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

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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 - 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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…