Film and Foreign

GFF 2012 - Day planner

Our highlights for each day of the Glasgow Film Festival

6 Feb 2012

It can be difficult, when any festival rolls around, to decide which events to skip in favour of others. Searching rigorously through the programme, referring back to the calendar, trying to fit in as much as possible - it's a painstaking piece of work…

Hadewijch

Provocative religious drama from French director Bruno Dumont

24 Jan 2012

(cert tbc)105mins Don’t be put off the fact that it’s taken a couple of years for this provocative examination of contemporary religious martyrdom to gain a cinematic release in the United Kingdom. The film, which explores how extreme faith can…

The Adopted

Quirky, saccharine directorial debut from French actress Melanie Laurent

24 Jan 2012

(15) 100 mins Still only 28-years-old, French actress and musician Melanie Laurent makes her directorial debut with this offbeat family tale, which owes more to her recent performances in US indie Beginners and the sentimental melodrama The Concert…

Interview: Nanni Moretti, writer-director of We Have a Pope

Director of moving and downbeat film on Catholic Church

15 Nov 2011

Did you ever think of casting yourself in the lead role of Melville, the newly elected Pope, who suffers a crisis of confidence? When I was still in the initial stages of the script, I was chatting to friends and I told them I was thinking of writing a…

Africa in Motion 2011 begins with mystical grace

Nacer Khemir's Bab’Aziz kicks off the celebration of African cinema

4 Nov 2011

The launch of this year’s Africa in Motion film festival kicked off at Filmhouse on Wednesday night with a bustling, brightly dressed crowd that would not have seemed out of place in a humming African market. The warm atmosphere of festivity and…

Africa in Motion 2011 animation strand wins the day

Burkinabé animated film L'arbre aux esprits (Tree of Spirits)

4 Nov 2011

Animation is a small but rapidly growing genre in African cinema. L’arbre aux esprits (Tree of Spirits) is one of several animated films to be screened at Africa in Motion 2011 as part their children’s programme, taking place on Saturday. The story…

Africa in Motion film festival 2011

Pegase, Tree of Spirits and an appearance by director Obi Emelonye among festival highlights

17 Oct 2011

‘The first criteria is that they are excellent films,’ explains Lizelle Bisschoff, founder of the Africa in Motion film festival, when asked about the selection process for the fest. African cinema is still an unknown factor for many UK filmgoers, and…

Miss Bala

Impressive crime drama from Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo

12 Oct 2011

(15) 113min Maria Full of Grace meets Heat in this absorbing thriller from Mexican writer/director Gerardo Naranjo (I’m Gonna Explode), whose title translates as ‘Miss Bullet’. Laura (newcomer Stephanie Sigman) is a young working-class woman living…

Mademoiselle Chambon

Moving romantic drama from director Stéphane Brizé, starring Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain

14 Sep 2011

(12A) 101min Mademoiselle Chambon is another bitter-sweet and elegantly orchestrated chamber drama from Stéphane Brizé, the French writer-director of Not Here to be Loved, which plays like a Gallic variation of Brief Encounter. Jean (Vincent Lindon…

Poetry

A deeply moving portrayal of an elderly woman's struggles in rural South Korea

21 Jul 2011

(12A) 139min The quest to write a single poem becomes a heroic act in Poetry, a poignant, intricately plotted melodrama from Secret Sunshine director Lee Chang-dong. Poetry won the Best Screenplay at Cannes but it is the central performance from…

Arrietty

Studio Ghibli takes on The Borrowers and delivers charming results

13 Jul 2011

(U) 94min Over three decades, the Studio Ghibli brand of animated storytelling has become a worldwide phenomenon through beloved classics My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and the recent Ponyo. Although not directed by the studio’s co-founder Hayao…

The Last Circus

Spanish black comedy/horror takes in clowns, circus life, love and madness

20 Jun 2011

The latest film from writer/director Alex de la Iglesia is almost unclassifiable, a love story, a black comedy and horror all apply and as fans of his Accion Mutante (1992) will know it’s this glorious mess of ideas and themes that makes for such a…

Incendies

Franco-Canadian drama is a deserving award-winner

23 May 2011

(15) 130min This commendable and impressive Franco-Canadian drama arrives fresh from scooping of seven Genies (Canada’s Oscars). Set in the Middle East and dramatising an endless cycle of violence and retribution, it’s an unashamedly didactic piece…

The Big Picture

Romain Duris turns out an excellent performance in French drama

23 May 2011

(tbc) 114min This adaptation of Douglas Kennedy’s novel relocates the setting from New York and Montana to Paris and the Adriatic Coast. Its plot involves murder, identity theft and abandonment but this is not so much a thriller as an investigation…

Potiche

Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu star in playful French comedy

23 May 2011

(15) 103 min Catherine Deneuve has a gift of a role in this deliciously subversive farce from the prolific François Ozon. Deneuve is Suzanne, the ‘potiche’ or trophy wife, blithely content to be a domestic goddess in the shadow of insufferable…

Point Blank (A Bout Portant)

Director Fred Cavayé's French thriller is engaging and well-paced

23 May 2011

(15) 84 min Fashion photographer turned filmmaker Fred Cavayé (Anything For Her) would have thrived in the old Hollywood studio system. His films operate with the speed and single-mindedness of a runaway locomotive. Give him a high concept premise…

Mammuth

Gerard Depardieu stars in road trip comedy

17 May 2011

(15) 92min Directors Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern have shown a talent to amuse with politically-incorrect, deadpan delights like Aaltra (2004) and Louise-Michel (still awaiting a Scottish cinema release). Mammuth offers more of the same with…

Takeshi Miike's 13 Assassins strikes a balance between measured character development and violent brutality

25 Apr 2011

(15) 126min Prolific to the point of insanity, unpredictable and blatantly controversial, Takeshi Miike is not your average Japanese filmmaker. His notorious body of work which includes loads of straight to video fare, the Dead or Alive trilogy, Ichi…

Xavier Dolan returns with Heartbeats

The film marries humour with Nouvelle Vague cool, and stars Monia Chokri and Niels Schneider

20 Apr 2011

(15) 100min Xavier Dolan caused a stir two years ago when his assured debut feature, I Killed My Mother, won a string of awards at Cannes. The young director from Montreal was only 20 years old. If that wasn’t impressive enough he returned to the…

Le Quattro Volte

A warm recreation of rural village life in Calabria, Italy

20 Apr 2011

(tbc) 100min Le Quattro Volte is a difficult film to define, part human drama part anthropological study, it explores the interconnectedness of life in a hilltop village in Calabria, Italy. The film loosely links together four narratives: the…

Love Like Poison

Tender coming-of-age film starring Clara Augarde, Michel Galabru and Lio

20 Apr 2011

(15) 85min You’d be hard pushed to find a more honest and tender portrayal of early adolescence than first time director Katell Quillévéré’s coming of age film Love Like Poison. Anna (Clara Augarde) has come home from boarding school for the…

Life, Above All

Director Oliver Schmitz succeeds in making this more than just another 'issues movie'

20 Apr 2011

(tbc) 100min Set in the South African township of Elandsdoorn outside Johannesburg, this forceful coming-of-age drama concerns a 12-year-old girl, Chanda, (Khomotso Manyaka), whom we first meet helping arrange the funeral of her baby sister. Her…

Angels of Evil (Gli Angeli del Mal)

Flawed addition to the gangster movie genre

18 Apr 2011

(15) 128min The story of real-life Milan mobster Renato Vallanzasca, Angels of Evil has all the ingredients for a bloody gangster classic. For starters, there’s actor/director Michele Placido (who made the 2005 crime saga Romanzo Criminale) at the…

Reel Festivals: Syria and Lebanon

Films from the Middle East at this year's events include 'Every Day is a Holiday' and 'Zabad'

13 Apr 2011

The team behind 2009’s Reel Afghanistan and Reel Iraq in 2010 have decided to focus their attention on Syria and Lebanon this year. For the uninitiated, the format is simple: in an attempt to bridge cultural understanding, the festival of films…

Farewell (L'Affaire Farewell) - a romantic thriller set in the midst of the Cold War

Starring Emir Kusterica and Guilliame Canet

28 Mar 2011

(12A) 113min Based loosely on the actions of high ranking KGB official and spy Vladimir Vetrov, Farewell is a complex but tender portrait of the Cold War in free fall, a place where a passionate eccentric like Vetrov (here renamed Grigoriev) can…