&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/82985?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=London+film+festival+trailer+trash%3AArticle%3A1647800&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=London+film+festival+2011%2CLondon+film+festival%2CJude+Law%2CFernando+Meirelles+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Jason+Solomons&amp;c7=11-Oct-16&amp;c8=1647800&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Trailer+trash+%28series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FLondon+film+festival+2011&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Fernando Meirelles&#039;s 360 makes for a disappointing start to the London film festival and Jude Law can&#039;t be bothered dressing up for the red carpet&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sandra&#039;s revolutionary exit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite London&#039;s position as a key city for world cinema, global ensemble piece &lt;em&gt;360&lt;/em&gt; wasn&#039;t the best of openers for the 55th London film festival. The film, directed by Fernando Mereilles, is too bitty and fragmented, never allowing a character, setting or storyline to develop before nipping off on some tangential, frustrating bit-plot. We&#039;re all connected, says the film&#039;s schematic screenplay, right? On opening night, ran the joke at the after-party, half the BlackBerry users in the industry weren&#039;t. Outgoing LFF director Sandra Hebron has had a great record with her opening galas over the last 10 years, showcasing distinctive work even when the choices have been eccentric (&lt;em&gt;Fantastic Mr Fox&lt;/em&gt;) or downers (&lt;em&gt;Vera Drake&lt;/em&gt;). She&#039;s given us &lt;em&gt;Frost/Nixon&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Constant Gardener&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Last King of Scotland&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Dirty Pretty Things&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Eastern Promises&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Gosford Park&lt;/em&gt;. The only other duff one was Jane Campion&#039;s &lt;em&gt;In the Cut&lt;/em&gt;, when Meg Ryan came over for that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpq-Iwu25s&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;famous Michael Parkinson interview&lt;/a&gt;. Sandra is off to retrain as a psychotherapist &ndash; I wonder if she was swayed by the fact that one of the key messages in &lt;em&gt;360&lt;/em&gt; is delivered by a Parisian, female psychotherapist, who tells a lovelorn man, played by Jamel Debbouze, to follow his heart?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Waste Land? What a load of rubbish&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;An Oscar nominee earlier this year for her Brazilian rubbish-tip doc &lt;em&gt;Waste Land&lt;/em&gt;, British director Lucy Walker has now been shortlisted for next year&#039;s awards. Her latest is called &lt;em&gt;The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom&lt;/em&gt; and the Academy confirmed late last week that it is one of eight films through to the second round of voting in the documentary (short subject) category. The film, made on a visit to Japan straight after the tsunami last March, receives its European premiere on 26 October as a late addition to the LFF. Lucy travelled to the hard-hit north of the country, meeting survivors and capturing their efforts to rebuild their town and their shattered lives. It coincided with the cherry blossom season, and its spiritual, hopeful associations. Lucy told me: &quot;To be nominated and shortlisted in the same year is a bit too much for me &ndash; I feel very lucky. It also means I get to come back home to London for a bit.&quot; Lucy will deliver an masterclass interview after the film at BFI Southbank, providing insight into documentary and interview techniques alongside Britdoc&#039;s Jess Search.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Make an effort, Jude&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;360&lt;/em&gt; star Jude Law trod the red carpet in a tweedy grey suit and wide-brimmed hat. The invitations state &quot;strictly black tie&quot;, and if it says that on the ticket, that&#039;s what you need to wear; particularly if you&#039;re getting up on stage and no matter what the state of your barnet. Jude wasn&#039;t the only one. Inside the Odeon Leicester Square, I saw several people in jeans, fleeces and trainers. The place is packed with security and burly bouncers, all keen enough to chuck us out of the cinema and the after-party at the Saatchi Gallery when it closed at 11.15pm. Surely they should be stopping the slovenly getting in?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Crazy love for Paul Simon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was Paul Simon&#039;s 70th birthday last week, on the same night Sundance winner &lt;em&gt;Like Crazy&lt;/em&gt; had its UK premiere at the LFF. This gave director Drake Doremus an extra thrill when I pointed out the coincidence, as his likably romantic film heavily features Simon&#039;s song &quot;Crazy Love, Vol II&quot; from &lt;em&gt;Graceland&lt;/em&gt;. Indeed, the album proves a major discussion point for the film&#039;s two lovers, played by Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, the young British actress who&#039;s rather special in it. Drake and Felicity have since made a follow-up film together, this time starring Guy Pearce. &quot;It&#039;s not a sequel to &lt;em&gt;Like Crazy&lt;/em&gt;,&quot; says Jones. &quot;It&#039;s more a companion piece &ndash; we shot it the same way, on the hoof, in three weeks, free and loose. It&#039;s a lovely way to work and not something I&#039;ve done much of before.&quot; As we toasted Paul Simon&#039;s birthday over cocktails after the film, it prompted a fierce debate: Simon and Garfunkel, or Paul Simon solo? Either way, only one of them was in &lt;em&gt;Annie Hall&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/london-film-festival-2011&quot;&gt;London film festival 2011&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/londonfilmfestival&quot;&gt;London film festival&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/jude-law&quot;&gt;Jude Law&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/fernando-meirelles&quot;&gt;Fernando Meirelles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jasonsolomons&quot;&gt;Jason Solomons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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