Film Festival

Edinburgh International Film Festival line up revealed

8 May 2008

The Edinburgh International Film Festival took a step closer to positioning itself as June's must-see event this week, with the launch of next month's much-anticipated EIFF programme. The festival's artistic director, Hannah McGill, caused a stir late…

Glasgow Film Festival sales soar

8 May 2008

Glasgow Film Festival has announced a 35% increase in box office admissions, in comparison with last year. GFT director, Jaki McDougall, said of the boom: ‘The most effective way for us to satisfy audience demand was to concentrate on a 'long-tail…

Short film competition winners announced

8 May 2008

The List and Metro Ecosse are pleased to announce the winners of our short film competition. They are Heather Day with Big Mistake, wildlife guide Jan Storie’s Learning Curves and schoolteacher Margherita Still's Milk Girl. Their films will premiere…

And When Did You Last See Your Father?

23 Aug 2007

‘It’s not my story, of course. It’s Blake’s story,’ says screenwriter David Nicholls of his latest project. Having cut his teeth on TV drama Cold Feet, Nicholls successfully adapted his own novel Starter For Ten for the cinema before he agreed to give…

Breach

(12A) 110min

23 Aug 2007

Superior political thriller based on the true story of an FBI turncoat who created the biggest security breach in the organisation’s history. Chris Cooper is excellent as FBI agent Robert Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe is equally good as the undercover…

Breach

Chris Cooper interview

23 Aug 2007

Chris Cooper’s got pedigree. The 56-year-old American actor began his impressive big screen career with the great independent filmmaker John Sayles, making four films with him, including Cooper’s 1987 debut, the miner’s union drama Matewan, and the…

Ex Drummer

23 Aug 2007

Based on the degenerate novel of the same name by the hugely popular Flemish novelist and poet Herman Brusselmans, Ex Drummer is like a checklist of the Belgian writer’s obsessions, noticeably alcohol, sex, disability, boredom, violence, punk rock and…

Hitlist - the best Festival film

23 Aug 2007

Run Granny Run Enjoyably eccentric documentary about a 94-year-old lady’s attempt to become the Democrat’s New Hampshire candidate for the senate. Filmhouse, 623 8030, 23 Aug, 4.30pm, £7.95 (£5.50). Faro: Goddess of the Waters Captivating…

Jennifer Fox

23 Aug 2007

5 words to describe the film you have at the EIFF? Transformative, humorous, innovative, intimate and unpredictable. 4 of your favourite cinemas in the world? Film Forum, New York; Curzon, Soho; Empire Bio, Copenhagen; L’entrepot, Paris.

Lynch

23 Aug 2007

This Danish/US co-production is the first authorised documentary feature about the great enigmatic filmmaker David Lynch. Shot in highly stylised black and white, the film offers a glimpse of Lynch at work behind the scenes on his last film Inland…

Manufacturing Dissent: Unconvering Michael Moore

23 Aug 2007

Is Michael Moore a self-regarding political liability who also screws with journalistic codes of conduct, or a wayward truth seeker who has no truck with compromise as he pursues fairness and justice? We probably didn’t need Deborah Melnyk and Rick…

Once

23 Aug 2007

This Belfast-set musical romance about a lovelorn busker and a Czech immigrant single mother who get together to make music is a sort of low-key The Commitments (and Glen Hansard of Irish rock band The Frames appears in both films). It’s got its…

Run Granny Run

23 Aug 2007

Don Ameche In the 20 or so years before his death in 1993, Ameche had become the über OAP in huge box office hits Trading Places and Cocoon. His best late great performance was as shoe shiner come ageing mafia don in David Mamet’s hugely enjoyable…

Stardust

23 Aug 2007

This British blockbuster adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s marvellous English fantasy novel looks fantastic. It’s seriously marred, however, by a lacklustre script co-written by Jane Goldman (Mrs Jonathan Ross) and director Matthew Vaughn. Despite fine art…

State of the World

23 Aug 2007

Portmanteau films are always hard to pull off. After the carbohydrate rich, protein poor dish that was Paris, je t’aime, this six short film look at the state of the world is much more demanding. No film more so than Wang Bing’s Brutality Factory…

Sugarhouse

(15) 90min

23 Aug 2007

Based on Dominic Leyton’s play Collision about a middle class man (Steven Mackintosh) who finds himself forming an unlikely alliance with crackhead D (Ashley Walters) when a volatile gangster Hoodwink (Andy Serkis) comes after him. Hammy, dull and…

The most pleasant Festival surprises

23 Aug 2007

The not uniformly horrible weather After what started out as a summer of slush, the temperature has improved in recent weeks with the sun even putting in the occasional appearance. OK, it might not be tropical, but at least it’s sweats rather than…

The Serpent

23 Aug 2007

This slick French thriller – somewhat reminiscent of another recent export from that country, Tell No One – employs the familiar framed-for-murder/man-on-the-run scenario. The fugitive in question here is Parisian fashion photographer Vincent Mandel…

Time of His Life: The Films of Eddie McConnell

23 Aug 2007

1 John Grierson Feted Scottish documentary cameraman and filmmaker McConnell was mentored by the Stirlingshire documentary filmmaker Grierson in his early days in the profession. Much of Grierson’s dedication to the idea of cinematic truth and lyricism…

Two Days in Paris

(15) 100min

23 Aug 2007

French actress Julie Delpy jumps behind the camera for the second time with a film that pays a heavy debt to her most famous screen role, that of Céline in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Two Days in Paris is an investigation…

Two Days in Paris

23 Aug 2007

The lovely French actress Julie Delpy has the honour of closing this year’s EIFF with her second film as writer and director. This lighthearted culture clash comedy focuses on highly-strung photographer Marion (played by Delpy) and her American…

Ratatouille

16 Aug 2007

The adventures of an aspiring rodent chef whose gastronomic endeavours make him the toast of Paris is hardly a conventional dish to serve up to audiences. But Pixar’s attention to character and detail has already created such unlikely characters as…

A Mighty Heart

16 Aug 2007

Prolific, versatile British director Michael Winterbottom’s film about the kidnapping of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl by Pakistani militants in Karachi in 2002 is at once a riveting political thriller and an enormously affecting human drama.

Anita Loos Retrospective

16 Aug 2007

Name Anita Loos. Born 26 April, 1888, California. Died 18 August 1981, New York. Who was she? Loos was one of the most celebrated US screenwriters, playwrights and authors of the last century. Over her long life she experienced several…

Crazy Love

16 Aug 2007

Burt Pugach was working in the movie business when he spotted Linda Rise sitting on a park bench and decided he had to have her. Little did she know that he had a wife and disabled child already. From this moment on their story proves the adage that…