EIFF 2007 Part 2
The Anita Loos retrospective continued with RED-HEADED WOMAN, showcasing the talents of Jean Harlow in an entertaining romantic romp which was one of the more enjoyable films in the series. I like silent movies as much as the next man, but it really seems that the coming of sound was a huge benefit to Loos and her work - the silent movies were peppered with her trademark wit, but once there were people to deliver her gags with well-honed comic timing, her work was taken to another level.
SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE is billed as Scotland's first contemporary Gaelic-language feature and the first feature in that language to gain theatrical distribution. All very well, but what of the movie?
I love it. For one thing, the language is not some irrelevance cooked up to pin a marketing gimmick on the poster, it genuinely does serve the film. The plot, in a very brief summary which doesn't really do it justice, concerns a young man who visits his grandfather in hospital which triggers memories of his childhood. His youth was spent in his grandparents' care after a climbing accident resulted in the loss of his parents. Brought up in a Gaelic community on Skye, the boy rebels against the culture, spurred on partly by his grandfather's tall tales. Think of it as Tim Burton's BIG FISH, but Scottish.
The tales themselves are brought to life vividly enough, but what really impresses me is how Scottish they are. Given that the usual Scottish films are misery-laden efforts about broken homes, mental illness, drug addicts, gangsters, alcoholics and so on, it's refreshing to see not just a piece of family entertainment but one which has such a uniquely Scottish identity. This isn't just a story that happens to take place in Scotland - the tales spun by the grandfather include everything from the mythic kelpies to the Highland clearances. It plays on the grand Scottish storytelling tradition and it's magical.
All the more insulting then is that, for reasons known only to themselves, BAFTA have refused to submit the film for Oscar consideration in the foreign language category. God only knows their reasoning, but there might be some irony if KINGS ends up picking up Oscar plaudits - it's Ireland's nomination, filmed in the Irish language. It's an entirely unfathomable decision - and without anyone giving clear reasons why, we can only speculate - and I would suggest you all pop over to this link where another Scottish blogger has written an informative summary of the situation and provided a couple of links of interest.
LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR is a French musical romance which has garnered the inevitable comparisons to THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, comparisons on which I won't comment since I haven't seen the latter. The songs in the former are catchy enough and it's populated with a reasonably likeable cast but despite some moments of sharp wit it's an exceptionally depressing affair. The highlight of the screening was probably the old guy sitting behind me who nattered away for most of it, only to be totally disgusted when it suddenly... wait for it... went a bit gay. Gasp! How dare they!
A superb late night romp was offered up in the shape of TEETH, a grizzly but funny horror film in which a teenage girl has to come to terms with the fact that she has a set of teeth in a place where you really, really, really don't want to find teeth. As far as an allegorical look at growing pains go, it's not exactly subtle; but then subtlety is not something you want in a horror film about a girl with man-eating naughty bits. There's gore galore as she takes her revenge on the blokes who try to mistreat her, but it's never treated in a cynical, nasty HOSTEL-type way - consequently the moments of outrageous violence will result in a lots of men crossing their legs and gasping but still managing to laugh at the same time. If you get the chance, this film needs to be seen in a crowded cinema late at night for maximum effect.
HOLD YOUR MAN offered up more entertainment courtesy of Anita Loos with stars Jean Harlow and Clark Gable proving to have undeniable screen chemistry through melodramatic romance and slapstick humour. It's another highlight of the retrospective.
A highlight of the festival in general was to follow with IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON. This documentary had played at HotDocs in Toronto earlier in the year but sadly not while I was there. I'd really wanted to catch it so was delighted to see it play Edinburgh. It was worth the wait.
Via old footage (including a long-buried broadcast recorded by Nixon in case the Apollo 11 crew died on the moon) and current interviews with all the surviving Apollo astronauts (except notably the reclusive Armstrong), IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON tells of NASA's Apollo series of missions. The trials and tribulations, the triumphs and the tragedies - it's all here in vivid detail. Where the film really succeeds is in the balance of material it uses to tell the story - there's a minimum of technical detail, but a lot of the human story. That, ultimately, is what the film is about. At a time when all was not well at home, America succeeded in putting men on the moon, a victory in the cold war perhaps but also a victory for mankind as a whole. It's a delightfully uplifting story that could very well appeal to the people who matter come Oscar nomination time.
Another documentary that played at HotDocs which I caught in Edinburgh was WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?, a film that follows the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping as they travel America trying to convince consumers not to spend so much at Christmas, not to get into so much debt and not to help the global corporations get rich at the expense of traditional local stores. It's funny, it's moving and it has a very important message but it's tough to see it making any difference. I hope it's just me being cynical.
MY LIFE AS A BUS STOP is an ultra-low budget Scottish comedy film poking fun at, appropriately enough, low budget filmmaking in Scotland. The acting isn't brilliant and some of the humour is rather juvenile but there's enough lampoonery and talent on offer to ensure an enjoyable time - particularly if you're au fait with the film industry. I never thought a man farting into a cup could be so funny.
THE LAST DINING TABLE is a Korean film that looks quite nice in a grimy sort of way but, after a while, it began to dawn on me that it wasn't going anywhere. There's barely a story to speak of and it bored me something awful. I have a misguided personal code that prevents me from ever leaving the cinema before a film finishes. This film seriously tested me.
More from EIFF 2007 soon.
SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE is billed as Scotland's first contemporary Gaelic-language feature and the first feature in that language to gain theatrical distribution. All very well, but what of the movie?
I love it. For one thing, the language is not some irrelevance cooked up to pin a marketing gimmick on the poster, it genuinely does serve the film. The plot, in a very brief summary which doesn't really do it justice, concerns a young man who visits his grandfather in hospital which triggers memories of his childhood. His youth was spent in his grandparents' care after a climbing accident resulted in the loss of his parents. Brought up in a Gaelic community on Skye, the boy rebels against the culture, spurred on partly by his grandfather's tall tales. Think of it as Tim Burton's BIG FISH, but Scottish.
The tales themselves are brought to life vividly enough, but what really impresses me is how Scottish they are. Given that the usual Scottish films are misery-laden efforts about broken homes, mental illness, drug addicts, gangsters, alcoholics and so on, it's refreshing to see not just a piece of family entertainment but one which has such a uniquely Scottish identity. This isn't just a story that happens to take place in Scotland - the tales spun by the grandfather include everything from the mythic kelpies to the Highland clearances. It plays on the grand Scottish storytelling tradition and it's magical.
All the more insulting then is that, for reasons known only to themselves, BAFTA have refused to submit the film for Oscar consideration in the foreign language category. God only knows their reasoning, but there might be some irony if KINGS ends up picking up Oscar plaudits - it's Ireland's nomination, filmed in the Irish language. It's an entirely unfathomable decision - and without anyone giving clear reasons why, we can only speculate - and I would suggest you all pop over to this link where another Scottish blogger has written an informative summary of the situation and provided a couple of links of interest.
LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR is a French musical romance which has garnered the inevitable comparisons to THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, comparisons on which I won't comment since I haven't seen the latter. The songs in the former are catchy enough and it's populated with a reasonably likeable cast but despite some moments of sharp wit it's an exceptionally depressing affair. The highlight of the screening was probably the old guy sitting behind me who nattered away for most of it, only to be totally disgusted when it suddenly... wait for it... went a bit gay. Gasp! How dare they!
A superb late night romp was offered up in the shape of TEETH, a grizzly but funny horror film in which a teenage girl has to come to terms with the fact that she has a set of teeth in a place where you really, really, really don't want to find teeth. As far as an allegorical look at growing pains go, it's not exactly subtle; but then subtlety is not something you want in a horror film about a girl with man-eating naughty bits. There's gore galore as she takes her revenge on the blokes who try to mistreat her, but it's never treated in a cynical, nasty HOSTEL-type way - consequently the moments of outrageous violence will result in a lots of men crossing their legs and gasping but still managing to laugh at the same time. If you get the chance, this film needs to be seen in a crowded cinema late at night for maximum effect.
HOLD YOUR MAN offered up more entertainment courtesy of Anita Loos with stars Jean Harlow and Clark Gable proving to have undeniable screen chemistry through melodramatic romance and slapstick humour. It's another highlight of the retrospective.
A highlight of the festival in general was to follow with IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON. This documentary had played at HotDocs in Toronto earlier in the year but sadly not while I was there. I'd really wanted to catch it so was delighted to see it play Edinburgh. It was worth the wait.
Via old footage (including a long-buried broadcast recorded by Nixon in case the Apollo 11 crew died on the moon) and current interviews with all the surviving Apollo astronauts (except notably the reclusive Armstrong), IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON tells of NASA's Apollo series of missions. The trials and tribulations, the triumphs and the tragedies - it's all here in vivid detail. Where the film really succeeds is in the balance of material it uses to tell the story - there's a minimum of technical detail, but a lot of the human story. That, ultimately, is what the film is about. At a time when all was not well at home, America succeeded in putting men on the moon, a victory in the cold war perhaps but also a victory for mankind as a whole. It's a delightfully uplifting story that could very well appeal to the people who matter come Oscar nomination time.
Another documentary that played at HotDocs which I caught in Edinburgh was WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?, a film that follows the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping as they travel America trying to convince consumers not to spend so much at Christmas, not to get into so much debt and not to help the global corporations get rich at the expense of traditional local stores. It's funny, it's moving and it has a very important message but it's tough to see it making any difference. I hope it's just me being cynical.
MY LIFE AS A BUS STOP is an ultra-low budget Scottish comedy film poking fun at, appropriately enough, low budget filmmaking in Scotland. The acting isn't brilliant and some of the humour is rather juvenile but there's enough lampoonery and talent on offer to ensure an enjoyable time - particularly if you're au fait with the film industry. I never thought a man farting into a cup could be so funny.
THE LAST DINING TABLE is a Korean film that looks quite nice in a grimy sort of way but, after a while, it began to dawn on me that it wasn't going anywhere. There's barely a story to speak of and it bored me something awful. I have a misguided personal code that prevents me from ever leaving the cinema before a film finishes. This film seriously tested me.
More from EIFF 2007 soon.
Labels: documentaries, Edinburgh Film Festival, Film festivals, horror, scottish film
posted by Alan at 7:54 pm
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