EIFF: Thursday 24th

This was the only day I didn't attend the Mitchell Leisen retrospective screening as I took another trip to the book festival instead. This time I was at the sold-out appearance of Paul Rusesabagina - if the name sounds familiar that's because he's the man played by Don Cheadle in HOTEL RWANDA. It was illuminating and interesting but also a rather depressing subject.

I did open the day's film viewing with another retrospective screening though - the Gene Hackman movie NIGHT MOVES. It's essentially a film noir detective movie only updated to the 70s (this was the latest screening in the "They Might Be Giants" season) and it's a whole lot of fun. It's probably the best Gene Hackman performance I've seen and the ending is a killer.

This was followed by THE REFUGEE ALL STARS, a documentary following a group of youngsters from a refugee camp (they all came from the civil war in Sierra Leone) who form a band. They start off performing for their own crowd but the film follows their progress as they tour for other refugees and record their first album.

After my experience with THE EMPIRE IN AFRICA, footage of the war in Sierra Leone was the last thing I wanted to see but thankfully this time it was in the context of a far happier tale. In contrast to the aforementioned documentary, this one really showed that there is hope for the victims of this conflict and demonstrated how one group of people have set about spreading a little light around.

Another screening in the 70s retrospective followed. I like Larry Cohen a lot (in terms of his ability to make memorable films on low budgets he's probably second only to Roger Corman) and to see his GOD TOLD ME TO on the big screen was a real treat. I've already got the film on DVD but to see it in the cinema was special - there were a few walk-outs from the near-full cinema but that's to be expected given the subject matter and Cohen's refusal to pull any punches.

The story kicks off with a series of normal people going nuts and committing violent acts of murder, only to reveal when caught that God told them to do it. To reveal any more would spoil the movie - suffice to say that this is one of the classic cult movies of all time and once seen will not be forgotten in a hurry.

I rounded off the day with a late night screening of H6: DIARY OF AN ASSASSIN. The onscreen translation actually gave the title DIARY OF A SERIAL KILLER - if this conjures up images of HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER it's probably a fair comparison. Like that film, this movie follows a serial killer as he carries out his work; like that film, this isn't particularly good. It looks better for sure, but it's still the same old blend of grisly violence and sleazy mysogeny - both of which feature in a lot of films that I love, I admit, but here it's just gratuitous and pointless.

The EIFF actually finished today (Sunday) - I'll write up the remaining three days' viewing over the next few days. The Fringe itself finishes tomorrow and I've still got four more shows to see, so I'll probably write about them at some point too. It'll be a bit late to persuade you to see them though, since the festival will have finished by the time I write about them but what the heck, it gives me something to write about.