LFF opening and closing night films announced

'The Constant Gardener' will open the London Film Festival while 'Good Night, And Good Luck' will close it.

Aug 25 2005

'The Constant Gardener' will open the 49th Times bfi London Film Festival on October 19.

Fernando Meirelles' long-awaited adaptation of the John Le Carre bestseller, it stars Ralph Fiennes as a career diplomat working in Africa, whose wife (Rachel Weisz) is brutally murdered in a remote area of Northern Kenya.

As the circumstances surrounding her death become ever more mysterious, the mild-mannered widower soon becomes obsessed with finding out the truth.

It has also been announced that George Clooney's second feature as a director, 'Good Night, And Good Luck', will close the festival on November 3.

Telling the true life tale of Edward R Murrow, a television journalist who stood up to Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950s witch-hunts in America, it stars David Strathairn, Robert Downey Jr, Patricia Clarkson and Clooney himself.

Speaking of the films, the festival's artistic director Sandra Hebron said: 'We're delighted to be able to open and close the festival with these strong, distinctive films, which celebrate film making which is both assured and imaginative.'

The remainder of the festival's programme will be announced on September 14, with details to follow here.