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An Introduction to Glasgow Film Festival

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Beginning its sixth year, the Glasgow Film Festival is one fast-growing festival. Taking place over 10 days at 17 Glasgow venues, GFF10 aims to mirror the uniqueness of Glasgow’s cultural scene.

The rich and diverse programming incorporates 15 strands, including The Best of British, European Cinema, FrightFest, Stranger than Fiction, and The State of Independents. From contemporary Japanese cinema to newly restored classics, Glasgow Film Festival has it covered. They also host an annual retrospective to celebrate a famous Hollywood star. Previous years have celebrated Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn. Cary Grant is the subject of this year’s retrospective, which will include screenings of films such as Bringing Up Baby, North By Northwest, and Notorious.

The festival incorporates premiers, special screenings, events, and a number of special guests. It also features some minor festivals, or “festivals within the festival”: the Youth Film Festival (which is already under way), the Short Film Festival, and the Music and Film Festival.  Special guests at Glasgow Film Festival will include the inimitable James Earl-Jones, fellow actors Emma Thompson and Joe Dempsie, and directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland).

I will be in attendance, bringing you as many film reviews and as much up to the minute news as humanly possible. If there is anything in particular you want to see covered, drop us a comment and I’ll see what I can do. If you’re joining the festivities, perhaps I’ll see you there (I’ll be the one sitting on the floor with a netbook and spilling coffee)!

Glasgow Film Festival runs from Thursday 18th to Sunday 28th February.

For more information, visit the official website at http://glasgowfilm.org/

You will find all of my coverage of the film festival at http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com

Review: A Single Man

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A Single Man is the directorial debut of Gucci designer Tom Ford. Starring Colin Firth in his most acclaimed role in years, we follow a single day in the life of George, an English professor who recently lost the love of his life, Jim, in a car accident. With Ford’s eye for fashion comes a great respect for continuity in every aspect of filmmaking, from his a sharp sense of pacing and crystal clear aesthetic to the beautifully drawn character arcs and development.

Rather apt of a character-driven narrative, Ford forges an intimacy with his characters that is rarely seen in mainstream cinema. With tightly framed facial close-ups and a penchant for the top left quadrant of the subject’s face, Ford moves in close and, without so much as a flinch, creates an astonishing sense of intimacy that never intrudes, discomforts or distorts. We experience the world through George’s eyes: his despair washing the world of all colour, his eyes lighting up with lust. The focus on facial features allows us to get inside George’s head, experiencing those rare, colourful moments of pleasure between melancholic states that seem to last for hours. For George, every location has a meaning, bookmarking a memory that opens up to allow us to remember Jim; to love him, to miss him, and making his absence felt.

Firth’s performance has earned him an Academy Award nomination, and it is well-deserved. My predilection for sadness and darkness within tortured characters such as his caused something of an internal battle of the wills with this performance. While he feels he has hit rock bottom, there is something that keeps you from believing it. In this way it drives us to root for George, to believe that he is not like Charley (Julianne Moore), whose self-proclaimed future is living in the past.  It makes us believe that these moments of beauty in life and human interactions are what makes life worth living. Without giving too much away, this all ties together seamlessly; another great testament to Ford’s faultless continuity.

A Single Man is like a Tom Ford suit: seamless, elegant, and fitting.

Script Review: Swingles

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Swingles is a screenplay that is currently in development. Zach Braff has announced that he is to direct and star (in a supporting role) in the film alongside Cameron Diaz. These are my thoughts on the spec script.

Hats off to Duncan Birmingham, as he has truly outdone himself with this one. It’s He’s Just Not That Into You with a dash of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (I don’t even have to watch that one), wrapped up in the fuzzy blanket that is the safe and predictable rom-com formula. Pepper in the words, “Sexy”, “Cute”, and “Awesome” every time you introduce a nameless caricature of a character — all in various stages of undress — and what do you get? The recipe for a dinner-and-a-movie date film.

The idea behind this film is that you can treat your audience in the same way as you do your female lead. Introduce Max and his wingman Nathan, who love to barhop and pick up chicks. Enter Jessica and Sophie, a pair of New York thirty-somethings complete with shrinks, unfavourable relationship histories and insecurities by the bucketload. It’s not long till their worlds collide, and Nathan and Sophie hit it off. In classic rom-com style, the two wingfolk are left to a match of “who can detest and outwit the other more in the space of five minutes?”

When Nathan and Sophie unexpectedly get together, decide to marry within 4 months, then announce that Sophie is pregnant, Jessica and Max are left to play the field alone. Or are they? Max quickly transforms into Justin Long’s character in He’s Just Not That Into You, and Jessica returns the favour. Realising that they make great wingmates, Jessica and Max play the field, shapeshifting their personalities to fit their prospective partners. Hence, Swingles. They soon come to learn much more about each other, and themselves, than they could ever have imagined. Can you guess what happens next?

Swingles is your typical Hollywood fluff, replete with dude-bro gay jokes, misogynistic trash-talking, and cheesy… pardon me, “romantic” quotations of The Accidental Tourist. Duncan Birmingham has clearly taken a great deal from his multiple viewings of When Harry Met Sally and re-runs of Entourage.

With Zach Braff on board, I have no doubt that it will be a massive hit.

[Image from slashfilm website.]