By Travis Johnson
The first salvo of films that will play at UWA Somerville and Joondalup Pines for this year’s Lotterwest Festival Films Program have been announced. Part one of this sumptuous feast of arthouse cinema runs from November 27 – February 25, with the second half of the program to be announced down the track.
“Though this year’s film program is as varied as any other, I saw absurd, satirical humour in so many of these films,” says Lotterywest Films Program Manager Tom Vincent. “2017-2018 may be the year of tragicomic films, for tragicomic times.”
This year’s opening night film is the delightful documentary Faces Places, which follows Agnès Varda, a sprightly 89-year-old hero of cinema, and her young pal, star photographer JR, as they take their mobile photo booth around rural and working-class France.
Other films on the slate include:
Borg Vs McEnroe
An inside look into two intense souls, and one of the greatest sporting encounters ever seen at The Wimbledon tennis championships in 1980. Sweden’s ice-cool four-time Men’s Singles Champion Björn Borg, versus snotty New York upstart John McEnroe (a never-better Shia LaBeouf).
The Party
Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall, Patricia Clarkson and Cillian Murphy lead a cast to die for in this fast-paced, biting satire of bourgeois Brits directed by Sally Potter. A dinner party from hell gathers old friends to honour Janet after her appointment as Shadow Health Minister. Politics and personalities collide, the celebrations turn to chaos and secrets spill out over the vol-au-vents.
The Square
Winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. In the run-up to his bold new exhibition called ‘The Square’ the art museum director finds himself in a moral free fall after a PR stunt goes off the rails. With its world of daft media stunt and confounding art-speak, The Square offers a goldmine of awkward dark humour.
The Other Side of Hope
Super-droll Scandi humour takes on a story for our times. Arriving accidently in Helsinki as a stowaway, Syrian asylum seeker Khaled has hopes for a future as a legitimate Finn. When he crosses paths with grumpy former shirt salesman turned restaurateur Wikstrom, the two become unlikely companions. Director Aki Kaurismäki perfectly nails the experience of helplessness in this humane and surprising comedy.
Thelma
Intoxicating first love meets cool thriller in this spine-tingling film. Thelma is a young woman attempting to survive her first year of college and is suddenly feeling that overwhelming force of a real romantic crush. But this is more than just a feeling. Thelma’s passion for her classmate has the power to move things, even to fracture her world.
Lotterywest chair Heather Zampatti observed, “Across the last 25 years Lotterywest has contributed more than $115 million to the many extraordinary experiences that come hand in hand with the Perth Festival. It’s only thanks to the hard work of our retail network, as well as the continued support of Western Australians playing Lotterywest games, that we’re able to support Western Australian institutions like the Perth Festival.”
To see the full program, head over to the official site.
