Sundance in London for the first time
London—hollywood royalty joined forces with British royalty as Robert Redford arrived in London to promote a documentary on Prince Charles’ latest environmental projects.
Redford praised the heir to the British throne at the launch on April 26 of the first-ever Sundance London film and music festival.
He said Charles “has been committed for a long time, which I greatly admire, to sustainability and environmental conservation” and continued to say that working together “seemed like a natural fit.”
The actor-director brings the spirit of independent American cinema to Britain this week with his Sundance film festival, transporting across the Atlantic for the first time, the film fest held annually in Park City, Utah.
The inaugural Sundance London Film and Music Festival showcases several small budget features and documentaries as a counterweight to Hollywood blockbusters, which tend to dominate cinema theatres the world over.
Sundance London hosted the royal premiere of “Harmony: A Newway of Looking at Our World,” on Saturday, April 28. The documentary by filmmakers Stuart Sender and Julie Bergman Sender maps out three decades of environmental work by the prince.
The festival also includes the British premieres of 14 feature-length films, discussions, Q&AS, and musical performances, and is the first foreign offshoot of Redford’s annual Sundance film festival—part of his vision of bring- ing independent cinema to wider audiences.
“I just feel that there’s a hunger for other kinds of films as well, and that’s what we represent,” the 75-year-old star of “The Sting” told reporters at a press launch on Thursday. Redford said that as a major Hollywood player, he had worked “on both sides of the aisle,” and had nothing against big budget action movies.
But he added that “diversity is no longer so available in the mainstream film industry because it has scaled down and become more centralized over time and now primarily follows the youth market. Therefore it has gotten narrower and narrower, and become more prone to blockbusters, which is fine I suppose, but not at the expense, I feel, of the humanistic side of cinema.”
Music plays huge role
He took issue with David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, who caused a stir among film makers and producers recently by urging them to focus on mainstream movies in order to boost the multibillion pound (dollar) industry.
“That may be why he’s in trouble,” Redford joked, referring to the last tough few weeks for the coalition government that Cameron leads. “Cameron’s view, I think, is a very narrow one, and doesn’t speak to the broad category of film makers and artists.”
Music plays a major part at the London event, with performances on opening night by psychedelic pop band Guillemots and Glen Hansard, the Oscar-winning musician/actor.
There will also be a performance by Rufus and Martha Wainwright, following the world premiere of Lian Lunson’s film about the music of their mother, folk singer Kate Mcgarrigle.
Redford acknowledged that he has not always appreciated the importance of a movie’s score. “In a film that I was in, ‘Butch Cassidy,’ the music played a huge role,” he said of the 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and which costarred Paul Newman. “I didn’t see it at the time, because I thought it was stupid. Suddenly there was a scene where the guy was singing ‘Raindrops are falling on myhead’ and it wasn’t even raining. Well, how wrong was I?” Redford said sardonically.
The actor also voiced reservations about the advance of technology in cinema, particularly the emphasis on 3D. “I think technology has probably gone a little too far, too fast,” Redford said. “I’m not a particular fan of 3D at the moment… but I think it will either find its way in or out. The audiences will decide. But my feeling right now is that things have probably gone too far, at some great cost by the way.”
He hoped Sundance London would prove a success with audiences and allow him to expand the film festival to other parts of the world. “This is the first step, if it works,” he said.
The Sundance London festival at London’s O2 Arena began on Thursday April 26 and ends today Sunday April 29.