London Film Festival day one - Bugonia

A cinephile. What is a cinephile, you may ask? Well, for whatever reason, the film community thought it would be a good idea to brand those who indulge in film on less of a surface-level basis as a cinephile.

Why the thought to derive the name from pedophile is beyond me. At least I assume it spawned from that. Either way, it sounds like it, and that’s bad enough.

Regardless of the questionable name and its origins, there are many milestones you hit on the way to being a true cinephile.

For me, it was going to the cinema on my own. The next step is getting a Letterboxd account to log the films you watch. After that, you spend more money than you’d like to admit on Letterboxd Patron even though you said you never would. Especially considering the added features are nothing groundbreaking.

I have found myself at the next phase of this arbitrary list, and that is going to a film festival.

For anyone who may not be aware, a film festival is a place where the public and critics get to watch films before they are released over a small period of time. It is full of film lovers, critics, sometimes famous people and a small percentage of pretentious weirdos.

It seemed natural for me to try and get myself to a film festival, considering I am a studying journalist who wants to focus on the world of film. So that’s what I did. Over the next week, I will be going to three days of the London Film Festival (LFF). It would have been more, but I forgot when tickets went on sale, so I had to panic buy what was left.

The first of my three days was yesterday, when my girlfriend and I had tickets to watch Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia in Birmingham. This was the film I wanted to see the most, so it was a complete result that there were still tickets available.

You may be thinking to yourself, Carter, why is the LFF in Birmingham? Not sure, but it works out perfectly for me because it doesn’t sell out quickly, it is much easier for me to get to and, more importantly, is a lot cheaper than getting to London.

The only downside is that it’s still Birmingham. Any residents of the West Midlands city should not take this personally. I’m sure you equally think the beautiful city of Leicester, where I reside, is a shit hole.

In the interest of not boring you with unimportant nonsense, I will quickly summarise the hours leading up to the film.

This was the first time I’ve driven to Birmingham. What a sick joke. Whoever created the roads in Birmingham, I hope you got a good kick out of that. It is horrendous. Why are there so many lanes? What a pain in the arse.

We dabbled in the usual delicacies. We did some shopping in the Bullring. I got myself a cap and a new pair of trousers, which is a bonus. We tried Wingstop, which is absolutely terrible. Everyone who says it’s good clearly has no taste in food, and that’s coming from someone who didn’t like Pizza a few years ago.

That was about it until we arrived at the Midlands Art Centre ready for our screening. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Most festivals are huge events full of life and big venues, so being at this humble version of the event felt a lot more intimate.

It was a nice atmosphere. There was a whole range of different people eagerly waiting for what promised to be a completely mental film. Added bonus, the seats were not horrendously uncomfortable.

If you’ve been to a cinema recently, you would know that the etiquette has completely fallen off a cliff. People talk the whole way through the film; they will be on their phones, and there is just a complete lack of respect for the people around them. The cinema costs a lot of money. You have no right to ruin it.

So it was such a refreshing change of pace being in there without all of the distractions. You’re in a room full of people equally as excited as you are for the film. From the minute it starts to the minute the credits roll, everyone’s only focus is on whatever the filmmakers have cooked up for you.

So what about Bugonia? It was great. Amazing even. Yorgos completely knocked it out of the park with his funniest outing yet. I will get around to posting a full review on just the film itself in the coming days, but it was fantastic.

It was a great first film to showcase what makes these festivals so enthralling. You laugh together, are shocked together, and everyone is on the edge of their seat just like you are. It feels ike a shared experience without judgement, just a group of people having a good time.

I can only imagine that in a bigger arena with more people, this feeling is only amplified. I was excited for my next dates anyway, but this has elevated my excitement. It has made me gutted that I didn’t manage to get more tickets though. A lesson for next time.

I will be eagerly waiting for my next screening on Wednesday for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.