This is my first post in the festival coverage section. It concerns this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival. Unfortunately I was able to visit Edinburgh only for a weekend so this is by no means a full coverage, but rather my short impressions.
I managed to watch three movies during the weekend. I booked the tickets a week in advance but it was too late already and I missed two films that I wanted to see ("No Greater Love" by M. White and the set of international animations). But I still managed to see something pretty special.
The first (and best) movie I saw was "Sin Nombre": http://filmaster.com/film/sin-nombre/. This picture is going to make it big. A great story about illegal immigrants trying to find their way from Honduras to The U.S. More traditional than "City of God" (but the comparison is intended and makes sense), not as nervous camera and not as violent, but very touching... or even romantic. The director did his research and created a very true picture that I think everyone (especially those of you cursing the Central Americans making it into the US) should watch.
Director Cary Fukunaga was present on the screening and I managed to film some 2 minutes of his speech about the making of the movie (forry for the poor quality though):
http://www.youtube.com/v/K47FFhCeeVM&fs=1
Same day in the evening I watched something much more lightweight, an Australian comedy/drama called "My Year without Sex": http://filmaster.com/film/my-year-without-sex/. The interesting part of this film was the fact it was so ordinary. Nothing spectacular really happened although it might have happened and there were many occasions for it to happen. A few neat observations of life of pretty regular folks. This is very much how I picture Australia, so I guess the director did a good job. Worth seeing, but not mandatory.
The only movie that I saw the second day was "Wide Open Spaces": http://filmaster.com/film/wide-open-spaces/, an absurd Irish comedy about two folks building a Famine Theme park for some dodgy local businessman. A few montypythonish jokes and romantic (no, not really) adventures of wanna-be-artist losers. It failed to be funny but tried hard. Might become a cult movie for some (I'm not among them). I only wish this one has been directed by Petr Zelenka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Zelenka) or some other Czech filmmaker. They are simply the best in the world in creating absurd movies about weirdos of this kind. If you haven't seen "Year of The Devil" or "Wrong Side Up", please do - they are very unique.
I wish I could have stayed longer and seen more. I especially wish I have seen the picture by Shane Meadows ("This is England", "Somers Town"), and the debut of Duncan Jones: "Moon", but I guess it's going to be shown in British cinemas anyhow.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks