The Grand Budapest Hotel (15)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (15)
Dir: Wes Anderson
With: Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton
Runtime: 100 minutes
TONIGHT'S opening gala, which is screening again tomorrow, is the new Wes Anderson, a star-studded extravaganza - Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson for starters - set in an Old Europe hotel. Fiennes plays Monsieur Gustave, concierge of concierges, a man who can lay his hands on anything and has the answer to everything - if the guest is rich enough.
The whole thing is beautifully designed, finely acted, and with an avalanche of whimsy on offer, fans of Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums) should find themselves right at home here.
GFT, tonight, 7.30pm, tomorrow, 3.45pm
20 Feet From Stardom (12A)
Dir: Morgan Neville
Runtime: 91 minutes
TAKE a bow those ladies (and a few men) who make up pop's band of backing singers. Morgan Neville's terrific documentary speaks to those who have been so close and yet so far from being the main attractions. The music is sublime, and there are plenty of A-list admirers, including Jagger, Springsteen, Wonder and Sting to hand - but it is the women themselves, funny, wise, spirited, who are the real stars. A riveting, must-see portrait of the music industry from the sidelines.
GFT, February 22, 3.20pm;
February 24, 4pm
Yves St Laurent (15)
Dir: Jalil Lespert
With: Pierre Niney, Charlotte Le Bon
Runtime: 106 minutes
PIERRE Niney stars as the famous French designer in what is a remarkably dull biopic. Starting in 1957, Jalil Lespert's film follows the driven Saint Laurent from nervous youth to the head of his own fashion house at the age of 26. While it is all done with exquisite visual taste, it is about as full of life as a mannequin.
GFT, February 25, 8.30pm;
February 26, 3.45pm
Mystery Road (N/C 15+)
Dir: Ivan Sen
With: Aaron Pederson, Hugo Weaving
Runtime: 112 minutes
THE body of a young woman is found in the middle of nowhere, foul play is certain but answers are proving elusive. Ivan Sen's picture has all the trappings of a conventional crime drama but the setting, Australia, and the detective, who is Aborigine, elevate it high above the norm. A sizzling pace and a starmaker of a turn from Aaron Pedersen as the lawman only add to the attraction.
GFT, February 23, 6pm
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (N/C 12+)
Dir: Nicholas D Wrathall
Runtime: 83 minutes
NOVELIST, essayist, wit, tireless assassin of assumptions and reputations, Gore Vidal is a natural choice for a documentary subject, and Nicholas D Wrathall makes the most of it. Through judicious use of a large archive of interviews, and talking heads of the calibre of Mikhail Gorbachev and the late Christopher Hitchens (once a protege then, as often with Vidal, regarded as a pest), Wrathall's enthralling film shows how often the American man of letters called his beloved country exactly right.
GFT, February 26, 8.45pm;
February 27, 3.45pm
Salvo (N/C 15+)
Dirs: Fabio Grassandonia, Antonio Piazza
With: Saleh Bakri, Luigi Lo Cascio
Runtime: 104 minutes
SALVO, an assassin for a branch of the mafia in Palermo, always gets his man. So when he fulfils another contract only to discover his blind victim's sister is still in the house, the outcome would seem to be inevitable. Not in the brooding world of directors Fabio Grassandonia and Antonio Piazza. An impressive calling card for the duo.
GFT, tomorrow, 8.15pm; February 22, 1pm
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