Times BFI London Film Festival Round-Up

Wednesday saw the opening night of the Times BFI London Film Festival, where much anticipated new David Cronenberg flick 'Eastern Promises' brought stars Vincent Cassell and glowing new mum Naomi Watts onto the red carpet.

Other stars in attendance included Elle MacPherson, Colin Farrell and MTV came pretty close to treading on Terry Gilliam toes at one point. He shot off before we had a chance to quiz him about new flick The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus " in fact, he was gone before MTV could even say it.

Eastern Promises lived up to its billing. Like all Cronenberg's work it had some properly horrific moments, bringing out gasps and laughs from the cocktail party crowd. There's an air of menace that runs throughout it as well, and it's only when it finishes you realize you've been tense for the entire duration.

Last night MTV went for something lighter and enjoyed Interview with Sienna Miller and Steve Buscemi. The film was originally made by Dutch auteur Theo Van Gogh, but when he was killed in 2004, a number of Hollywood legends stepped up to honour his memory and remake his work. Actor / Director Buscemi's movie is the first.

It tells the story of a shallow but successful actress (Miller) and a one night stand-off she has with a broadsheet reporter (Buscemi.) The set-up is brilliant and the leads both do really well " especially Miller. She just needs to learn to play someone other than herself, and she can call herself a proper actress

We finished off the week with hard hitting Gulf War drama Redacted by master director Brian De Palma. Allegedly based on true events, Redacted is a very difficult watch. De Palma tries a lot " faking handicam, YouTube and webcam footage to tell his story " and parts of it work exceptionally well, and parts of it don't.

Overall though, despite the difficulty, its message is clear and important, and there are images from it that remain long after the credits have rolled

Next we're off to see Brad Pitt get shot dead by that coward Casey Affleck " sorry, did we ruin the ending?

More next week!

Don't miss our fantastic competition to win tickets to the gala screening of new Bob Dylan biopic 'I'm Not There'

Written by Steve Laycock