UNITED KINGDOM: A torrential down poor fails to dampen spirits at the opening of the 2005 London Film Festival

In true British fashion, the weather tried its best to upstage the opening of the 2005 London Film Festival. As luck would have it, the moment actress Rachel Weisz stepped on to the red carpet the heavens opened, dousing Weisz, fellow cast members, visiting filmmakers and invited celebrates in a torrential down poor. Weisz, however, was unfazed by the weather. "We're in London, what else do you expect this is England - it's raining, we're smiling, everything is normal," she said. Things went from bad to worse for the film's star Ralph Fiennes, with the actors trip to London resembling that of a scene from a John Hughes film, 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. "I've had the most mad trip to get here, because my flight was delayed by two hours and then it circled forever, and the rains made the journey in incredibly slow and I got here just in time," said the actor. The festival now in its 49th year opened with the official screening of John Le Carr's, The Constant Gardener.' The film, a political and romantic thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, following the life of a British diplomat (Fiennes) in Nairobi who goes in search of the truth behind the brutal murder of his wife (Weisz). The movie was directed by the man behind "City of God", Fernando Meirelles, who Weisz had only words of praise for on the red carpet. "The director is phenomenal, he directed his first film the City of God - this is his first English language film - he's a true artist and a phenomenal, phenomenal talent," she said. Le Carre, the author of "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" and "Smiley's People" shifted from Cold War espionage to modern-day Africa for his 2000 book. The author himself was also obviously pleased with the choice of director for the filming of his novel. "It's a third world movie done in English, said Le Carre. "The Brazilians had their own fight with the big pharmaceutical industry that they won, up to a point, they could make their own generic drugs. Fernando understands that, he understands from his previous film - City of God - the waste of human life that is incurred when we neglect the poor and the needy, and he brought that same impulse, that same passion to this movie and that's what makes it useful." Despite being praised as being the perfect person to make the film, Meirelles says he ended up directing The Constant Gardener almost by accident. "Well actually, the funny thing is I never planned to do an English film - an English spoken film," explains Meirelles. "But I came to London in 2003 to do something else, then I met Simon, the producer by chance, and he gave me this script by chance. Ten days later I was involved in this project." Others stars expected to grace the West End while promoting their films during the fortnight long festival include Gwyneth Paltrow with 'Proof', and Susan Sarandon and Kirsten Dunst with 'Elisabeth Town'. Actor Pierce Brosnan, director Terry Gilliam and Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal are expected to give lectures at the National Film Theatre as part of this years events. Unlike other European film festivals like Cannes, Venice, the London Film Festival is not a competitive event with a prize to be awarded at the end of the event More than 180 films from 50 countries will be screened in over 13 cinemas around the capital this year'. The festival runs until 3 November.

ITN Source | October 20, 2005

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