After two weeks of culture, education and entertainment, it came to a close for the 49th time last night for the BFI Times London Film Festival. And what a way to go out – with George Clooney's Good Night, And Good Luck. The co-writer / director / star had flown in specially, along with co-star Patricia Clarkson and screenwriter Grant Heslov.
BFI chair Anthony Minghella was of course present, and smiling broadly, with just cause. "I think it's been a great year," said the director. "I think every year we're doing a little bit better – more filmmakers are coming, 480 filmmakers in the last two weeks." There was the usual discussion about highlights and personal favourites, but there was no getting around the fact that the closing night film had a hell of a buzz around it.
Telling the story of Edward R Murrow, who stood up to witch-hunter general and general bully-boy Joseph McCarthy as he ruthlessly pursued communists in '50s America, it's a bold film, shunning any easy Hollywood storytelling gimmicks in favour of good, thoughtful, intelligent filmmaking. It wasn't difficult though, as Heslov explained. "George's father is a journalist, so he was out guiding light. He told us that we just had to get our facts straight – that's it. So we double-sourced every fact that we have in the film." He also filled us in on its origins. "George and I are old friends, have been for twenty… a lot of years! It's something we had talked about for a long time. He'd been interested in doing something on Murrow six or seven years ago, and had written something very, very different that didn't really work. But about three years ago we decided that it was a good time to re-address this and really figure out a way to tell Murrow's story – not his biography, but this particular story."
Obviously Clooney himself – possibly the nicest guy in Hollywood, doing his resolute best to answer all of the questions put to him – had strong feelings on the material. "This was something that's been really important to me for a long time," he said. Given the film's context, we asked for his thoughts on the quality of today's television. "I think there is still a lot of smart TV. I think that it's a case of weeding through – the difference was that there were only three networks then, so you could find some smart stuff. Now you've got to look a little harder, but it's all there – there's great reporting going on."
Meanwhile, the lovely Ms Clarkson was clearly enjoying the occasion. "I'm so thrilled to be here with this film," she told us. "I hope that you guys like it… it's quite timely." Indeed, this was also on Heslov's mind (how could it not be?) " Yeah, the timing turned out to be more [serendipitous] than we ever hoped. Which is good in a way, and bad in a way."
Naturally, there wasn't a spare seat in the house (**Empire **was glad to have taken the opportunity of a screening earlier in the day, and we're now tipping it as one of the must see films of 2006), so when all of the guests were in, we were left simply with a thought from Minghella on the future. "I think next year's going to be fantastic. It's going to be an enormous festival for us, and it's great because it's working without turning it into a festival that's like other festivals." Hear hear, but for the next week or so, we'll be quite happy to get a bit of sleep.
Good Night, And Good Luck is currently scheduled for general release in the UK from February 17.