#Edfilmfest Episode V: Revenge of the Retrospective

Our final blog comes to you with dual influence, firstly from this excellent poster ( pinned all over Edinburgh) urging you to find this year's EIFF retrospective strand and secondly inspired by a viewing of the brilliant 'The People V's George Lucas'. A documentary, so thorough in its examination of the cultural phenomenon that is Star Wars that it immediately makes you want to go out and watch them all back to back (even the prequels!). It raises some interesting debates surrounding Fandom, Auteur Theory. An 'of our times' documentary that leaves you ridiculously nostalgic.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE PEOPLE V'S GEORGE LUCAS HERE
Also, watched 'The Rebound' (an unusual EIFF choice) the first outing of Catherine Zeta Jones for some time- sees her team up in this rom com with the notably younger Justin Bartha. Catherine takes centre stage as the mom of two who's world falls apart when she captures her husband in an uncompromising position on home video..the fall-out is the rest of the film as she moves to New York to re-build her life.

BAFTA Scotland staged the excellent 'In conversation with Sir Patrick Stewart' at Cineworld to a sold out audience, and I'm pleased to say Sir P.S really is the nicest man. The reception offered the opprtunity to try 'Haggis Parcels' and this, on my last evening was the final and only Scottish fare I encountered: Thankfully the shop was closed for this:



Suitcase in hand, set off to view MR NICE, the eagerley awaited adaptation of Howard Marks book starring Rhys Ifans & Chloe Sevigny. The film is entirely true to the book and Ifans is the natural, obvious choice for Marks. With such an excellent character portrayal from Ifans, you have to keep reminding yourself that you are not watching Howard himself.




MR NICE is due out in early autumn and you can VIEW THE OFFICIAL TRAILER HERE


Well, It has been a fantastic festival- viewed far more films than last year, met more people, walked more ground.

Favorite film: 'Third Star' closely followed by 'The People V's George Lucas' and huge thanks to all at EIFF who work incredibly hard to make this happen. Thanks also to BAFTA Scotland and colleagues at Film Agency Wales who are constantly 'out there' working and meeting people for the good of film in Wales, and including me along the way-Hoorah!

Roll on EIFF 2011.

#Edfilmfest Rhan Pedwar

Welsh film 'Third Star' is the closing night gala film at the 2010 Edinburgh Film Festival and this is something Wales should be shouting about.

An early morning viewing alongside the festival jury, allowed us to absorb breathtaking views of Pembrokeshire in all it's glory as four firm friends (Benedidct Cumberbatch, JJ Feild, Adam Robertson & Tom Burke) take on an life affirming journey to Barafundel Bay and what ensues is an often funny,ultimately heartbreaking and beautiful piece of work. No-one we spoke to afterwards remembers a time they saw a film that evoked such emotion in them.

Meeting the producer Vaughan Sivell and his co-producer Adam Robertson ( who also stars in the film//is an EIFF Skillset Trailblazer) it is clear they share a real passion for Wales and this film and this is transfered directly onto 16mm. Once again- very exciting for Wales, the film makers and beyond.



Although it is almost neever really dark at this time of year in Edinburgh, day turns into dusk and BAFTA Scotland hold a reception at Olorusso, an excellent terrace perfectly positioned to overlook every aspect of this lovely city. We met Brian Newman, who will be coming to Wales soon to speak at The Mini Pixel Lab: The Cross-Media Film Workshop For Welsh Producers as part of Sillset's Acadamei and Power to the Pixel's unique workshop offering a tailored, hands-on opportunity for developing and financing cross-media stories- really interesting and knowledgable chap so would urge you to see him speak..

#Edfilm fest: Part Trì

Another day, and more films to see... viewed Ben Millers 'HUGE' today, an adaptation of the play that he wrote alongside Simon Godley & Jez Butterworth. The plot revolves around a comedic bro-mance between Noel Clarke and Jonny Harris. Jonny Harris delivers a heart warming performance & look out for the scene that features almost every top- flight comedian Britain has produced in recent years.

Favourite viewing of the day was 'Girl with the Black Balloons' a startling documentary by Corrine Van Der Borch, set in The Chelsea Hotel. The central focus is Bettina- long time resident with hoardes of concealed yet extraordinary art work accumulated over 40 years. This is an extraordinary piece of work and well worth giving your eyes up to for 61 minutes.

Part Trì (Gaelic- see what we did there?)of BAFTA Cymru's adventure at EIFF are undoubtedly an ode to Edinburgh and Scotland, as the weekend saw us dancing at the official festival Céilidh.

A bheil thu 'g iarraidh a dhanns? ( 'would you like to dance' in Gaelic) would have come in handy, opposed to grabbing the nearest unsuspecting festival goer and forcing them to participate in some spectacularly un co-ordinated do-see-doe'ing.

The unparalleled highlight of today (and possibly any future EIFF) was being in the same room as an incredibly suave looking Sean Connery (we are breathing Bond air!) who kicked off the Céilidh, and has been honoured by the festival as a patron on this year, his 80th birthday with a special screening of 'The Man who would be King'.

Connery looks exactly as you would expect him to look -black tux jacket with white polo neck, exuding masses of presence. Concluding the evening, we watch Patrick Stewart throw himself around the Céilidh dance floor with wild abandon alongside all the other fest. attendees -excellent!

#Edfilmfest Part Deux

You will all be relieved to hear that Edinburgh Castle is still standing and in one piece- Photographic evidence.

Excellent weather so far for the whole of the fest..Yesterday headed down to the Cameo for the afternoon and we couldn't really have viewed two more 'poles apart' films back to back.. 'Cherry Tree Lane' from Paul Andrew Williams billed as 'an urgent and compelling mix of exploitation thriller and social protest film' and is most definitely uncompromising, leaving discomfort in it's wake.

A brief fifteen minute coffee took us directly into 'Superhero Me', made by Steve Sale, a young first time documentary film maker, who brings this shoestring budget tale of his endeavours to become a real life superhereo that culminates in him developing his yellow spandex suited alter ego' SOS man'.

Some real laugh out loud moments, and meeting Steve and his wife Charlotte afterwards, it's really interesting and refreshing to hear their journey of making this low-tech doc (originlly made as a bit of a laugh for family and friends) and how it ended up with Superhereo Me being previewed at EIFF- particularly the bit about him scraping together the festival entry fee from his Mum! - can't fault it.

Barry Munday this morning & we found ourselves sat in Cineworld behind Ben Miller who's film 'Huge' had it's premier last night.. dark glasses and mineral water always speak volumes. Chris D'Arienzo as first time Director offers this coming-of-age comedy that revolves around Patrick Wilson losing two of his most prized possesions.. I think I'll leave the rest of this open for your future viewing pleasure, but worth a look in- we agree this will have erm, bags of appeal.

America Ferrera is in town and as per front page of this morning's newspaper.. went, WAIT FOR IT..Brace Yourselves now.. SHOPPING! This Scottish city for one, is up in arms...

Heard more great things about Winters Bone, and The People V's George Lucas is proving popular. Soul Boy Party this evening and am hoping to beg, steal or borrow some tickets for Toy Story 3- what an excellent way to spend a Saturday evening!.

Anyway, Tapas for dinner last night- was lovely, particularly chorizo & black pudding thingy as it is now called- sorry veggies- also still not consumed genuine Scottish fare.. must try harder..

Enough for now- much more viewing to be done...

F x