Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012.

I have watched 17 films over a ten-day period at Edinburgh’s 66^th International Film Festival located at three different venues, Cineworld, Fountain Park, Filmhouse, Lothian Road and Cameo, Home Street.  As usual I have tried to support British films and to that end I have seen 7. The one worth a special mention is Flying Blind, and the others of merit are Day of Flowers, Shadow Dancer and Small Creatures. The other ten movies have been from 10 different countries including Rose (Poland) which for me was certainly one of the highlights of world cinema, the others being A Woman’s Revenge (Portugal) Dragon (China) Jackpot (Norway) Life without Principle (Hong Kong) and the USA black comedy God Bless America.

I have produced short notes on each of the films in the form of a diary as I did in 2010, which will hopefully encourage you to seek out and see some of them when on general release.  I would hope that my local cinema, the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre, will feature some of the better films. Where possible I have attached some photographs, although there were not the photo opportunities that I had previously.  Please feel free to post your comments.

Thursday 21^st June 2012.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Pusher
Director:	Luis Prieto
Country:	UK
Year:	2012
Running Time:	86 mins
Principle Cast:	Richard Coyle	Frank
	Agyness Deyn	Flo
	Bronson Webb	Tony
	Mem Ferda	Haken
	Zlatko Buric	Milo

Frank a mid level London dealer finds him self in big trouble when a drug deal with a powerful Serbian drug lord, Milo, goes disastrously wrong. This is the English language remake of the first of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Danish Pusher Trilogy. Refn, who has had a great deal of success recently with Bronson (2008) and the brilliant Drive (2011), is also the Executive Producer of the remake. Directed by Madrid born Luis Prieto it’s setting has been moved from Copenhagen to Stoke Newington North London but strangely the role of Milo is played by same actor (Zlatko Buric) that played the part in all three of the original trilogy!

With an atmospheric and rousing original score by Orbital the movie is in your face and loud, very loud at times. This every day story of the hardships involved in the dubious career of a drug dealer is communicated over seven consecutive days. But I’m afraid it has nothing new or innovative to offer, we have seen it all before. But what we do get is a solid lead performance from Coyle, some great ‘shuddering’ camera work that adds to the excitement. An acceptable film but a little too much style over substance. One thing it has done is encourage me to track down and watch the original. The director and some members of the cast were in attendance at the premiere for a Q&A following its screening.

Friday 22nd June 2012.

International Competition International Premier.
Sleepless Night (Jammot deuneun bam)
Director:	Jang Kun-jae
Country:	South Korea
Year:	2012
Running Time:	65 mins
Principle Cast:	Kim Soo-hyun
	Kim Joo-ryoung

Director Jang Kun-jae at the Q&A for his film Sleepless night.

Director Jang Kun-jae and producer Kim Woo-ri, who we also found out were husband and wife, introduced the film by saying how pleased they were that it was being shown at the festival and thanked a rather small audience for coming to see it. Their movie is a serious and thoughtful study of a young married couple in their early thirties and the everyday problems that that face. Problems that many young people face globally like how to pay the bills and when is the right time to start a family?

This is a genuine art house movie that will not appeal to the general multiplex public but one that’s both authentic and intimate with a story that slowly unfolds like a book. Our visiting husband and wife team admitted that this was a very personnel project for them as it reflected their own experiences and incidentally the experiences of the on screen couple which was obvious by the sensitive way that the two protagonists portrayed their roles. 

Shot in narrow screen aspect to add to the movies intimacy and providing a minimal musical soundtrack preferring to offer the viewer natural sounds, Jang gives us a film where nothing really happens but it’s a beautifully observed study of the closeness of a loving married couple, very affecting, very meaningful.

Saturday 23rd June 2012.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Life Just Is
Director:	Alex Barrett
Country:	UK
Year:	2012
Running Time:	102 mins
Principle Cast:	Paul Nicholls	Bobby
	Jayne Wisner	Jay
	Will DeMeo	David
	Jack Gordon	Pete
	Fiona Ryan	Claire
	Nathaniel Martello-White	Tom

Director Alex Barrett’s debut feature film is the story of five university graduates in their early twenties who spend a lot of time discussing love death and the meaning of life. They also appear to be having problems excepting the rigors of adult life. The worst offender is Pete who spends all his time in his sleeping attire and trying to decide if he believes in God or not. Then there’s Tom who thinks he is being stalked by a bearded terrorist and can’t make up his mind if he wants a sexual relationship with ex-art student Clair. David who acts like a surrogate mother to all the other’s including Jay who is in a relationship with an older IT guy who everyone seems to dislike because he’s got a responsible position in life and he is slightly older then the others who appear to work in jobs they don’t enjoy.

The producer Tom Stuart, three of the cast and the director made them selves available for a Q&A. Alex Barrett explained that it had started exploring the idea for the film when he left university in 2005 and became interested in his own peer group, which he referred to as the Y generation, and its place in todays society as opposed to drink and drugs culture of the previous generation which is strange because he also informed us that his starting point was films of the sixties, can’t be the ones I’ve watched.

Pete seems to be the central focus point of the film and giving it a reason to ask a lot of deeply religious questions making this piece of work rather pious?  The female members were not convincing, the dialog was at times amateurish and like Pusher (2012), the film was divided and conveyed in seven daily episodes, which does nothing to add to the continuity of the narrative. The only musical soundtrack was either the music the characters were listening too or they actually sung themselves. Privately financed, this anti dramatic film had a micro budget.

I’m sorry to say I have no empathy for any of the characters except possibly Jay’s boyfriend Bobby and I left the screening thinking that these people should get off their moaning backsides and do something worthwhile? Certainly not a highlight of my festival.

International Competition UK Premier.
A Woman’s Revenge (A Vinganca de uma Mulher)
Director:	Rita Azevedo Gomes
Country:	Portugal
Year:	2011
Running Time:	100 mins
Principle Cast:	Rita Durao	Countess of Sierra Leone
	Fernando Rodrigues	Roberto
	Joao Pedro Benard	The Guide/Narrator

This Portuguese film was a highlight, not at first I must admit, but by the final credits I’d fallen in love with Rita Azevedo Gomes’s artistic treat. Adapting a short story by 19th century French writer Barbey d'Aurevilly, Gomes’s screenplay tells of a decadent womanizing dandy Roberto, who on his return from foreign lands is in search of excitement, something that’s he finds ever harder to achieve. Eventually he finds himself drawn to a mysteriously beautiful prostitute whom he discovers is the Countess of Sierra Leone a missing noble woman. She has run away and has deliberately taken up a life of depravity in order to punish her cold, brutal aristocratic husband for murdering her lover.

To be honest this movie did take a little while to get into but my patience was rewarded. It’s a very theatrical film, resembling a stage play but the visuals, the responsibility of director of photography Acacio de Almeida and production designer Pedro Sa are so beautifully done it resembled a painting at times. The director told us that this classical 19^th century based period drama followed the original literate text with some additions including the use of a narrator who appears with his notes and guides us on occasions! The totally convincing Rita Durao who plays the Countess, an actress that resembles a young Isabella Rossellini, complements this very fine, but sad, movie experience.

‘The life we own is nothing more than a dream’.

Directors Showcase UK Premiere.
The Rest of the World (Le reste du monde)
Director:	Damien Odoul
Country:	France
Year:	2012
Running Time:	81 mins
Principle Cast:	Marie-Eve Nadeau	Eve
	Judith Morrisseau	Judith
	Aurelie Mestres	Aurelie
	Jean-Louis Coulloch	Gilles
	Mathieu Amairic	Paul
	Emmanuelle Beart	Katia

When it comes to middle class dysfunctional family drama the French normally would put everyone else in the shade. Originally produced for French television, something you would never know from watching it on the big screen, this is the story of three sisters. Eve, who finds out she’s pregnant after her boyfriend commits suicide, Judith, who becomes obsessed when its hinted at a family dinner party that she may not share the same biological father as her other two sisters and the the youngest sibling, the flighty, punkish Aurelie.

Marie-Eve Nadeau  

It’s the dinner party that brings this drama to life. Its where we meet Paul, a man obsessed with his food intact who also has problems with his bladder, and Katia, a once beautiful women who relies on alcohol to get her through the day and is about marry the sisters father. It’s these two characters, played by the versatile actor Mathieu Amairic and the wonderful Emmanuelle Beart that raises this film above the mediocre. A lightweight drama with a slightly muddled ending which to describe would be a plot spoiler, not the best of this genre. 

Sunday 24^th June 2012.

Directors Showcase UK Premiere.
Dragon (Wu xia) (also known as Swordsmen)
Director:	Peter Chan
Country:	China
Year:	2012
Running Time:	114 mins
Principle Cast:	Takeshi Kaneshiro	Xu Bai-jiu
	Wel Tang	Aju
	Donnie Yen	Lin Jin-xi

Its 1917 we are in a remote southwestern Chinese village where we find paper maker Liu Jin-Xi living with his wife Ayu and two sons. Two bandits walk into the general store and attempt a robbery, quickly overpowering the elderly storeowner and his wife. Liu Jin-Xi happens to be in the store at the same time as the robbery. At first he is seen hiding from the two villains; suddenly he attacks and after a long battle kills both of the vicious criminals. Detective Xu Bai-Jiu is then tasked to investigate the general store robbery. His attention begins to focuses on Liu Jin-Xi, as he suspects that this seemingly ordinary paper maker and calm family man is concealing a secret past.

I could not recommend this film more strongly, not only to fans of wuxia (a broad genre of Chinese fiction relating to martial artists and their adventures) but to fans of a good detective yarn, because although we do get some exceptional set pieces, choreographed by Donnie Yen himself, it’s the investigatory work that frames this special film. This is one of the best films of my festival to date with its powerfully relayed story, its cinematography by Yui-Fai lai and Jake Pollock. In fact it’s a visual delight that includes illustrating the effects on internal organs following violent confrontations and Xu minds eye view reenactments of the fight scenes. Hopefully this innovative martial arts film will get a general release so everyone can share my enthusiasm for this remarkable Chinese movie.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Flying Blind
Director:	Katarzyna Klimkiewicz
Country:	UK
Year:	2012
Running Time:	93 mins
Principle Cast:	Helen McCory	Frankie
	Najib Oudghiri	Kahil
	Kenneth Cranham	Victor
	Tristan Gemmill	Robert

Described in an interview ‘as a thinking persons film’ by its star Helen McCory this current and contemporary film tells a post 9/11 love story about Frankie, a eminent scientist working for Aerospace in Bristol designing special planes for the military, who embarks on a passionate affair with a young French Algerian student only to discover he may not be what he seems.

This is a movie where carnal obsessions outweigh a women’s common sense or do they, a sort of Ae Fond Kiss (2004) set in the Aerospace industry. It’s a story where the director Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, a graduate of the Polish Film School, expects her audience to make up their own minds i.e. are the developing fears of our main female character the same as our own? In fact it works because it does make you question your own prejudices and also raises the question of who let whom down, did Kahil let Frankie down or was it Frankie who let Kahil down?

Najib Oudghiri with Producer Alison Stirling.

A clever film that seems to go way beyond its micro budget (£300,000) part financed by BBC Films and Bristol City Council whose only stipulation was that it was filmed in Bristol.  What we end with is a UK movie that has a distinct European feel helped by scenes that have been carefully worked out and by having a Polish DoP. Surprisingly the film was only finished 6 days before this screening: it did not show! A cracking story that very well done with sensitive performances from its main stars, the very experienced Helen McCory and relative newcomer Najib Oudghiri , certainly deserving of a general release.

Night Moves UK  Premiere.
Jackpot (Arme Riddere)
Director:	Magnus Martins
Country:	Norway
Year:	2011
Running Time:	90 mins
Principle Cast:	Kyrre Hellum	Osker Svendson
	Henrik Mestad	Solar
	Marie Blokhus	Gina
	Mads Ousdal	Thor Eggen
	Andreas Cappelen	Dan Treschow
	Arthur Berning	Billy Utomjordet

The boys check the football results.

This is the second time a story by Jo Nesbo has been made into a film. The first was Headhunters (2011).

Director Magnus Martins was handed a story that Nesbo had written with the sole intention of it being turned into a film. Martins has been quoted as saying ‘it was a very cool premise and a very cool plot, The characters are great and obviously with it being a Jo Nesbo story there is a lot of humour’ which goes a long way to sum up the film. Martins worked on the screenplay and has now turned it into a hilarious black comedy. The film starts with Oscar Svendson being questioned by a detective who is interested in finding out how Oscar came to be in a sex shop lying face down in a pool of blood with a shotgun in his hand, a large dead women lying prostrate on top of him and surrounded by dead bodies. Svendson’s explanation involves three dangerous ex-cons who all work in a plastic Christmas tree factory who win 1.7 million kroner gambling on the football results.

This energetic movie is laugh out loud funny as was reinforced by the amount of hilarity that was generated at its UK premiere. A very Coenesque film that brings to mind the brilliance of film’s like Blood Simple (1984) and Fargo (1996) add in Johnny Too at his best and you got some idea of how the film works. As with other Scandinavian films and TV series the acting is totally credible and the entire ensemble cast are a credit to Martins adding kudos to an already exceptional and enjoyable piece of work. Although Kyrre Hellum does deserves a special mention for his under played performance of Oscar Svendson. This film is due for general release in UK cinemas on the 10^th August 2012, don’t miss it!!!

Monday 25th June 2012.

International Competition European  Premiere.
One. Two. One (Yek. Do. Yek)
Director:	Mania Akbari
Country:	Iran
Year:	2011
Running Time:	79 mins
Principle Cast:	Neda Amiri
	Payam Dehkordi
	Hassan Majooni
	Ashkan Mehri
	Bahareh Rahnama

Mania Akbari explains her film.

As far as I can gather the narrative for this film is thus: Ava and her boyfriend are in a car accident that happened when they avoided running down an old man. Both passengers are apparently unharmed, but Ava ends up in hospital. In another scene we encounter a man in prison and with his arm in plaster.  The arm is apparently symbolic as it is alleged he has thrown acid into the face of Ava. In Iran the legal system allows retribution in a case like this so if a man throws acid into a women’s face that same women can throw acid in the mans face. But in this case Ava has declined payback. The story is told only by either people speaking on mobile phones or faces talking to each other but the aspect never changes from a close up of head and shoulders which does give a rigid and dry approach to story telling, i.e. I had a job staying awake.

Why did I choose such a difficult film? Difficult in the sense that the film was not easy to understand or follow. My choose was governed by previous experience of Iranian movies like A Separation (2011) or Its Winter (2006) or the work of Abbas Kiarostami, Tickets (2005) and Certified Copy (2010) but this time it was not what I expected. The lovely, talkative Mania Akbari, who was at the Cameo for her films premiere, explained that her movie was about facial expression, in her opinion the deepest form of humanity. With the help of two translators she warned in her introduction that the viewer was to have patience and explained that in Iran only women’s faces are seen which means that they reflect their lives through their facial expression with the remainder of the body showing no expression when even at times they have their hands covered. It’s left to peripheral sounds to indicate where and what’s happening around the characters. Also there is movement around our talking heads, which Mania said meant that life went on. She continued to explain that she sees’ her film as cooperative project between herself and the audience.

The film is obviously very important to Mania Akbari as she spent three months of rehearsal time, before shooting began, getting the detail just right with the dialog having to sound natural. Except for Ava all the principal cast were professionals. I’m sure that many people really appreciate this style of film, including Mark Cousins who was sitting in front of me, but it left me a little cold. Can’t help but wonder what the Robert Burns Cinema’s Film Club would make of this one.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Day of the Flowers
Director:	John Roberts
Country:	UK
Year:	2012
Running Time:	100 mins
Principle Cast:	Eva Birthistle	Rose
	Charity Wakefield	Allie
	Carlos Acosta	Tomas
	Bryan Dick	Conway
	Christopher Simpson	Ernesto

Two young, strong-willed Glaswegian sisters Rose a left-wing activist, and Allie a fashion icon, steal their fathers ashes during his funeral wake much to the obvious displeasure of their stepmother. The reason for this is to take them to Cuba where it is said that their parents were at their happiest, helping and supporting Cuba’s socialist revolution. When they arrive in a hot and chaotic Havana accompanied by Rose’s kilted friend and colleague Conway, they promptly get the ashes confiscated by the local police. Many misadventures follow including meeting two local Cuban men, one they can trust and one they can’t.

Christopher Simpson and Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta.

Screenwriter Eirene Houston.

The tag line for this film probably sums up its narrative ‘some travel light, others carry excess baggage’. The story centers mainly around Rose who certainly carries a lot of emotional baggage where as her sister carries a lot of physical baggage including an electric toaster! (Your just have to see the film for this to be explained) Based loosely on her own experiences its written by screenwriter Eirene Houston who explained that the two sisters are based on of her own split personality and wrote the story because of her love of road movies. John Roberts’s film is the first UK film to be made in Cuba for some years and uses a lot of local crew and extras but the most famous Cuban national to appear in the film was Carlos Acosta a Cuban ballet dancer who has danced with many companies including English National Ballet. The DoP, who was also in attendance at the film premiere, said that his job was made easier by the beautifully natural backgrounds found in that country. Eirene script for this independent film took nearly three years to complete before filming could start, the only real problem that was encountered during the shoot was the Cuban weather, which was exceptional hot and wet. Although the film does deal with ‘cross-cultural misunderstandings and lost illusions’ it should not be taken to seriously, Carla’s Song (1996) it’s not, but I would recommend this film for its wonderful entertainment value.

Tuesday 26th June 2012.

Directors Showcase UK Premiere.
Isn’t Anyone Alive? (Ikiteru mono inai no ka)
Director:	Gakuryu Ishii
Country:	Japan
Year:	2011
Running Time:	113 mins
Principle Cast:	Shoto Sometani	Keisuke
	Rin Takanashi	Ryoko
	Konatsu Tanaka	Miki
	Kiyohiko Shibukawa	Koyuichi
	Jun Murakami	Yama

Adapted from a play by Shiro Maeda it tells the story of a virus that is set to wipe out mankind starting at a Japanese University Hospital Campus where we meet some ill-fated characters including students discussing urban myths, others are preparing and rehearsing a song and dance routine for a wedding, an estranged brother visits his sister, a mother searches for her son, a strange female patient wonders about and two young men, one called Dr Fish because of his love of fish, who have just escaped death in a train crash. Each one of these people, along with the rest of mankind, is about to die. Slowly and tediously each one does just that with a wee speech and a final word managing to completely leave this viewer without the slightest emotive feelings for any of the characters!

This is the first Japanese film that has ever disappointed me. Described as a farcical comedy and a film that is meant to explore the ordinariness of issues of life and death. Well I can assure you that it failed on both counts although some of the audience found it funny but others walked out part way through so obviously it was a film that was never going to please everyone. Only in the concluding scene where we witnessed the ultimate end do we get any real feeling of pathos. Great idea, badly executed.

Wednesdy 27th June 2012.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Small Creatures (aka Nowhere Fast)
Director:	Martin Wallace
Country:	UK
Year:	2012
Running Time:	87 mins
Principle Cast:	Michael Coventry	Coggie
	Paul Bamford	Macca
	Tom Pauline	Ste
	Terri Reddin	Coggie’s sister
	Jack Rigby	Dave

Martin Wallace’s debut feature film is the story of three 14-year-old lads who live on an estate in Liverpool who are at a time in their lives when they’re most vulnerable to outside influences and peer pressure. Coggie is basically a nice lad, a dreamer who escapes from these pressures to the tranquility of a small piece of woodland close to his home. Macca a big softhearted lad that generally does what Coggie tells him to do. Ste is the charismatic one but a volatile and sadistic bully who comes from a dysfunctional family and is more than capable of leading the others astray. It’s when Stu gets out of control one evening that, as the films tag line so eloquently puts it ‘Jealousy and violence explode when three, fourteen-year-old boys can no longer conceal the cracks in their friendship’.

Martin Wallace, Tom Pauline and Jonathan Murray.

At last, a gritty urban UK film about the forgotten masses by a director who obviously cares about his subject’s and their environment. Both Martin Wallace and a grown up Tom Pauline were in attendance at the films World Premiere at the Cameo for the after screening Q&A. Which incidentally was presided over by Dr Jonathan Murray who was at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre to introduce a screening of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983) in February 2012. 

The film was shoot in the summer of 2009 but the editing took Wallace, who also wrote and produced the film, a further two years. He explained that the film is based on his own experiences and went on to say that most teenagers make mistakes and the film try’s to explain the temptations of why this happens. The idea was to place the viewer into Coggie’s situation, broadening out the story to show more than just three scally’s living on a council scheme. Also attempting to balance the hard narrative with the poetic imaginary and I must say Wallace does this very successfully moving the film one step beyond normal social reality movies. Deliberately filmed on the Sefton Estate in Liverpool because it does not replicate the normal run down estates we see in other films of this type, the director wanted to show that its not always the fault of their environment that young lads to get into trouble. For a young inexperienced cast, who would have had problems focusing for long periods, we get remarkable performances especially from Michael Coventry who plays Coggie.

For a very low budget film (£50,000) it has a real sense of atmosphere and the night lighting is particularly good. Reference points would be Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), Peter Mullan’s Neds (2010) and Ratcatcher Lynne Ramsay’s 1999 debut film.

What I particularly liked about this story was the way it showed the characters in a sympathetic light not supportive of their actions but trying to understand why youngsters do what they do and the other point I would like to make is that there was no violence for violence sake and Richard Mott’s camerawork did not linger on any of the aggressive incidents.  An important debut film that certainly has meaning, Mr. Wallace is a director we need to keep an eye out for.

Thursday 28th June 2012.

Directors Showcase UK Premiere.
Life without Principle (Dyut meng gam)
Director:	Johnnie To
Country:	Hong Kong
Year:	2011
Running Time:	107 mins
Principle Cast:	Denise Ho	Teresa
	Ching Wan Lau	Panther
	Rithie Jen	Inspector Cheung
	Myolie Wu	Connie

The mans back to his best after my disappointment with Sparrow (2008), Johnnie To is a master at bringing a complex thriller to life. Set against today’s economic crisis involving the Greek Euro bail out package and during a few volatile days of global financial upheaval in Hong Kong. This cleverly manipulated story is an examination of varying forms of human greed, part written by frequent collaborator Wai Ka-Fai, it interweaves between three characters all with their own particular problems, a police detective inspector investigating a loan sharks murder, a female investment manager under extreme pressure from her Boss to sell high risk investments to inappropriate customers and a loyal low level gangster who attempts to help out a failed financial scheme while trying to raise money to get a brother criminal out on bail.

The acting is totally convincing with To Hung Mo’s cinematography highlighting the colour’s, culture and frantic chaos that is Hong Kong and it has a great sense of humor that provides backbone for this movie. Johnnie To, who is also the producer, analyses todays’ financial turmoil and provides us with a movie that not only gives us perceptiveness on the modern worlds problems but a totally high-class piece of entertaining Far Eastern cinema to boot.

New Perspectives UK Premiere.
Rose (Roza)
Director:	Wojciech Smarzowski
Country:	Poland
Year:	2011
Running Time:	94 mins
Principle Cast:	Marcin Dorocinski	Tadeusz
	Agata Kulesza	Rose
	Kinga Preis	Amelia
	Jacek Braciak	Wladex
	Malwina Buss	Jadwiga

Roza finds some comfort.

Wojciech Smarzowski latest big screen offering is the story of Róża Kwiatkowska a Masurian women who in the summer of 1945 is visited by Tadeusz Mazur an ex officer of the Polish Resistance Movement and a veteran of the Warsaw uprising where, unable to intercede, he watches the rape and murder of his wife Ann. Tadeusz informs Róża that he witnessed her husbands death and has brought back his last effects, a wedding ring and an old photo of Róża with her husband. Although mistrustful of her visitor she allows him to clear a minefield on her farmhouse property so that potatoes can be sown. Tadeusz decides to stay to protect her from the regular attacks and rapes by marauding Russian soldiers and desperate Poles. Slowly respect is built between the couple that eventually leads to a deeper relationship.

Because this is an unpublicised period in Poland’s history I will give you a little background to what is at the very heart of the film. Masuria is a region in former German East Prussia, which became part of Poland as a result of the Potsdam Agreement after World War 11. Róża is regarded a German by the new Polish authorities and to allow her to stay on her farm she will have to enter a nationality verification procedure other wise she will face expulsion to Germany along with many other Masurian’s who incidentally nearly all speak Polish.

This period in our resent history demonstrates man’s capability of inhuman cruelty to each other and Smarzowski’s film shows how, under certain circumstances, men of all races and religions can become beasts capable of rape and murder. The brutality shown in this film is not always easy to stomach because quite simply the main two protagonists carry their parts so convincingly the gritty realism of these peoples lives does seem unquestionable genuine. But from adversary does come’s an unusual and tender love story between two people that really have nothing to loose other than each other. This is world cinema at its very best.

Friday 29th June 2012.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Berberian Sound Studio
Director:	Peter Strickland
Country:	UK
Year:	2012
Running Time:	92 mins
Principle Cast:	Toby Jones	Gilderoy
	Cosimo Fusco	Francesco
	Antonio Mancino	Santini
	Fatma Mohamed
	Salvatore Li Causi

Peter Strickland takes the mike.

Chris Fujiwara described Peter Strickland’s second film, his first was the award winning Katalin Varga (2009), as a cinephilic meditation on cinema or as I would put it a film about the making of a film. A British sound technician (Toby Jones who gives a remarkable performance) travels from his home in Box Hill Kent, where he lives with his mother, to Italy in the 1970’s to work on the sound effects for a gruesome horror film, The Equestrian Vortex. Not familiar with the working practices of the ego driven Italian producer or the womanizing director, Gilderoy seems like a fish out of water from day uno. Unable to reclaim his travel expences from the cash strapped venture and gradually becoming ever more despairing of the movies subject matter, the whole working experience becomes literally a total nightmare.

This is a very nostalgic film about a world before digital recording devices and strips bare the mechanics of the old horror analogue film studios that would commandeer all sorts of every day items to make some very gruesome noises, including an array of garden produce like melons, cabbages and radishes! Strickland’s loving portrayal of the era reflects the mood and tone of the horror movies of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento. I enjoyed this strangely diverting film especially the beautiful reproduction of a period recording studio (or is the Three Mile Recording Studio in London still like this?) and the very complementary electronic soundtrack that adds to the unsettling atmospherics of the film, but I’m afraid it lost me completely towards the end when the director takes us a little to far into paranoia that has beset Gilderoy.

Saturday 30th June 2012.

Directors Showcase European Premiere.
God Bless America
Director:	Bobcat Goldthwait
Country:	USA
Year:	2011
Running Time:	105 mins
Principle Cast:	Joel Murray	Frank Murdoch
	Tara Lynne Barr	Roxy Harmon
	Melinda Page Hamilton	Alison
	Mackenzie Brooke Smith	Ava
	Rich McDonald	Brad

This movie is the ideal wet dream for those of us who crave retribution for a swift and yes violent solution to the idiocy of today’s contemporary shallow media culture.

Frank and Roxy put America to rights.

Imagine you’re in your favourite local cinema watching a film you have really been looking forward too and in troop a group of teenagers who sit two rows behind you and when the film starts commence to loudly consume popcorn, talk on there mobile phones and slurp coca cola, you ask them politely to shut so as not to spoil your enjoyment of the film and what you get back is a tirade of obscenities. So to solve this problem you and your partner get to your feet, draw your revolvers and blast these rude and inconsiderate persons to kingdom come ensuring that these particular teenagers will not spoil the viewing pleasure of any one else in the future.  

Imagine attending the grand final of Britain’s got Talent or The X Factor, you make your way to the stage, take out your AK-47 from its shiny silver case and commence to shoot the complete panel of judges, including an extra round into the obnoxious Simon Cowell, the front rows of the baying brain dead audience members and some of the more loathsome talent on display.

In this splendid and hilarious black comedy middle aged Frank Murdock and his young assistant Roxy Harmon do just that and more besides, including killing a man that double parks, eradicating some zealous rightwing religious bigots who are protesting against gays and permanently removing a neo-fascist TV presenter. Frank is a man who is divorced, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has just lost his job, a man who feels he has nothing more to loose and contemplates suicide. But things change for Frank when he meets Roxy who is happy to join him on a mission to right the wrongs of modern day American society in their own particular way.

Directed and written by Bobcat Goldthwait, an American actor and comedian, this guilty pleasure, where your find your empathy will be with two vicious but very lovable killers, is a tremendously enjoyable satire with an underlying serious massage, an indictment of modern American fame/media culture and the blatant cruelty that runs in conjunction with its philosophy. Highly recommended for those of a certain age and disposition.

Michael Powell Award Competition World Premiere.
Shadow Dancer
Director:	James March
Country:	UK/Ireland
Year:	2012
Running Time:	102 mins
Principle Cast:	Clive Owen	Mac
	Andrea Riseborough	Colette McVeigh
	Aidan Gillen	Gerry
	Gillian Anderson	Kate Fletcher
	Domhnall Gleeson	Conner
	David Wilmot	Kevin Mulville
	Brid Brennan	Ma McVeigh

The script for this highly stylish political thriller is written by Tom Bradby based on his novel of the same name. The story starts in Belfast in 1973 when we share with the McVeigh family the accidental death of their young son in a crossfire incident. The action then moves to London twenty years later were the young boys grown up sister Colette McVeigh is on a IRA bombing mission that goes wrong. Unable to make her escape she is lifted by the British Secret Service in the guise of Mac who threatens her with jail in the UK, which means she we have very restricted access to her young son, if she does not become an IRA informant and spy on her own family. But as the story progresses we realise that things are not as they seem for either our MI5 agent or his latest Republican mole.

James Marches edge of your seat psychological drama is set at the time of the Northern Irish peace process and its plot driven narrative benefits greatly from Bradby’s insider knowledge gained when he spent a three-year period in Belfast working as ITV’s official Ireland correspondent.  The Michael Powell Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film went jointly to Andrea Riseborough for her role as Colette and Brin Brennan as Ma and both are very well deserved. A gripping and thrilling slice of modern history that is due for a general UK release on the 24^th August 2012.  

The curtains close on another Edinburgh Film Festival.