What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 12th October 2023.

The 50th edition of Film Fest Gent launched on Tuesday 10th October and runs through until Saturday 21st October. Since its first edition in 1974, Film Fest Gent has grown into the largest film festival in Belgium with more than 100,000 visitors every year. For decades, Film Fest Gent has put the spotlight on film music, which makes it unique on the film festival calendar. Since 2001, Film Fest Gent has presented the World Soundtrack Awards, a series of prizes for the best soundtrack for films and television. The festival propagates film and visual culture to a broad audience and supports film and film music talent. Each year, those people who visit the city of Ghent are offered a challenging programme of films, talks, concerts and much more. Film Fest Gent highlights filmmakers and the collective experience of cinema. Presenting their films to a diverse audience of professionals and film lovers, the festival offers a platform to upcoming and established talent.

The Opening Night Film of the festival is 'Holly' from Belgium and Directed by Fien Troch and offers an intriguing portrait of a 15-year-old girl named Holly. After she seems to have predicted a deadly school fire, people begin to seek out Holly for consolation. The Closing Night Film is 'The Boy and the Heron' from Studio Ghibli and is Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Here, A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning.

There are twelve films in the Official Competition, and these are detailed in brief below :-

* 'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' - from the USA and Directed by Raven Jackson in her feature film debut. The film tells the story of an African-American woman from Mississippi who moves gently through a poetic mosaic of memories.

* 'Astrakan' - from France and Directed by David Depesseville in his feature film making debut. A naturalistic character study that exposes the uneasy growing pains and tensions between a taciturn orphan boy and his adoptive family in the French countryside.

* 'Omen' - from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, South Africa, The Netherlands and Germany and Directed by Baloji in his feature length debut. This film explores the weight of Congolese belief systems on the fate of four so called 'devil children' accused of being witches and sorcerers, who, banned from their social circles, engage in a fiery battle to throw off that hellish label.

* 'Critical Zone' - from Germany and Iran and Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Edited by Ali Ahmadzadeh. Here, we follow a good-hearted drug trafficker in Tehran by night, a city desperate for redemption and furious in its resistance to the current regime.

* 'The Delinquents' - from Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Luxemburg and Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Rodrigo Moreno. Not stealing to be rich, but to be free. An Argentine bank employee takes the risk of his life in this twisty, mild crime comedy.

* 'Here' - from Belgium and Written and Directed by Bas Devos. Here, the filmmaker casts his patient and human gaze upon a Romanian construction worker strolling through Brussels and its nature. A surprising city symphony that pays tribute to the invisible, and to mosses.

* 'Io Capitano' - from Italy, Belgium and France and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Matteo Garrone. The film follows two Senegalese teenagers as they transit from Dakar to Sicily. A hallucinatory odyssey through the hopeful eyes of the young migrants.

* 'Past Lives' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Celine Song in her feature film debut, and starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro. The film shows the power of human connection - romantic or otherwise and muses on the choices made and not made.

* 'Poor Things' - from the USA, Ireland and the UK and Co-Produced and Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, and starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo. Focusing on a young Victorian woman who, after being crudely resurrected by a scientist following her suicide, runs off with a debauched lawyer to embark on an odyssey of self-discovery and sexual liberation.

* 'The Siren' - from Belgium, France, Germany and Luxemburg and Directed by Sepideh Farsi. Banned from her homeland Iran, the Director returns to a conflict from her teenage years, the Iran-Iraq War that plunged the port city of Abadan into state of besiege in 1980. But even in times and places where everyone and everything threatens to be destroyed, there is hope. A 14-year-old boy and a wooden boat make sure of that.

* 'Smoke Sauna Sisterhood' - from Estonia and Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Anna Hints. In the darkness of the sauna, women share their most intimate secrets. The drops of sweat that glide off their bodies, take away their shame and while they rinse off their stories from the past they regain a sense of community that strengthens them for the outside world.

* 'Sweet Dreams' - from Indonesia, The Netherlands, France and Sweden and Written and Directed by Ena Sendijarevic. Tumultuous events triggered by the death of a Dutch sugar plantation owner who ends up leaving his Indian Ocean island estate to his young illegitimate son - the child of his Indonesian housemaid.

Film Fest Gent seeks to offer a platform to all kinds of films. Short films and feature films, fiction films and documentaries, brand new high-profile projects and classics that have earned their place in film history, small competition films and big audience pullers . . . opposites that complement each other and each has its own section of the festival to inhabit. For more, you can go to the official website at : https://www.filmfestival.be/en

This week there are six new cinematic releases coming to a big screen Odeon near you, kicking off with a French offering that is set in the 1930's, and follows an Actress who gains notoriety after getting acquitted of murder for self-defence. This is followed by another French film about an author who returns to his hometown of Cognac for the first time in 35 years to help promote a distillery, and, he is also there to face the memories of his first love, with the people and places he returns to evoking many feelings from the past. Then we turn to a music film experience of the Eras Tour concert, performed by the one and only global singing and songwriting icon that is Taylor Swift. Following on from this we have a British horror offering about mysterious and violent incidents that occur during a family's 1938 cruise aboard a famed ocean liner whose events strangely connect to another family's fate on the same cruise ship in the present. Next up we have an Australian film about a rogue journalist who unearths the sordid secrets of an infamous socialite family for the scoop of a lifetime whilst unwittingly dredging up family trauma of his own; before closing out the week with an Aussie doco that charts the highs and lows of our nation alongside our most celebrated individual tennis tournament.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new films 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 coming week.

'THE CRIME IS MINE' (Rated MA15+) - is a French crime comedy film Written and Directed by Francois Ozon whose first feature film was 'Sitcom' in 1998 although he had been making short films and documentaries since 1988. His other more notable features include 'Criminal Lovers' in 1999, 'Water Drops on Burning Rocks' in 2000, '8 Women' in 2002, 'Swimming Pool' in 2003, 'Potiche' in 2010, 'In the House' in 2012, 'Frantz' in 2016 and 'Everything Went Fine' in 2021. This film is a loose adaptation of the 1934 play 'Mon crime' by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, which has been adapted into two American films, 1937's 'True Confession' and 1946's 'Cross My Heart'. It has garnered positive reviews and cost US$14.5M to produce.

Set in 1930's Paris, France Madeleine Verdier (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a pretty, young, penniless and talentless Actress, is accused of murdering a famous movie Producer. Helped by her best friend Pauline Mauleon (Rebecca Marder), a young unemployed lawyer, she is acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. A new life of fame and success begins, until the truth comes out. Also starring Isabelle Huppert and Dany Boon. 

'LIE WITH ME' (Rated M) - is a French film Co-Written and Directed by Olivier Peyon whose previous feature film credits take in his 2006 debut with 'Les petites vacances' and which he would follow up with the likes of 'Latifa : A Fighting Heart' in 2017 and 'Tokyo Shaking' in 2021. This film is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Philippe Besson. Here, novelist Stephane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquedec) agrees to be the guest of honour at a celebration for a famous brand of Cognac, even though he doesn't drink alcohol. When Stephane returns to his home town, Charente, for the first time in 35 years, he meets Lucas (Victor Belmondo), the son of his first love, Thomas Andrieu (Julien De Saint Jean). Stephane and Lucas go on a sometimes painful journey of discovery about who Thomas really was and why he did what he did throughout his life. The film has generated largely positive press.

'TAYLOR SWIFT : THE ERAS TOUR' (Rated PG) - this American concert film documents 'The Eras Tour', a 2023/2024 concert tour by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Directed by Sam Wrench, Produced by Taylor Swift, it is scheduled to have its World Premiere on 11th October and be released in theatres worldwide this week. Costing about US$15M to produce, the film was met with significant ticket demand, amassing a record US$37M in its first day of pre-sales in the US, and going on to generate US$100M in global pre-sales as of 5th October, becoming the most profitable concert film in history. The Eras Tour is the sixth headlining concert tour by Swift which began in Glendale, Arizona, on 17th March this year and is set to conclude in 2024. The show spans over three hours, with a set list of 44 songs divided into ten distinct acts that conceptually portray Swift's ten studio albums. The film was recorded at the first three of six Los Angeles shows of the tour from 3rd to 5th August this year at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

'HAUNTING OF THE QUEEN MARY' (Rated R18+) - is a British horror film Co-Written and Directed by Gary Shore in only his second feature film making outing following 2014's 'Dracula Untold'. This film explores the mysterious and violent events surrounding one family's voyage on Halloween night in 1938, on the ocean going luxury cruise liner The Queen Mary, and their interwoven destiny with another family onboard the infamous ocean liner in the present day. Starring Alice Eve, Joel Fry and Lenny Rush, the film was first released in Italy in mid-July, then in the UK from mid-August and has garnered mostly positive reviews.

'SLANT' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian comedy mystery drama film is Produced and Directed by James Vinson in his feature film making debut. Set in Melbourne, Victoria in late 1999, here career-crazed journalist Derek Verity (Michael Nikou) is tasked with writing his first expose piece on the mysterious disappearance of a mother-turned-infamous-socialite. But when a dark family secret of his own threatens to destabilise his career, the scribe’s ambition drives him to get the scoop at all costs, causing his personal and professional lives to violently collide. Also starring Sigrid Thornton, Pia Miranda, Kate Lister, Ryan A. Murphy and Ra Chapman. The film won the Best Australian Feature Film at the 2022 annual Melbourne Monsterfest.

'AUSTRALIA'S OPEN' (Rated M) - is an Australian documentary film Co-Written and Directed by Ile Bare whose previous documentary offerings are 'The Silent Epidemic' in 2010, and and 'The Leadership' in 2020. Every January in the blistering heat of Melbourne, Victoria, the Australian Open tennis tournament commands global attention, but when off-court drama steals the show, Australia itself becomes part of the spectacle. The film charts the tournament’s rise as it inadvertently reveals Australia’s divisions to the world. Through telling archive, compelling play and heavy-hitting interviews, this documentary captures the poetry and power of the tournament - because at the Australian Open, there is always more than a game at stake.

With six new release movie offerings 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-