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Shinji Somai retrospective announced for Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012
11 Apr 2012
PP Rider, The Catch, Typhoon Club and more to screen at EIFF 2012
Japanese director Shinji Somai will be the subject of a major retrospective at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival. The director, who died in 2001, is greatly admired in Japan, and is slowly starting to achieve international…
Bonsai
10 Apr 2012
A likeable drama about past love and missed opportunities
There’s much to like in this gentle drama about young love and missed opportunities but Chilean feature Bonsái feels a little too familiar to make a lasting impact. Julio (Diego Noguera) is an aspiring writer, working in a bookshop by day and…
Revisiting: La Grande Illusion
4 Apr 2012
The chance to see Jean Renoir’s eloquent anti-war statement on the big screen should not be missed
It’s usually described as an anti-war statement, and La Grande Illusion is certainly and eloquently that, but Jean Renoir’s masterpiece – re-released this month – is warmer and less didactic than that tag suggests. The film makes its moral point about…
Rendez-vous with French Cinema preview
26 Mar 2012
The chance to see upcoming French films before they hit cinemas later this year
Now that The Artist has cleaned up at the Oscars, attention can turn to other French films that will be released in the UK during 2012. The Rendez-vous with French Cinema event, which runs in London until Sat 24 Mar and at Edinburgh's Filmhouse from Fri…
Le Havre
19 Mar 2012
Aki Kaurismaki's French language debut is a grimly funny working class drama
(PG) 93min Migrating south to shoot his latest feature in France seems to have lightened the mood of the Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki, whose brand of deadpan humour has previously proved to be the key in crafting a series of delightfully…
The Kid with a Bike
28 Feb 2012
Naturalistic storytelling from the Dardenne brothers, starring Cecile de France and Thomas Doret
(12A) 87min The Dardenne brothers’ latest film is one of their very best – the story of the relationship between a young boy Cyril (Thomas Doret), recently taken into foster care, and local hairdresser Samantha (Cecile de France). The two meet by…
Michael
28 Feb 2012
Challenging and non-sensationalist portrayal of a paedophile
(18) 96min Doubtless Austrian writer-director Markus Schleinzer, a former casting director for Michael Haneke, will be pilloried in some quarters for making a film which ‘humanizes’ its paedophile protagonist. Yet what makes this rigorously observed…
GFF 2012 - Kid With a Bike and On The Ice
20 Feb 2012
Dardennes brothers film strikes a chord but Inuit thriller fails to excite
Before the Film Festival began, when talking to people about highlights, one of the picks that kept coming up was the Dardennes brothers' Kid With a Bike. The Dardennes (Jean-Pierre and Luc) are the Belgian filmmaking pair responsible for La Promesse…
GFF 2012 - Day planner
6 Feb 2012
Our highlights for each day of the Glasgow Film Festival
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
24 Jan 2012
Provocative religious drama from French director Bruno Dumont
(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
24 Jan 2012
Quirky, saccharine directorial debut from French actress Melanie Laurent
(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
15 Nov 2011
Director of moving and downbeat film on Catholic Church
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
4 Nov 2011
Nacer Khemir's Bab’Aziz kicks off the celebration of African cinema
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
4 Nov 2011
Burkinabé animated film L'arbre aux esprits (Tree of Spirits)
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
17 Oct 2011
Pegase, Tree of Spirits and an appearance by director Obi Emelonye among festival highlights
‘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
12 Oct 2011
Impressive crime drama from Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo
(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
14 Sep 2011
Moving romantic drama from director Stéphane Brizé, starring Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain
(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
21 Jul 2011
A deeply moving portrayal of an elderly woman's struggles in rural South Korea
(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
13 Jul 2011
Studio Ghibli takes on The Borrowers and delivers charming results
(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
20 Jun 2011
Spanish black comedy/horror takes in clowns, circus life, love and madness
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
23 May 2011
Franco-Canadian drama is a deserving award-winner
(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
23 May 2011
Romain Duris turns out an excellent performance in French drama
(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
23 May 2011
Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu star in playful French comedy
(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)
23 May 2011
Director Fred Cavayé's French thriller is engaging and well-paced
(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
17 May 2011
Gerard Depardieu stars in road trip comedy
(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…
