BFI London Film Festival 2018

Thanks for thinking of me! Just got my ticket.

Been So Long. Not bloody long enough.
(Subsequent Internet searching says it was being hawked around Cannes last May and was sold to Netflix last September, where it will appear in a couple of weeks. Should’ve done my homework. )

Surprise film was Peter Farrelly's Green Book. We all had an excellent time trying to believe it really was Vigo Mortensen as one of the leads! Fortunately he came on after restored to his usual svelte self! Family voted the whole evening a hit having seen The Ballad of Buster Scruggs immediately before.

‘Me too’ is specifically about sexual harassment - it has nothing to say about body size. There have been no pledges made for actresses to put on weight or casting directors to hire women who are larger. I wouldn’t expect that to be an outcome of it.

It's a related issue in the grand scheme of women's place in Hollywood and other industries, certainly - but it's far too soon to be expecting to see change in that area. Especially as that's not a specific goal at the moment.

It's a long, long, road ahead - you can't expect every problem facing women in the film industry to be addressed in a year.

It takes a lot longer than a year to get most films made! Even if studios, casting directors and directors decided tomorrow that they want to have a more diverse range of body-types among actresses in their films, you'd likely not see the results on red carpets until next year's round of festivals.

We're at least a few years off getting gender parity in writers and directors - assuming studios follow through on their stated aspirations - because of the timescales involved in putting film projects together. I'd not expect to start to see a shift in the area of body types until after that's been achieved, in all honestly.

There's a critical path, just like in any other change project - you need to get the right people in place first. You go for the easy wins to start with - the things everyone agrees need to change. You show everyone that change brings benefits as well as challenges, because you need to get buy-in from the key stakeholders for the larger project to work.

God, I sound like a management consultant now. But it's true - this kind of transformation doesn't happen quickly. You can't change things all at once overnight. It's a process.

Was the foyer at Embankment Garden Cinema as horrible last year? Been there twice this year, and in both cases impossible to move in the foyer as it's been so packed (let alone get a drink or something to eat). Might have been a good idea to build a foyer large enough to take a full audience - would speed people getting into the auditorium too.

Anyway, to films, and loved Papa Chulo, thought Sauvage was very good and not as predictable as some films of its type. The Front Runner today competent but unexciting.

I thought Wild Rose was wonderful, and Jessie Buckley is a star. Really raw, honest and powerful performance and so much said in her eyes alone. Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo are great as well.

Amazing. My favourite of the lot so far. It was just such a feel good film and I can’t wait to see it again. Jessie Buckley is amazing and I was so impressed with the young production team. The Director and Producer both looked like they were in their early 30s.

Just seen Life Itself. Avoid it is my recommendation.

It really is an excellent film, IMHO John Mills finest hour.