The Thunderdome is what I called the day the London Film Festival tickets are released to Members. As there are most likely thousands of member everywhere, they all scrabble around at 10am on an early September date to get up to two tickets for the films they want to see in October. I used to queue up early, very early, like, first train of the day each year so I would guarantee that I get all my films. This was only because the BFI website was notoriously rubbish and hadn’t worked in years. However two years ago, they got their act together and fixed it. Sort of. I had been queuing since 6:30 am (no joke) but when the box office finally opened, I was still waiting in line by 10:30. My friends who had wisely stayed at home to book online got all their tickets before and even booked my most urgent requests for me too. There were two reasons for this; one, the site had been fixed and two, the first two people in the queue had a novel’s worth pages with films they wanted. With the limit at two per screening, they were obviously buying for every showing of every film. Bastards. I learnt my lesson, stay at home and pray the WiFi doesn’t f*** up. But there are other forces controlling the outcome of ticket sales.
I first went to LFF, and I think I recall this every year without fail, back in 2006. I had just started college and was able to study my favourite subject, film. As I was already watching any films I could get my hands on and reading a variant of film related magazines and some but very few sites (back then websites were very basic) and so at the advice of my teachers I sought out other ways of consuming films. By chance I came across that year’s catalogue and saw that Steve Buscemi was doing a screen talk. I quickly called the box office (this was a while after the ticket release date) and bought myself a ticket. On the day I went, I also managed to pick up a ticket for his latest film, ‘Interview’ for the opening night. I got to walk on the red carpet for the first time, I even dressed up after I heard it was a premiere. I was so excited to go and loved every second of the whole thing. I even asked a question (a stupid one) at the screen talk. Even though I only went to two events, it was the start of a beautiful obsession with LFF and only fed my film obsession.
Looking back, if those film and talk had been now, they would have been sold out by the time I went to book. Year after year, it becomes harder to get seats and screenings, mostly because BFI introduced a higher membership, Champions who are able to book first. They snap up ALL the best tickets and seats and leave crumbs for the members, gad knows what’s left for the public.
Despite the scrabble for tickets, its always a mixture of exciting and infuriating. But I always have great memories each year. Back in 2009, the Coen Brothers were at the festival with ‘A Serious Man’ and bought a ticket to the opening night. I suggested to my family to all meet in London for lunch and I made them stay with me until 8pm as the film was at 9pm. I missed the brothers on the mini red carpet BUT I was near the front inside and couldn’t resist taking a photo. The flash caught their eye so I have a picture of them both looking over at me wondering ‘what the hell’. In 2013, I managed to get a ticket to ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ and a front row seat. I was so excited and worried I was late I ran across the red carpet only to find I was 40 minutes too early. I missed the brothers and cast on the red carpet but I go to see them up close again on stage. This year, I have an opening night ticket for Coens’ latest, ‘The Ballard of Buster Scruggs’. It’s not front row but I’m hoping the brothers make an appearance.
I'll be blogging about the festival on October and I will covering the films for Vulturehound.