film festivals
theartsdesk in Locarno: Sunshine Cinema in the AlpsSunday, 12 August 2012
The most radical Locarno ever: it's in the upper 20s Celsius in the southern Alps. The sky is cloudless blue. Moreover, not for one, or two, or three, or four nights in a row, but for FIVE has it not rained in this small resort. Next year no doubt... Read more... |
EIFF: 19 world premieres, 150 filmsWednesday, 30 May 2012The Edinburgh International Film Festival organisers have left it till after Cannes to announce their own programme for next month. It’s not all about the numbers, but for the record the 121 news films at the EIFF will come from 52 countries,... Read more... |
Cannes 2012: Sleeper hits and big-name bombsSunday, 20 May 2012
It’s a normal day in Cannes, which means that I’ve just chatted to Mexican heart-throb Gael García Bernal on the beach, while a mini sand storm battered the doors of our marquee. Bernal is in town with his new film, No, about the events leading... Read more... |
Cannes 2012: Tim Roth – the Brit in the hot seatFriday, 18 May 2012
It's a real pleasure to see Tim Roth strutting his stuff in Cannes, on screen and off. Roth knows the place well, having been here as an actor in Pulp Fiction, and as the director of The War Zone. This year he’s president of the jury for the un... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Sundance LondonSunday, 29 April 2012
This weekend Robert Redford and his Sundance Institute are bringing a sort of taster version of the world’s leading showcase for independent (non-studio) English-language films to London. No one’s going to mistake Greenwich’s O2 Centre for an... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Venice Film Festival: McQueen, Lanthimos, ArnoldSaturday, 10 September 2011
This year’s Venice Film Festival has been awash with great directors from what one might call the old guard: David Cronenberg, Roman Polanski, William Friedkin, Aleksander Sokurov, Philippe Garrel. But when the jury presents its prizes tonight, I... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Durrës: Albania after Norman WisdomSunday, 04 September 2011
Once upon a time - and for a very long time, at that, under its hard-line Marxist leader, Enva Hoxha - world cinema was represented in Albania by Norman Wisdom. Today, 26 years after Hoxha's death and 21 years after the fall of Communism there,... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Locarno: Swiss rules, Swiss rainSunday, 07 August 2011
Think what you will about Switzerland and the Swiss – calm, ordered country, treasured environment, cautious, democratically precise people – but look behind the scenes and things can seem quite scary. Vol spécial (Special Flight), by Swiss-French-... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Sarajevo Film FestivalMonday, 01 August 2011
There is an interesting tension at the Sarajevo Film Festival which, though this was my first time, I suspect exists as a matter of course. And this is a tension between the spirit of the people I meet here – ebullient, good-humoured and... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Odessa: Monty Python on the Black SeaSunday, 31 July 2011
Odessa must be one of Central Europe’s more distinctive cities, characterised by a profoundly cosmopolitan ethnic mix over more than two centuries. It was one of the most international cities in the Tsarist empire, while in Soviet times it honed... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Los Angeles: The Film Festival Without StarsSunday, 03 July 2011
In its second year under creative director David Ansen and in its new home at the LA Live complex, the Los Angeles Film Festival seems to have recovered from the slightly rocky start of its downtown debut last year. While one or two of the... Read more... |
Life in a DaySunday, 12 June 2011
A teenage boy howls casually at the full moon; elephants in a river take a midnight dip, glossy with water and moonlight; a drunk on a park bench can’t hold back the laughter as he listens to an iPod. What were you doing on 24 July, 2010? It’s a... Read more... |
