Sitting listening to Daniel Day Lewis spew lyrically about acting and movie making at a Q&A session last night I turned to my company and remarked that the actor would be in Los Angeles this coming weekend accepting an Oscar. My company nodded in agreeement, we had both just been through the experience that is ‘There Will Be Blood’. An outstanding piece of work, in the same vein as last years ‘Assassination of Jesse James’ it is a film makers film. Day Lewis spoke of the physical demands of the mining scenes, the process involved in creating his character, Daniel Plainview and the organic nature of the filming process. Referring always to the character as ‘I’ and ‘me’ as opposed to so many who refer to ‘my character’ he spoke of how he has moved away from the intense investments he has made in characters previously. However much of a challenge the film was to watch, piecing together the ideas and fathoming the complexity of the characters you cannot but respect the mastery on show. Day Lewis spoke of the skill of the camera men capturing their unrehearsed often improvised movements and even had the images on show been carefully story boarded there would still be no denying their brilliance. The opening scene and blaring tone is almost Kubrickian and there is no tiring of watching the oil rig crew silhouetted against flumes of burning oil. As for Day Lewis, the director of the film festival describing him as the best actor of his generation began to go some way towards capturing the strength of his performance.

Colin Farrell: Similar height to CK

‘There Will Be Blood’ was the second gala I was lucky enough to attend on the opening weekend of the festival. The previous night I happened to manage to have a quick word with one Colin Farrell to tell him how much we had enjoyed ‘In Bruges’, the Martin McDonagh directed movie starring Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. Such a blend of comedy, romance, drama and excellent performances I have not seen work so well in an age. Remniscent of the ‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’ and yet distinctly Irish I can’t imagine a film accommodating such a poetic ending as well as whacked out midgets proclaiming a coming war. The wealth of writing from Martin McDonagh is outstanding and reflecting now on how every character right down to the hotel owner is given dimension only impresses me more. Sitting watching the new Woody Allen (’Cassandra’s Dream’ - also starring Farrell) yesterday morning, the guy next to me commented aptly on the writing skill of McDonagh and for me the wit and humour in his writing served as a stark contrast to the disappointing and unfamiliar output from Allen. Let me tell you in writing that last line, there is no greater compliment I could pay to the film.

‘Don’t be stupid. This is the shoot-out’

Extending the cinema experience is always such a treat, seeing and meeting the people and hearing of the workmanship that goes into their production. So too you can’t beat that bit of meeting people in the limelight such as Farrell and discovering you are both of a similar height - nice!

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