LWLies 105: The Bird issue – Out now!

Writer/​director Andrea Arnold is an artist whose dis­tinc­tive voice and arrest­ing style have, right­ful­ly so, estab­lished her as one of the great­est film­mak­ers in con­tem­po­rary British cin­e­ma. For our lat­est print edi­tion, we take inspi­ra­tion from her sixth fea­ture, Bird, an urban fable set in Kent about the bur­geon­ing friend­ship between a rebel­lious girl on the cusp of teen­dom and a mys­te­ri­ous stranger search­ing for his roots.

Bird sees Arnold’s trade­mark, emo­tion­al­ly-height­ened social real­ism slow­ly evolv­ing into some­thing a lot more sur­re­al. Hav­ing only dipped her toes in the waters of myth and mag­i­cal real­ism in the past, here she ambi­tious­ly sat­u­rates her work in the expan­sive field of the fan­tas­ti­cal in more force­ful ways, some­thing that con­vinc­ing­ly emerges through the ethe­re­al allure of Franz Rogows­ki as the oth­er­world­ly tit­u­lar fig­ure. The film also fea­tures out­stand­ing per­for­mances by new­com­er Nykiya Adams as 12-year old pro­tag­o­nist Bai­ley, whose point of view grounds and shapes Arnold’s film­mak­ing, and Bar­ry Keoghan as anar­chist dad and psy­che­del­ic toad-whis­per­er, Bug.

This issue comes togeth­er as a wider cel­e­bra­tion of Arnold’s craft, includes inter­views with direc­tor and cast, as well as a dossier delv­ing into and reap­prais­ing the filmmaker’s incred­i­ble back catalogue.

On the cover

Franz Rogows­ki graces our cov­er, illus­trat­ed in bold, vibrant colours by Paris-based artist Marie Mohan­na. The con­cept for this cov­er came from the ener­gy of Bird – the char­ac­ter – as an uplift­ing bea­con of hope for Bailey’s wan­ing capac­i­ty for child­like wonder.

Else­where in the issue, we have new illus­tra­tion work from Rumbidzai Savan­hu, Stephanie Jade, Zoé Maghamès Peters, John Scar­ratt, Snids and Stéphanie Sergeant.

In the issue

Lead review: Bird
Han­nah Strong on the lyri­cal and earthy aspects of Andrea Arnold’s gor­geous new work.

The Sen­su­al World
Nia Childs meets film­mak­er Andrea Arnold who dis­sects her method and explains her love of ethe­re­al textures.

Out­sider Odysseys
The Andrea Arnold cor­pus – from her ear­ly shorts through to 2023’s Cow – exam­ined via six punchy essays.

Between Two Worlds
Sav­ina Petko­va in con­ver­sa­tion with the Ger­man actor Franz Rogows­ki, who picks apart his own screen image.

View from the Bal­cony
Gamer; motocross-lover; method actor (kin­da). David Jenk­ins has a chat with Irish megas­tar, Bar­ry Keoghan.

South by South-East
Mike McC­ahill takes a train­ride along the south­east coast of Eng­land in search of Thames Estu­ary cinema.

In the back section

Mikey Madi­son and Sean Bak­er
The direc­tor and star of Palme d’Or-winner, Ano­ra, speak to Iana Mur­ray going deep into the world of sex work.

Mati Diop
Rōgan Gra­ham meets the mak­er of the remark­able prizewin­ning docu-essay hybrid, Dahomey, who explains the film’s urgent anti-colo­nial message.

Steve McQueen
The British artist and film­mak­er meets Rōgan Gra­ham and talks the vital impor­tance of pri­ma­ry research that went into mak­ing his new film, Blitz.

Tyler Taormi­na
Christ­mas Eve in Miller’s Point is a Yule­tide clas­sic in the mak­ing, and its direc­tor has a sin­cere fond­ness for the hol­i­day season.

In review
Sean Baker’s Ano­ra
Todd Phillips’ Jok­er: Folie á Deux
Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door
Mil­isuthando Bongela’s Mil­isuthando
Mati Diop’s Dahomey
Mark Cousins’ A Sud­den Glimpse to Deep­er Things
Johan Grimonprez’s Sound­track to a Coup d’Etat
Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot
François Ozon’s The Crime is Mine
Jacques Audriard’s Emil­ia Pérez
Peter Muri­mi and Daphne Matziaraki’s The Bat­tle For Laikip­ia
Pas­cal Bergamin’s Por­traits of Dan­ger­ous Women
Pay­al Kapadia’s All We Imag­ine As Light
Basel Adra, Yuval Abra­ham, Ham­dan Bal­lal and Rachel Szor’s No Oth­er Land
Tyler Taormina’s Christ­mas Eve in Miller’s Point
Ali Abbasi’s The Appren­tice
Aaron Schimberg’s A Dif­fer­ent Man
Edward Berger’s Con­clave
Mal­colm Washington’s The Piano Lesson

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your con­sid­er­a­tion; Han­nah Strong sends a post­card from the Venice Film Fes­ti­val; David Jenk­ins sends a post­card from the San Sebastián Film Fes­ti­val, and Mari­na Ash­i­oti assess­es the queer impact of the icon­ic Buffy the Vam­pire Slay­er in a Hal­loween-themed Sticky Gold Stars col­umn.

LWLies 105 is avail­able to order now from our online shop. Become a Club LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.