The Face of an Angel
classified 15Please note: This was screened in April 2015
The ever-chameleonic Michael Winterbottom returns with this soulful, sophisticated drama - a fictionalised version of the notorious Meredith Kercher murder case, which saw the British student’s American housemate Amanda Knox arrested and convicted (and then acquitted) for the crime in Perugia, Italy. With sex, death, race, beauty and youth, it was a media circus. The names have been changed and the setting moved to Siena but everything else stays close to the 2007 case.
It’s told from the perspective of Thomas (Daniel Brühl), a filmmaker who arrives in Italy to make a movie based on journalist Simone's (Kate Beckinsale) investigative book. What follows is a dark and complex study not of whodunnit, but of truth (maybe, after all, a single truth doesn’t exist?), objectivity, and the struggle to retain integrity in the face of sensationalism. Thomas (and Winterbottom) want to make a film not about murder and death, but love and life - and at least one of them succeeds.
- The evening screening of Face of an Angel on Tue 31 March is part of our Cinébites deal: get a cinema ticket, veggie or meat cassoulet, and a drink (wine/beer or soft drink) for only £15.