I loved producing last night’s show at the BFI Southbank! Mark Kermode Live in 3D’s first guest was Artistic Director of the London Film Festival Tricia Tuttle, who told us about the LFF’s highlights (10 – 22 October). She raved about the opening film: the poignant, riveting thriller Widows (2018), directed by Steve McQueen. The closing film is Stan and Ollie (2018), the biopic about the stellar comic duo starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, directed by Jon S. Baird. Tricia’s own personal recommendations for the festival included Tom Harper’s Wild Rose (2018) starring Jessie Buckley with Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo, about a young troubled Glaswegian mum who dreams of becoming a Country singer in Nashville; Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018) which she insists is not a remake but a response to Dario Argento’s original, this one featuring Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton; and finally Burning (2018), directed by Chang-dong Lee following some time out as a film-maker to be South Korea’s Culture Minister.
Our next guest was the venerable Terence Davies, whose Distant Voices,
Our next guest Suzanna Hamilton talked about her role opposite the late Sir John Hurt in Michael Radford’s dystopian 1984 (1984), which was released on Blu-Ray last August. Suzanna talked about the atmosphere of fear around the subject of the film – and the making of it, too. She found more joy on the set of the enchanting 2016 feature My Feral Heart by writer Duncan Paveling and director Jane Gull.
Next Desiree Akhavan took centre stage: writer and director of recently released feature The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), and of upcoming six-part television series The Bisexual, in which she also stars alongside Maxine Peake and Brian Gleeson. Desiree and Mark talked about the films that influenced her work, and what, for her, constitutes success as a filmmaker.
Finally, we welcomed Paul Greengrass who came to share his thoughts on his best-loved childhood film, Bryan Forbes’ Whistle Down the Wind (1961) starring Alan Bates and Hayley Mills, which he watched countless times with his own children, too. He talked about the enduring impact the film had had on the formation of his political views, as well as the way he constructs his movies. As well as his Bourne films, Mark and Paul touched on Bloody Sunday (2002), United 93 (2006) and Captain Phillips (2013) – before discussing Paul’s new feature 22 July (2018), released on Netflix next month, about the extremist shooting on Utøya island, and how its aftermath affects the lives of the young Norwegians.
After the MK3D, Paul Greengrass stayed on for an MK4D, to introduce a screening of Whistle Down the Wind.