Reviews & features: Issue 682

2011 Fringe for a Fiver - Theatre

Not got a brass razoo to your name? Don’t let that spoil your Fringe fun as we present 50 shows you can see for a mere five of your Scottish pound coins Alice in Wonderland and Other Adventures with Lewis Carroll Richard Smithies brings to life the…

New episode of Doctor Who to be screened at Edinburgh Television Festival 2011

New episodes of Fresh Meat, The Killing and Comic Strip also on offer

The MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival unveiled its programme for 2011 yesterday, marking the festival’s 36th year in operation. The series of lectures, preview screenings, masterclasses, interviews and networking parties, which…

Attention all Edinburgh Fringe performers: We take bribes!

Are you desperate for publicity? Are you willing to pay for it?

Are you desperate to get your show publicised? Are you hungry for that extra bit of exposure that will turn your no-budget show into the 5-star, million dollar production it deserves to be? And most importantly, are you willing to pay for it? We at…

Edinburgh Art Festival 2011 highlights

David Mach, Tamsyn Challenger and Anish Kapoor among picks

David Mach. Explosive and daring exhibition of large-scale collage and sculpture works inspired by and confronting the narratives of the Bible on the 400th anniversary of the publication of the highly influential King James version. 400 Women. A…

Strong EIFF short film programme includes Night Mayor, The Great Race and Pentecost

Edinburgh International Film Festival shorts round-up

Sometimes the short film programme can look like a lesser sibling of the main festival, but this year it was one of the few aspects of EIFF that was in better health than ever. With a fancy new venue in the form of an upgraded George Square Theatre, a…

Ghosted - Art Malik, John Lynch & Craig Viveiros interview

Prison drama cast includes Martin Compston and David Schofield

It’s that if actors of the calibre of John Lynch and Art Malik want a meaty role in a British feature film, the odds are number one, it’s going to have to be set in a criminal world of some description and number two, it’s more than likely going…

Highlights among mixed bag suggest hope for return to cinephilia at EIFF

Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when life gives you a programme for an international film festival that misspells the Coen Brothers name (among other heinous typographical and grammatical crimes), best take the bull by the horns and make…

How should the EIFF move forward?

Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011

When the lights came up on The Guard, this year’s opening film, my overriding thought was, 'that was fine'. It was quite funny and had a good cast, but was entirely unadventurous filmmaking. Fine, but nothing more. As a tone-setter for the 'reinvented…

Calvet - Dominic Allan & Jean Marc Calvet interview

Documentary charting extraordinary life of French artist

CALVET depicts the struggles of Jean Marc Calvet, now an artist with burgeoning international success, to come to terms with his past and, more particularly reconcile with the son he abandoned. So far, so straightforward, but Jean Marc has quite a few…

Weekender - Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Jack O’Connell interview

Film charting 1990s British rave scene

“We’re a bit like a double-act”, quips Jack O’Connell, referring to himself and his co-star Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and it proves true as they talk to me. They’re ostensibly discussing Weekender, which has it’s World Premiere at this year’s Festival, but…

Convento - Jarred Alterman interview

Portrait of Dutch artist family and kinetic sculpture

Jarred Alterman, director of the documentary Convento, takes me round the tie-in exhibition at Teviot Row House, full of the kinetic sculptures by Christiaan Zwanikken that populate Alterman’s dreamlike film. Passing a gang of creepy, animated and…

Bikini Machine compose a 'cinéconcert' score for Desperado

Each year, the French Institute for Scotland takes part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and strives to bring the media of music and film together to form one piece of intercontinental art. This year, the Institute have invited five…

War correspondent Martin Bell to give Oliver Stone another chance

Martin Bell will be introducing Oliver Stone's Salvador at the EIFF

‘I tend to walk out of films about wars that I reported on. I walked out of Oliver Stone’s Salvador when I first saw it in 1986 that’s why it will be interesting to present it and revisit it in Edinburgh. I remember he satirised a female reporter I know…

Turin Horse - Béla Tarr interview

Hungarian director's final film takes Nietzsche's madness as starting point

Iconic Hungarian director Béla Tarr was in Edinburgh to present his latest and reportedly final film, Turin Horse. The film is inspired by an event often reported as the beginning of Friedrich Nietzsche’s mental breakdown. The philosopher is said to…

Troll Hunter - André Øvredal interview

Director of the Norwegian moc doc taking film festivals by storm

Something that’s pretty thin on the ground at Edinburgh this year are genuine ‘festival finds’; films from unknown filmmakers that seem to come out of nowhere and really impress audiences. TrollHunter is perhaps the closest thing to that in this year’s…

The List Awards at Edinburgh International Film Festival

The Last Circus, Perfect Sense and Project Nim among winning films

It’s been well documented that as a result of what festival director James Mullighan refers to as ‘straightened times’, the Edinburgh Film Festival has scaled back its more expensive operations this year, including cutting several awards. However…

Project Nim - James Marsh interview

Man on Wire director charts 1970s chimp experiment in extraordinary film

‘I’m here bleary-eyed straight from four weeks of shooting a feature film in Dublin!’ So claims Project Nim director James Marsh when I meet him, but you wouldn’t know it from the espresso-fuelled 30 minutes of rapid discussion that follows, in which…

Our Day Will Come - Romain Gavras interview

Provocative debut feature from director of MIA's Born Free furthers redhead theme

From the stage of the Filmhouse on Friday night, Romain Gavras introduces the UK premiere of his debut feature film as a “romantic comedy”. Those who have seen his controversial music video for MIA’s Born Free are not fooled. And shortly, that will be…

Oliver Sherman - Ryan Redford interview

Director of drama charting reunion between two war veterans

In retrospect, the odds were against us: Fresh-faced freelancer meets first time director straight from transatlantic travel and at the end of a long day’s junket. Ryan Redford, a 31-year-old director showing so few signs of media training one would…

Perfect Sense an ambitious film that demands a lot from audience

David Mackenzie’s feature thought-provoking and quietly moving

The weekend saw one of the biggest events of this year’s EIFF programme, as the massive Festival Theatre played host to the European premiere of David Mackenzie’s new film, the Glasgow-set sci-fi romance Perfect Sense, on Saturday night. I interviewed…

Hell and Back Again depicts life of a Marine in Afghanistan

EIFF screening of photojournalist Danfung Dennis’ first feature film

History suggests that the constant drip of unfettered, prime-time images depicting death and defeat made a vital contribution to turning the tide of American popular opinion against the war in Vietnam. It’s hard to imagine a similar decisive impact in…

Reel Science events programme among highlights of Edinburgh Film Festival

Tomboy, My Brothers and Project Nim among film highlights

After my fearless leader’s less-than-generous appraisal of this aged Festival’s opening night, I’m hoping to bring a little bit of love for EIFF back to these web pages. Admittedly, the pared-down nature of this year’s Festival is most noticeable in the…

Rabies (Kalevat)

An interesting twist on slasher movie conventions from Israel

The problem with slasher films is that they perhaps have the most rigid rules in cinema. It’s so easy to fall into the standard clichés as set out by Halloween and Friday the 13th. Not that it means you can’t make a fun, entertaining film within these…

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 opens with an Oirish whimper (not a bang)

65th festival gets underway despite disappointing opener The Guard

So the 65th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is now open. It opened last night, a balmy, spitty Wednesday evening, with a screening of John Michael McDonagh’s decidedly patchy Irish comedy policier The Guard starring Brendan Gleeson.

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011 line up highlights

Grant Morrison, Will Self and Jo Nesbø among highlights

A selection of international authors, a bunch of Scottish novelists, an array of top non-fiction scribes, a host of children’s writers and a series of exciting innovations: yes, it’s just another Edinburgh International Book Festival programme. A cliché…