MAGAZINE EDITION

CONTRIBUTORS

BACK ISSUES

CONTACTS

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2005

By Josie Inwood
Contact the author via Chris Johnstone by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

The 59th Edinburgh International Film Festival kicked off in style with the directorial debut from Richard E Grant.

Wah-Wah is a semi-autobiographical 'coming of age at the end of an Age' story, told through the eyes of young Ralph Compton. Set in the last gasp of the British Empire in Swaziland, South East Africa, in 1969, the plot focuses on the dysfunctional Compton family whose gradual disintegration mirrors the end of British Rule.

The British are preparing their withdrawal as Swaziland receives its independence, and the British Club stage a production of Camelot to entertain Princess Margaret who is expected to preside over the Independence ceremony.

Grant has described this film as a labour of love. The first film ever to be filmed in Swaziland, it is low budget and independent, has a fabulous cast committed to the project and it shows. Families and what happens within them, behind closed doors, is something that is common to everyone and is the focus of both the comedy and drama in Wah-Wah. The underlying theme is Love - love lost, regained, unrequited, forgotten, longed for and discovered.

Short films, like short stories are a bit of an acquired taste. The best short story grabs your attention with an idea, there is no room to expand it and when it ends you feel satisfied but would like to have known more. The short films I saw this year were very short and for that I was very grateful.

Song of Songs is the first feature from the young British director, Josh Apignanesi, Films about religion do not tend to do well at the box office, even the multi-million dollar blockbusters full of Hollywood movie stars tend to be controversial rather than big hitters. This one is nothing short of hard work. It is the story of Ruth, a deeply religious Jewish girl, returning to London after a time spent in the Holy Land, to care for her sick mother. It is the mother's dying wish that she be reconciled with her son and asks Ruth to help. According to the summary of the film I read before seeing it, prior to her departure to Israel the siblings had enjoyed the kind of relationship frowned upon in virtually any religion. Glad to have read that, otherwise I would have had no idea what was going on at all. The characters are buttoned up like the strangely frumpy clothes worn by Ruth throughout the film, the story unfolds and a numbingly slow pace and the darkness of the house she shares with her mother lends an air of dreariness over the whole thing which presumably is deliberate. There is a lot of silence, do not adjust your set.

In Mirrormask Alice in Wonderland meets The Wizard of Oz in this fantastical tale from the writer/illustrator team of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Those who are familiar with Gaiman's children's novels, like the best-selling Coraline, will know to expect the unexpected. Anyone who has seen the comics and graphic novels of McKean will be pleased to know that an army of special effects technicians and illustrators provide the perfect showcase for his work. In short, this is a visual treat, quite a scary story and is a must for those of us who quite like to take the kids to the cinema but want to be entertained as well.

On A Clear Day is a bit like The Full Monty on Clydeside but when Frank (Peter Mullan) gets his kit off it's to swim the channel.

On Frank's last day at work in a Clyde shipyard, a ship is launched with great pomp and ceremony, a colleague loses an arm in a machine, and Frank is made redundant. He walks away after nearly 40 years of service. Like many before him, he is lost without the rhythm of a working day. He needs to find some way to regain his dignity. He begins training to swim the channel, with the help of some friends and without the knowledge of his family.

Frank is a man with Something To Prove and this is a film with something to say about pride and dignity, the value of friendship and the ability of the human spirit to triumph over adversity.

There are strong performances from the entire cast although I did think Brenda Blethyn's accent was more Brigadoon than Bridgeton. Peter Mullan swam a mile a day to prepare for this part and Billy Boyd is to be invited to take part in next year's motor cruising season at Largs.

Rag Tale is set in the cut and thrust of a London newsroom at a paper called The Rag, it soon becomes clear that daily world events have little impact on the content of the paper. The despotic proprietor living in the penthouse upstairs dictates that. The editor is under constant pressure, mainly from his deputy with whom he is having a steamy affair. She also happens to be the despot's wife.

The rapid-fire delivery of this ensemble cast, the hectic cutting to this face or that is chaotic and exhausting. The power struggles, the energy invested in the goings on in the office as opposed to news production is probably a fair reflection of life in a tabloid newsroom.

The editor finds himself in direct conflict with his proprietor, not as you might imagine over his wife's extra marital activities but because he has defied an instruction to change the paper's policy of monarchy bashing in favour of supporting the Royal Family. The lengths to which he will go to save his position are extraordinary and the results devastating.

Director Mary McGuckian devised the script in collaboration with the cast and the effect is brilliant, spontaneous and hugely funny.

In Guy X, some sort of administrative error has Cpl Rudy Spruance (Jason Biggs) dropped in Greenland instead of Hawaii. Everyone thinks he is Martin Pederson, a public information officer. He protests and is told that the army does not make mistakes. He waits for common sense to prevail, and of course it never does.

Exploring the mysterious base he discovers a secret bunker containing a hospital ward, full of badly mutilated patients. One speaks to him, Guy X, telling him that they have all been injured in Vitenam. But the war in Vitenam is over and Spruance/Pederson sets about trying to solve the mystery of the dying men. No one else at the base seems to know about the hospital, or why they are there apart from protecting their homeland from the general threat from the Soviet Union. Natascha McElhone is a rather unlikely sergeant at the base with whom Spruance strikes up a relationship.

There is a M*A*S*H*-like air of flippancy about the whole place, where everyone just gets on with private amusements. One group of soldiers spend their days raiding the identities of “a whole bunch of dead guys”, the same movie is shown every night in the mess hall and entertainment officer organises dances and quiz nights to keep the troops happy.

Jeremy Northam is a revelation as the base commander, with just the right hint of madness to let Spruance believe that there will be no escape from Greenland. Jason Biggs has come a long way since American Pie, looking a bit like a young Elliot Gould. They all look very nice in army greens; khaki is the new black, I believe.

Junebug, apart from being an insect common to the Southern regions of the US, is another debut, from American director Phil Morrison.

George is from North Carolina, Madelaine is a sophisticate from Chicago. They marry and 6 months into the marriage they travel south when Madelaine wants to look at some Outsider art. They go to visit George's family for the first time. George's family does not warm to this woman who has married their golden boy, all except Ashley his brother's wife, young, heavily pregnant and totally smitten by Madelaine. Amy Adams is a hoot as the simple country girl, wide eyed and excited by the visitors from the city. She keeps up a barrage of questions about their life, without hardly a pause for breath, let alone an answer. And yet Ashley is not a figure of fun but provides a link between the visitors and the family. Their son's new wife does not impress them. The mother is scornful of her slim figure - “She don't look like she can cook”. She bemuses the father - “George loves her, I guess”, is all he can say in her defence. Ashley's husband, George's little brother is hostile for no particular reason, but he is hostile to all around him, even Ashley. When he flies into a rage after failing to record a TV program she deals with him patiently, like a small child and tells him that “God loves you the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way”. I must remember that one. Madelaine seems dumbfounded by this new family of hers, and at times dumbfounds them with her thoughtless condescension. People are complex and troublesome creatures, whether they are city slickers or down home country folks. Take them out of their natural environments and they struggle. Luckily for Madelaine, the visit is soon ended and they are on the freeway headed north.

Many a family visit ends in this way...

The documentary section is crowded with a range of films any one of which could be the next Big Thing. The success of documentaries in recent years clearly fuels the growth in this sector. The war in Iraq, the Holyrood parliament building, the fate of poor black American children, the exploitation of Bolivian children by the global mining industry, all are represented here. Stuart Greig's series of TV documentaries about the building of the Scottish Parliament has been edited down to one full length documentary, The Holyrood Files. Watching it just makes you angry about the whole process.

The Boys from Baraka paints a gloomy picture of the life chances doled out to black American boys living in Baltimore. A nice black suit and a long wooden box is one option in Bush's America, but it was also one option in Clinton's America - what is clear is that the political will to change their lives does not exist. “I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote”. Unfortunately, by the time he's old enough he'll be lost.

Closing the festival this year is The Business, a London gangster movie set in Spain. I shall avoid the inevitable comparisons with Lock, Stock and 2 Sexy Beasts. This is a stylish, violent, foul-mouthed tale of Danny, a young East End lad who flees to Spain to escape the fallout from a bit of bovver at home. He is taken under the wing of Charlie The Playboy, a bankrobber turned local criminal, perma-tanned and bryl-creamed to perfection. It would appear that Antonio Banderras has a big brother and he goes by the name of Tamer Hassan.

Charlie has a bar (he's legit, honest guv) but his real business is drugs. They start with marijuana smuggled across the sea from Morocco, but they get greedy, expand into cocaine, tread on the local criminals' toes and things turn nasty. It's all a bit predictable, with the usual nods to the greed is good culture of the time. No-one actually says “I've got loadsa money”. Maggie Thatcher is on the telly telling us all that the lady is not for turning and all the gangsters think she's great. This is not a comedy but there are some hilarious moments, all played out to a thumping 80s soundtrack. Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Duran Duran never sounded so good first time around.

Other hoolet online articles by Josie Inwood can be found at:
hoolet edition 50 - EIFF 2006
hoolet edition 46 - EIFF 2005
hoolet edition 42 - EIFF 2004
hoolet edition 38 - EIFF 2003

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.