Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley, photo Lucas Miller
Cinema is without doubt the most popular art of our modern world. Museums are visited primarily by duty-plagued tourists; popular music is but a clamourous ruckus; books are an entertainment sadly lost on many, and fine theatre is a luxury, which cannot be easily reached by the provincial. Film is entertaining, cheap, and easily accessed by folk of both urban and rural habitations. It is an art of swift movement which appeals to our poor attention spans. Most contemporary films are trivial and pointless, but others may contain great profundity and meaning. Both have their place, making cinema the pinnacle of modern popular culture.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival has now reached its 62nd year. Before, the film festival corresponded in time with the hectic August Edinburgh and Fringe festivals. This year, however, it is to be run from 18-29 June to allow movie-goers to focus their energies on film alone. It is the last “egalitarian” festival for film, where low budget meets blockbuster. All the others, to quote the hit King of Ping Pong (showing at the festival) are about “money, politics, and drugs.” The others (namely, Sundance and Cannes) have been mauled by Hollywood.
The Films Reviewed: Some of the Best and the Worst: more to come!
Directed by Santosh Sivan, with Linus Roache – Henry Moores; Rahul Bose – T. K. Neelan; Nandita Das – Sajani; Jennifer Ehle – Laura Moores
Directed by Isabel Coixet, with Penélope Cruz – Consuela Castillo; Deborah Harry – Amy O’Hearn; Dennis Hopper – George O’Hearn; Ben Kingsley – David Kepesh
Directed by Ira Sachs,
with Chris Cooper – Harry Allen; Pierce Brosnan – Richard Langley; Patricia Clarkson – Pat Allen; Rachel McAdams – Kay; David Richmond-Peck – Tom
Directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, with Annie Townsend, Sandie Malia, Dennis Jobling, Sonia Saville, Danny Groenland
Directed by John Maybury, with Matthew Rhys – Dylan Thomas; Keira Knightley – Vera Phillips; Sienna Miller – Caitlin MacNamara
Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon
Written by Mark Doherty
with Mark Doherty, Dylan Moran, Neil Jordan, Keith Allen, Aisling O’Sullivan, Amy Huberman
by Errol Morris
Encounters at the End of the World
by Werner Herzog
The Conneries were also on hand. photo Lucas Miller
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
by Bharat Nalluri
by Paolo Marinou-Blanco
The Award Winners of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2008
courtesy EIFFJune 29, 2008
