Category Archives: Film

A quiet film, this. Sparse dialog, no sudden movement, you almost hesitate to breathe while you watch in case you might disturb what appears on screen. The latest offering from Bas Devos has won the Encounters section at Berlin 2023 and Best International Film at Galway Film Festival, and it has done it with theContinue reading “Here (PG)       French Film Festival”

When the torrent of water that floods the screen in the opening shot of Driving Madeleine (Une Belle Course) starts to clear, we see the world weary face of Charles Hoffman (Dany Boon) in the driving seat of his Taxi Parisien as it leaves a car wash. This is a man who has driven enoughContinue reading “Driving Madeleine (Une Belle Course) (15)            French Film Festival”

The Festival, the only francophone film event in the UK, always aims to provide audiences with a glittering, stimulating, and at times challenging array of films. There is also an opportunity to view some select titles online (on a special offer) via Curzon’s streaming platform, Curzon at Home, and this year including Krzysztof Kieślowski’s famedContinue reading “The 31st French Film Festival UK Programme Is Now Live!”

Director Cesc Gay has been given the tag of “the Spanish Woody Allen” and his latest feature does indeed point up comparisons in their work. Five stories with, on the face of it, nothing to connect them bar the protagonists’ desire to tell their tales with a somewhat dubious honesty. That, and the fact thatContinue reading “Stories Not to Be Told (Historias Para No Contar) (12)        Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival”

Set in Barcelona’s Modelo 77 – built in the 1800s and only closed a few years ago, Alberto Rodriguez’s film is inspired by real events from the late 1970s. The picture it paints comes across as so authentic that you could be watching a docudrama rather than a tale of fictional characters. It opens withContinue reading “Prison 77 (Modelo 77) Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival”

Post Franco Spain, and in particular the beautiful Andalusian city of Seville, is the setting for the directorial feature debut of Alejandro Marín. It is June 1977 and homosexuality is still illegal in Spain but a burgeoning movement to change that is the driver of this film. The opening scene is of a neighbourhood weddingContinue reading “Love and Revolution (Te estoy amando locamente) Spanish Film Festival 2023”

Following its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2023, this film version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde will be shown at selected cinemas in Scotland and UK. Based on the original 19th century novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, this version has been reworked for contemporary audiencesContinue reading “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Comes to Cinemas This October”

Catalan director Silvia Munt has set her latest film, Las Buenas Compañías (In the Company of Women), in Errenteria in the Basque country in 1976, a time just after Franco’s rule when abortion is illegal in Spain.  Bea, played by Alicia Falcó who beautifully captures the quietly angry rebel, is an androgynous 16 year oldContinue reading “In The Company of Women            Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival”

An after dark phone conversation where Alfredo (Karra Elejalde) is telling his daughter Luisa (Alexandra Jiménez) that he has a homeless Bulgarian man sleeping on his couch, opens Avelina Prat’s awarding winning 2022 film, Vasil/Wasyl. Vasil (Ivan Barnev) is a champion chess, bridge and backgammon player, thanks to his Soviet style education in Bulgaria. HeContinue reading “Vasil/Wasyl     Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival 2023”

The BFI Film Academy Short Course for Edinburgh and South East Scotland, delivered by Screen Education Edinburgh (SEE), and SEE Young Filmmakers Hub, are both projects designed to help aspiring young filmmakers gain practical knowledge and experience, while highlighting the various pathways into the screen industries Supported by the Sean Connery Foundation, the SEE YoungContinue reading “Screen Education Edinburgh Announces Opportunities for Young Filmmakers”