Film and Romance

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…

Like Crazy

Sundance-wowing romance starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones

24 Jan 2012

(12A) 89mins Winner of 2011’s Sundance Grand Jury prize, Like Crazy is a long-distance love story mired in the complications of modern-day living. Anna (Felicity Jones) is a British student living in Los Angeles who spends the perfect summer with…

Interview: Felicity Jones, star of Like Crazy

Young actress set to follow Sundance hit with films by Warren Beatty and Ralph Fiennes

17 Jan 2012

A year ago, Felicity Jones was asleep when she got a call from America. ‘I thought there’d been a terrible accident,’ she laughs. But this was no accident. On the line was the producer of her new film Like Crazy: the Sundance Film Festival had just…

Weekend

Poignant and captivating story of unexpected love cut short

20 Oct 2011

(18) 96min A casual one night stand unexpectedly blossoms into a much more meaningful connection in Weekend, a tender heartbreaker from writer/director Andrew Haigh that is easily one of the most impressive British independent features of the…

Monte Carlo

Flat romcom vehicle for Justin Bieber's paramour Selena Gomez

12 Oct 2011

(PG) 108min The star of tween drama Wizards of Waverly Place, but better known as the current squeeze of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez is being relentlessly packaged for fame. Her previous venture, last year’s Ramona and Beezus sank like a stone, and…

Perfect Sense

Dark yet sentimental romance set in an apocalyptic world

14 Sep 2011

(15) 92min David Mackenzie’s seventh feature is, superficially, his most disturbing yet. That’s saying something given the Scottish filmmaker introduced himself and his penchant for dark psychosexual drama with his grim and gritty adaptation of…

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…

Friends with Benefits

Sappy rom-com fails to deflate clichés of the genre

19 Aug 2011

(15) 109min The rom-com has been a moribund genre for years now, excepting Marc Webb’s acerbic and adventurous (500) Days of Summer. Despite promising a similarly caustic examination of the gap between real-life relationships and romantic clichés…

Zookeeper

Kevin James stars in woefully bad family rom-com

13 Jul 2011

(PG) 101min Part rom-com, part Doctor Dolittle style family comedy, Zookeeper, starring lardarse comic actor Kevin James (The Dilemma, Grown Ups), is a wholly unsatisfactory experience for all but the most juvenile minds. The latest offering from…

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…

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…

GFF blog: You Instead premiere creates perfect T in the Park vibe

Featured musician Jo Mango talked to us at the after-party

2 Mar 2011

Sigma Films – the Glasgow-based company behind the likes of Red Road, Hallam Foe and Young Adam – celebrated its 15th birthday with the premiere of You Instead on Friday night. The film tells the tale of two bickering rockstars – played by Luke…

Film You Instead shot at music festival - David Mackenzie interview

Hallam Foe and Young Adam director on making a film at T in the Park

18 Feb 2011

David Mackenzie, director of Hallam Foe and Young Adam, discusses his new movie You Instead, a rock'n'roll romcom that aims to capture the excitement of T in the Park.

No Strings Attached - Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher in casual sexual relationship

Ivan Reitman's sweet-and-sour confection coasts by on personable leads

18 Feb 2011

(15) 107min The moribund romcom genre emits a shrill death-rattle in No Strings Attached, in which Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher play friends who find themselves in a casual sexual relationship, only to find that there are always strings…

Sex in art: Four examples of Scottish eroticism

The Wicker Man, Young Adam, Love Made Easy and The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania

1 Feb 2011

You can find good examples of Scottish eroticism without having to wallow through smut. The List picks four artworks that are worth seeking out for some homegrown, highbrow kicks

The Passion Within

Period detail and good-looking actors in an unremarkable film

17 Aug 2010

‘You f**k like a boy’, reads the message that an actress leaves smeared in red lipstick across the bedroom mirror of a famous bullfighter in this 1940s Spain-set biopic that focuses on the tempestuous romance between Lupe Sino (Penelope Cruz) and…

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

3 Aug 2010

The combination of big-budget producer Jerry Bruckheimer and deep-pocketed studio Disney bore attractive if banal fruit with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but the muddle-headed fantasy The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is more likely to make audiences…

Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist among Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 highlights

5 May 2010

With The Edinburgh Film Festival 2010, which runs between 16-27 June, only a matter of weeks away, the red carpets are getting waterproofed and the popcorn machines are getting serviced. Now in its 64th year, the twelve day festival, packed with…

My Last Five Girlfriends

22 Mar 2010

(12A) 87min Frothy, above average British romcom based on a novel by philosopher Alain de Botton. Brendan Patricks, Naomie Harris and Michael Sheen star. General release from Fri 19 Mar.

Hitlist: Films

17 Sep 2009

Army of Crime, The Beaches of Agnes, White Lightnin', The Godfather, Nagisa Oshima, Fish Tank, Adventureland, Three Miles North of Molkom, Inglourious Basterds, The Big Knife, The Stranger

(500) Days of Summer

Back to front story romantic comedy

21 Aug 2009

(500) Days of Summer promises more than it delivers, regrettably. This factory made YouTube generation rom-com kicks off at breakneck speed delivering a drole reconstruction of young man Tom’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) unruly love affair with young girl…

Film: Also Released

This week's other cinematic offerings

10 Aug 2009

A Perfect Getaway, Imagine That, The Time Traveler's Wife, Sin Nombre

The Go-Between

Film adaptation of LP Hartley’s tale of illicit passion and snobbery

4 Aug 2009

Director Joseph Losey and writer Harold Pinter’s immaculate 1971 adaptation of LP Hartley’s tale of illicit passion and snobbery in Edwardian Norfolk enjoys a slight return on new digital print.

The Ugly Truth

30 Jul 2009

This by-the-numbers romantic comedy from director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster in Law) pairs Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, 27 Dresses) with alpha male Gerard Butler (300, PS I Love You) for a mindless run through of familiar genre…

The Proposal

9 Jul 2009

A summer-smash in the US, Anne Fletcher’s follow-up to 27 Dresses is an old-fashioned odd-couple comedy which might appeal to admirers of the bland charisma of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. In a plot that blatantly reworks the central idea of…

The Canterbury Tales

25 Jun 2009

ADAPTATION Made in 1971, the second of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s noted trilogy, The Canterbury Tales has much to admire about it, but doesn’t quite reach the heights of his earlier adaptation of The Decameron. The answer as to why this might be is…

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon

25 Jun 2009

After being accused of infidelity by his love, Astrea, shepherd Celadon (Andy Gilet) proves his faithfulness by throwing himself into a fast moving river, only to be revived later by a wealthy nymph and her companions. Will Astrea and Celadon ever…

The Exterminating Angels

25 Jun 2009

Not to be confused with the Buñuel film with a similar name; French auteur Jean-Claude Brisseau's erotic drama is a far more dubious proposition than the surrealist master would dare to offer. The Exterminating Angels concerns a film director François…

Gigantic

11 Jun 2009

ROMANCE/COMEDY Having done morose to such great comic effect as a mute Goth kid in Little Miss Sunshine and zealous to fine dramatic impact as the phoney preacher in There Will Be Blood, boyishly good looking American actor Paul Dano graduates from…

Blue Eyelids (Parpados Azules)

11 Jun 2009

Love, naivety and loneliness in a modern Mexican megalopolis are essayed in this charming and quirky bittersweet comedy. When factory worker Marina (Cecilia Suárez) wins an all-expenses-paid trip for two from her employer, she realises that, because of…

Last Chance Harvey

28 May 2009

Dustin Hoffman embodied middle class Jewish 1960s rebellion as soon as he sullenly stepped onto an airport travelator in the opening scene of The Graduate. From the writer-director of 2001’s Jump Tomorrow, Joel Hopkins’ resurrection of sorts opens with…

Chéri

30 Apr 2009

ROMANCE Adapted from Colette’s controversial 1920s novels Cheri and The Last of Cheri, which centre on a six-year love affair between a young man, Cheri, and ageing courtesan Lea de Lonval, and its aftermath, Stephen Frears’ film is a complex and…

Two Lovers

19 Mar 2009

ROMANCE/DRAMA Writer/director James Gray reunites with his We Own the Night star Joaquin Phoenix for this subtly affecting low-key drama. Erratic public persona notwithstanding, Phoenix is very good here as Leonard, an emotionally damaged…

Emily Blunt - Yo majesty!

5 Mar 2009

When people got an eyeful of Emily Blunt’s striking good looks and acting ability in My Summer of Love, winner of the Best New British Feature award following its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2004, the general consensus…

Young Victoria - Giving us the Viccies

5 Mar 2009

Other screen portrayals of Queen Victoria include Judi Dench, Kathy Bates, Michael Palin, Miriam Margoyles, Patricia Routledge, Pauline Collins and Peter Sellers (pictured).

The Young Victoria

5 Mar 2009

ROMANCE/HISTORY Young Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) kicks against the royal pricks but is tamed by a man whose name has become synonymous with penile piercing. Who would of thought it. Miserable old Queen Victoria was the proto feminist. As a young…

Confessions of a Shopaholic

19 Feb 2009

(PG) 104min COMEDY/ROMANCE Meet Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), an aspiring journalist who runs up a hefty seven-figure credit card bill while pursuing her dream in New York. With the pesky IRS on her trail, she tries to kick her plastic habit…

New in Town

19 Feb 2009

(12A) 96min ROMANCE/COMEDY Imagine Local Hero shorn of wit, poetry and atmosphere and you have New In Town, a cheeseball rom-com from Danish TV director Jonas Elmer. Renee Zellweger plays Lucy Hill, a corporate high-flier from sunny Miami who…

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

5 Feb 2009

MYSTERY/ROMANCE What would it be like to live in reverse? Born as an old man only to die as an infant, the Benjamin Button character created by F Scott Fitzgerald in his 1922 short-story gets the full ‘prestige picture’ treatment in David Fincher’s…

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

5 Feb 2009

COMEDY/ROMANCE Another year, another execrable Woody Allen film. Our bankrupt Icelandic friends have a proverb for this kind of thing – ‘mediocrity is climbing molehills without sweating.’ Young Americans Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina…

Faintheart

22 Jan 2009

COMEDY/ROMANCE If ever there was an argument that the business of popular filmmaking should be left to the professionals Faintheart is it. The result of an initiative by MySpace, Vertigo Films and Film4 to ‘harness the collective creativity of the…

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

22 Jan 2009

COMEDY/ROMANCE After key roles in Superbad and Juno, Michael Cera has emerged as the leading geek for hire of US teen cinema. He furthers his reputation in this slight but likable comedy. The only straight member of a struggling queercore band…

Rachel Getting Married

22 Jan 2009

ROMANCE/DRAMA Don’t be fooled by the soft-core title. Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme has come over all Danish for his new feature. Lifting the shaky-cam aesthetic of Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme classic Festen, Rachel Getting Married is…

Slumdog Millionaire

8 Jan 2009

ROMANCE/DRAMA Adapted by Simon Beaufoy from Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A this winning story of a Mumbai street urchin (Skins’ Dev Patel) who makes it to the final round of India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? might well be the film that…

Film - Also Released

11 Dec 2008

White Christmas (U) 120min New digital print of this Christmas staple. GFT, Glasgow and Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 12-Wed 24 Dec. North Face (12A) 121min Exciting historical adventure recounting the dangerous ascent of the Eiger in 1936 by two…

Australia

11 Dec 2008

(12A) 165min Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge) gets more and more ambitious with each film he makes. With it’s sweeping vistas, debt to Gone With the Wind, World War II backdrop and romantic pairing of Nicole…

Far North

11 Dec 2008

(15) 89min After an auspicious debut with The Warrior, writer-director Asif Kapadia went to Hollywood with disastrous results in the form of super-lame Sarah Michelle Gellar horror flick The Return. Adapted from the short story True North by Sara…

Quiet Chaos

27 Nov 2008

DRAMA/ROMANCE Nanni Moretti’s 2001 film The Son’s Room explored a middle-class Italian family’s attempt to cope with the unexpected death of a teenage son. Quiet Chaos, which stars and is co-written by Moretti, but is directed by Antonello Grimaldi…

Año Uña

27 Nov 2008

DRAMA/ROMANCE Inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 short La Jetée, the young Mexican writer/director Jonás Cuarón (son of filmmaker Alfonso) has constructed a feature film that consists entirely of still images. Over the course of a year he photographed…

Summer scoops top prize at Bafta Scotland awards

10 Nov 2008

Summer, Grand Theft Auto, Gary’s Wrr and Lorraine Kelly were amongst the winners last night at the Lloyds TSB BAFTA Scotland Awards. The ceremony, at Glasgow’s City Halls with an audience of over 800, was broadcast live online worldwide.