EIFF Trip

It was a shame that our visit to the Edinburgh International Film festival was a day shorter this time around but it proved to be just as fruitful as last year.
I won't give a review run-down of every film which I viewed, as I feel it rather unnecessary. Instead I shall just comment on the experience of the festival as a whole. One thing that I love about attending the EIFF is that it tends to put a lot of things into perspective for me. I spend the entire year driving to learn and perfect the skills needed to create/identify and understand a well structured good film. Although I enjoy this, I can at times feel worn down by all the specifics and intricacies, tricks and rules, do's and dont's of putting a film together. One could view this as the magic and charm escaping from my perception of cinema, although I don't believe this to be the case. It comes then, as no unwelcome experience, when we are sent to the festival to watch as many films as we can. Not only does the festival open my eyes to many a film that I would not have otherwise even heard about, but it reminds me why I (on a rare occasion) work myself to distraction trying to improve my understanding of film. It is good to just sit down and take in a film especially when it is as funny and entertaining as 'Jackboots in Whitehall' or 'Evil in the time of heroes'. Even when I come out of a screening feeling angry at the film (as I felt with Cherry Tree Lane) it forces me to think on and reflect as to the reason I did or didn't like a particular film.
As I hinted at earlier, the two most entertaining films I saw in the festival were 'Jackboots in Whitehall' and 'Evil in the time of Heroes'. We went to see 'Jackboots' first and I have to say that I had never laughed so hard in a cinema until that time -that was until I went to see 'Evil...Heroes' but that's for later on. 'Jackboots' was a world war II film with two very major alterations, the Nazis had invaded Britain and the film was shot with Action-man style models. I felt, perhaps, that our DFTV2 row voiced our enjoyment of the jokes more than most in the screening but I thought it to be more than deserving of my laughter. Not a perfect comedy by any means, as it was probably 20 minutes too long and lulled a bit in the middle. However, it definitely got my approval.
My initial reaction on coming out of 'Cherry Tree lane' was possibly too harsh, I'll admit. I immediately disregarded the film as it left me angry and annoyed. On further reflection, I will give it credit for achieving what it seemed to be striving for. When there was tension I felt tense, when there was injustice I felt frustrated, when there was 'justice' I felt (somewhat) satisfied. But most importantly, I did care about what happened to the characters. My one major and unwavering reason as to why I left feeling angry was that there was a rape in the film. Although they did not show the audience the actual act on screen it was insinuated and revealed through other methods. I cannot stand watching a film in which a woman in raped. It leaves me feeling disgusted, unsettled and quite frankly upset. This is my personal feelings of course. I know rape is a reality in this world and in my mind it is the worst thing any human can do (along side murder) but I do not wish to be show it in a film.
We also went to catch some short film screenings (including the one Paul had worked on) but I was left unimpressed by all save for maybe one. Short films are always too alike -as if directed by the same person, who apparently detests both dialogue and music. But seeing their faults makes me aware of my own and can only strengthen my resolve to improve my own practice.
'Vacation' was a film that I liked and dislike all in one. It had some good point and had some bad points but ultimately I feel the director was probably given too much freedom -resulting in unnecessary long sequences and a sense that the film wasn't sure what it was trying to be.
Now we come to my personal highlight of the festival...'Evil in the time of Heroes'. A Greek zombie film that is split between classical Athens and Modern day Athens. Not a big Zombie fan myself but the Greek and ancient Greek aspect was more than enough to sell it for me. However, the real treat was still to come. I had thought, going into it, that it was a 'serious' zombie film. Well within the first five minutes I was pleasantly corrected with the most superbly simple gag ever. This film's mix of comedy and ridiculous action pieces, gore and action made it the funniest and most enjoyable films I've seen, but I think we were sitting a bit too close for reading the subtitles.
Afterwards the Q and A with the director was quite insightful as to why the film had the tone it did.
The Edinburgh Film Festival was a completely enjoyable, informative and worthwhile experience. It reminded me what films could be, should be and sometimes should not be. However, this is only my own thoughts on my own personal experience of the event.