Film Festival

Man on Wire - James Marsh interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

Philippe Petit was the man who dared to walk a tightrope between the Twin Towers. Director James Marsh tells Kaleem Aftab how he made a film of this incredible feat

Bigga Than Ben: A Russian's Guide to Ripping Off London

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(SA Halewood, UK) 85min Allegedly based on the diary of a young Moscovite who came to London in the late 1990s, Bigga than Ben is, for the majority of its running time, a distracting black comedy. Cobakka (Ben Barnes) and Spiker (Andrei Chadov) are a…

Planet B-boy

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jul 2007

Think breakdancing died out in the 80s? Think again, says Mark Edmundson as he talks to Benson Lee, the writer-director of Planet B-boy which charts its epic resurgence

The Escapist - Brian Cox interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

As Brian Cox welcomes me into the interview room at London’s Gibson Guitar Studio, he points out a picture of Syd Barrett, ‘a son of Cambridge’, on the wall. It’s been just a few months since the Dundee-born actor was treading the boards on Broadway to…

WALL-E - Angus MacLane interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

Could you fall in love with a robot? Animation studio Pixar is betting that you will. The little metal critter with designs on your heart is called WALL-E, and this summer, he’ll be giving Indiana Jones and Carrie Bradshaw a run for their money at the…

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…

Physical graffiti as The Wackness comes to Edinburgh International Film Festival

23 Jun 2008

Friday 20th June 2008 saw Festival Square, Edinburgh transformed into an enormous technicolor homage to graffiti, breakdancing and hip hop culture to mark the UK premiere of film The Wackness at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Richard Jenkins - Exclusive interview

Audio

5 Aug 2008

At this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival I had the great pleasure of grabbing a chat with the American actor, and proud son of Illinois, Richard Jenkins. I have been a great admirer of Jenkins work as a character actor since his marginal…

Kiera Knightley and Sienna Miller set for Edinburgh premiere of The Edge of Love

9 Jun 2008

Edinburgh International Film Festival opening night film The Edge of Love will see the film's director John Maybury joined by headliners Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys together with writer Sharman Macdonald on the red carpet.

Errol Morris - Exclusive interview

Audio

5 Aug 2008

Paul Dale goes head to head with arguably the best documentarian and interviewer of his generation - Errol Morris. Morris was in town to promote his soon to be released film Standard Operating Procedure.

Edinburgh International Film Festival - Jeanne Moreau

5 Jun 2008

Born between the wars to an English chorus girl mother and a French restaurateur father, Jeanne Moreau was born to play what feminist film critic Molly Haskell called ‘the glorious fantasy, appealing to both sexes, to men as eternal mistress, to women…

Jesus Christ Saviour

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Peter Geyer, Germany) 84min At the beginning of Werner Herzog’s engrossing documentary homage to his favourite actor and nemesis Klaus Kinski, My Best Fiend, there is a tantalising glimpse of Kinski performing his infamous 1971 Jesus concert. Finally…

Glamour expected at EIFF Opening Gala

24 Apr 2008

Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller will inject some glamour into this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, following the announcement that they are to join The Edge of Love director John Maybury on the red carpet at the festival’s Opening Night…

Jeanne Moreau to get Retrospective at Edinburgh International Film Festival

28 Feb 2008

French screen star Jeanne Moreau is to be the subject of a special retrospective at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. Festival director Hannah McGill said Moreau showed ‘exactly the sort of trailblazing spirit, boldness and intelligence…

Hitlist - the best Festival movies

16 Aug 2007

Control The Ian Curtis and Joy Division story gets the Anton Corbijn treatment. Cineworld, 623 8030, 17 Aug, 7pm & 19 Aug, 9.40pm, £7.95 (£5.50). Les Chansons d’Amour Bizarre ménage a trois musical. You’ll either love it or hate it. Filmhouse, 623…

Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle

(Simon Miller, UK, 2007) 90min

9 Aug 2007

Admirable in intent and ambitious in scope, this first-ever Gaelic language feature is a real achievement. By collaborating with local talent – writers, actors, musicians – from the Isle of Skye where the film was shot, the makers have fulfilled their…

Twisted Sister

(Ed Herzog, Germany, 2006) 94min

9 Aug 2007

Anna (Heike Makatsch) is an apparently successful thirty-something in the music industry, but when she takes a holiday in Spain with her timid younger sister, Marie (Anna Maria Mühe) she turns into a nightmare. Anna makes every event into a…

Two Days in Paris

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Film Festival A woman for all seasons Julie Delpy talks to Kaleem Aftab about her feature film directorial debut and tells him why she finds it hard to sit still

Best of the Fest programme at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Sponsored by The List

25 Jun 2008

The List sponsors the Best of the Fest, as this Sunday provides you with a second chance to catch the best films screening at the EIFF

Donkey Punch

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Oliver Blackburn, UK) 99min New British director Oliver Blackburn marks himself out as a name to watch in this misogynistic horror set in Marbella. When three lasses from Leeds (Sian Breckin, Jaime Winstone and Nichola Burley) decide to board a yacht…

Elite Squad (Tropa D'Elite)

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(José Padilha, Brazil) 118min Based on Luiz Eduardo Soares’ bestseller, Elite Squad is a favela thriller from the director of 2002 documentary Bus 174. It’s 1997 in Rio de Janeiro, months before a visit from Pope John Paul II. The rundown housing…

Fears of the Dark

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Various, France) 85min This episodic animation is destined for cult status. Five respected graphic novelists have each penned a story detailing what made them scared at night. Dogs, mad girls and silence all feature strongly. Each story has then been…

Shiver (Eskalofrio)

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Isidro Ortiz, Spain) 91min Once again Spain is proving to be a breeding ground for newly discovered horror talent. Isidro Ortiz puts in his most satisfying feature yet as paranoia and the old staple of something lurking in the woods are brought into…

The Visitor - Thomas McCarthy interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

Thomas McCarthy works as an actor or a writer or a director, but feels that to do all three jobs in one film would be a little too much for him to take. As an actor, despite turns in such stellar productions as Syriana, All The Kings Men and Flags of…

Festivals

5 Jun 2008

Until 8 June Leith Festival Various venues, Leith, Edinburgh, prices vary www.leithfestival.com Leith Festival showcases its trademark brew of home-grown talent and big name headliners with over 100 musical acts, 50 comedians and a dozen visual…

Edinburgh Film Festival programmers on the prowl

14 Feb 2008

Edinburgh International Film Festival programmers have been out in force in recent weeks. Festival director Hannah McGill has been scouting at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, while other members of the team were spotted at the Rotterdam and…

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…

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…

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…

Knocked Up

Top 5

16 Aug 2007

The 40-Year-Old Virgin – nipple wax scene In an effort to make virgin Steve Carell more appealing to women, his friends take him to get his chest waxed. Carell agreed to do the waxing for real in the film. By the time they reach his nipples, you too are…

Tilda Swinton

9 Aug 2007

Even without her bright beacon of red hair, it would be difficult to miss Tilda Swinton at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. Enjoying her inaugural year as patron, alongside the venerable Sir Sean Connery, you can take your pick when it…

Metro Ecosse film competition winners screening

20 Jun 2008

Metro Ecosse and The List will be screening the winning films of 2007 'One Minute Wonders' competition on Thursday 26th June 2008 at 1.30pm at Cineworld, Fountain Park, Edinburgh. The screening will last approximately 15 minutes. Free tickets are…

Death Defying Acts

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Gillian Armstrong, UK, Australia) 97min It’s 1926, and the world tour of escape artist Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce) brings him to Edinburgh. There he’s charmed by local con-artist Mary McGarvie (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who poses as a psychic to put…

Somers Town

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Shane Meadows, UK) 75min While Shane Meadows’ last outing, This is England, showed the racist side of British nationalism, his follow-up, the black-and-white Somers Town, demonstrates just how nice the Brits can be to immigrants. Starting life as a…

The Edge of Love - Sharman Macdonald interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

5 Jun 2008

At the programme launch of the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival artistic director Hannah McGill thanked the makers of The Edge of Love for providing her with the perfect opening night film. What McGill no doubt meant by this was that The Edge…

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…

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…

Edge of Love to open Edinburgh International Film Festival

15 Apr 2008

The Edge of Love, starring Keira Knightly and Sienna Miller, will open this year's Edinburgh Film Festival. The film, directed by John Maybury, will be the Opening Gala at this year's Festival, which runs from 18 to 29 June. It looks at the passion…

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.

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…

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…

Les Chansons d’Amour

16 Aug 2007

Teacher, novelist, playwright, children’s book author and now filmmaker, Christophe Honoré is fast becoming the name to drop on the world film festival circuit. His last two films – incest drama Ma Mere and playful Nouvelle Vague-ish comedy drama Dans…

Les Witnesses (Les Temoins)

16 Aug 2007

French director Andre Téchiné (Strayed, Alice et Martin) returns with this urgent and compelling relationship drama, which is terrifically acted by its ensemble cast. Split into three parts, and beginning in Paris during the summer of 1984, it swiftly…

Planet B-Boy

16 Aug 2007

Breakdancing has come a long way in the 30 years since its rise alongside hip hop and graffiti in the housing projects of New York City. After enjoying a fleeting popularisation in music videos and kitsch movies of the mid-1980s, an international…

Hitlist - the best Fringe comedy

9 Aug 2007

Stewart Lee Still surfing on his own wave of post-Springer glory, the 41st Best Stand-Up Ever delivers a routine would rocket him further up that chart if they had another poll today. Hilarious and confrontational. UdderBELLY’s Pasture, 0870 745 3083…

Jess Weixler

9 Aug 2007

Jess Weixler is so all-American she looks like she’s jumped straight out of a photograph of high school cheerleaders. Her long blond hair and blue eyes make her the archetypal American beauty – just like all those Britney Spears wannabes lusted after by…

The Directors

13 Nov 2006

It may not be very apparent yet, but Scotland’s summer festivals are feeling seismic tremors. On the one hand there are new chiefs heading up two of Edinburgh’s prestigious festivals. On the other, there’s a new, upmarket music festival outside Glasgow…

Before The Rains

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Santosh Sivan, US/India) 98min Set against the backdrop of the decline of the British empire and growth of the nationalist movement in southern India in 1937, this tale of forbidden love between an English spice merchant (Linus Roache) and a local…

Eat, For This is My Body

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Michelange Quay, Haiti/France) 105min Quay’s semi-abstract look at colonial elements in Haiti is comparable to two 1980s touchstones, Marion Hänsel’s Dust and Claire Denis’ Chocolat. While there is an impressive opening shot that glides over the…

Patti Smith: Dream of Life

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Steven Sebring, USA) 109min Patti Smith, the singer-poet and one-time ‘godmother of punk’, bares her soul in this intimate self-portrait, culled from over 11 years of filming with her friend, the photographer Steve Sebring. Beginning in 1995, the film…

Standard Operating Procedure

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Errol Morris, USA) 116min The great documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War) turns his investigative eye towards the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. The coup of the film is that Morris interviews some of the soldiers who…

Tiramisu

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Paula van der Oest, Netherlands) 90min Abandoned by her theatre director husband for a younger woman, middle-aged actress and retail therapy junkie Anne seems unconcerned by the impending loss of the Amsterdam houseboat she and her long-suffering…

The Wackness

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

(Jonathan Levine, USA) 110min Jonathan Levine’s follow-up to his superior teen horror flick All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is just as assured a film, although this wigged-out high school movie is greatly enriched by being a far more personal project.

Edinburgh International Film Festival short film highlights

10 Jun 2008

Edinburgh-based short film organisation Shoot First pick out their highlights from the Edinburgh International Film Festival short film programme.

Best of the Edinburgh International Film Festival

6 Jun 2008

When the 62nd Edinburgh Film Festival begins on 18th June it will be more than the just the programme of films and number of celebrity appearances that is under scrutiny. This year is also the first for the festival in its new home in the cultural…

Chris Waitt interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

5 Jun 2008

If someone gave you money to interview all your exes and find out what you did wrong in those relationships, would you do it? Filmmaker Chris Waitt didn’t hang around for an offer and approached Warp X with the pitch for his documentary A Complete…

Edinburgh International Film Festival announces 'Under the Radar' events

28 Apr 2008

The Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced a new strand entitled Under the Radar. This new section, said a Festival statement, 'will celebrate the true spirit of ‘cult’ film and will screen six feature films including two World, two…

Edinburgh International Film Festival's documentary strand announced

21 Apr 2008

Chris Waitt's A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, James Marsh's Man on Wire and Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure are among the 22 documentaries which will be presented at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival. Also among…

Edinburgh International Film Festival wins Lottery funding

17 Mar 2008

The Edinburgh International Film Festival has just announced a significant boost to its funding over the next three years. As part of the UK Film Council's Film Festival Strategy, the EIFF will receive £1.88m of Lottery money between now and…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

I Served the King of England

16 Aug 2007

On paper this looks like a dream project. Major Czech ‘Prague Spring’ filmmaker Jirí Menzel adapts Bohumil Hrabal’s much loved comic novel and tries to recapture the delights of their earlier bittersweet 1966 collaboration, Closely Observed Trains. The…

The Legacy

16 Aug 2007

Writer/director Géla Babluani heads back to his native Georgia for the follow-up to his gripping debut feature 13. A trio of French tourists and their local interpreter venture deep into the mountains to track down a property one of them has inherited…

The Man from London (A London férfi)

16 Aug 2007

Despite its troublesome and lengthy production history, Hungarian master auteur Béla Tarr’s newest film is another work of elegant despair. Closer to his 1988 film Damnation than the more recent Sátántangó or Werckmeister Harmonies in its length and…

Hitlist - the best Festival films

9 Aug 2007

Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s momentous 15-and-a-half hour version of Alfred Döblin’s novel gets a rare outing. A treat. See feature, page 52. Filmhouse, 623 8080, 16–22Aug, 6pm, £30 (no concs). Individual screenings…

Irvine Welsh

5 questions

9 Aug 2007

5 words to describe the film you have at the EIFF Racism and testicular cancer comedy. 4 of your favourite cinemas in the world Cameo, Edinburgh; Rio Dalston, London; IFI, Dublin; Castro, San Francisco. 3 people you would love to work with…

Edinburgh film festival moves to June after 60 years

8 Aug 2007

Organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) have announced plans to hold the event two months earlier next year, in a bid to move outside the city’s renowned festival season. The switch will see the film festival take place June…

Hallam Foe

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Film Festival A walk across the rooftops Alan Morrison meets the director and stars of Edinburgh-set Freudian fairytale Hallam Foe, which opens this year’s EIFF

Anita Loos retrospective

19 Jul 2007

Anita Loos was an intellectual brunette who wrote about dumb gold-diggers. As a major retrospective of her work hits the Festival, Paul Dale explores her legacy

Komma, Ex Drummer

19 Jul 2007

A pair of Belgian movies at the EIFF will showcase the talents of Flemish superstar composer and actor Arno Hintjens. The 59-year-old’s surprisingly mature acting (for a pop star) can be sampled in Martine Doyen’s engrossing personality theft drama…

Seachd

19 Jul 2007

Working with a tiny budget, director Simon Miller and producer Christopher Young’s remarkable first-ever Gaelic feature is dramatic, funny and spectacular, and steeped in Gaelic mythology. Transcending their modest means, largely by collaborating with…

This Filthy World

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jul 2007

As a new film about him comes to this year’s Festival, veteran cult filmmaker John Waters shows no sign of slowing down. Paul Dale does his best to catch up with him

14 Kilometres (14 Kilometros)

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

This issue-driven Spanish drama isn’t afraid to draw on several stock clichés of the well-trodden road movie genre. Three Africans undertake the arduous journey from Niger to Spain, crossing deserts, trying to get through corrupt border controls and…

Matter of fact - Documentaries at the EIFF

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

When the Edinburgh International Film Festival opened its doors for the first time in 1947, documentary films were the only things on the menu. Much has changed since then, but the EIFF has continued its commitment to the feature documentary form. Every…

Edinburgh International Film Festival - LGBT

5 Jun 2008

LGBT-INTEREST CINEMA Various venues, Edinburgh, Wed 18–Sun 29 Jun This year’s EIFF programme includes a handful of intriguing films featuring gay characters or themes. If it’s a mix of high camp, glamour and drama you’re after, look no further than…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

Curtains up for Film Festival

16 Aug 2007

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) commenced last night at Edinburgh’s Cineworld in Fountain Park with the UK premiere of David Mackenzie’s Hallam Foe. Organisers of the film festival felt that Hallam Foe, shot on location in Edinburgh and…

Edinburgh International Film Festival moves to June

16 Aug 2007

After 60 years at the forefront of the biggest show on earth, the Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced plans to go it alone. From next year, the EIFF will be held in June rather than August with the rest of the Edinburgh…

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

Tony McKibbin

16 Aug 2007

Any film that invokes Woody Allen’s Manhattan in its opening moments is asking for invidious comparison. Allen captured late 70s bohemian New York with what seemed like time capsule astuteness. Alex Holdridge’s film does no more than suggest what a…

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK

16 Aug 2007

Firm Festival favourite Park Chan-wook, the South Korean filmmaker who served up the queasy perplexing delights of Old Boy and Lady Vengeance, returns with something very different. I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK is a madcap romantic comedy set inside a…

John Waters

5 Questions

16 Aug 2007

5 words to describe the film you have at the Festival Rude, joyous, juvenile, intellectual, dirty. 4 of your favourite cinemas in the world The Charles Theatre, Baltimore (my local arthouse); the Earl Theatre, Baltimore (now closed – a…

Paranoid Park

16 Aug 2007

Using Blake Nelson’s novel as inspiration Paranoid Park is a cross between Memento, Brick and The Outsiders. Gus Van Sant pushes the boundaries of the time-jumping narrative he essayed in Elephant to tell this pulp tale of a high school kid who gets…

Phantom Love

16 Aug 2007

One of the undoubted highlights of this year’s experimental Black Box strand is US filmmaker Nina Menkes’ black and white internationally roaming surreal familial drama Phantom Love. Menkes has been described as one of ‘the most provocative artists…

XXY

16 Aug 2007

This, the winning film of the Cannes Critics’ Week International Grand Prix Prize brings to mind the opening line of Jeffrey Eugenedes bestseller Middlesex: ‘I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of…

Ethan Hawke

9 Aug 2007

Kaleem Aftab talks to actor, writer and now director Ethan Hawke about adapting his novel The Hottest State for the big screen

5 Reasons To Go To - Scottish Novels On Screen

9 Aug 2007

1 Andrea Gibb (pictured) No relation to the Bee Gees, Gibb (AfterLife, Dear Frankie) is one of Scotland’s most prolific and successful screenwriters. She will be chairing this event/debate which looks at the success of Scottish literature in its many…

Intolerance

9 Aug 2007

And so begins this year’s List-sponsored Anita Loos Retrospective of films, written by or adapted from the work of the grand old dame of American screenwriting. First up is legendary silent film director DW Griffiths’ one true masterpiece from 1916…