Title: Zombies, space cowboys and not so heavenly battles: the 2005 Edinburgh International Film Festival
Abstract: Mixing edgy, experimental fare and foreign art house, low/no-budget gems and the best big-budget blockbusters Hollywood has to offer, the Edinburgh International Film Festival has always tempted the most creative, exciting talents in cinema to come to Scotland's capital, engage with an audience and offer an insight into their work, playing host this year alone to talents as diverse as writer/director Paul Schrader; Buffy creator Joss Whedon (receiving the kind of hysterical reception usually reserved for George Clooney, one fan paying £210 for an £8 ticket to attend his Reel Life talk); horror maestro George A Romero; and documentary pioneer Albert Maysles.
With his fine, cine-literate appreciation of the art of cinema and his geeky, fan-boy love of movies (how many other artistic director's seem equally as excited at the prospect of George Romero's first zombie flick in 20 years as they do at the return of Ingmar Bergman after a similar two decade break?), Shane Danielson this year crafted the finest programme of his tenure as artistic director and one of the best Festivals in years.
It's ironic then that in a year when the Festival celebrates the genius of British director Michael Powell with a comprehensive retrospective, that the best thing you can say about the crop of British films in competition for the award that bears his name is that they are a triumph of mediocrity.
Stoned , producer Stephen Woolley's smug, derivative directorial debut that gives us the life and death of Brian Jones, the Rolling Stone who sank like one in his own swimming pool. Keith Richards once said that troubled Jones was ‘the nicest bunch of guys you could meet.’ The same could be said of the film, which ‘borrows’ (steals) from The Doors and The Servant to present Jones as a child-man whose …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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