What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 18th November 2021.

The 27th Geneva International Film Festival ran from the 5th through until 14th November. The official website reads, 'founded in 1995, the Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) is Geneva’s oldest film festival and one of the first in the world to include television in its programmes. A crossroads of genres and disciplines, a place of experimentation, encounters and celebration, it offers every year for ten days, films, series, interactive installations and virtual reality works to some 40,000 festival-goers. The largest space in Switzerland dedicated to immersive arts, the GIFF has become one of the major events in Europe in this field'. 

The International Features Competition showcases a selection of ten films that turn stylistic conventions upside down and pave the way for the cinema of tomorrow. The titles, all Swiss Premieres, compete for the Reflet d’Or with a cash prize worth CHF10K awarded by a Jury composed of a renowned filmmaker accompanied by film students. Those films in competition are :-

* 'Costa Brava, Lebanon' - this internationally co-produced drama film is Directed and Co-Written by Mounia Akl. Through the repeated crises that affect Lebanon, the Badri family takes refuge in a small corner of paradise. One day, trucks arrive to unload piles of rubbish in front of their windows. Surrounded, they will have to rethink the world of their tomorrows. This film took out the 2021 Reflet D'Or Award for the Best Feature Film.

* 'El Planeta' - from the USA this is Directed, Written, Co-Produced and stars Amalia Ulman. Fragile, funny, inseparable, a mother and daughter flee reality after a tragic event. In a ghostly Gijon, surviving as best they can the torments of the post-2008 crisis, they escape through jokes and magical thoughts. The multidisciplinary artist, who is also the lead actress, has cast her own mother in this memorable duo.

* 'Ghost Song' - from France, this music drama documentary is Directed and Co-Written by Nicolas Peduzzi. Houston City, Sodom and Gomorrah style. In a twilight atmosphere, OMB, rapper and ex-gang leader, hides herself away, while William, shattered and broken, drags his sadness through the streets. In a world on the verge of disintegration, hurricane Harvey approaches the city in 2017.

* 'I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking)' - from the US this dramatic thriller is Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Angelique Molina and Kelley Kali. Since the pandemic hit, the streets of Los Angeles have filled with many precarious workers and their children. In order to find her home, a young sunny woman will rollerblade through the streets of the San Fernando Valley to raise a handful of dollars that could change everything.

* 'Medusa' - from Brazil this fantasy drama is Directed and Written by Anita Rocha da Silveira. During devastating nightly sprees, masked evangelists stalk sinners. By day, they are 'Michelle and the precious ones' and produce goofy hits and dumb tutorials. Somewhere between giallo and political satire, behold a resolutely feminist fable.

* 'Mighty Flash' - from Spain and is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Ainhoa Rodriguez. In a small, deserted village in Extremadura, trapped by patriarchal traditions and the weight of religion, women await a resounding event that promises to challenge their lives, even save them.

* 'Petrov's Flu' - from Russia, Germany, France and Switzerland, this drama film is Directed and Co-Wriiten by Kirill Serebrennikov. In this virtuoso trip, the Director unfolds long sequence shots, live light changes, without recourse to any computer-generated images, to totally immerse the viewer in a reconstruction of his Soviet childhood. A punk opera from a filmmaker under house arrest.

* 'Poulet Frites' - from France and Belgium this documentary thriller is Directed and Written by Jean Libon and Yves Hinant. In this unusual, dramatic and staggering chess game, each character’s survival is at stake. The Police pose questions, the suspects are dodgy. Whatever the cost, the intrepid Judge Anne Gruwez leads the investigation. Direct, intuitive, terribly human. In her hands lies the fate of a man accused of a crime…

* 'The Great Movement' - is an international co-produced drama film Directed, Written, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by Kiro Russo. A seven-day hike takes miners to La Paz, Bolivia, the highest capital in the world at 3,600 metres above sea level. Dazed, they come across a shaman, a white wolf, and the legend of the black panther. This mesmerising, hybrid collage is a mystical ode to 'Nuestra Amada Senora de la Paz' and the city’s invisible workers.

* 'Theo and the Metamorphosis' - from France and Switzerland, this drama is Directed and Written by Damien Odoul. Reinventing one’s life, running the ultimate risk of changing, the risk of complete imbalance. Theo is on a path to become a samurai in a secret training camp for peaceful warriors in the heart of a forest populated by animals. Theo is free as a bird! A shattering poetic odyssey.

For the full details of the other competitions which ran at the 27th Geneva International Film Festival, plus a whole lot more besides, you can got to the official website at : https://2021.giff.ch/en/

To tempt you out to your local Odeon in the coming week we have four new cinematic releases to whet the movie going appetite. We kick off with a British drama mystery horror offering about an aspiring fashion designer who can mysteriously enter 1960's London where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, but the glitz and glamour is not everything it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something darker. Next up is an American offering about a Detroit waitress and part time stripper who, with a new friend in tow, embark on a wild road trip to sunny Florida for a weekend of stripping to earn some quick cash. This is followed up by a NatGeo doco about the daring rescue attempt of twelve boys and their coach from a flooded underwater cave in Northern Thailand just three years ago. And closing out the week is a life story of the famed Canadian songstress Aline Dieu based loosely on the life of Celine Dion. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'LAST NIGHT IN SOHO' (Rated MA15+) - this British psychological horror film is Directed, Co-Produced, Written and based on a story by Edgar Wright, whose previous film making credits are 'A Fistful of Fingers' - his Directorial debut in 1995, then 'Shaun of the Dead', 'Hot Fuzz', 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World', 'The World's End', 'Baby Driver', and the doco 'The Sparks Brothers' released earlier this year. The film saw its World Premiere screening at this years Venice International Film Festival on 4th September 2021, before its release in the UK and US on 29th October, having been originally slated for release at the end of September 2020, but was delayed to 23rd April 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being delayed again to 22nd October, then again to the following weekend. So far the film has grossed US$13M off the back of a US$43M production budget and has garnered generally favourable Reviews. 

Here, an aspiring fashion designer Eloise 'Ellie' Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) relocates from her home town of Redruth in Cornwall to London to attend the London College of Fashion. Moving into a bedsit owed by a Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg in her final role before her death in 2020) Ellie has a vivid dream and is mysteriously taken back to the 1960's, where she encounters a dazzling aspiring singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). However, the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker. Also starring Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Sam Claiflin, Rita Tushingham, James and Oliver Phelps and Margaret Nolan (also in her final film role before her death in 2020). 

'ZOLA' (Rated MA15+) - this American black comedy crime film is Directed and Co-Written by Janicza Bravo and is based on a viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah 'Zola' King and the resulting Rolling Stone article 'Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted' by David Kushner. The film saw its World Premiere screening at the Sundance Film Festival way back in late January 2020, was released in the US in late June this year following a year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Zola received positive reviews from critics, and has so far grossed US$5M from a production budget of US$5M. Here then, Zola (Taylor Paige), a Detroit waitress and part-time stripper, is seduced by her new friend Stefani (Riley Keough) into a weekend of stripping in Tampa, Florida for some quick cash, but the trip becomes a sleepless 48-hour odyssey involving a nefarious friend, her pimp and her idiot boyfriend. Also starring Nicholas Braun and Colman Domingo. 

'THE RESCUE' (Rated M) - this National Geographic documentary film is Co-Directed and Co-Produced by Academy Award winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. This film chronicles the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018 through the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Featuring never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews the film makers piece together the high stakes mission, highlighting the efforts of the Royal Thai Navy SEALs and U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and details the expert cave divers' audacious venture to dive the boys to safety. The film has garnered critical acclaim. 

'ALINE' (Rated M) - this unofficial music biopic is Directed, Co-Written and stars Valerie Lemercier in this quasi life story of the Canadian super songstress Celine Dion. Here the 57 year old singer, Actress and Film maker Valerie Lemercier plays Aline Dieu at all ages in her life span from twelve years of age onwards from which point she is taken under the wing of Producer Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel) who in the fullness of time becomes her husband. The film centres on the singers residency in Las Vegas, her marriage to Guy-Claude and her mother Sylvette (Danielle Fichaud) furiousness at their whole affair, her wild eating habits, her Academy Awards performance and the time when she was not permitted to speak due to her damaged vocal chords, and much more besides. The film saw its World Premier screening at this years Cannes Film Festival and has not surprisingly divided audiences. 

With four new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-