Mijn bijzonder rare week met Tess (S. Wouterlood, 2019)

The West Frisian Islands are the backdrop for this hugely enjoyable family drama, which is based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Dutch children's author Anna Woltz.  Mijn bijzonder rare week met Tess is the first film from director Steven Wouterlood, and he shows much promise here, keeping things nice and simple and avoiding the needless flashiness which often mars debut features.  He's aided by a set of winning performances from his cast, all of whom give well-judged turns in a story which features much in the way of friendship, love, family - and kibbeling.

10-year-old Sam (Sonny van Utteren) is on a family holiday on Terschelling when he encounters the slightly older Tess (Josephine Arendsen), who haughtily peppers Sam with seemingly random questions about subjects including, inter alia, Salsa dancing and the German language; as the story progresses, we begin to understand Tess' thirst for knowledge on these topics.  While she initially comes across as rather superior and unappealing, Sam - who obsesses over being the last one left alive in his family, and prepares for this eventuality via timed "aloneness training" - is sufficiently intrigued by Tess, as she seems to promise a bit more excitement than that offered by his family.  Certainly, quite why she's acting so strangely around the couple who are staying at her family's guest house is a mystery which both Sam and the audience would like to clear up.

The film neatly sidesteps a staple of many a coming-of-age yarn in that, contrary to the good-natured wisecracks which emanate from Sam's family, romance isn't at the forefront of Tess and Sam's relationship; admittedly, there is a slight hint of it, but it's by no means the driving force behind what makes this pair want to spend time with each other.  This makes for a refreshing change, as much of the time which might otherwise have been spent lazily plodding through a will-they-won't-they scenario is put to much more interesting use.  Considering the scant running time, there's possibly one character too many in the form of Hans Dagelet's elderly beachcomber (who is admittedly fun to watch), but this is a very minor quibble.

Mijn bijzonder rare week met Tess manages to be a sweet, charming tale, yet one which doesn't overly rely on sentimentality.  The film expertly captures the feel of childhood summer holidays, and in Tess it shows a character who is able to work through some complicated issues; here, there's no dodging the fact that "the best years of your life" can often be very confusing ones.  While this is a family film, there is a small amount of swearing, so it's probably not the best movie to take very young children to; the guidance from the London Film Festival - where it screens on the 6th of October - advises a minimum age of 8.  The LFF screening sold out long before the festival started, but you can - and should - pick up the DVD when it's released in the Netherlands next month.

Darren Arnold

Images: image.net

LFF 2019 Preview: Love, Life and Laughter

The 63rd BFI London Film Festival has announced George Pearson’s Love, Life and Laughter (1923) as this year’s Archive Special Presentation. Lost for nearly a century, this film was on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list and one of its most sought after titles for decades and has now been carefully restored by the team at the BFI National Archive. Its screening at this year’s Festival gives audiences the chance to fall under the spell of Betty Balfour, Britain’s ‘Queen of Happiness’ and the nation’s biggest star of the 1920s. The presentation will take place at BFI Southbank on Thursday 3rd October, 6.10pm in NFT1 with a live musical accompaniment.

This restoration is from a Dutch-language version of the film, which was identified by archivists at Eye Filmmuseum in the Netherlands while being catalogued following its arrival at the archive in November 2012. The archive responded to the BFI’s 75 Most Wanted list, a list compiled in 2010 outlining the film titles the BFI National Archive would like to preserve and make available. The print is part of a collection of film cans that belonged to a local cinema in the small town of Hattem (near Zwolle). Cinema Theater De Vries, run by the De Vries family had only been active for 3 years, from 1929 – 1932 and subsequently the film cans came into the possession of the Van Egmond family. In 2012, when the cinema building was about to be redeveloped, an employee at a local television station, Gerhard van der Worp, took the initiative of bringing the material to Eye. No-one had any idea of the contents of the film cans. Despite being an incomplete version of the film this discovery is hugely significant in terms of film history of that period, with over 80% of silent films made still missing.

Betty Balfour’s star persona, her bubbly personality and physical comedy were very popular in Holland, which is one of the reasons the film was found there. The film was found with Dutch intertitles, and the original English titles were missing – part of the painstaking restoration by the BFI team included the recreation of English intertitles in keeping with Betty Balfour’s working class dialect. Balfour previously worked with Pearson through the 1920s as the comic character Squibs, in a hugely popular series of films. She was much in demand as a popular foreign export and worked with leading directors in Germany, Austria and France (including the great Marcel L’Herbier). She starred in Hitchcock’s 1928 silent Champagne which was restored by the BFI National Archive in 2012. Born in London in 1903, she died in Weybridge in 1978.

Source: BFI

Images: image.net

LFF 2019 Event: Mariette Rissenbeek / Inge de Leeuw

Mariette Rissenbeek. Image © German Films / Kurt Krieger

The London Film Festival’s series of Big Picture sessions will explore how the industry is adapting to disruption and change, from production to reaching audiences and across film, high-end television, streamers and in the immersive world. Leading international and UK figures in the industry will discuss the challenges, opportunities across the international sales, distribution, festival and emerging high-end television landscape and explore how these sectors move forwards over the next few years.

Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director said: "This year’s LFF industry programme tunes into the fact that the film, TV and wider screen industries are experiencing huge global change, and that UK businesses are continuing to seek international collaborations despite uncertainty. We wanted to offer a platform for urgent conversations about those industry changes, and how we are adapting."  

International Film Festival Rotterdam. Image: IFFR

The festival circuit currently finds itself in a moment of flux, with a widespread changing of the guard at the top level. It is also facing challenges to its traditional role in the distribution ecosystem as deep-pocketed streamers disrupt the traditional acquisitions markets at festivals, and with the emergence of new platforms including Apple+, HBO Max, Quibi and Disney+ over the coming year, premium content will increasingly be able to find its way directly to audiences on a variety of platforms, without having to rely on a traditional festival-theatrical-distribution model. There are urgent questions about the role that festivals play as gatekeepers and ensuring a more diverse range of voices are heard. Kate Taylor, LFF Senior Programmer, moderates Key Questions Facing the Festival Circuit (in Vue 6, at 15:30 on 7/10/19) with Giona Nazzaro, General Delegate, Venice International Film Critics’ Week; Inge de Leeuw, Programmer, International Film Festival Rotterdam; and Mariette Rissenbeek, Executive Director, Berlinale.

Source: BFI