Edinburgh International Film Festival preview
Next week, we're sending people to watch films at the 62nd EIFF. Here's a preview of what they'll be watching and reviewing...
It’s summery and the weather is looking a bit nicer outside, which only means one thing: it’s time to sit in the cinema all day! Yes, the Edinburgh International Film Festival is back for its 62nd (!) year and Den Of Geek is going to be there from next week to see how the shebang went down. See what happens when we try to make 9:30 press screenings on two hours of sleep! Witness us attempt to live on nothing but the panini shop round the corner from the festival base! Hear of our attempts trying to get into parties but more than likely going home and playing the PS2! Watch what happens when you try to make a 9:30 pre—oh, we’ve said that.
Early bird showings aside, the festival is looking pretty damn snazzy this year. The opening night gala goes to The Jacket director John Maybury’s newie The Edge Of Love, a period romance starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller. The three names are appearing at the festival, adding some glamour to the proceedings – but let’s face it, it’s not all about the glamour. We’re looking forward to most of the smaller names on the program: vegan slasher Blood Car; promising South Korean comedy Milky Way Liberation Front; machina-obsession documentary Mechanical Love; The Juche Idea, an insight into North Korean propaganda; the award-winning coming of age story The King of Ping Pong. That’s just a small number of some of the stuff offered by festival director Hannah McGill this year, and that’s before we get into the most DoG friendly-looking films of the festival.
Bananaz, a film about the creation of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewitt’s toon-pop outfit Gorillaz, will be showing at the festival, with director Ceri Levy in tow for a Q&A. Hotly-tipped British thriller/horror Donkey Punch will be playing at the festival as well with its creative team setting up in the Edinburgh Cameo, as will Derek Son, director of hotly tipped K-horror Cadaver. But really, it’s all about one film here: WALL-E, the new movie out of Pixar studios. Reports seem to hint that it’s a silent movie that will be absolutely impossible to not love – we’ll be all over this film before you know it.
On top of that bounty, there’s guests dropping by into the capital for the fest: Brian Cox, Shane Meadows (whose Somers Town is playing at the EIFF), famed cinematographers Roger Deakins and Seanus McGarvey, Oscar winning documentarian Errol Morris and God-like animation legend (y’know, being God-like and all) Ray Harryhausen. We’ll be keeping an eye out for them, along with the sights and the sounds of the fest and the chance I may challenge myself to sit through the two-hundred-and-seven minute long (spanning an entire week) Seven Intellectuals In Bamboo Forest. Ah, summer.
Stay tuned!
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