1408 - Review by Emma J. Lennox

Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Screenwriters: Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski
Running Time: 94 mins
Certificate: 15
Released: August 31st

If you thought spending a few hours alone with John Cusack in a hotel room would be a nice experience, think again. 1408 is possibly the best Stephen King adaptation since 1999's The Green Mile, but all spook-o-metres are pointing back to the most successful King horror, The Shining. The real hotel used as the blood spouting phantasm in Stanley Kubrick's classic famously had the script changed to remove a room number for fear of losing business. There are several parallels to be drawn in this plot, which revolves around a hotel room so terrifying that the manager (Samuel L Jackson) refuses to rent it out. The door says 1408 (which adds up to 13, code busters!) and as Jackson promises, whilst sporting a Hannah -Barbera cartoon beard, it's “a fucking evil room”.

We have the trap and all the cheese you could want, all that's missing is an unsuspecting mouse and presumably because Most Haunted's Yvette Fielding was unavailable, John Cusack is the cynical, washed up novelist/ ghost investigator. Other than demonstrating an inability to suit any kind of head wear, Cusack puts in a solid performance of a man on the worst LSD trip in history as he takes on the unknown horrors of said room. The set up is all extremely conventional but this has the adverse effect of creating mounting anticipation; you know when things will get bad, you just don't know what they'll be (I was sure to keep an eye on that old painting with the creepy children.)

Director Mikael Hafstrom confidently builds the tension to unbearable levels and there were several occasions where I found myself flying into the air trying to restrain expletives but Hafstrom lacks the conviction to sustain the terror; most likely to keep the 15 rating. The inevitable resolution is disappointing and would have been better had Cusack ripped the head off a glowing ghoul to reveal the grumpy face of Samuel L Jackson, yet there is no doubt that this is an entertaining thrill that pushes all the right buttons.

EIFF: Once- a popcorn discussion by Robert Duffin and Emma J Lennox

Director: John Carney

Screenwriter: John Carney

Runtime: 85mins

Certificate: 15

UK Release date: 19 October

Agreeing that Once is Montage's film of the festival, Robert Duffin and Emma J Lennox discuss just why the unassuming 'microbudget' Irish film is so appealing.

Quick synopsis: A heart broken Dublin busker, Glen Hansard, (simply named guy) meets Czech immigrant Marketa Irglova (girl) and over the course of a few days develop music, understanding and an unforgettable friendship.

Robert says: I was looking forward to seeing Once because it'd had good word of mouth and I was interested to see something different done with the musical genre. When watching, I was completely sold from Glen's first song; he was obviously the most talented busker in the world! I think the style, which some have criticised, really works in terms of bringing you into the story. It feels very 'real'. What made it stand apart from everything else at the festival was that I was able to forgot my surroundings. For two hours I was with those characters, instead of being at the EIFF which is an odd environment to watch films in. You're almost hyper-critical, and your expectations are at ridiculously high levels.

Emma says: I don't see it as a 'musical' at all, the director (John Carney) has called it a 'visual album,' which is more of an accurate term. In musicals the songs usually reflect the emotions of the characters and relates to the narrative, but Once doesn't do literal translations because the songs are devoted to off screen lovers. Glen and Marketa's relationship is conversely built upon their broken hearts, and enforced through this music. I think this gives it the emotional impact. In comparison I think Control lacked this complexity by trying to represent the songs in the story, which of course didn't live up to Joy Division's soundtrack.

Robert says: Exactly, the literal translation of 'Love Will Tear us Apart' lacked any emotional punch. Compare that to the first song Glen and Marketa sing together, 'Falling Slowly', and you see what can be achieved. It's when they are singing about 'others' that you understand how they feel about each other.

Emma says: I wonder if the kind of music will put people off, it's a very gentle, folksy style, extremely well performed, but maybe too saccharine for the death rockers out there? Having said that I have quite a left field taste and cinematic love songs usually send me into an ear-clawing depression, so I would have been first to run out the auditorium if I detected too much Tate and Lyle.

Robert says: I don't think Once will work for everyone. The singer-songwriter vibe is definitely something that will irritate people if they are particularly adverse to the likes of Damien Rice. The central attraction in the film comes from the notion that artists are inherently misunderstood individuals who have to fight for their original voice which is not really an everyman plight all people can get behind. For me, that's really beautiful but some people might find it a bit drippy. I think it's the performances that sell it.

Emma says: The cast are exceptional, with hardly any acting experience between them Glen and Marketa give very natural and subtle performances. I think this is because of their close relationship with Carney for whom the story is semi- autobiographical. It strikes as being a personal project and the long lens shots, and on location filming adds to the effect of glimpsing something special from afar. Something I've realised over the festival is that I enjoy documentaries that are 'artistic' and fiction films that seem 'real'. Once isn't a conventional love story, which makes it unpredictable and refreshing.

Robert says: I think there are a few plot conventions shoe horned in to allow the narrative to progress but I didn’t let it bother me, I was over the moon when I walked out of the screening because of the emotional truth. I love the scene where Glen is giving advice to the Thin Lizzy cover band they hire to back them, and when he gets to Marketa he simply says: “you know what you’re doing.” In the context of the film, it’s as good as saying “I Love You.” The very next day I downloaded the soundtrack, but I think something is lost in just listening to the songs. The energy of the tracks has diminished in their recording but it’s a credit to the film that the creative process here is so well presented. While Carney and Glen being in The Frames together has led some people to call this a nepotistic vanity project, I think only a musician can tell musical stories.

Emma says: I think music is a very 'pure' medium because it affects on a subjective level whereas film, with its constructed story, is largely an intellectual experience. Somehow Carney manages to tap into that quality which gets you blubbing superlatives such as 'overwhelmingly heartbreaking!'. I was caught out during the recording session scene because it seemed like such an unromantic setting. Yet in the dry and straightforward environment of cables and mics, the band produce the most invigorating song yet 'When Your Mind's Made Up' and I got goosebumps. Of course if you don't connect musically then you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. I suspect it may be a 'love or hate' affair, however I'm unashamed to call it my festival highlight.

Robert says: It's my personal Best of the Fest and definitely a contender for film of the year. While it's easily a divisive film, I would still recommend people see it; the chance of feeling how I did after watching it is worth the risk. Well Emma, to quote to adorable Marketa, "thanks for the hoover, food and songs."

Add your comments and join the conversation!

Summer of British Film: The Wicker Man - Review by Robert Duffin

The BBC and the UK Film Council are celebrating British cinema by screening classics on the big screen every Tuesday until Sept 11th in cinemas all over the UK. Each film has been digitally remastered in Hi-Def and Montage writers will be appraising these classics!

Director: Robin Hardy

creenwriter: Anthony Shaffer

Running Time: 100 mins

Certificate: 18

Released: Screening Tuesday 28th August

Christopher Lee has scared every generation of filmgoer witless. To some he is the Prince of Darkness, Count Dracula and to others he is the White Wizard of Orthanc Tower, Sauruman. However, for anyone who has ever seen The Wicker Man he will always be the sinister yet charming Lord Summerisle. He presides over the island Summerisle, the destination for one Sgt.Howie (Edward Woodward) who arrives to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Once there he finds himself to be the lone Christian on a pagan island determined to hinder his investigation at all costs.

Anyone discovering this treasure for the first time should be aware that history has mistakenly labelled it as a horror film. It’s really a quasi-religious thriller with a touch of the musical; a classic genre really. Bathed in disconcerting daylight, The Wicker Man is a bizarre yet unsettling experience. Nocturnal orgies and Britt Ekland’s now legendary naked dance pepper Howie’s descent into a dream-like labyrinth that threatens his religion and most importantly his virginity. Awash with doctrine discussions, the screenplay is also surprisingly literate and funny and the peculiar musical sequences are hard to forget.

Everyone knows Howie’s journey ends with a visit to the titular effigy thanks to the poster now used to promote the film, but it’s easy to forget the down right eerie events that precedes cinema’s most fiery dénouement. In a season of film that seems intent on reinforcing the values that led Truffaut to refer to refer to British cinema as being an oxymoronic term, The Wicker Man is a genuine curio that deserves to be seen by the uninitiated and anyone who still thinks Lee's scariest attributes are his fangs.

EIFF: The Surprise Movie ~ The Kingdom - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Peter Berg
Screenwriter: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Running Time: 110 mins
On General Release in October

New EIFF artistic director Hannah McGill wasn't kidding when she giggled nervously "you might not expect this from me, I have no track record!" For this was the Surprise Movie, an EIFF staple where audience members buy a ticket with only the promise not to be dissapointed, never an easy promise to keep, especially when you've sold out the screening. The festival brochure boasts previous surprise movies, including Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects, so McGill had a lot to live up to. Edinburgh is very much an audience orientated festival and since this was her first year, she had to gain the audiences trust.

So, what was the film? Well, I had my own little theory about what we might be seeing on Saturday night. Well actually I had several. The new Coen Brothers picture, No Country for Old Men, was a smash at Cannes but conspicuously absent from this years EIFF line-up. The day before however I had a change of heart, I began to nervously suspect we may have just parted with our hard earned for Atonement. A big budget British film based on Ian Mcewan's novel, which would fit with the festivals theme of 'cinema and the written word'. Keira Knightley, oh the horror!

We took our seats with caution, and suddenly we were aghast. Cineworld had strewn the theatre with advertisement leaflets, predominantly featuring Atonement. That was it, without a doubt we were getting war, love, passion and a night of gagging back the vomit. Surely though there was hope for Coen's? Atonement? Coen's? In the end neither. The surprise movie of the EIFF 2007 was Peter Berg's The Kingdom. Where had I heard of it before? That'll be when I walked past the poster outside and smirked to Emma, "well, it sure won't be that!"

Actor turned director Berg (Friday Night Lights) weaves a tale of a group of FBI agents who go into Saudi Arabia to investiagte an act of terrorism on a complex housing American scientists and engineers working in the oil industry. The film begins with an ambitious CGI title sequence that aims to tell us 100 years of Saudi-US relations, culminating in a breath stopping CGI rendition of the 9-11 attacks. Following this is one of the most disturbing depictions of terrorism captured on screen. The families in the complex are playing in a baseball game, when insurgents speed around in a vehicle wildly firing machine guns mowing down men, women and children. It's brutal and uncompromising, and culminates with a suicide bombing that rattled the very cinema theatre. Yet the film that follows does not always adhere to the agenda set out by this unsettling opening.

FBI Agents Ronald Fluery (Jamie Foxx), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper) are soon sent into Saudi Arabia, an unprecendented action, and team with reluctant Saudi Captain Haytham (Ali Suliman). The core four are your typical, Michael Bay-esque, protagonists cracking one liners and earnestly emoting when they see innocent children. They bar room banter, especially that of Bateman, undercuts a lot of the films tension. After setting the premise up as based in history with an air of seriousness, it basically becomes a carnage-fest. But what a carnage-fest!

Berg doesn't have the control or choreography of Paul Greegrass, but this is visceral in your face action that has you ducking when you hear whizzing bullets. Ocassionaly you lose track of the characters, and the shameless turning up of the volume to ear splitting levels grates, but over all Berg's action repertoir is very impressive. It's the brains behind the film that aren't functioning all too well. It esentially wants to preach that we're all the same but divided by senseless hate. Yet, the attempts to express this point rings false. Haytham and Fluery reminsce over watching the Incredible Hulk (or the Green Beast as he was known in Saudi) in what is supposed to be a "see! we're the same!" moment. Haytham's foreign ways can't be all that bad if we share culture, but what we actually share is American culture. The message should be that we're all inherently human, but what you get is that we're all inherently American.

Yet, do we praise The Kingdom for trying and falling short of political pertinence, or do we lambast it for naively trying at all within the action genre? The ending is for me, what seals the deal. It's surprisingly pessimistic when it had the opportunity to be flag waving, and in the end no mutual love of Marvel comics can overcome the 100 year tug of war depicted in the opening. The Kingdom may be loud and dumb but it has a conscience even if it struggles to efectively convey it within the constraints of the genre. It dares to draw direct parallels between the beliefs of the FBI and Al Qauida, and even if does drop the ball, it raises questions rarely even murmured in the action film arena. If Hannah McGill's choices are always this left of the field, always take a risk and get the cinephile community that is built around the festival talking then she has nothing to worry about.

EIFF: Film Awards

As the EIFF 2007 comes to a close the Feature Films Awards were announced earlier by Managing Director Ginnie Atkinson and Artistic director Hannah McGill. The big winner was Control, which scooped Best New British Feature and Best Performance by Sam Riley who portrayed Ian Curtis in the film. Montage favourite Billy the Kid took Best Documentary, with We Are Together proving popular with festival goers, taking the Audience Award.

Full list of winners below:

Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film, sponsored by the UK Film Council
“Control” – directed by Anton Corbijn

PPG Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film
Sam Riley – “Control”

Standard Life Audience Award
“We Are Together”, directed by Paul Taylor

Sky Movies Best Documentary Award
“Billy the Kid,” directed by Jennifer Venditti
Special Jury Commendation to “The Monastery: Mr Vig and the Nun” directed by Pernille Rose Gronkjaer

Skillset New Directors Award
Lucia Puenzo - “XXY”

UK Film Council Kodak Award for Best British Short Film
“The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island”, by James Griffiths
Special mention to – “Dog Altogether”, by Paddy Considine

European Film Academy Short Film 2007 - Prix UIP
“Soft” by Simon Ellis
Special mention to “Final Journey” by Lars Zimmermann and “Ottica Zero” by Maja Borg

Short Scottish Documentary Award Supported by Baillie Gifford
“Breadmakers”, by Yasmin Fedda
Special mention to “How to Save a Fish From Drowning”, by Kelly Neal

McLaren Award for New British Animation in Partnership with BBC Film Network
“Over the Hill” by Peter Baynton



While only Sunday's Best of the Fest screenings remain, Montage writers will continue to provide the reviews on film that screened as well as a round-up report over the next few days!

EIFF: Stardust- Review by Emma J Lennox

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Screenwriter: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, Neil Gaiman (Novel)

Runtime: 130min

EIFF Screening: Sun 26 Aug, 16:30, Cineworld

Neil Gaiman has had mixed blessings in screen adaptations of his books and graphic novels, the last EIFF film to brandish his name was Dave Mckean's Mirrormask which failed to live up to its potential with a surprisingly weak and derivative story line. Ten minutes into Stardust and fears are already growing that the over complicated, under developed premise to this fairy tale is going to lead to more disappointment. Basically there is an ancient wall separating our familiar, if biscuit tin looking home lands, and a magical kingdom 'Stormhold' in which there are witches, kings in tall castles and an abundance of magic.

The voice of Sir Ian Mckellen sets the scene by describing a most unromantic union between a witch's slave and a curious village boy which produces Tristan, who quickly grows into a love lorn young man (Charlie Cox). This narrative is done in a hap hazard style as director Matthew Vaughn seems keen to get over the exposition and on to the death of the Stormhold King (Peter O'Toole) and the task of ascension for his four battling sons. From this point on it's a thrilling adventure and race to the finish for three vying groups chasing the same star.

The narrative doesn't suffer from simplicity and trying to explain all the ins and outs, incidental and sometimes morphing characters is quite complicated. Suffice to say that Claire Danes is the North star who has fallen to earth and the king's sons want the enchanted ruby around her neck, Tristan wants to impress a village girl by capturing her and nasty witch, Michelle Pfiefer, wants to eat her heart to become young. Its a heady potion of fantasy which is reminiscent of the best of the genre from the humour of The Prince's Bride to the interplay of A Midsummer Night's Dream with some of its own crazy invention to keep things fresh.

Add to this a crowd of comic British faces including Ricky Gervais, David Walliams, Adam Buxton, Mark Heap and even Dexter Fletcher and it becomes a fun and engrossing story. And that's all without mentioning the true gem in the crown; a bit part flamboyant pirate played by Robert Deniro. Deniro's quietly successful comedy career has always been at the expense of his tough guy reputation and Stardust breaks the convention by parodying exactly this. Stardust is an entertaining romp which showcases Gaiman's wit on a grand scale; it keeps on the right side of sentimental and isn't too clever to be heartless.

EIFF: And When Did You Last See Your Father? - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Anand Tucker
Screenwriter: David Nichols
Running Time: 92 mins
EIFF Screenings:
Saturday 25th 19:20 Filmhouse
Sunday 26th 14:45 Filmhouse

No child ever wants a popular parent. “I wish he was my dad” may seem like a compliment, but it’s usually a cringe inducing moment indicative of a parent who gives so much there’s very little left for their own children. This difficult father-son relationship is beautifully observed in Anand Tucker’s film of Blake Morrison’s novel And When Did You Last See Your Father? The male-male platonic relationship has been seriously short changed in cinema, while female friendship has been examined in everything from top drawer productions (Hannah and Her Sisters) to 80s chick flicks (Beaches), it’s rare to ever get a male equivalent. Yet this makes perfect sense, because for this to happen we would have to speak about our feelings, and we all know how that conversation goes.

In the film we follow award winning writer Blake (Colin Firth) who discovers his father Arthur (Jim Broadbent), whom he feels never appreciated him, is dying of cancer and now the clock is running against his hops of an emotional reconciliation. Throughout the film we get flashbacks to child Blake (Bradley Morrison) and teenage Blake (Matthew Beard), charting the ever souring relationship with the man he loves and hates with equal passion. As old Blake becomes ever consumed with his past, he begins to lose sight of his present and is perhaps destined to make the same mistakes as Arthur.

Colin Firth is a little dull as the human dish towel Blake, but both Morrison and Beard give wonderful performances as the younger incarnations. Beard’s scene where he meets the Scottish housekeeper Sandra (Elaine Cassidy) is a perfect comedic moment, and his pairing with Broadbent gives the film a great double act. Broadbent is also fantastic as the ultimate charming bastard; he loves his son but just can’t say it, he loves his wife but just can’t show it, and all the while you love his company.

The ‘problem’ with this film is its evident worthiness. This is the type of BAFTA friendly British film that will do well over seas and garner numerous awards and nominations. It’s an incredibly slick production unlike the edgy and hard hitting critically acclaimed recent movement Brit cinema (London to Brighton, Sugarhouse, Saxon), and as a result many cynics will probably sneer at it. Yet despite all of the above being fundamentally true, this film is a wonderfully written piece with an emotional truth that will affect all. David Nicholls script hits the right notes and the cathartic finale will have you reaching for your mobile so can have a recent answer to the titular question. A great film to catch at Best of the Fest this Sunday, even if the male members of the audience will have to go chop some wood and crush beer cans afterwards.

EIFF: Extraordinary Rendition - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Jim Threapelton

Screenwriter: Jim Threapelton

Running Time: 77 mins

It doesn’t seem fair to criticise a film on its overly liberal narrative when it opens with a sneer inducing quote from Dick Cheney. What did you expect? Yet Jim Threapelton’s Extraordinary Rendition both benefits from and suffers because of its overt political leanings. In the film a London school teacher Zaafir (Omar Berdouni) is snatched off the street by an unknown group of people (presumably the CIA) taken to another country to side step domestic judiciary issues and tortured for information over a period of several weeks. The film adopts a non-linear narrative as we see Zaafir before, during and after his ordeal reflecting different stages of his psyche and personality.

The subject matter is striking, and a title card informing us that 1,100 people have suffered this human rights nightmare since September 2001 is enough to make anyone queasy regardless of your political leanings on the issue. Yet Threapelton’s script is too much of a left wing simplification of the issue. Zaafir is a politics lecturer who stretches his student’s minds on contemporary issues as he hovers in front of a blackboard with “terrorist or freedom fighter?” in big chalk letters. He’s also a Muslim with a white Catholic wife (Ania Sowinski) who manages to fit basketball and prayer into his daily schedule. He’s perfect character pulpit from which to preach, and even if Threapelton’s message is one I entirely agree with, there is a very one minded account. The scenes of post-rendition Zaafir attending hate marches with Berdouni’s wonderfully expressive eyes now filled with hate feel a little too easy and neat an ending.

On the plus side Threapelton emerges from EIFF as another excellent first time director and lead actor Berdouni is surely one of the finest young actors working today, and thankfully he makes brave choices. It’s thanks to him that Zaafir emerges as a likeable character whose fate we become attached to; he has a natural magnetism that overcomes the cipher like character and his chemistry with on screen wife Sowinski is really engaging. Extraordinary Rendition is an important story made by tremendously talented individuals, yet the issue is far more complicated than simply ‘rendition creates terrorists, even out of uber-liberals.’

EIFF- Billy The Kid- Review by Emma J Lennox

Director: Jennifer Vendetti
Runtime: 85min

Billy Price knows he's 'unique' and it's a good reason to focus a camera lens on him in Jennifer Vendetti's film portrait, Billy The Kid, but what really impresses is how Vendetti has captured the universal experiences of teen love, social awkwardness and rejection.

What starts as a simple confessional style, walk and talk expose on Billy; a troubled 15 year old and 'local freak', turns into a fly on the wall documentary on the first flutters of love. Adept at saying out loud whatever comes into his head, Billy makes some entertaining points including, “I don't want to get mixed up in drugs...or politics” and “I've so far resisted kissing girls because I don't want to get slapped”. Unfortunately the laughs are lost on Billy, making him the perfect, tragic hero in a sitcom he doesn't know he's in. Indeed some moments are as excruciating as a gruesome episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, in particular when Billy falls for visually impaired Heather, who works at the local Diner. “I too suffer from a condition,” Billy tells Heather's Grandmother in complete sincerity “I have bronchitis.”

Despite his willingness to open up on camera, it does raise issues of exploitation by Vendetti, a casting director by trade, who seems to be turning her subject into an icon. With its punk aesthetic and rebel-worship title, the person behind the bundle of misfit hormones is lost behind a heavy metal soundtrack and our unerring gaze. It works on an entertaining level and there is a great feeling of elation to see Heather agree to be Billy's girlfriend, but there is an underlying uneasiness over laughing at, rather than with, a teenager with bouts of depression and a problematic past. Billy fell in love in the five days that Vendetti filmed, which is fortuitous, and she takes full advantage of the free ride. Yet what is compelling about this feature isn't in fact this confused teenager's 'uniqueness'; it's the discovery that at some point, all of us have felt a little like Billy.

EIFF: Saxon - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Greg Loftin

Screenwriter: Greg Loftin

Running Time: 100 mins

EIFF Screenings:

Wednesday 22nd 21:45 Filmhouse

Friday 24th 21:45 Filmhouse

Cinema has never recovered from the death of the Western. Like an old grandfather chewing tobacco on the porch, its loss was mourned by many and some just don’t want to give up the ghost. Clint Eastwood revised the classic text with Unforgiven, Kevin Costner gave us a classic oater with Open Range and later this year the remake of 3:10 to Yuma sees Russell Crowe and Christian Bale continue the cinematic CPR. Yet at EIFF, Greg Loftin debut feature Saxon presents the Leone conventions with a postmodern twist resulting in, well, something completely different.

Sean Harris plays Fast Eddie, our monotone anti-hero sporting an eye patch, returning to his London council estate after a spell in prison to investigate the disappearance of television quiz champion. The estate isn’t safe though, the “bailiffs” monitor every corner, fag lighter lady is shilling stolen goods, and Mr Oogleworth is buying guns. The tar black comedy narrative is reminiscent of Malcolm Pryce’s Aberystwyth novels which transport the noir of Phillip Marlow to the seaside town in Wales. Loftin’s blending of the idiosyncrasies of a fringe environment with the sweeping conventions of a Hollywood genre packs this offbeat thriller with humour. Jackie (Michelle Connelly) knows the council have murdered her husband because he didn’t get planning permission for the new porch, the local arms dealer has no guns but is sure aboriginal spears will service gangland needs and only in the Saxon estate could a mother accidently try to sell her body to her own son by mistake.

The star is Harris, whose Oedipal Clint Fast Eddie has Eastwood’s cold stare and David Beckham’s nasal whine. He’s a completely ineffectual hero, he’s not a tough guy but he withstand the worst beatings which is lucky given the knives, arrows and staples plunged into his body. Even once the story runs out of steam in the final act, Harris keeps you invested. Loftin too has made an excellent calling card. Evoking the Leone style (wide angles and tight close ups) without slipping to far into parody, his action scenes are well paced and thrilling. Saxon is a confident debut and one of the funniest films screening this year. Could the Western be on its way back? That’ll be the day.

Teen Twisters: EIFF Reviews by Emma J Lennox

Teeth

Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Screenwriter: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Runtime: 88mins

The weird are definitely turning pro at the Edinburgh Festival this year with a number of cool teenage targeted cult films bringing a new twist to a tired genre. First is B movie schlock horror faire in Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth. Dawn (Jess Wexler) believes she has found true love when she meets Tobey (Hale Appleman) at the high school abstinence club, but she’s afraid she won’t be able to resist her carnal desires. Sexual tension reaches souring levels as the giddy couple go swimming in the scenic lake and romp about in waterfalls.

The first half of the film has a sinister monster lurking in the shadows: pre-marital sex, it’s there behind every lingering glance and the accidentally, on purpose touch of hands, but in fact the true evil has still to come. The sardonic look at the ring bearing, slogan chanting abstinence scene is a refreshing departure from usual drink ‘n’ drugs high school dramas and the film’s politics are made morbidly clear as Dawn and Tobey share their first passionate kiss at the lake. Overwhelmed by his feelings, Tobey pins Dawn to the ground and ignores her objections with the line “Come on! I’ve not jerked off in three months!” But abstinence is not the only unnatural wonder in this story; this has all been set up to a frightening yet hilarious punch line, the revelation of the titular, gnashing teeth.

‘Vagina Dentata’ is the technical term given for Dawn’s special condition, though ‘Venus fly trap’ is perhaps a better description. A series of gruesome castrations follow with increasing amusement as a series of low lives try to take advantage of the pretty girl with the heart of gold and the vagina of vengeance. There is underlying commentary on female empowerment being the root of male fear, but overall it is more of an excuse to make a sexy film about a teen killer anti-hero. The plot is reassuringly predictable but it’s the subject that makes Teeth a memorable, fun experience.

Weirdsville

Director: Allan Moyle

Screenwriter: Willem Winnekers

Runtime: 90mins

EIFF Screening:

Fri 24 Aug Cameo 23:50

Sat 25 Aug Cameo 18:00

Sun 26 Aug Cameo 12:30

From Jaws as a lady, to a Canadian romp of Satanists, gangsters and fighting midgets, Weirdsville certainly lives up to its title. Allan Moyle, the director of 1990’s Pump Up the Volume, directs another tale of disaffected youth featuring a pair of junkies as an entertaining double act, Royce and Dexter (Wes Bentley and Scott Speedman). Trying to steal money to pay back their thumb threatening local gangster, the plot includes over doses and slap dash midnight burials in reference to 90s film-cool, Shallow Grave and Pulp Fiction. But Moyle adds enough of his own visual exuberance to defy unflattering comparisons and his hallucinogenic effects lend extra scope to the irreverent caper humour. Music video quality moments are depicted in beautiful shots of drug fuelled euphoria including Dexter skating bare foot through the snow sprinkled streets of an Ontarian cityscape.

Occasionally the visual tricks jar in a Family Guy style but the interjections are smoothed over by our fortunately endearing duo and their dumb but smart dialogue. Most enjoyably Weirdsville doesn’t take itself too seriously and the ludicrous storyline is filled with bizarre non sequiturs; stopping to note a single green leaf that remains on an ice covered tree, for instance, is quite touching especially as they’re on route to rob a millionaire’s mansion. The nonstop pace and assortment of comic characters ensures that no minute drags on longer than it should, and the climax is appropriately gung ho. By turns genuinely engaging and laugh out loud funny, Weirdsville is daft but brilliant.

EIFF: WAZ - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Tom Shankland

Screenwriter: Clive Bradley

Running Time: 103 mins

EIFF Screenings:

Tuesday 21st 21:45 Cineworld

WAZ is an irritating film for anyone writing about it before they even get to see it. It’s not actually called WAZ; the middle symbol is not an A but a small triangle, the mathematical symbol for delta. However, discovering what the bizarre title means is as much work as your brain is going to have to do during this film. Bitter cop Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgard) and naive new partner Helen Westcott (Mellissa George) are on the trail of a serial killer who carves the titular equation onto their victims. These casualties are have one thing in common, they all took part in a gang rape years before but were never convicted because Eddie fumbled the case.

The motive is just the beginning of the woes. Apparently WAZ is the equation denoting the selfish gene in humanity, and according to scientist Dr Gelb (a gormless Paul Kaye) is proof that humans are not truly capable of love or compassion. You see, he put some monkeys and a crocodile together and when the croc ate a monkey the other primates didn’t help him. Our killer’s raison d’être is this theory and, in the true torture porn style, puts it to the test by kidnapping her victim and a family member and forces the attackers to either let themselves be killed or murder their own family member instead. I love science.

Ex-Home and Away star Melissa George gives a tough but vulnerable performance and is the only authentic thing in the film. Stellan Skarsgard’s miserable mug could have been interesting if he wasn’t a walking cliché. He’s a tough guy who lights a cigarette just as someone tells him “no smoking” and spouts such witty barbs as “stop, or I’ll blow your brains out.” One gets the feeling Rutger Hauer was too busy for this script back in the early 90s, but like a cockroach it’s managed to survive.

For its first hour WAZ is a decent shocker, with enough scares and jump to keep you overlooking the been there done that plotting. Director Tom Shankland and cinematographer Morton Soborg fuse the Fincher palette of Se7en with the murky lighting of Saw and for a while manage to keep things afloat. However once the typical genre twists and turns arrive, and we find out which Hollywood star is chewing the scenery as our serial killer, Double-You Delta Zed (to be pedantic) quickly outstays its welcome although does confirm my theory that math is evil.

EIFF: Lynch - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: blackANDwhite
Screenwriter: blackANDwhite
Running Time: 84 mins
EIFF Screenings:
Monday 20th 22:30
Friday 24th 17:15
Sunday 26th 10:30

Upon entering the Cameo cinema to watch the documentary Lynch, I was tickled by the staff’s sly nod to their audience. Humming gently over the speaker system was the soundtrack to Twin Peaks, and so vivid was my response to hearing it I half expected Bob to come crawling out of the darkest corner of the screening room, dripping with menace and prepared to pounce. Unfortunately this experience would probably have been more thrilling than watching the genius that created the character at work.

David Lynch has strictly adhered to his rule of never speaking about his films in depth for his entire thirty year film career and sadly this project brings him no closer to breaking that rule. Scenes of Lynch recording the scratchy sounds of needle on vinyl, or swirling a dinner jacket around a tub of paint are evidently supposed to give us insight into the creative process, but it doesn’t work. The film is more successful in proving Lynch to be an affable personality, but no one is buying a ticket to see him larking about.

Despite having full access to Lynch during the filming of INLAND EMPIRE, nothing particularly interesting is revealed about that film either. Lynch throws out a reference to it being linked to the bible story of the Gadarene demon Legion (Mark 5:9 and Luke 8:30 for those whom this nugget will spawn a thousand forum posts), but never really elaborates. The director of the documentary being credited as blackANDwhite had led some to speculate this is in fact a grand piece of Lynchian self promotion but ultimately it makes no difference. Lynch isn’t even exciting enough for someone who gets wistful over Julee Cruise singing ‘Falling’, so who exactly it is for I’m not sure.

EIFF- I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK- Review by Emma J Lennox

Director: Park Chan-Wook

Screenwriter: Park Chan-Wook

Runtime: 105min

EIFF Screening:

Sun 19 Aug, 22:00, Cameo 1

Wed 22 Aug, 17:30, Cameo 1

I'm a Cyborg But That's OK is Park Chan -Wook's first feature film since completing his revenge trilogy in 2005 with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, but the theme of reprisal isn't far from thought in this quirky fairy tale of disillusion. From the opening title shots, Chan-Wook displays his visual flair in fluid camera movements and a humorous style which lies somewhere between Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Terry Gilliam. Cha Young Goon (Su jeong Lim) is a young radio factory assembly line worker who believes she is simply following instructions when she slits her left wrist, inserts wires into her arm and plugs herself into the mains. Claiming “I'm not a psycho, I'm a cyborg,” Goon is taken into care at a mental institution where she is introduced to assorted 'crazies' with varying delusions. The narrative takes an episodic structure showing all the quirks and fantasies of the patients, illustrating them with CGI effects and flashbacks for often funny results. In a bizarre twist on a Pinocchio style tale, to become a 'real cyborg' Goon must rid herself of sympathetic emotions. The loose plot then centres on Goon's wish to destroy the doctors (in a hail of bullets from her robotic fingertips) because she blames them for taking her Grandmother away. At times this is an over complicated, confusing film and its whimsical attitude to mental health is too flippant. Yet the colourful characterisations and witty one liners create an inventive distraction which in small doses can be an enjoyable experience.

EIFF: 3 Weekend Picks - Reviews by Robert Duffin

Director: Simon Miller
Writer: Joanne Cockwell & Ian Finley McCleod
Runtime: 90 mins
EIFF Screening:
Sunday 19th 15:15 Cameo

Seachd – The Inaccessible Pinnacle is the first Scottish film filmed in Scottish Gaelic to get UK distribution. The Big Fish like tale follows Angus (Cola Domhnallach) as he attempts to reconnect with his dying grandfather (Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul) whilst reminiscing about their past. It’s a fine film with a wonderful central performance by Caimbeul whose whimsical stories of Spanish treasure hunters and poisoned maidens are wonderful to see realised. It occasionally relies too much on location footage of the Isle of Skye, but overall is a genuinely affecting drama that deserves to be seen.

Director: Jiri Menzel
Writer: Jiri Menzel
Runtime: 120 mins
EIFF Screening:
Saturday 18th 14:45 Cineworld

The traditions of silent cinema are still alive today as evident in the Czech film I Served The King of England. Director Jiri Menzel’s tale of Jan Dite whose ambition in life is to be a millionaire and own a hotel features a performance by Ivan Barnev as the young Dite comparable to Chaplin and Keaton. His doe eyed smile and expressive face make the dialogue lite performance an impressively physical display. It’s episodic script leaves the film feeling too long at a little under two hours, and its fairy tale apolitical version of WW II is at odds with the capricious first half of the film. Yet when in full flow it’s a joy to lap up Menzel’s choreography and bizarre imagery.

Director: Stephanie Johnes
Writer: Stephanie Johnes
Runtime: 80 mins
EIFF Screening:
Saturday 18th 16:00 Filmhouse
Monday 20th 20:00 Filmhouse

From first time director Stephanie Johnes, Doubletime brings you into the world of professional skip rope jumping and eschews memories of childhood playground fun; these kids aren’t messing. Following two competitive teams to Fusion Freestyle International Final at the Apollo Theatre in New York, Doubletime offers a unique glimpse into an underrated sport. The sheer athleticism on display as competitors fuse skip rope with hip-hop, dance, gymnastics and, in one spectacular scene, martial arts is stunning. Outside the spectacle is a touching tale of children from a variety of backgrounds coming together under the sport and learning life lessons as well as the story of the coaches who hope to bridge the racial divide created by the sport in the 1970s.

EIFF: Ratatouille - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Brad Bird

Screenwriter: Brad Bird

Running Time: 110 mins

EIFF Screenings:

Saturday 18th 14:10 Cineworld

Saturday 25th 14:45 Cineworld

Animation giants Pixar have rarely made a mistake. From Toy Story through to Cars their standard of animation and storytelling has remained unsurpassed in the American industry. However, my worry is that their consistently high quality might remain moribund without a challenging industry surrounding them. Other animations released this year are unlikely to give the Pixar big wigs sleepless nights, but without the competition snapping at your ankles it could be easy for stagnation to occur. Is their latest film Ratatouille a gastronomic gaffe?

Ratatouille tells the story of Remey (Patton Oswalt), a young rat whose heightened sense of smell has left him desiring the finer foods in life. After reading a book by acclaimed chef Gustaeu he harbours a desire to be a chef, and after he and his family are driven from their homes by a gun-toting granny Remey finds himself in Paris living under the recently deceased Gustaeu’s restaurant. Just starting work there as garbage boy is Linguini (Lou Romano) a gangly-legged buffoon who after a soup related mishap discovers Remey’s talent they team up to take the gastronomic world by storm.

Ratatouille’s major problem is overcoming an over familiar script that anyone could guess the outcome to. Remey and Linguini are essentially a romantic comedy couple, unlikely partners from different worlds who get on brilliantly, become selfish, take advantage of one another, then in a moment of revelation…ah well you get the idea. You can spot the plot points coming a mile off and what’s worse is the gag quotient doesn’t make up for this. Ratatouille has its moments but it’s easily the least humorous Pixar film to date.

In fact, it’s po faced in its overt dealings with issues surrounding artistry. “Great artists can come from anywhere” is the noble message of the film, but the drippy ending gets so tied up in hammering home the message, you wonder when Bird forgot he was making a film about a rat controlling a human like a puppet to concoct a slap up meal. At least Bird keeps out the pop culture gags, pointless celebrity voices and cutesy characters. Unlike so many animated films of recent years, Bird has the decency to give us a real story populated with real characters.

Bird never falters as a director however, and it’s joy to watch his camera lapping up the gorgeous recreation of Paris or frantically whipping around the kitchen after Remey and table-to-table acrobatics. His handling of the Blake Edwards-esque physical comedy is also fun to behold. Scenes where Remey controls Linguini’s limbs by tugging his hair are riotously choreographed, whether he is knocking up a tasty morsel or courting the kitchen’s feisty Madame Colette (Janeane Garofalo). Bird here solidified his position as one of America’s finest filmmakers.

Ratatouille isn’t a massive misstep for Pixar, after all the quality record has been fairly impeccable to date and everyone has to stumble sometime. It’s just a sad state of affairs that there is no one out there likely outshine a lesser Pixar film this year. On the bright side, Ratatouille is the best argument for Pixar to let Brad Bird break down the notions of ‘toons only being for kids and finally make animation for adults like Mayazaki and co. have been doing since the 1980s.

* Ratatouille is screening with the Pixar short film Lifted which is absolutely hilarious. Don’t be late and miss it.

EIFF: Control- Review by Emma J Lennox

Director: Anton Corbijn
Screenwriter: Matt Greenhalgh
Runtime: 123min
EIFF Screenings:
Fri 17 Aug 19:00 Cineworld
Sun 19 Aug 21:40 Cineworld

You don't have to be a Joy Division fan to become entranced by Ian Curtis' on stage presence or jarring vocals. After his suicide in 1980, hindsight cast a darker edge on their already macabre and desolate sound, making an enigma of the man and his lyrics and raising the question; who was this tragic figure? First time feature director, but long favoured music photographer, Anton Corbijn is attempting to discover the man behind the musician, in his biopic, Control. Already it has received good critical responses with Corbijn collecting the Golden Camera at Cannes, and as the last project of the innovative Tony Wilson, credited as co-producer who sadly passed away on 10 August, Control seems placed for historical relevance.

Based on the book Touching From a Distance by Curtis' wife, Deborah, the film strains to be an honest portrayal of the singer; from his Wordsworth quoting, Bowie inspired teenage days to his death at the age of 23. Actor and former front man, Sam Riley takes on the lead role in an able bodied performance which although sustains credibility throughout, doesn't kick off until the man walks on stage. A ripple of excitement is obvious through the audience when twenty minutes in, the battering drums and reverberating bass line combines on the soundtrack for the first time. Aesthetically, Corbijn is influenced by a post punk look and he shoots in a beautifully grainy black and white stock, reminiscent of the era's album covers. But most impressive are the stage reenactments which capture pitch perfect the electrifying and reckless force of Joy Division's sets, including Curtis with all his gestures and potent anxiety .

Off stage, however, the narrative weakens. There is an emotional disconnect, perhaps carved by Deborah Curtis' limited perspective, that doesn't combine the husband/father with the self loathing found in his music. The problems of Curtis' home life equate to an average melodrama of prescribed drugs and a love triangle, but there is no real insight to the pain that propelled his depression. The symptoms of epilepsy are depicted well but his alleged mania is reduced to a psychological shorthand, giving only a stilted impression of events. What makes Control significant is also what makes it disappointing. With a compelling character as its subject, Control will always draw interest, but in comparison to Curtis' own powerful performances it fails to live up to the destructive hero's complex vulnerability.

The Bourne Ultimatum - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy
Running Time: 111
Certificate: 15
Released: 17th August

That feeling is your heart hammering against your rib cage. There’s smoke everywhere, broken glass, sirens are blaring and your eyes are rapidly blinking as you emerge into the light of day. You’ve just experienced Paul Greengrass’ Bourne Ultimatum, and unless you were involved in Casino Royale, you’ll be ecstatic about it. Anyone who saw the Bond re-boot last year would have caught more than a whiff of Bourne envy as the Broccoli’s attempted to give Royale some edge without alienating the under 12s. It was partially successful, but Greengrass and co. weren’t resting on their laurels and they’ve raised the bar again; The Bourne Ultimatum is the finest action thriller in recent memory.

First Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) discovered who he was in 2002s Bourne Identity, then in 2004 he came out of hiding to clear his name in Bourne Supremacy, but now three years later he’s been tempted out once more for the ultimate prize: the truth. Guardian newspaper reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) has caught onto the story of Treadstone, the secret CIA operation who trained professional killers, and has been contacted by an inside source who is poised to blow the whole operation open. Ross attracts the attention of Bourne but also of the top dogs at the CIA who are implicated, led by Noah Vosen (David Strathairn). With Bourne out in the open, the company finally have the chance to finish him and bury the secrets of Blackbriar with him.

Of course the real draw of the Bourne series hasn’t been the stories. Tony Gilroy, trilogy screenwriter, sensibly hollowed out Robert Ludlum’s airport novel tomes into a lean backbone onto which directors Doug Liman (Identity) and Paul Greengrass (United 93, Supremacy & Ultimatum) have layered their action. As we globe hop with Bourne, discovering secrets along the way, what really gets the blood pumping is the set pieces. Greengrass, editor Christopher Rouse and cinematographer Oliver Wood are currently the Holy trinity of action filmmaking. Whether they are playing cat and mouse around Waterloo train station, hurtling across the rooftops of Tangier or smashing up cars in New York City you’re only in one place: the edge of your seat. And for once the action serves the story, instead of existing in place of it, and there’s not a lick of CGI in sight.

Greengrass, whose politicised filmmaking has come the fore previously with Bloody Sunday and United 93, doesn’t let Hollywood dumb him down. In between the carnage Ultimatum subtly questions the rationalization of torture by the government and interrogation with visual shades of Abu Graihb. What’s better is that it’s done in such a way that won’t outdate the themes of the film, like Alan J. Pakula’s Parallax View or John Frankenheimer’s Manchurian Candidate. Even in Bourne himself is an interesting conundrum for our times. He knows he was a cold-blooded killer and wants to atone, but should he use his skills against the masters who taught him? Should violence ever be met with violence? In one poignant scene, without incidental music, Bourne has a brutally realistic fight with an operative that ends with a horrific strangling that throws into question Hollywood’s glorification of violence in action cinema.

In praising the form of the previous films the cast are often overlooked. Matt Damon, his boyish features hardened by time, has grown into the role of Bourne. Despite being a fairly monotone hero, his actions speak louder than words and I couldn’t help but pump my fists with joy each time his sophisticated planning pays off. The rotating cast that previously included Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox and Franka Potente expands the Bourne universe with more juicy character parts. The criminally underused Joan Allen returns as CIA operative Pamela Landy, as does Julia Stiles whose Treadstone dispatch officer Nicky is given more to do. Rounding us off is the wonderful David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) as the morally ambiguous Vosen and Albert Finney as a mysterious figure from Bourne’s past. It’s a cast filled with great character actors, and they add gravitas to the noodling narrative.

Here we are five years on and the Bourne phenomenon is at an end. Not only does it earn the title of best threequel of this summer, it may be the only trilogy that gets better with every instalment. Perhaps the final revelation of Bourne’s past is a little obvious when you think about it, but it’s been about the journey and with Paul Greengrass at the helm, it’s been one hell of a rush. Beat that Bond.

EIFF: La Soledad (Solitary Fragments) - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Jaime Rosales
Screenwriters: Jaime Rosales & Enric Rufas
Running Time : 130 mins
EIFF Screenings:

Thu 16 Aug 19:15 Cineworld

Sat 18 Aug 20:00 Cineworld

Director Jaime Rosales’ second feature film, La Soledad, is a leisurely tale of women as wives, daughters, sisters, friends and mothers. The film follows two interweaving strands: one follows Antonia (Petra Martínez), the mother of three grown daughters and the other Adela (Paloma Mozo), mother of a small boy who just celebrated his first birthday. The stories only overlap in that Adela moves into the same apartment as Inès (Miriam Correa), who is one of Adela’s daughters.

La Soledad is almost a verite soap opera, concerning itself with the day-to-day travails of life: finding somewhere to love, money troubles, sibling rivalry, disease, relationships and bringing up children. Yet, Rosales eschews the trappings of melodrama with his unique style. Nearly all scenes are shot with a static camera, positioned in a room as characters wander on and off screen, which, coupled with the exploration of the family dynamic, echoes Ozu’s Tokyo Story.

Rosales also uses split screen, an almost ostracized cinematic technique, to further delve into the psyche of his characters. In one memorable scene Adela and her estranged partner have a painful conversation regarding their choices in life and Adela is framed speaking directly to camera baring her truths, while Pedro (Jose Luis Torrijo) is glimpsed from behind through a door frame hunched and distant.

However the film is overlong, and it’s stationary camera structure betrays narrative twists by drawing your attention to them too early. Yet despite its shortcomings it's worth persevering with, as Rosales’ poetic ode to societal disconnect will linger in the mind long after his camera rests on the sunburnt rooftops of Madrid.

Seraphim Falls - Review by Sandra Dupuy

Director: David Von Ancken
Screenwriters: David Von Ancken & Abby Everett Jacques
Running time: 115 mins
Certificate: 15
Release date: 24th August

Pierce Brosnan was a jerky headless corpse trying to catch its talking head in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996), a Casanova killer in The Matador (Richard Shepard, 2005), and is now a ghoulish stranger haunted by his past in Seraphim Falls (2006).

TV director’s David Von Ancken’s first feature film presents unfortunate similarities with Andre De Toth’s harrowing Day of the Outlaw (1959) or the intense western The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005). Skillfully filmed on location by Oscar-winning cinematographer John Toll, it tells the tired post Civil War tale of Confederate hunter Colonel Carver (Liam Neeson) and hunted outlaw Gideon (Brosnan) through the Wild West.

In disguise under bushy eyebrows and a Hagrid-esque beard, ex-Bond Brosnan staggers his way through icy snow and bare vistas, bearing his secret as painfully as Greek giant Atlas carried the world. Nearly drowned, stabbed and shot many times, the former embodiment of American TV series' private eye Remington Steele (1982) is now attempting to play a new sort of MacGiver. Trying during two never-ending hours to lose his hunters, he cures his wounds with gun powder and a knife bigger than Paul Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee’s.

The other actors’ performances are reduced to facial tics and deeply unmeaningful stares, except for Michael Winicott's, ironic as usual. Winicott is the sole survivor of a waste of talents such as Liam Neeson, condemned to heroic parts since Neal Jordan’s 1996 Michael Collins. Angelica Huston’s cameo adds nothing, and her efforts to spice it up are vain.


New-Mexico and Oregon’s wilderness are stunning locations for swashbuckling, pistol shooting and horse kicking, and Clint Eastwood’s Man-with-no-name, popping up to offer some soft-spoken advice, wouldn’t be out of place. However, Von Ancken is not Sergio Leone yet, and Pierce’s performance doesn’t possess the required intensity to carry the lead role. The over-indulgence in violence gets tiring after an hour, while each scene is ridiculously stretched in order to make up for the futile dialogues. Seraphim Falls for stylish cinematography over screenplay substance.

Montage @ EIFF 2007!

The Edinburgh International Film Festival is almost upon us! Montage coverage begins tomorrow when the first set of reviews will come flooding in, so check for updates!

Over the next few days get the skinny on some of the exciting films that have been programmed this year, including the controversial Teeth, I Served the King of England, Knocked Up and the Joy Division/Ian Curtis biopic Control.

The review you’re looking for might not always be accessible on the main page, so check out the EIFF link under ‘Find Your Favourite Articles’ if you’re looking for a review of a particular film.

Montage is also looking forward to an interactive experience! Seen the movies and agree or disagree with our opinion? Then click on the comments and lets get discussing! We want to know how the festival is going for you!

The Seventh Seal (Re-Release) - Review by Joseph Wren

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Screenwriter: Ingmar Bergman

Running Time: 96 mins

Certificate: PG

Currently screening at select UK cinemas

Believe it or not, Ingmar Bergman was once considered a filmmaker of comedies. It was 1955, and Bergman, a “working” director in the Swedish studio system, had already made 15 films before finally breaking through internationally with the poetic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night. The film was a surprise hit at Cannes, emboldening Bergman to drop his repeatedly rejected screenplay for The Seventh Seal into the lap of the President of Svensk Filmindustri, declaring “its now or never Carl-Anders Dymling.” Dymling, feeling Bergman had finally earned his chance to make a challenging and personal film, gave Ingmar a small budget and 35 days to make the picture. The film was released in 1957, and went on to become one of the most exciting and important films of its time, proving to film studios that audiences can handle intellectual themes and therefore paving the way for the European art cinema of the 60s and influencing nearly all of the greatest filmmakers ever since.

Fifty years on, and just days after his death at age 89, Bergman’s first and most iconic masterpiece is re-released in a gorgeous new print, allowing many of us to see one of his films in the cinema for the first time. If you’ve never seen the film, you’ve certainly seen it parodied. My first indirect encounter with The Seventh Seal was through one of my favourite childhood films – Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. A few years later, and I saw the scene again in several Woody Allen films, particularly Love and Death and Deconstructing Harry, in the scene where amateur swinger Harvey Stern, played by Toby Maguire, has a hilarious argument with Death, trying to explain how he is borrowing the apartment of a comatose man so that he could enjoy the services of a call girl.

The Seventh Seal begins with one of the most soul-clenching scenes in all of cinema. A knight, Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow, in his breakthrough performance) exhausted from the crusades, is met, quite literally, by Death (personified here by Bengt Ekerot). Keeping his cool, Block tries to bargain with Death, agreeing to go only if he fails to hold his own in a chess match. Death, being quite busy with the plague and all, pops up occasionally throughout the film to engage the knight in philosophical debate over the chess board until the inevitable, yet still astonishing conclusion. What happens in between is a sort of road movie, as knights and artists move about the countryside trying to escape the plague, occasionally stopping in a village for a bar fight, a play, or, in another incredible scene, to witness a young woman being burned at the steak.

Bergman, an auteur without a big film movement around him (as the French and Italians had), made great films because he made deeply personal, authentic, artistically uncompromised films with unmatched vision and craft. In The Seventh Seal, Bergman addressed his intense terror of death and scepticism of God. Working through his terror with The Seventh Seal, Bergman’s next film was Wild Strawberries, which also pondered mortality, though its protagonist was face to face with life more than with death. Ingmar Bergman went on to make 24 other films after that. None of them were comedies. Many of them were masterpieces.

Trailer Trash: Be Kind Rewind, The Golden Compass & Shoot Em Up

Ever wanted to have a night at the movies with your favourite Montage writers? No, I didn’t think so, but if you did you’d have to suffer through the trailer trash. That’s right, we’re pretty vocal, be it with delight or discontent, when it comes to the coming soon reel. So this week, come on down and take a seat next to Robert, Emma and Carmody as they talk trailers. And yes, we really are this pithy when we talk. Honest.

Robert says: This does what every great trailer should: completely convince you to see it. Jack Black has been living on his comedy overdraft in recent years, churning out some dross as we all waited for him to recapture the glory of his turn as Barry in High Fidelity. Turns out he just needed to be working with one of the finest directors of the times. When I heard the wonderful Michel Gondry was making a film with the patchy Black and that this was the premise I rolled my eyes. It sounded like a sketch movie, with potential laughs but no real story, some kind of art house Scary Movie god forbid. Thankfully though, it looks like my fears were unfounded. Finally, Be Kind Rewind looks to be a project worthy of the manic energy of Black and it’s also another welcome addition to the zany oeuvre of Gondry. His Eternal Sunshine and Science of Sleep are two of the best films of recent years, and now I’m very excited about seeing him tackle a project that is at outright comedy. Trouble with comedies is they often give you all the best gags in the trailer, so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed until December. For guaranteed laughs, who ya gonna call?



Emma says: In 2001, as New Line love to remind us, the company produced the biggest trilogy since blockbusters began with Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. Yet the cute trick at the beginning of this teaser trailer for the first of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials adaptations is a little cheap. What the marketers are implying is that production wise, The Golden Compass is going to be as dramatic, epic and grandiose as Frodo's hairy feet. Yet had they read the books, they would realise that symbolically the ring and the compass are as opposing as the Shire and Mordor, or daemons and spectres or chalk and cheese for those of you not clued in on the fantasy talk. For the most exciting component of this dark creation isn't the armoured bears, or the flying witches or even Daniel Craig's blue, blue eyes; it's the subversive, anti-authority ideology. It has been rumoured that New Line have curtailed the anti religious sentiment in the screenplay and if this is true then they may have hamstrung their own innovative ethos. The trailer has all the spectacular shots in what looks to be a 90% computer generated film but does this really impress anymore? After Lord of the Rings, battle ready fantasies such as King Arthur and The Chronicles of Narnia impaled themselves with effects and wizardry in myth-tastic overkill. Conversely New Line may be better disassociating itself from former glories and focusing on what is truly thrilling about His Dark Materials; originality.



Carmody says: Jesus Christ I hate Paul Giamatti.

Well, there you have it, and just like a trailer, you never know what you're gonna get! See you next time when more Montage writers talk Trailer Trash!

Waitress - Review by Joseph Wren

Director: Adrienne Shelly
Screenwriter: Adrienne Shelly
Running Time: 107 mins
Certificate: 12A
Released: 10th August

This may be the first film in which the narrative is strung along by desserts - “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie,” “I Hate My Husband Pie,” “I Can’t Have No Affair Because It’s Wrong And I Don’t Want Earl To Kill Me Pie” are just a few of the things cooking in the mind of small town waitress Jenna (Kerri Russell). Reluctantly pregnant by her violently selfish husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto), Jenna plots her escape to a pie baking competition, but instead starts an affair with her new gynaecologist, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion).

Life is complicated for Jenna, as it is for the rest of the staff at Joe’s Diner. Sassy Becky (Cheryl Hines) has an invalid husband at home, and mousy Dawn (Adrienne Shelly) suffers from loneliness. Such is life, and Waitress struts the line between comedy and conflict in contemporary American womanhood. Fillion and Russell (who is outstanding in the lead role) share delicious chemistry, getting sympathetic laughs during those awkward moments when the two married people connect when it’s not really allowed, and are clearly having impure thoughts about each other racing through their minds. Pastel uniform-sporting waitresses Shelly and Hines, along with bowtie enthusiast/diner owner Joe (Andy Griffith) flesh out the folksy Americana setting. When she’s not contemplating her affair with the good doctor or dreaming up new confections, Jenna is writing letters to her unborn child. They start out slightly bitter, but become increasingly nuanced and intimate, building to an unexpected emotional climax that is not at all patronizing or formulaic, which elevates Waitress to a profoundly personal cinematic experience.

This is the kind of filmmaking that is seriously lacking in cinema today – a human story that is funny, dramatic, attractive, and heartfelt, with a feminist sensibility. Tragically, filmmaker Adrienne Shelly was senselessly murdered in her New York office this past November. Having directed two previous films and starring in a slew of respected offbeat indies (most notably Hal Hartley’s Trust and The Unbelievable Truth), Waitress was her masterpiece, and without doubt would have vaulted her into the too-small circle of highly regarded female filmmakers. Infidelity, abuse, and apathetic pregnancy are thematic ingredients more likely associated with the serious films of Bergman, and are often mishandled by lesser filmmakers, but, like the very best films of Woody Allen, Adrienne Shelly used inner and overt human conflict to weave together what is a genuinely affective, and very special romantic comedy.

Montage Loves... Jon Brion - by Emma J. Lennox

The name Jon Brion may not be well known, but his music will certainly strike a familiar chord. Anyone who's enjoyed the snow scattered beach scenes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will have heard 'Strings That Tie to You' perfectly intone the film's conundrum of love and loss. There is also the sublimely comic I Heart Huckabees, where Brion's 'Knock Yourself Out' accompanies Mark Wahlberg and Jason Schwartzman's attempts at existential bliss. But most notable is the collaboration with acclaimed Indie director Paul Thomas Anderson. Brion and PTA's shared affinity for the offbeat and the unusual puts emphasis on the experimental, has taken soundtracks to a new level. The two started working together on Hard Eight in 1996, continuing with Boogie Nights, 1997, Magnolia, 1999 and Punch Drunk Love, 2002. Latest project There Will Be Blood is due for release in November this year. With PTA, Brion is given freedom rarely allotted to other composers. An entity in its own right, Brion's sound is as integral to the film as its script.

A musical chameleon, Brion is a multi-skilled one man industry; a composer, a producer, and a performer, it's no surprise that Brion's formative years were surrounded by musical talent. His father directed marching bands at Yale and his mother sang in various jazz groups. Brion's siblings are also successful in their fields as a conductor and a violinist. Despite initially rebelling against a formal music education, Brion's background has given him base knowledge he's been able to riff off ever since. His natural ability to play by ear allows him to pick up any instrument which has developed a fun, improvisational style. In effect Brion is a one man jazz band with a heavy pop influence. Jazz impresario, Brad Mehldau, names him as his favourite pianist, and as a producer he is in high demand from artists working the fringes of the music industry including Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright, The Eels and former partner, Fiona Apple. His shy exterior and boyish looks make him an unlikely cult hero yet regular sets at Hollywood club, Largo, has 'musos' queuing round the block every Friday night. The gigs showcase Brion at his most playful; he banters with the small crowd, sometimes employing them in back up duties and interweaves musical 'in jokes' into his melodies. Demand is so strong, bootlegs have been unofficially posted online for those too far away to enjoy. However it was the chance to compose orchestral arrangements which sparked Brion's creative interest in PTA's films.

Using an eclectic palette of instruments Brion's scores transcend the boundaries of the cinema screen. Instead of fading into the background in quiet sympathy like most string variety soundtracks, Brion's resonating melodies implore the viewers' attention. It's unusual to have such an intrusive sound but it succeeds in enveloping the audience into emotions of the characters. Punch Drunk Love, where Brion's compositions is mixed with inventive design, has a vivid soundtrack to match the mesmeric visuals. The signature theme 'Here We Go' propels the narrative in a swirling, merry go round ¾ beat and identifies Barry Egan, the peculiar oddball as central to the story. “Each one of us feels a little stranded, you can't explain or understand it,” Brion sings with empathy “...amidst all the to and fro, someone can say hello, here we go.” The music's significance is used as a plot device when Egan finds an abandoned harmonium on the street. The poor, dishevelled object becomes his refuge against an intimidating world and has the magical ability to soothe the unstable Egan. Egan isn't a musician, in fact he is a lonely business man with several overbearing sisters and anger issues, but Brion's warm and inclusive melodies gives the character universal, heart felt appeal.



Another heart stopper is Eternal Sunshine's Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime, which everyone will remember as Beck's cover of a Korgi's original. Whilst Beck performed the vocals, the eclectic chimes and strings, and mind twisting reverbs are identifiably Brion who played all the instruments and produced the track. It highlights what makes him so interesting; a gifted multi instrumentalist, with a mind for unconventional arrangements who is able to completely fade into the background. Despite the high profile Hollywood projects, Brion has remained decidedly out of focus, preferring the relative anonymity of a 'jobbing musician.' One suspects a more business savvy brain would have afforded him larger credit alongside the creative forces of Gondry and Kaufman. Yet Brion is an enabler rather than a personality and he has built his reputation on collaborations. It's meant his own projects have suffered including his only solo album to date; an independent effort with the self effacing title 'Meaningless'. There was also a pilot for TV, The Jon Brion Show, which attempted to recreate the creative chaos of the Largo gigs, but failed to get aired.

Yet Brion seems content with the versatility of a career in a distinctly Jon Brion shaped niche. As a pop artist it's hard not to fall in love with his deceptively simple melodies and passing resemblance to George Harrison in his quiet but soulful vocals. As a producer there are multi-layered depths to the idiosyncrasies he develops in a track. And as a film composer his ability to harmonise with the human condition makes him the perfect accompaniment to a quirky director's take on life. It is perhaps best that Brion stays the unseen maestro, plucking the heart strings from afar instead of imposing his ego. For Brion's compositions have a 'music box' quality; it's mysterious on the outside but delightful and surprising once opened up. Every Friday night in L.A. a small crowd cheers as Brion gently begins “You've gotta hope that's there's someone for you, as strange as you are.” Fortunately for Brion, he's not the only strange one out there.