life, with a superb portrait of a declining way of life that is both affectionate and astute.

Sun 19 Oct, 6.30pm, NFT; Mon 20 Oct, 4pm, Curzon Mayfair.

The BFI London Film Festival runs 15-30 October. Tickets are £8.50-£25 and can be booked at www.bfi.org.uk/lff, on 020 7928 3232 or in person at the BFI Southbank.
Access to some screenings is limited but extra tickets will be released on 10 October and some day seats are available each morning.

 

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