Our final roundup of the festival.

Three people had to be carried out by paramedics during Roger Avary’s dark teen drama The Rules Of Attraction last Saturday. It was the bathtime wrist-slitting scene that seemed to be the problem. “I saw these people being taken out,” Avary later told Collective, “and I wanted to interview them to get a recommendation,”

It’s been 13 years since Pulp Fiction writer Avary vowed to turn Bret Easton Ellis’ college-set novel into a movie. “It was something I instantly knew I had to make,” he says. “I would read a page, then someone would walk by who was exactly like the person I’d just read about.” It was enough to make him immediately start writing the screenplay, even before he’d acquired the rights. Good thing too, it’s one of the best films of the festival. You can judge for yourself when it’s released next March.

There was no wrist-slitting in Lilya 4-Ever (released April next year), except perhaps among audience members after the screening. The aptly named director Lukas Moodysson, who made the 70s hippy-commune comedy Together, has turned his attention to teenage prostitution in the former Soviet Union, so it's not very uplifting. It is beautifully made, though, with an amazing performance from “non-actor” Oksana Akinshina as Lilya.

There were more “amateur” actors in Raising Victor Vargas, the debut from young American director Peter Sollett. It’s a comedy drama set in New York's Latin quarter, with the 16-year-old Victor almost dying of shame when he’s caught having sex with a fat girl. To make up for it, he pursues the seemingly unattainable Judy, while sidestepping his odorous grandmother. It’s set for release early next year.

The Dancer Upstairs (out on 06 December) marks John Malkovich’s first feature as director, and it’s every bit as earnest as you’d imagine. With Oscar-nominee Javier Bardem hunting down a terrorist who hangs dogs from lampposts in an unnamed South American country. It ends with a little girl doing ballet. You see, scary old John’s a softy really.

Just like Eminem, who plays a white rapper up against it in a black rappers’ world, in Curtis Hanson’s (LA Confidential) 8 Mile. It’s a strange, inverted tale, with a believable performance from the son of Vanilla Ice. It’s not really a stretch for him though, is it? It’ll be released on 17 January.

Three weeks later, Paul Thomas Anderson’s eccentric comedy romance Punch-Drunk Love also goes on release (07 February 03). And you can see the director drunk, though not from punches, and possibly in love, right here on Collective.

Jonathan Carter 21 November

useful link: london film festival official site