Little White Lies Issue 75

I was watching the film Jupiter Ascending the way it was meant to be seen: via premium streaming service. It had something to do with Channing Tatum, rocket-powered rollerblades, Eddie Redmayne screaming while wearing a shower curtain, Sean Bean pretending to be half bee, and a breathless tussle to ensure the future of planet Earth. It was fun. But there was something odd about the experience, beyond the bee acting. This is a film in which, like so many before it, the fate of mankind hangs in the balance. Yet it was hard to suppress the thought: would it be so bad if we were all compacted and transformed into space crystals and ingested by intergalactic royalty to extend their lives? Maybe it’s what we deserve. On the occasion of…

Dear friend, We contact you on the occasion of the 75th issue of Little White Lies. We are working on a project and we’d love to have you involved. We are looking at the subject of whether movies can save the world. Context: the world is fucked. If you had the most politically influential people in the world–politicians, CEOs, philanthropists, etc–as a captive audience in a cinema, what movie would you screen to them and why? All we would like is the name of the movie and your justification. Please interpret this question as you like. The aim of this feature is to produce an alternative canon of films, each hand-selected by a diverse array of collaborators. Thanks…

Lenny Abrahamson Mark Adams Babak Anvari Mark Asch JA Bayona Abby Bender Anton Bitel Laurène Boglio Edith Bowman Charles Bramesco Holly Brockwell Efe Cakarel Michelle Carey Jaime Christley Phil Concannon Stephen Cone Laia Costa Adam Lee Davies Guillermo Del Toro Hope Dickson Leach Ella Donald Emma Fraser Marya E Gates Caroline Golum Glenn Heath Jr. Thomas Hobbs Tom Huddleston Pamela Hutchinson David Jenkins Timothy George Kelly Brodie Lancaster Joe Lawlor Elena Lazic Manuela Lazic Michael Leader Guy Lodge Kim Longinotto James Luxford Christine Malloy Alicia Malone Ian Mantgani Penny Martin Mike McCahill Katherine McLaughlin Tuppence Middleton Sophie Monks Kaufman Adam Nayman Jarod Neece Christina Newland Ben Nicholson Charlie Phillips Gina Prince-Blythewood Laurie Rose Benny Safdie Josh Safdie Carol Salter Roxanne Sancto Michael Sheen Josh Slater-Williams Michael Smiley Justine Smith Matt…

It strikes me, looking at our present dystopian logjam, that the problem is one of across-theboard entrenchment. We’ve grown suspicious of giving valuable time to anything that doesn’t appear to conform to our pre-established beliefs; one can no more visualise Bernie Sanders sitting down with ‘The Fountainhead’ than one can Theresa May running in from the wheatfields to catch up with I, Daniel Blake. And can you imagine Vladimir Putin being won over by Paddington? ‘This is not a Russian bear.’ Increasingly there is an assumption that if it’s not made by and for Us, then it can only be for Them. Reaching past Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s never-more-timely thesis on the need for the diplomatic communication that shapes leaders and pushes things forward, I’m going to defy Mr Putin and…

Can a film save the world? Highly unlikely. But a few films can amuse the world; inspire the world with their compassion while also poking fun at social order and puncture all that is overly self-important. A film like Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (or Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, as it was released in English), a gentle delight that mocks the pompous, the petty and the dilettantes and questions reliance on technology but without aggression or bitterness. Almost silent, it works for any audience and blends physical humour with astute lampooning of plenty of serious targets. Ultimately it calls for warmth, affection and compassion… which can never be a bad thing Mark is Artistic Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which takes place from Wednesday 20 June to Sunday 1…

Once I was silver, now I am a fern. Conceived in a star, gestated beneath a mountain, I was born at the tip of a Peruvian mining axe and for a hundred years enjoyed life as a brooch, before being beaten into a goblet. Gemstones glittered around me as I watched Pizarro murdered and his conquistadors scatter for home. I was briefly a ring on the hand of King Ferdinand of Spain before being stolen by a desperate courtesan and used to buy passage on a Portuguese caravel set for the Spice Islands. But the ship’s captain was a sick fool and abandoned his cargo and crew for the madam of a Dandong brothel, and so it was that I was melted and moulded into a gleaming silver sex toy…